LOUISVILLE — The executive committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s General Assembly Council (GAC) has a detailed list of questions it’s been asked to answer as it reviews the necessity of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) campaign and how to keep it operating.
The GAC approved an amended item brought before it Sept. 29 by the Worldwide Ministries Division Committee that calls for the GAC executive committee to look into the implications of the MIJHH on funding international mission and the sending of mission co-workers, and if the five-year fundraising effort is the way to accomplish that.
The council also asked its executive committee to “seek sources of funding through 2007” for the campaign’s operations and authorized it to “approve the source of funds once identified.”
The MIJHH was created by the 2002 General Assembly to raise $40 million by the end of 2007 — half for new overseas mission personnel and half for new churches in this country, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations.
The GAC learned during its Sept. 26-29 meeting here that the MIJHH campaign has only enough money to cover administrative costs through February. Earlier this week, MIJHH director Jan Opdyke told the executive committee that almost all of the $26 million raised so far has been designated for specific projects, leaving not enough unrestricted money to cover the campaign’s operating expenses of about $790,000 annually.
The GAC funded 100 percent of the campaign’s expenses from 2002-2004. It covered 50 percent last year, but this year and next the campaign is designed to be self-supporting.
Campaign officials estimate that to complete their work by the end of the project they will need an additional $500,000 for operating expenses. The GAC action on Sept. 29 does not put restrictions on where that money could come from as its executive committee seeks funding sources, despite a failed motion that the additional funding not come from the GAC’s budget.
Central to what the executive committee will be exploring, and ultimately reporting on by the council’s next meeting in March, is:
- How many mission co-workers, specialists and volunteers are currently deployed – and funded – in the world today.
- What are the needs for maintaining our commitment to the work that those mission workers are doing (ongoing support)?
- What does a “new” missionary, funded with MIJHH dollars, look like, and how many will we deploy (in addition to the positions currently filled) if there is a fully successful MIJHH campaign?
- How will the campaign fund itself, or be funded by the GAC?
- We would like a clear plan for how the new mission/partnership agency or area of the GAC has an integrated, cooperative approach to working with the MIJHH to assure that all of the previous questions are answered and the GAC’s intention to field new mission workers in new positions is honored.
- What happens to the mission personnel when the MIJHH funds run out?
“It’s clear to me … we are not running the same campaign necessarily that we set out to run,” said Rick Ufford-Chase of de Cristo Presbytery, who offered all but the last question for the executive committee to explore. That last question was added by GAC member Ken Newbold of Coastal Carolina Presbytery.
“I think that’s appropriate, actually,” and that the MIJHH staff has responded to what they have discovered about the current state of giving, Ufford-Chase said. “The campaign staff has done a solid job of partnering with presbyteries.”
At the inception of the MIJHH campaign it was hoped that the funds would be raised from a small number of Presbyterians, “perhaps less than 200” according to the campaign’s report submitted to GAC executive committee on Sept. 26. And, it was thought that the money would be given unrestricted for disbursement by the GAC’s National Ministries Division for matching grants to presbyteries for developing racial ethnic and new immigrant congregations and to the Worldwide Ministries Division for new overseas mission personnel.
The campaign changed its strategy when this didn’t happen and began partnering directly with presbyteries and congregations to fund key areas of interest for the presbyteries and congregations. About 75 percent of the $26 million thus far has been earmarked for new church development.
Yet at the same time, Ufford-Chase said it is important that key questions be asked that show the denomination’s commitment to the growth of mission. “This (campaign) is the public face of the GAC’s commitment to mission.”
He said, among other things, he’d like “solid answers” about the number of PC(USA) missionaries in the field and how they are funded, particularly in light of shifting numbers following staff reductions and positions eliminations in May.
And, Ufford-Chase said he’d like a “clear plan” about how the mission plan under construction as part of the current GAC restructuring will work with the MIJHH staff.
“What can we tell the church they can count on?” Ufford-Chase said.
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