wfn.org | GCFA prepares to send funding plan to General Conference

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 26, 1999	News media contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
10-71B{298}

NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS) - A report proposing a new formula for apportionments
requested of  United Methodist annual conferences has been approved by the
church's General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA).

The proposed formula of the funding patterns task force would not apply
directly to local churches but only to the annual conference. The
conference, in turn, sets the amounts that are requested of each church.
Apportionments are the "askings" that are paid to support conference and
denomination-level ministries and administration.

GCFA's voting members adopted the task force report almost without
alteration during a May 17-20 meeting. The report will be forwarded to
General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body, for a vote.
General Conference, which convenes every four years, will meet May 2-12,
2000, in Cleveland.

A major component in the proposed formula is total local church expenditures
in the annual conference, minus current capital expenses and payments toward
churchwide apportionments. A commission member noted that the total local
church expenditure figure was used as an estimate of church income and
recommended adding a phrase to that effect. The wording was approved by
members of the task force and was one of the few changes made in the
document.

In the proposed formula, expenditures is multiplied by a percentage to be
set by General Conference. "When applied to the net expenditures for all
conferences, it will yield the total to be apportioned for all general
church funds," the report explains. But before the multiplication takes
place, a percentage adjustment, made up of a measure of the economic
strength of the conference plus a measure of certain local church costs, is
added to the base percentage.

The economic strength factor is based on the per-capita income for the
counties in the conference's geographic area, with county-level data
weighted by the average United Methodist church attendance in each county.
Local church costs are a combination of local church clergy expenses, local
church operating expenses and payments toward budgeted annual conference
costs, all divided by average local church attendance. The costs exclude
capital expenditures but not mortgage payments.

The Rev. R. Stanley Sutton, treasurer of the West Ohio Annual Conference and
a council member, asked for exclusion of all benevolences and mortgage debt
as well as current capital expenditures. Other council members joined the
discussion on both sides of the question. The motion failed.

The task force proposal contains a transition process. It would base
three-quarters of each annual conference apportionment for the first year of
the new quadrennium on the current formula and one-fourth on the new
formula; then half and half the second year; one-quarter on the old and
three-quarters on the new during the third year; and only the new formula
would be used in the fourth year.

A motion by council member Jay Brim of Austin, Texas, to limit change in any
year to not more than 2.5 percent failed.

Comparing the current apportionments for the year 2000 with what they might
be under the new formula, the task force said that most conferences would
experience little change. Six conferences would experience an increase of 10
percent or more, while 10 conferences would have a reduction of 10 percent
or more. In all, 23 conferences would see their apportionments grow and 39
would see a decrease.

The proposal contains a provision for GCFA to evaluate the effectiveness of
the new formula. The task force was asked to establish standards for
evaluation before it concludes its work.

The plan included several other recommendations for General Conference:
*	Establish a single percentage factor for the formula that would be
used to calculate apportionments for all annual conferences. That percentage
would remain the same throughout the quadrennium, and would be adjusted for
individual annual conferences based on the local economy. It would not apply
to churches.
*	Follow the recommendation of the General Funds Coordinating
Committee to combine Human Relations Day and Peace with Justice Sunday, and
drop the United Methodist Student Day, thus reducing the number of special
Sundays with offering from six to four.
*	Allow annual conferences to separate World Service apportionments
from annual conference apportionments if they wish. In the past, the two had
to be grouped together.
*	Allow annual conferences to group churchwide and conference
apportionments in any combination they choose.

If receipts from the annual conferences ever exceed 100 percent of the
amount budgeted, the plan says, the overage would be held in a stabilization
fund that could be used to make up shortfalls in giving during the remainder
of the quadrennium. The fund would be administered by GCFA, and General
Conference would decide what to do with any overages that remained at the
end of the quadrennium.

The task force decided not to recommend approval of any of the widely
discussed alternatives for offering annual conferences or local churches
formal "choice" options.

The Rev. Patricia E. Farris, a pastor from the California-Pacific Annual
Conference and one of the task force members who presented the plan, said
the task force respects the budget process. She said it was not consistent
for General Conference delegates to go home from the event and disregard the
budget they had voted for.

The group called attention to the use of paragraph 702.4 of the
denomination's Book of Discipline as a means of expressing dissent. The
paragraph provides that questions and concerns about programs, projects or
decisions of a church agency may be addressed to the agency with a copy to
the General Council on Ministries. Agencies have 10 days in which to
acknowledge receipt of requests for information and usually 30 days to
provide the information.

The Rev. L. Jonathan Holston, a district superintendent in the North Georgia
Annual Conference and one of the task force members, viewed the plan as a
tool for churches. "I look at it as (a measure of) what we can do in
ministry." 

The proposal, including changes made at the GCFA meeting and related
materials, will be posted in early June at www.gcfa.org on the Internet.

# # #

______________
United Methodist News Service
http://www.umc.org/umns/
newsdesk@umcom.umc.org
(615)742-5472