LOUISVILLE — When the General Assembly Council meets again in April, it will be asked to consider a budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the next two years.
Here are some hard questions the council must answer.
How many overseas missionaries should the PC(USA) have? And where is the money going to come from to pay for them?
Here are the painful statistics.
The number of international mission co-workers the PC(USA) has deployed overseas is slumping at what’s being described as a “precipitous pace” — because the denomination does not have enough money to pay for more. In 2006, the PC(USA) had 250 missionaries. In January 2008, the number was 220 — and it will drop, through retirements and attrition, to 190 by January 2009.
That’s down from a high of 1,849 missionaries nearly 50 years ago, in 1959.
Hunter Farrell, the PC(USA)’s Director of World Mission, said the denomination has 18 qualified candidates in the pipeline who feel called by God and are willing to go overseas — but the PC(USA) doesn’t have the money to send them. The PC(USA)’s international partners have identified 40 positions those partners consider particularly critical, but “we do not have funding for those,” Farrell said.
“It puts us in an awkward position with partners around the world. Sometimes it’s critical — sometimes it’s life-and-death stuff. It grieves us” not to be able to send missionaries because there’s not enough money, he said.
Two years ago, a last-minute bequest saved positions of missionary co-workers, but that was a one-time gift that would cover those costs for only two years, so “that is a funding stream we need to fill,” Linda Valentine, the council’s executive director, said during a meeting Feb. 14.
So here’s what Valentine is requesting that the council do before it finishes its business at this meeting on Feb. 15. It’s being asked to affirm “the priority of maintaining an appropriate number of PC(USA) international mission personnel.”
And, it’s being asked to instruct the staff leadership team to bring back to the council’s meeting April 23-25 a proposal as to how much it would cost to support those missionaries and to identify from where that money would come.
“We’re seeking guidance and an affirmation” of the importance of keeping PC(USA) missionaries overseas, Valentine said.
If the council provides that, the staff likely would return in April with several scenarios — giving cost figures to support 190, 200 or 210 missionaries, for example, and suggesting ways to fund each of those staffing levels.
Farrell said it’s estimated it would cost $3 million to fund 30 mission co-workers for two years. And while denominational leaders are working hard to identify possible new sources of funding, if the council places a priority on funding international missionaries, that could mean making cuts elsewhere in the budget, he said.
“This is visible enough, a concerning enough issue” that the staff leadership wanted to inform the council now, “so it doesn’t just pop up at the last minute” in April, Valentine said.
“It’s an urgent issue,” Farrell said during a meeting of two of the council’s committees.
Farrell described as “very promising” the Mission Challenge campaign last fall, in which missionaries spoke at congregations around the country and urged them to support the PC(USA)’s international mission work.
And some council members expressed confidence that more money can be found.
“This is not great news,” said Rick Ufford-Chase, a former General Assembly moderator and now executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. “But it’s the clearest bad news I’ve seen.”
Ufford-Chase said he had “begged and begged” for clear statistics on funding for overseas missionaries, and now he finally has some. Ufford-Chase said he watched the outpouring of generosity from Presbyterians following Hurricane Katrina, and “I remain totally convinced the money is there.”
Steve Benz, a council member and executive presbyter of East Tennessee presbytery, said “the momentum is there” at the grassroots to support international mission. But council member Doug Megill from Pennsylvania cautioned that while “nobody wants to go through more downsizing,” the council needs to consider its priorities if not enough new dollars are found. “It’s our responsibility,” he said, “to consider hard choices.”
The council’s Leadership and Vocation Committee voted to instruct the staff to come back to the April meeting with a funding proposal for international mission, “with a special emphasis on new funding sources.”
The full council will consider the matter Feb. 15.
