wfn.org | United Methodist agency heads offer help to emerging ministries

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

Sept. 13, 1999	News media contact: Joretta
Purdue**(202)546-8722**Washington     10-71B{461}

NASHVILLE (UMNS) - The process of developing a recommendation for the
2001-2004 program budget of the United Methodist Church took a surprising
turn Sept. 8-9 as a program and finance team worked with staff executives of
the denomination's agencies to allocate $187.7 million in churchwide
ministry funds.

Departing from recent experience, the boards and agencies did not ask for a
larger share of the pie.

Instead, some of the agency leaders pledged to seek agreement from their
boards of directors to reduce their askings from the World Service Fund, the
denomination's largest fund for churchwide ministries, for their proposed
programs. This money then would be available for innovative and emerging
ministries when voted by the General Conference.

Regular funding for the program agencies is provided through the World
Service Fund. At its May meeting, the General Council on Finance and
Administration (GCFA) decided to recommend that the 2001-2004 budget for the
World Service program agencies be $187,685,760, about 2.2 percent more than
the 1997-2000 budget. A bookkeeping change would  include other funds
previously listed separately - and the responsibilities they covered.

A joint team drawn from the General Council on Ministries (GCOM), which is
charged with oversight of churchwide programs, and GCFA assembled here to
decide how that $187 million is to be divided among the program agencies,
before such a recommendation is incorporated in the budget proposal to
General Conference, the denomination's highest legislative body.

When the General Conference meets every four years, it authorizes the work
of the agencies and a budget for each, along with other conference business.
The 1992 and 1996 General Conferences approved additional efforts beyond the
GCFA recommended budget. To provide for these, each General Conference
created another apportioned fund - one for which specific amounts are asked
of each regional body and through them of each congregation. 

The last two such add-ons were known as Mission Initiatives and Mission
Initiatives/Focus 2000. These joined several ongoing apportioned funds that
provide for administrative costs, such as the Episcopal Fund, and
ministries, such as the Africa University Fund and the Black College Fund.

GCFA - in working on the budget recommendations it will present to the next
General Conference, May 2-12 in Cleveland - decided on the small increase
for World Service agencies at least partly because some of the larger boards
have seen sizable increases in their investment portfolios due to favorable
market conditions. 

In addition, contemporary accounting procedures instituted recently by the
Financial Accounting Standards Board and adopted by GCFA resulted in
classification of net assets with identification of restrictions, if any, on
their use. GCFA has created a set of guidelines to help the agencies
determine the amount of net assets each needs to support ongoing operations.
 
The idea of setting aside some money to provide for "innovative and emerging
ministries" came out of a meeting of the chief executives of the program
agencies on Sept. 8. It flowered when they met with the GCOM-GCFA team the
next day.

Earlier in the process the agencies' original budget requests for the next
quadrennium had totaled more than $220 million as they proposed several new
and expanded programs.

Now, the four program boards - the boards of Church and Society,
Discipleship, Global Ministries, and Higher Education and Ministry - while
saying it will not be easy, first pledged to keep their spending at the
1997-2000 quadrennium's levels so the smaller agencies could have the
increase. Then the boards decided they probably could do better than that. 

The Rev. Roger Ireson, top executive of the Board of Higher Education and
Ministry, said that if the board agreed at its fall meeting, BHEM would be
willing to receive $2.5 million less than last quadrennium. With the same
condition of board approval, the Rev. Randy Nugent, head of the Board of
Global Ministries, said the agency would reduce its budget from World
Service  for the coming quadrennium by $8 million. These amounts would be
part of a pool of World Service funds available for innovative and emerging
ministries to be voted by General Conference.

The agency executives praised the process this year, noting that they heard
each other's presentations and are excited about the opportunities for
ministry that are before the church. Then they departed, and the GCOM-GCFA
team hammered out a list of four-year allocations as follows:

Board of Church and Society		(to be decided after further
consultation)
Board of Discipleship		$27.6 million
Board of Global Ministries		$98.4 million
Board of Higher Education and Ministry        $21 million (includes $2.2
million for Hispanic,
		 Asian, Native American scholarships and $200,000 
		 for University College Fund)

Commission on Christian Unity &
       Interreligious Concerns		$4.95 million
Commission on Religion & Race (CORR)	$5.95 million
       Minority Group Self-Determination        $3.45 million (administered
by CORR)
Commission on Status and Role of Women   $2.8 million
United Methodist Men		$1.2 million
National Youth Ministry Organization           $750,000

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