LOUISVILLE –The Committee on the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) agreed today to allow its ministries to solicit designated funds from potential donors. Heretofore, the Office of the General Assembly has been funded singly by per capita funds, with the exception of special fund raising that has been done in recent years by the Presbyterian Historical Society.
The committee expanded the duties of associate stated clerk, Kerry Clement, by adding the word “development” to his office. It now is titled, the “Office of Communication, Development, and Technology.”
The first purpose for this reorganization, according to Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, is to provide a mechanism to interpret the role of per capita giving–the most dependable revenue stream for funding denominational activities, with a collection rate of 96%. “We don’t need to mess with what’s working,” he said, but he added, “it’s clear to us that in the financial straits of our presbyteries, it’s not going to go up. It’s going to go down.”
Chris Nicholas, budget manager for the OGA, expanded on Kirkpatrick’s comments, “All over there are churches that want to designate money. We come across that more and more. We have not been able to give them a clear answer or clear direction, since we haven’t had a clear policy. This will provide us a way to give them a clear answer.”
The proposal was adopted unanimously, but not until the 15-member committee considered several objections to it.
Elder member Steve Grace saw no problem with mission programs and ministry projects related to the General Assembly Council seeking designated funding. “But the per capita is a service for the whole church. We run the risk of losing the faithful support of the whole denomination in many of our ministries by saying, well, now we can go off and raise our own funds for this.”
Minister member John Wilkinson commented, “This sounds promising if it doesn’t add to [donor] fatigue.”
Prior to joining the OGA staff in 1990, Clements served for seven years as development director for Interfaith Community Services in St. Joseph, Mo. He outlined his plans for the new assignment: “Our plan is to use a staff team, [to include] a member from every department, to put together a plan to seek funds for particular programs and aspects of their work. I’m excited about the work, and about not creating a whole new structure to do our work. We will work with the Presbyterian Foundation, Board of Pensions, and all the other agencies so we don’t step on each others’ toes in the process.’
The Presbytery of Grace in northeast Texas has proposed another take on per capita funding. On March 3, they adopted an overture to the 2008 General Assembly that calls for ending the use of per capita apportionments by 2010, thereby allowing all funding of the national church to be purely voluntary.
