Board moves to slash general church funds

[JCFantasy23]

Any thoughts on this? Will this be affecting your congregation or area personally that is a concern to you?

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The finance agency board set a starting point that would cut more than $105 million from the general church budget in 2021-2024.

The General Council on Finance and Administration board on Aug. 17 unanimously approved changes in the formula used in calculating U.S. apportionments — the requested giving from U.S. annual conferences.

Those apportionments provide financial support for most of the general agencies, ministerial education, bishops and denomination-wide efforts, such as Africa University, the Black College Fund and ecumenical work.

Based on current estimates, the new formula would result in a proposed general church budget of $498.65 million for the years 2021-2024. That’s about $105 million less than the current four-year budget approved by the 2016 General Conference.

The board’s proposed bottom line just marks a starting point. Developing the general church budget is a multiyear, collaborative process between the finance agency board and the Connectional Table, which coordinates the denomination’s agencies.

To go into effect, the apportionment formula changes and resulting budget will need majority approval at the denomination’s 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis.

The goal is to keep more funds within U.S. local churches. However, that decision ultimately will be in the hands of annual conferences, which each set their own apportionment formulas for local-church giving.​

 

[JCFantasy23]

From another article: Some Church Leaders say Rethink Budget Cuts


United Methodist leaders are urging their partners in the denomination’s budget process to reconsider proposed cuts to church funding.

In a rare act of public disagreement with the denomination's finance agency, Connectional Table members unanimously voted Nov. 2 to send a letter to the board of the General Council on Finance and Administration expressing their misgivings. The Council of Bishops voted Nov. 7 to refer the same concerns to its own finance committee.

Connectional Table members also approved a process for allocating their part of the general church budget. Before getting down to the business of slicing up the financial pie, the leaders sounded an alarm at how small the pie is.

“We are concerned that there is ‘a minimum level’ of funding for program needs of the denomination that will essentially mean we are no longer a ‘connectional church,’” the letter said.

 

[circuitrider]

Well, depending on if this happens or not, it will effect apportionment. How much, I don't know.