Note #9198 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06163 March 15, 2006
2006-2008 budget cuts will total $9.15 million
Detterick says smaller GAC is 'part of a longer trend in the church'
by Jerry L. Van Marter
LOUISVILLE - The General Assembly mission budgets must be reduced by a total of $9.15 million between now and 2008, General Assembly Council (GAC) leaders announced on March 14.
A total of $2.7 million has to come out of the unrestricted 2006 budget, and $3.51 million more in unrestricted dollars from the 2007-2008 mission budget. In addition, the restricted portion of the 2007-2008 budget must be reduced by $2.94 million.
The current mission budget - unrestricted and restricted - is $113.9 million. The GAC will vote on the budgets during its April 26-29 meeting.
Staff cuts resulting from the budget reductions will probably be announced on May 1.
"This is clearly part of a longer trend in the church and probably most churches," GAC Executive Director John Detterick told the Presbyterian News Service in a March 15 interview. "Presbyterians are funding mission differently - they are giving to their churches in larger amounts, but are more directly involved both in activity and funding."
The 2006 cuts are based on declining unrestricted giving by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations and presbyteries. Unrestricted receipts from them in 2005 were $13.9 million - $2.1 million less than the $16 million budgeted. That unrestricted line in the 2006 budget, also $16 million, has been revised to $13.3 million.
Total unrestricted revenue was $460,000 under budget last year, Joey Bailey, the GAC's chief financial officer, told the Presbyterian News Service. The decline in giving by congregations and presbyteries was almost offset by above-budget income from bequests, interest and dividends and "other" income - primarily the sale to a Canadian organization of the Web domain name www.religion.com, which the PC(USA) had been given.
Bailey said that the GAC actually under-spent its budget by $2.1 million last year. "If we could do that again in 2006, most of this year's problem would be solved," he said.
However, unrestricted receipts from congregations and presbyteries are expected to decline further - to $12.9 million in 2007 and $12.7 million in 2008 before leveling off in 2009, then increasing slightly to $12.8 million in 2010.
"None of us can see the future," Detterick said, "but I firmly believe that what's being put in place - the Mission Work Plan, a restructured GAC and annual meetings between the GAC and synod and presbytery executives (a new component of the GAC's restructuring) - all will have some payoff and will help bridge the gap between the national and local church. We'll see the results, whatever they are, in the next four years."
The role of the GAC must change, Detterick added.
"The real challenge for us is to work through these painful changes in ways that will help us prepare to support mission work in the future," he said. "There is a role for the GAC, but it will be smaller, less resource-producing and more networking, less programmatic and more enabling of the presbyteries and congregations."
To that end, the council adopted a 2007-2008 Mission Work Plan in February that narrows the focus of its programmatic work to just eight objectives. Since then, a core GAC staff team of 40 - augmented by many others - has been reassessing all of its mission programs in order to match its work with the MWP objectives. "The beauty of the Mission Work Plan is that it helps us focus our work on the eight objectives and directs that focus to the presbyteries and congregations," Detterick said.
That work, which is taking place "across programmatic lines," Detterick added, "while difficult, has been undertaken with great energy and dedication."
To date, that work has involved aligning all current programmatic work with the eight MWP objectives. The next stage, Detterick said, is to determine which work is "essential" to the MWP, which work is "helpful" but not essential and which work does not align with the objectives and will therefore "not be done here."
The restricted (designated for specific programs) budget cuts are easier to understand, Bailey said. Programs funded by restricted funds spend a combination of current receipts plus prior years' accumulations. In 2005, $82.8 million in restricted funds were spent - $73.2 million in current contributions and $9.6 million of prior years' funds.
As the accumulations are spent down, deficits appear. In 2006, GAC programs relying on four restricted fund categories will fall into a deficit position by a total of $220,000 and therefore must reduce spending ¾ Directed Mission Support (money given by congregations and presbyteries to specific mission programs), the Christmas Joy Offering (due to advances to racial ethnic schools, which receive half the offering), Validated Mission Support (money from groups which support specific mission projects) and "outside trusts."
"Overspending compounds over the years as prior years' accumulations are depleted," Bailey said. For instance, at current spending levels the One Great Hour of Sharing and Peacemaking offerings will "be added to the deficit mix" in 2007 and several other restricted fund-supported programs in ensuing years. Thus the need for the $2.94 million reduction in 2007-2008.
"All these deficits are based on continued spending above current income," Bailey said. "We believe these programs will adjust their spending to defer hitting what's been called 'a cliff' when their prior years' accumulations are depleted."
Directed Mission Support (DMS) was budgeted at $5.5 million in 2005. Actual receipts were $5.1 million. Bailey said the 2006 DMS budget "will come down" to $5 million and will remain at that level at least through 2010.
"Some have said that the folks in Louisville just don't get it. This is the beginning of getting it," Detterick said, adding that he was "most appreciative of all those around the church who've said they're praying for us, that we're not spiritually alone."
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS listserv of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228