LOUISVILLE – The Moving Forward Implementation Commission continues to interact with key issues facing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – including the question of whether a per capita financing system based on membership is feasible for a denomination that’s continuously growing smaller.
The 2018 General Assembly created a Special Committee on Per-Capita Based Funding and National Church Financial Sustainability, which met by conference call March 19 to begin its work and will meet in person in Fort Worth, Texas, in May – responding to concerns raised at the assembly about the impact of increasing per capita on congregations and mid councils, and to the need to look creatively at the way the denomination finances its work.
With a denomination that’s been losing members for decades, “the revenue is not there” from per capita, said James Tse, a ruling elder from New York City on the Moving Forward Implementation. “We have a system that’s broken. It’s been broken for a long time. It’s coming to a head now.”
The question of financial sustainability is not an accounting issue, but essentially one of mission and vision, said Debra Avery, a minister from California. “We can slash and burn and get the budget to balance, but that doesn’t get to vision or mission,” she said. Too often, in the pews, “people aren’t connected to the vision of the church” beyond their local congregation.
There’s also a balancing act of sorts, with the commission wanting to give the special committee space and time to do its work. But there may be a role for the commission as well – staying in communication with the special committee, and considering how best to make the case to Presbyterians why the money is needed and what it would be used for.
“Where is the story best told?” asked Mathew Eardley, a ruling elder from Idaho. “Where is the vision best articulated?” Should the PC(USA) have one coordinated storytelling effort, and where in the denominational structure should it be located?
Adan Mairena, a minister from Philadelphia, also raised questions about coordination among a series of PC(USA) initiatives that have emerged — including the draft guiding statement from the 2020 Vision Team and the new emphasis of the Presbyterian Mission Agency on being a Matthew 25 church and the Hands and Feet initiative of the Office of the General Assembly.
“There’s a slogan or a tagline over here,” Mairena said. “There’s Matthew 25 here. That’s beautiful … but which one do I urge my church to use? I’m a team player,” but not clear on what to do with the myriad messages.
Each of these questions is related in some way to the mandate the 2018 General Assembly gave the Moving Forward Implementation Commission – instructing it essentially to oversee the implementation recommendations from the Way Forward Commission that the assembly approved.
On the first day of this meeting, the commission spoke with PC(USA) stated clerk J. Herbert Nelson and the co-moderators of the 2018 General Assembly, Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and Cindy Kohlmann.
And the commission also voted to approve a motion instructing the board of directors of the PC(USA), A Corporation – the corporate entity for the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly – to change its bylaws to include the denomination’s stated clerk as an ex officio member, with voice but not vote and to be consulted about any candidate before the candidate’s name is brought to the board for election as the president or interim president.
That language mirrors what the General Assembly approved last year for the boards of the six PC(USA) agencies, in response to a Way Forward recommendation and recognizing that the stated clerk serves as the denomination’s chief ecclesial officer.
This will also be a busy week for PC(USA) meetings — with the board of the Presbyterian Mission Agency meeting March 27-29 and the A Corporation Board meeting March 28-29. The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board will consider the financial future of Stony Point Center and the new Matthew 25 initiative, along with other business.
There will be some cross-fertilization as well — with representatives of all these groups sitting in on the others’ meetings, and the A Corporation Board and Presbyterian Mission Agency Board meeting jointly for a time on March 28.
