Financial Planning requires good communication!
Several different financial reports were distributed
to the September 27 meeting of our Presbytery, including a First Reading our
2017 Presbytery Budget. I would like to talk about money for a moment.
Per Capita Assessment: Per Capita is a very dependable
and important source of income from our congregations to the presbytery, the
synod and the Office of the General Assembly. But I must share with you some
difficult conversations which we have had at our Administration Committee.
Because Per Capita is such a precise formula, we would like to think that it
makes our budget consideration easy. Just plug in the total Per Capita
assessment for the year; we know that number. The problem is that we do not
receive all of our Per Capita from our churches, and we do not know how much we will receive.
So the 2017 Budget has an income number for Per Capita that is only 86% of the
total Per Capita for our presbytery, this is the percentage we actually received
from our congregations the previous year.
There is a
report on 2015 Per Capita giving in your Presbytery meeting papers. Of course,
we are grateful to the 33 congregations that contribute their full Per Capita. You
will also see there are a number of congregations that do not contribute their
full Per Capita. The problem is that not one of the congregations who were not
able to contribute their full Per Capita actually communicated that fact to us in
2015. This makes our financial planning very difficult.
I believe
this is a very healthy presbytery; there are very good and trusting
relationships among us. We know each other. We want to be connected. Please
communicate with us. I encourage your session to have a conversation about Per
Capita, and please make a commitment to it. Please communicate your intention to us! This is doubly important since our
Presbytery is committed to contributing our full Per Capita contribution to the
Synod and the General Assembly whether or not we receive it from our
congregations. This creates a significant deficit for our presbytery.
Mission Support: As you know, our Presbytery is not only
financially supported by Per Capita but also by your Mission Support. Unlike
Per Capita, we do not define the contribution amount. This is fully a session
responsibility. It is the area of Mission Support that we are seeing the great
shift that is changing the whole church.
Shared Mission Support: We have congregations that
continue to be generously committed to Shared Mission Support. Thank you! Our
Presbytery has approved an 80/ 20 sharing percentage. If you make a Shared
Mission gift, 80% is used to support the Presbytery; 20% is used to support the
General Assembly Mission Agency.
Designated Mission Support for the Presbytery: We now have
congregations that are moving away from Shared Mission support and are making
what we call Designated Mission gifts in support of the Presbytery. Very simply
these gifts to the presbytery are not shared. All of your Designated Mission
gifts in support of the Presbytery are used in support of the Presbytery.
I am asking each congregation for three things:
Please
support our Presbytery both with your Per Capita contributions and your mission
support. Our Presbytery does good work, and the Presbytery is worthy of your
support.
Please
understand our funding system and discuss your support at your session. If you
look at our Budget proposal, I am asking you to study and understand Notes 1, 2
and 3 which I provided there.
Please
communicate with us. Please tell us your intentions with both Per Capita and
Mission support. Communication builds trust; communication builds community.
Like every year, we will be sending out pledge forms to each congregation. Please
communicate with us.
