Sooner has arrived.
A weakened national economy and ongoing conflicts within the denomination have combined to create a potential revenue shortfall that officials in Louisville say could reach $2.5 million — and maybe more — in 2002.
In a Nov. 6 letter to the national staff and GAC members, Detterick outlined plans to trim the 2002 General Assembly mission budget by that amount by the end of this year. “While the magnitude of this shortfall won’t be known for some time,” he wrote, “we must begin now to make contingency plans for the General Assembly Council to act upon.”
“Circumstances are pushing us to make decisions we wouldn’t have made this early otherwise,” Detterick told the Presbyterian News Service in an interview. “Belt-tightening was inevitable, but uncertainty in both the economy and the church have moved up our timetable. I’m sure congregations, presbyteries and synods are facing the same economic pressures, and I trust we’ll all be working together to make faithful decisions.”
Senior staff members at the Presbyterian Center met on Nov. 5 and agreed on a formula for making the cuts, which must come out of the unrestricted portion of the mission budget. Detterick said he urged division heads to “think strategically” about these decisions. “Simple across-the-board cuts won’t serve us well in the long run,” he said.
Staff leaders will meet again on Dec. 3 to review specific proposed cuts. The details of the plan will be submitted for GAC approval during its January meeting. At that time, the church’s senior leadership will also seek the GAC’s endorsement of plans for what Detterick called “a major envisioning and strategic-planning process.”
Detterick said the capital-expenditure budget will be trimmed and “a number of new initiatives” will be scaled back or put on hold. Affected initiatives may include a plan to beef up the Presbyterian Center’s human resources department; to develop a coordinated “data warehouse”; to undertake a coordinated stewardship effort involving the GAC, the Presbyterian Foundation and the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program; and to provide “seed money” for specific fund-raising projects.
A feasibility study is now under way on a proposed campaign to raise more than $39 million for missionary support and new-church startups. The study results are due in early December. “I don’t know what the feasibility study will recommend,” Detterick said, “but I believe we need to test these kind of mission initiatives as a new, more responsible way of funding mission.”
A planned 3-percent salary increase for national staff members in 2002 may also be scaled back, and Detterick advised in his letter that “some staff positions will likely be affected.”
He added: “I wish that I did not have to be the bearer of this news. I especially regret the timing of this effort before the holidays. But these are challenging times, and we must act responsibly and faithfully. I ask for your help and God’s guidance as we face these challenges.”
“If we can go through this process responsibly and faithfully,” Detterick told the Presbyterian News Service, “it will make us more responsible and faithful in our service to the whole church.”
