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United Methodists increase giving to church by more than 50%
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Sandra Lackore, with the General Council on Finance and Administration, answers questions during a Feb. 15 media conference.
Feb. 16, 2006

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Amid a year of natural disasters, United Methodists reached deep into their pockets and increased their total giving to the church's ministries by more than 50 percent over the previous year.

The denomination has much to celebrate in "the overwhelming generosity of the people of the United Methodist Church, who increased giving by 53.6 percent compared to 2004," said Sandra K. Lackore, top executive of the denomination's General Council on Finance and Administration in Nashville. She spoke to United Methodist media by telephone and Web conferencing Feb. 15.

Total giving in 2005 was $244.7 million, which is $85 million more than in 2004, she said. Of that, $80 million was for tsunami and hurricane relief efforts. Total giving in 2004 was $159.3 million.

Individuals, churches and organizations contributed significantly to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for immediate and long-term hurricane recovery efforts, and initiatives are being developed with assistance by local people in both Mississippi and Louisiana, she said. "It is not being driven by UMCOR's design but being driven by local design."

What does the more than 50 percent increase in overall giving mean? According to Lackore, it reflects that within the last two years, the church has given people new and different ways to contribute.

"The connectional covenant is present in the faithfulness of so many local congregations and conferences in meeting their commitment to the apportioned general funds in 2005. These funds drive the financial mission statement of our denomination," Lackore said. "By working together and fully participating in the general apportioned funds, we make possible the mission and ministry of Christ."

Through the end of 2005, she said, 30 percent of the giving was done by online contributions or direct giving - "giving that did not come through annual conference treasuries." That, she said, is "significant in the life of our denomination."

The council is researching donor identities "to discern whether that giving is coming all from United Methodists, whether it is coming from persons interested in what the United Methodist Church is doing, whether it is coming from persons excited by what we are doing, especially in our relief efforts, and could ? want to be part of United Methodist congregations," she said.

In the last 10 years, the level of giving to church-related causes has been "steady," she said. "The blip has been online giving." The council is trying to determine what that means for the financial health of the denomination, which is tied to local church and annual conference giving. She defined the health of the denomination as "good" but said membership loss is a continuing concern.

Membership in the United Methodist Church in the United States for 2004 was 8.1 million, a loss of 66,402 people, or 0.82 percent, over 2003, according to GCFA statistics.

Despite the long-running decline in U.S. membership, Lackore told the editors and communicators that gains continue in the 59 annual conferences in Africa, Europe and the Philippines. About 1.9 million additional United Methodists live in those areas, called central conferences, and the fastest growth in membership is occurring in Africa.

Membership losses will be reduced if U.S. annual conferences "open ourselves to really learning from the central conferences ? so that we can grow our membership in the jurisdictional conferences," she noted.

Lackore also took note of the generous, second-mile giving by United Methodists during times of crisis and on the ongoing financial needs of churchwide ministries throughout the year.

"We want to note the faithfulness of our denomination to the connectional covenant of apportioned giving," she said.

She paid special tribute to the leadership of 15 annual (regional) conferences that "demonstrated the power of our connection by participating at the 100 percent level of all apportioned funds." That was an increase of three conferences over 2004, and seven additional conferences were recognized for giving 90 percent or more to church-related causes and ministries.

Apportionments are the contributions requested of each of the 63 U.S. annual conferences for the support of denominational ministries and administration. The apportionments are determined by the church's top legislative assembly and managed by GCFA. Each annual conference sets apportionments for its local congregations, and the amount includes support for conference projects, programs and ministries.

The conferences highlighted for having a 100 percent commitment to the church's seven funds were Alaska Missionary, Baltimore-Washington, Central Pennsylvania, Desert Southwest, Detroit, Illinois Great Rivers, New York, North Carolina, Northern Illinois, Oklahoma Indian Missionary, Peninsula-Delaware, Red Bird Missionary, Rio Grande, Texas and Wisconsin.

The seven conferences contributing 90 percent or more for apportioned giving were Arkansas, Holston, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Central Texas, North Texas and Southwest Texas.

The Louisiana and Mississippi annual conference, significantly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, were acknowledged as examples of faithfulness in honoring their financial commitments to the denomination. These two conferences, "in the midst of extreme devastation and hardship," maintained their apportioned giving at or slightly above their 2004 contributions, Lackore said.

Three additional conferences affected by last year's hurricanes - Alabama-West Florida, Florida and Texas - maintained or "slightly" increased their level of giving for all seven of the church's apportioned funds.

Church members gave more generously in 2005 than ever before, Lackore noted. "The people of the United Methodist Church have a great capacity for giving."

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

General Council on Finance and Administration

Why We Apportion

2005 Annual Conference Apportionments

Sharing God's Gifts