But in Greater Atlanta presbytery, where a financial shortfall was threatening ministry needs, that is exactly what is being asked. Or, more specifically, give $500 to the presbytery in honor of reformer John Calvin’s 500th birthday this year. If 500 people give, it would generate $250,000, enough to cover the deficit. Without that revenue, funding for new church development and grants to congregations would have to be cut back.
If the money is raised, Greater Atlanta Presbytery plans to give 10 percent, or $25,000, to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the Big Tent gathering in Atlanta June 11-13.
In this economic slump, these kinds of questions — how to make the budget, what to cut if that doesn’t happen — are front-and-center for presbyteries all across the country.
With middle governing bodies, “the overall picture is everybody’s suffering” said Tom Hay, director of operations for the Office of the General Assembly and the former general presbyter of Shenandoah Presbytery. Some rely on endowments, “and those have all been cut” with the downturn in the investment markets. “The rest of it comes from churches and they’re all struggling. Every presbytery I know of is having to think through what they’re doing and struggling to make something happen.”
Last fall, Greater Atlanta Presbytery was facing a shortfall of $250,000, the first time this larger, urban presbytery has faced such financial constraints, said Ed Albright, its executive presbyter and stated clerk.
The presbytery council went on a budget-building retreat, where the chair of its finance committee, a new elder and business executive named Bill Hyde, “to everyone’s surprise said, ‘We’re not going to cut the budget, we’re going to develop a new revenue stream,’” Albright recalled.
So they pulled together a group of folks active in the presbytery to brainstorm about how that might happen. Someone tossed out the idea of tying it to the 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth “and by the time we left there two hours later everybody was on a high about the new revenue stream,” and about the possibility of using that fundraising effort as a way to build a new coalition of presbytery supporters, “almost like a college of elders,” Albright said.
When they presented the idea to the presbytery council, 18 people signed up on the spot, “and we had $9,000 before we started,” he said. And now they’re inviting people to five Calvin birthday celebrations — some for dinner, some for breakfast — to ask each of them to give $500. John Calvin, portrayed by an actor, is expected to make an appearance at each, and will be interviewed to bring out the sometimes-seen-as-stuffy theologian’s “human side.”
Traditionally, he added, presbyteries have been reluctant to approach potential Presbyterian donors directly, not willing to disrupt the relationship between individual Presbyterians and their congregations. “I’ve been a presbytery executive for 28 years and I’ve never thought about it before,” he said.
“Most parish pastors are very jealous and very protective of any kind of solicitation from the presbytery or any other church body, because that’s their revenue stream. But somehow the number $500 just sits well with everybody. Anybody who would give the presbytery $500 gives a whole lot more than that to the local church,” but to ask for more might well have met with resistance, he said.
The short-term goal is to raise $250,000. The larger hope is that they’re going to “create a network of congregational leaders that has a life beyond this one-time gift,” Albright said. “We hope to create a community.”
Greater Atlanta isn’t alone. In some way, the hurting economy is on the docket almost everywhere in the PC(USA).
Among middle governing bodies, Tom Hay is sensing a deepening interest in fundraising, although sometimes the conversation is couched in the language of redefining their focus and ministry. The General Assembly Council has decided not to hold a third annual joint consultation with presbytery and synod leaders next September, as a cost-cutting move. But the health of the denomination’s mission funding system certainly is being discussed within the Association of Presbytery Executives and by the synod executives.
How bad is the financial picture? “I don’t know of any of them that are going to shut down,” Hay said. “But a lot of them are engaging in whole experiences of re-envisioning themselves, which is appropriate.”
And “presbyteries which have continued to be program-driven are the ones who are in the most trouble, because program is expensive,” he said. “They are the ones who are behind the curve and have not been ready for this financial crisis.”
Other presbyteries, however, aren’t waiting around, they’re taking steps to reconfigure, to rethink what they’re doing and why.
In New Mexico, for example, the presbyteries of Santa Fe and Sierra Blanca are preparing to start sharing staff. By the end of this year, they intend to share one regional presbyter and stated clerk, one assistant stated clerk, and an administrative assistant.
In taking that approach, there was an understanding that “the mission funding system that was established 30 years ago was no longer viable,” said Jim Collie, executive presbyter in Santa Fe Presbytery. “We see the end of this and we just have to be in a better place.”
While both presbyteries likely could have sustained a full staff, “we would not have anything left to give to the denominational mission. This was a decision on the part of the presbyteries that we wanted to remain a strong giver to national and international denominational mission,” by starting now to make other changes.
At the same time, however, Collie said he has been surprised to find that many congregational leaders are not talking more about how the failing economy is affecting their congregations or communities.
Too often, “we’ll just go on business as usual,” he said. “I find it very hard to engage local church leaders or presbytery peers in a discussion about what does a recession or depression really mean for us, as well as what do we need to be doing in local congregations for people who are on the bad end” of the downturn.
Last year, Santa Fe Presbytery gave $16,000 to help support local food pantries – and it’s already given that much in 2009, “because of the critical needs of the hungry in New Mexico,” Collie said. “But when I say, ‘Has your session talked about what it will do in response to the needs of families?’ … the inevitable answer is ‘No’” or “‘Not much,’” responses that, in the face of such need, he doesn’t understand.
Some church people are talking directly about money. In Birmingham, Ala., for example, Presbyterian churches have been holding a series of “Hope in Transition” breakfast prayer and networking meetings for “those who are unemployed, under-employed, or just struggling in these trying economic times.”
First Church of Ann Arbor, Mich., has started a job loss support group, as have other congregations.
But sometimes, these discussions about money, loss, bottom lines, and what might need to change are hard.
For Santa Fe and Sierra Blanca presbyteries, “no one out there believes this is the final solution,” Collie said. They all believe it is a transition toward something as yet unknown. “This seemed like the right, appropriate first step to wherever God is leading us,” according to Collie.
