Salt Lake City – As its last act, the 226th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted a $94.9 million budget for 2025 and $95 million for 2025, resulting in a 13.1% increase in per capita over the two-year span.
Going into the assembly, commissioners had already been presented with proposed budgets of $91.2 million for 2025 and $93.8 million for 2026. New initiatives or requests approved during the five-day assembly in Salt Lake City added more than $600,000 to the budget for each year.
Because of an earlier decision by the Commission on the Unification of the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency, all the budget items added at this assembly were charged to the per capita budget, regardless of how they would be spent. As a result, the General Assembly’s portion of per capita was increased by 64 cents each of the next two years.
Per capita, as a reminder, is a set amount of money (apportionment) per member that congregations pay to the larger Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Churches pay per captia to the national PC(USA), their presbytery and synod. The numbers discussed in this article speak only of the national church’s portion of per capita.
In 2025, the national church’s per capita will be $10.44, and $11.08 in 2026, increasing from $9.80 this year.
In 2025, per capita will be $10.44, and $11.08 in 2026, increasing from $9.80 this year.
The largest increase in per capita at the 226th assembly comes from the decision to bring together Hispanic leaders to “form the foundation for the development of new programs and initiatives that will equip Latino-a-é leadership and congregations to respond to the unique challenges and opportunities within their distinct communities and contexts.”
It accounts for an increase of 32 cents over the two-year cycle. Thirteen other actions in Salt Lake City account for an additional $1.14 increase.
The decision to fund all new items through per capita is tied to the coming unification of the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Presbyterian Church (USA), A Corporation. All three groups collaborated on producing the budget. By this time next year, all operations will be merged into a single agency and a single budget.
It is yet to be determined, however, if per capita will remain a part of the revenue picture, or if there will be a new revenue structure altogether.
It is yet to be determined, however, if per capita will remain a part of the revenue picture, or if there will be a new revenue structure altogether.
Per capita and mission giving are two main revenue sources for the denomination: per capita funds ecclesiastical work and general mission giving funds programs. The bifurcated church revenues have caused confusion for decades; more than that, however, mid councils (presbyteries and synods) are required to pay per capita, but congregations are not.
“The present per capita funding model – as it has been adapted and/or applied by mid council bodies – is not sustainable in the long run,” the Funding Model Development Team reported to this assembly’s Financial Resources Committee.
The 11-member Funding Model Development Team is the culmination of a process that began in 2018 and went through several iterations until 2022 when it was created “to develop, recruit, implement, and provide oversight of possible funding model experiments.”
It is now beginning to develop those models and is scheduled to report to the 227th GA (2026) with a recommendation.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published with incorrect math, citing that there was to be a 14.8% increase in the national church’s portion of per capita.
