The General Assembly Mission Council is expected to vote on the 2011 and 2012 budgets tomorrow (May 14), following several hours of closed-door discussions about the impact the budget cuts will have on particular ministry areas. National staff members losing their jobs – the staff was told in meeting this week that the number will be about 45 – will get the news from their supervisors that afternoon.
Linda Valentine, the council’s executive director, acknowledged to the council on May 13 that “these are painful, difficult times” and that both the lives and livelihoods of people who have served the church for years will be affected.
Valentine also said that “we believe the plan is in the best interests of the church” and that “even in a time that feels like cut, cut, cut, we know we rest in the loving hands of God.”
Here are some of the latest painful numbers:
– Unrestricted giving to the denomination (known as shared mission support) dropped by 44 percent from 1999 to 2009.
– In that same decade, restricted giving – designated by the donor for a particular use – dropped by 29 percent.
– The denomination continues to tap its reserves to balance the budget. If the budget proposed is approved, another $1.14 million from reserves would be used in 2011 and $1.6 million in 2012 – drawing the uncommitted reserves down to $12.22 million. That would leave the reserves about $4.1 million above the $8.12 minimum reserve requirement – and Joey Bailey, the denomination’s chief financial officer, told the council he’s not comfortable going any lower than that.
– The overall budget being proposed would decline from $93.8 million this year to a proposed $82 million for 2011 and $80.5 million in 2012.
In short: giving to the PC(USA) is down; staffing is down; membership is down; the number of small congregations without pastoral leadership is rising.
Valentine, however, continues to stress the positive, saying the budget cuts also will bring strategic shifts in direction that can serve the denomination well in the years to come. The buzzwords are “inspire, equip, connect.”
Bailey also cautions that the 2010 General Assembly needs to be cautious about authorizing new spending. Taken together, requests submitted to the assembly could add up to $17 million in new funding – including some requests for work that denominational leaders might want to do, but can’t afford to take on without cutting back on something else.
“The world is full of great causes,” said council member Tom Gillespie, the former president of Princeton Theological Seminary. “All of them are honorable. We don’t have the money.”
