New budget process yields $642 million spending proposal
By Marta W. Aldrich*
Members of the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration and the Connectional Table open a budget session with worship and prayer.UMNS photos by Marta W. Aldrich.
NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS) - The 2008 General Conference will receive a proposed four-year budget for The United Methodist Church requesting $642 million to support denominational ministries centered around four newly defined mission initiatives.
Approved by church leadership on May 24 - Aldersgate Day - the proposed spending plan is designed to fund the church's 21st century mission initiatives of leadership development; building new congregations and revitalizing existing ones; ministry with the poor, especially children; and combating the preventable diseases of poverty, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
The budget recommendation will be presented to General Conference when the church's top legislative body meets next April in Fort Worth, Texas. It was developed during a three-day joint meeting of the governing board of the General Council on Finance and Administration with the Connectional Table, a churchwide leadership entity responsible for coordinating the denomination's mission, ministries and resources.
The proposed budget for the 2009-2012 quadrennium is 4.8 percent higher than the $612.5 million budget for the denomination's current four-year cycle. However, it is about 6 percent less than the overall amounts requested by church entities to meet ministry goals. The budget also represents a 6.6 percent spending increase for nine program agencies that collectively had asked for 16.6 percent more. Program agencies range from large ones, such as the Board of Global Ministries and the Board of Discipleship, to smaller ones, such as United Methodist Men and the Commission on Religion and Race.
Bishop Lindsey Davis, of the North Georgia Area, said the proposed budget "represents a lot of shared pain - a lot of give and take."
The plan was approved unanimously by the GCFA board and by a vote of 27-7 from the Connectional Table. The Book of Discipline requires that both bodies agree on a budget proposal to be brought to General Conference.
Apportionment-based budgeting
The four-year budget would be funded with $642 million in requested apportionments from 34,000 United Methodist congregations, which represents about 2.25 percent of projected local church income. However, the plan was developed based on projections of receiving 87 percent of that amount, or $558 million, as some churches do not pay 100 percent of their requested apportionments.
Budget planners readily acknowledge that the process includes a payout buffer. Apportionment payouts have varied over the years - from a low of 84 percent in 1993 to a high of 91 percent in 2000. In the most recent budget year, 88.5 percent of all apportioned amounts were received during 2006. Only 17 of the church's 63 U.S. conferences paid 100 percent of their requested apportionments.
Local church spending has increased more rapidly than spending by the denominational structure. Thus, the denomination has gotten a decreasing share of the total funds received in the local church - a downward trend that has accelerated since 1995.
GCFA staff and board member Don House, an economist, acknowledged that coming up with a reasonable "bottom line" apportionment request is an inexact science and is based on many economic factors. "We have to keep the local churches and annual conferences in good health," he told the joint session. "But we also strive to fund the mission and ministries the best we can. The question is, 'How do we strike that balance?'"
Lisa King, a GCFA board member and treasurer of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, told the groups that - while the agency requests would fund "exciting and wonderful" ministries - financial realities must be considered. "What we've been hearing in our conferences and other conferences is that churches are struggling financially. They are cutting budgets, cutting staff, cutting ministries," she said.
The Rev. Carl Schenck, a Connectional Table member from the Missouri Conference, responded that apportionments are not the "plumb line" that measures faithfulness. "In setting the bottom line for apportionments, we are not limiting what God will do through us," he said.
New processes
The joint budget-building session was the first time the two entities had worked together on a proposed spending plan. Previously, the GCFA board was solely responsible for developing a recommendation to General Conference. However, the 2004 General Conference created the Connectional Table (comprising bishops, staff executives, agency officers, and representatives of ethnic caucuses and annual conferences) and mandated collaboration with GCFA so that "ministry and money are brought to the same table to coordinate the mission, ministries and resources of The United Methodist Church."
This also was the first time that spending requests were submitted on an outcome-based model rather than by line item. "This is a more business-based model and is seen as more meaningful and easier to interpret to the General Conference, annual conferences and local churches," said the Rev. Terry Bradfield, a top executive with GCFA. "It gives the greater church a better sense of what the money is going for and how it is expected to make a difference."
The compromise spending plan puts the church budget process about five months ahead of schedule and strikes a balance between denominational and local church resources and ministries, according to Sandra Lackore, chief executive and treasurer of GCFA.
"It's a level budget that is a true reflection of a common table," she told United Methodist News Service. "… This is a budget that enables the agencies to do the mission and ministry that the denomination wants, while also allowing our local churches to do their mission and ministries by not burdening them disproportionately."
The budget process included times of worship, prayer and dialogue asking for God's guidance throughout the number crunching and negotiations.
"It is always difficult to come together and talk about money as a Methodist. But it is always a joy to come together and talk about mission," said Garlinda Burton, chief executive for the Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Serving as worship leader, retired Bishop Woodie W. White asked God to bless the bodies' work. "We give what we've done - and everybody did our best and everybody had to give up something - and we give it now to God."
