wfn.org | GCFA makes budget proposal for General Conference

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

Nov. 18, 1999	News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
10-71B{619}

ROSEMONT, Ill. (UMNS) - The United Methodist finance agency has finalized
the four-year budget it will recommend to the church's highest legislative
body when it meets next spring.

Most remarkable in the 2001-2004 budget that the General Council on Finance
and Administration (GCFA) will recommend is the $16.3 million allocation for
innovative and emerging ministries.

Other pre-existing budget items have their apportionment support reduced to
offer General Conference the possibility of financing emerging ministries
with dollars from the World Service Fund, the denomination's largest fund
for churchwide mission and ministry. Establishment of this fund was made
possible by the existing agency reserves and the increased participation in
apportionments by the annual conferences..
 
The budget recommendations GCFA completed at its Nov. 12-16 meeting combine
the $16.3 million for innovative and emerging ministries, $174 million for
churchwide agencies, $61 million for other ministries, and $8.7 million in
fixed charges for interpretation resources and GCFA itself to provide a
$260.3 million total for the quadrennium. This amount, if approved by
General Conference, will be apportioned to the annual (regional) conferences
as the World Service Fund.

Other apportioned funds in the proposed budget include Ministerial
Education, $113.1 million; Black College, $45.1 million; Africa University,
$10.1 million; Episcopal, $65.4 million; General Administration, $23.2
million; and Interdenominational Cooperation, $8.7 million.  Focus
2000/Mission Initiatives, which funds 1997-2000 efforts passed by the 1996
General Conference, would disappear.

The total of all apportioned funds in the proposed budget for 2001 through
2004 is $526 million. The GCFA budget proposed to distribute that amount
over the four years with less than a half of 1 percent increase in 2001 over
the apportionments of 2000. That annual apportionment would be almost $129.2
million in 2001, rising to almost $135.2 million in 2004, if General
Conference approves.

The apportionment formula used by the denomination would be reconfigured if
the new proposal wins approval by the General Conference. This
recommendation grows out of the work of the Connectional Ministries Funding
Patterns Task Force and was accepted at the May meeting of GCFA. Since then
GCFA staff and members have received communications objecting to parts of
the proposed formula. A motion for reconsideration at this meeting failed to
garner support. 

GCFA is also recommending that the present six churchwide special Sundays
with offerings be consolidated into four days. In the proposal, Justice,
Love and Mercy Sunday is created, incorporating Human Relations Day and
Peace with Justice Sunday. United Methodist Student Day would be
discontinued, but a portion of World Communion Sunday offerings would
benefit student scholarships and loans.

In closed session, GCFA heard a report on the state of the National Council
of Churches' financial affairs. The Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns citing concerns about NCC fiscal management had
stopped the payment of Interdenominational Cooperation Fund support of the
NCC.  No action was taken during the closed GCFA session, and the freeze
remains in place at present.

The establishment of a center for dealing with conflict advanced with the
adoption of the name JUSTPEACE: Center for Mediation and Conflict
Transformation, a mission statement and articles of incorporation and
bylaws. Interest received from the Pacific Homes settlement was designated
for this endeavor, and a search for a director will soon begin..  

Members welcomed information about a new resource being prepared as a
cooperative effort of GCFA and the United Methodist Publishing House.
"Steward: Living as Disciples in Everyday Life" will assist users to develop
their theology of stewardship.  The 12-session study is expected to be
available in November 2000.

Noting that it has not been the custom for the general secretary of GCFA to
give an oral report, Sandra Kelley Lackore did.  Church finance opens the
door to many issues, ranging from that of reserves to the church's visions
and goals, she said.

Reserves, she asserted, should protect or provide for cash flow, preserve
intergenerational equity in assets, maintain support through budget
fluctuations, fund major repairs and serve as a hedge against market
fluctuations. She observed that the budget-building process is not designed
for developing-term goals. Contributing to that is the division between
program evaluation and budget building function.

Lackore offered three challenges to the conference for the future. 

"First, the General Conference needs to establish a process to make sound
judgments about financial priorities," she said. "GCFA has taken preliminary
action in this area."

"Second, annual conferences must be strengthened." Lackore stated that
crucial to this strengthening is finding a way to reverse a trend started in
the 1980s where a diminishing proportion of local church giving is used for
ministry development at the annual conference level. 

Third, "GCFA must take seriously its disciplinary responsibility to identify
administrative duplication within or among the agencies of the church
receiving general church funds and to take that into account in the budget
building process," she said. "We need to consider initiating a churchwide
functionality review."

In other business, the council took several actions, including the
following:

·	Making a $20,000 grant from the General Administration Contingency
Fund to the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference for financial assistance in
a trust clause (possession of church property) lawsuit;
·	Certifying new and recertifying qualified people as professional
church secretaries and church business administrators; and
·	Deciding to report against the idea of an affinity credit card and
to provide its reasons to the General Conference.

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