wfn.org | LCMS - Board 'actively monitoring' Missouri Synod finance woes

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services

LCMSNews -- No. 78  December 13, 2002

Board 'actively monitoring' Missouri Synod finance woes

The income shortfall faced by the Synod so far this fiscal year did not 
lead to any specific budget actions by the Synod's Board of Directors last 
month.	But, says Chief Administrative Officer Brad Hewitt, the Board is 
"actively monitoring to be sure the Synod stays financially responsible."

The Board met Nov. 20-22 in Irvine, Calif.  It was one of several groups 
that met in Irvine in advance of this year's Fall Leadership Conference 
sponsored by Lutheran Church Extension Fund.

The national LCMS budget saw a shortfall in anticipated designated gifts 
and grants that totaled some $3.1 million during the first three months of 
the current fiscal year, which began July 1.  Congregational giving to the 
national Synod through the districts continues to meet budget expectations, 
however.

Hewitt told the Board, however, that those units most directly affected by 
the decline in contributions -- the Board for Mission Services and the 
Board for Human Care Ministries -- are dealing with the problem.

The mission board has eliminated 17 full- and part-time positions in St. 
Louis and may close some overseas mission fields earlier than originally 
planned.  And, Human Care Ministries will reduce the number of certain 
types of grants that it funds for the remainder of the fiscal year, Hewitt 
told the directors.

"In difficult financial times, you have to make sure you're living within 
your means," Hewitt told Reporter.  "The Board is making sure this happens, 
but it's allowing the mission board and others to make their own decisions 
about how to do this."

Also at last month's meeting, the Board:

--  expanded on an existing policy to make clear that district fund-raising 
activities are limited to each district's own area of jurisdiction and that 
national ministries will coordinate their development efforts through the 
LCMS Foundation.

--  appointed Rev. Armand Boehme of Waseca, Minn., to a vacancy on the 
Commission on Theology and Church Relations.

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