*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.
NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS) - The 2008 General Conference will receive a proposed four-year budget for The United Methodist Church requesting $642 million to support denominational ministries centered around four newly defined mission initiatives.
Approved by church leadership on May 24 - Aldersgate Day - the proposed spending plan is designed to fund the church's 21st century mission initiatives of leadership development; building new congregations and revitalizing existing ones; ministry with the poor, especially children; and combating the preventable diseases of poverty, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
The budget recommendation will be presented to General Conference when the church's top legislative body meets next April in Fort Worth, Texas. It was developed during a three-day joint meeting of the governing board of the General Council on Finance and Administration with the Connectional Table, a churchwide leadership entity responsible for coordinating the denomination's mission, ministries and resources.
The proposed budget for the 2009-2012 quadrennium is 4.8 percent higher than the $612.5 million budget for the denomination's current four-year cycle. However, it is about 6 percent less than the overall amounts requested by church entities to meet ministry goals. The budget also represents a 6.6 percent spending increase for nine program agencies that collectively had asked for 16.6 percent more. Program agencies range from large ones, such as the Board of Global Ministries and the Board of Discipleship, to smaller ones, such as United Methodist Men and the Commission on Religion and Race.
Bishop Lindsey Davis, of the North Georgia Area, said the proposed budget "represents a lot of shared pain - a lot of give and take."
The plan was approved unanimously by the GCFA board and by a vote of 27-7 from the Connectional Table. The Book of Discipline requires that both bodies agree on a budget proposal to be brought to General Conference.
Apportionment-based budgeting
The four-year budget would be funded with $642 million in requested apportionments from 34,000 United Methodist congregations, which represents about 2.25 percent of projected local church income. However, the plan was developed based on projections of receiving 87 percent of that amount, or $558 million, as some churches do not pay 100 percent of their requested apportionments.
Budget planners readily acknowledge that the process includes a payout buffer. Apportionment payouts have varied over the years - from a low of 84 percent in 1993 to a high of 91 percent in 2000. In the most recent budget year, 88.5 percent of all apportioned amounts were received during 2006. Only 17 of the church's 63 U.S. conferences paid 100 percent of their requested apportionments.
Local church spending has increased more rapidly than spending by the denominational structure. Thus, the denomination has gotten a decreasing share of the total funds received in the local church - a downward trend that has accelerated since 1995.
GCFA staff and board member Don House, an economist, acknowledged that coming up with a reasonable "bottom line" apportionment request is an inexact science and is based on many economic factors. "We have to keep the local churches and annual conferences in good health," he told the joint session. "But we also strive to fund the mission and ministries the best we can. The question is, 'How do we strike that balance?'"
Lisa King, a GCFA board member and treasurer of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, told the groups that - while the agency requests would fund "exciting and wonderful" ministries - financial realities must be considered. "What we've been hearing in our conferences and other conferences is that churches are struggling financially. They are cutting budgets, cutting staff, cutting ministries," she said.
The Rev. Carl Schenck, a Connectional Table member from the Missouri Conference, responded that apportionments are not the "plumb line" that measures faithfulness. "In setting the bottom line for apportionments, we are not limiting what God will do through us," he said.
New processes
The joint budget-building session was the first time the two entities had worked together on a proposed spending plan. Previously, the GCFA board was solely responsible for developing a recommendation to General Conference. However, the 2004 General Conference created the Connectional Table (comprising bishops, staff executives, agency officers, and representatives of ethnic caucuses and annual conferences) and mandated collaboration with GCFA so that "ministry and money are brought to the same table to coordinate the mission, ministries and resources of The United Methodist Church."
This also was the first time that spending requests were submitted on an outcome-based model rather than by line item. "This is a more business-based model and is seen as more meaningful and easier to interpret to the General Conference, annual conferences and local churches," said the Rev. Terry Bradfield, a top executive with GCFA. "It gives the greater church a better sense of what the money is going for and how it is expected to make a difference."
The compromise spending plan puts the church budget process about five months ahead of schedule and strikes a balance between denominational and local church resources and ministries, according to Sandra Lackore, chief executive and treasurer of GCFA.
"It's a level budget that is a true reflection of a common table," she told United Methodist News Service. "… This is a budget that enables the agencies to do the mission and ministry that the denomination wants, while also allowing our local churches to do their mission and ministries by not burdening them disproportionately."
The budget process included times of worship, prayer and dialogue asking for God's guidance throughout the number crunching and negotiations.
"It is always difficult to come together and talk about money as a Methodist. But it is always a joy to come together and talk about mission," said Garlinda Burton, chief executive for the Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Serving as worship leader, retired Bishop Woodie W. White asked God to bless the bodies' work. "We give what we've done - and everybody did our best and everybody had to give up something - and we give it now to God."
*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.
posted by TN Conference UMC @ 5:03 AM
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