wfn.org | ELCA Churchwide Budget Reduced, Staff Positions Eliminated

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: ELCA Churchwide Budget Reduced, Staff Positions Eliminated
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>November 16, 2009  

ELCA Churchwide Budget Reduced, Staff Positions Eliminated
09-258-JB

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) acted Nov. 15 to reduce the 2010 churchwide
current fund spending authorization by nearly $7.7 million, 10 percent
less than the budget authorized by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly.  The
council's action eliminated 40.75 full-time equivalent positions, of
which six were vacant.

The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as
the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies.
It met here Nov. 13-15.

The action reduced the current fund spending authorization for 2010
to $69,022,800.  The 2009 assembly authorized $18.7 million in World
Hunger spending for 2010, which was unchanged.

Nearly all churchwide units were affected by staff reductions or
reassignments of staff, said the Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA executive
for administration, in a report to the council. She said 23 executive
staff positions and 18 support staff positions were eliminated. To
respect their privacy, the names of people affected by the reductions
will not be made public by the churchwide organization, Bullock said.

Before the council acted, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding
bishop, said "we have incredibly gifted staff that serve this church."
He challenged council members "to find your voice ... around action on
the budget."  Many did, expressing concern about the reductions and their
impact, and challenging each other to tell the story of shared ministry
in the ELCA.

Council member John R. Emery, Fond Du Lac, Wis., thanked churchwide
staff and leaders for the difficult decisions they made. "We also have to
give thought to what steps we can take to try to reverse this trend.  It
falls to us to do a better job of educating people at the synod and
congregational level about what their mission support dollars do," he
said.

Mission support funds -- those shared by congregations to support
synod and churchwide ministries have "synergistic power," he said.  "When
(members) see 'God's Work. Our Hands.' being lived in this church, it
really makes a difference.  I urge you to tell people what you know," he
said, quoting the ELCA's tag line.

Susan W. McArver, council member, Columbia, S.C., expressed concern
about reductions to ministries involving Christian education, children
and youth, and learning ministries.  "It gives the impression we are not
interested in Christian education and raising up wise and courageous
leaders, she said.

In response, the Rev. Stanley N. Olson, executive director, ELCA
Vocation and Education, said he shared her concern and said his unit is
committed to those ministries. Hanson added that the churchwide
organization will not abandon its commitments. "We will resource one
another differently," he said.

The Rev. J. Pablo Obregon, council member, Willmar, Minn., called on
council members and leaders to communicate the story of the wider church
with members.  "We need to continue to live in hope, and we need to be
creative as we continue to think about ministry. God is faithful to all
these challenges," he said.

Nearly 81 percent of the churchwide current operating budget
consists of mission support funds, said Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA
treasurer.  The forecast for 2010 mission support is about $55 million,
$7.2 million less than what is in this year's current fund budget plan,
she reported.

The program and staff reductions were needed because of a decline in
funds due to the struggling U.S. economy and decisions by some ELCA
congregations to withhold or redirect mission support as a way of
registering disagreement with the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly's
decision to change ministry policies, Bullock said.

"We wanted these reductions, despite their impact, to position the
churchwide organization for the future," Bullock said in her report to
the council.  She said churchwide leaders worked to maintain the
demographics of the organization so that the reductions would not be
borne disproportionately by women or people of color.  The churchwide
organization needs "to stay in step" with a design study process for the
ELCA, which the council authorized at this meeting, she said. And Bullock
said the organization proposed reductions to the council that "were as
strategic as possible."

In the revised 2010 budget proposal, the churchwide organization
preserved ministries connected to its two strategic priorities:
accompanying congregations as growing centers for evangelical mission,
and building capacity to alleviate poverty while working for justice and
peace.  It did not propose reductions in commitments to new
congregational starts, churchwide staff assigned to synods for mission
and stewardship work, campus ministries, seminaries, companion churches
and missionaries, Bullock said.

The council's action means there will be no salary increases for
churchwide staff in 2010, Bullock said.  The council also eliminated a
continuing education benefit program for churchwide employees, however,
it asked for a proposal for a new continuing education program to be
presented at the council's April 2010 meeting.

"We will be doing less with less, and we will focus on what can be
done and done well," Bullock said.  She added that if mission support
funds continue to decline, grants to partner churches and support for new
congregations may be affected later.

Bullock and Jackson-Skelton said the ELCA churchwide organization
is continuing contingency planning for 2010 should another reduction
become necessary.

The council's action follows a similar reduction in March of this
year when it cut $5.6 million from the 2009 churchwide current fund
spending authorization and another $1.9 million from the church's World
Hunger Appeal.  Between November 2008 and March 2009, the churchwide
organization eliminated nearly 35 full-time equivalent positions,
including vacancies. Salaries for unit executives and other senior staff
were reduced at that time by three percent.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog