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April 25, 2008
GAC approves 2009-2010 mission budgets
Projections include no downsizings, increased mission personnel and new environmental ministries office
LOUISVILLE – The General Assembly Council (GAC) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today (April 25) approved General Assembly Mission Budgets totaling $110.3 million for 2009 and $107.6 million for 2010.
The budgets, which now go to the upcoming 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, in June for adoption, call for no GAC staff cuts, create a new Environmental Ministries office, and for the first time in 50 years increase the number of overseas mission co-workers — from 196 this year to 215 in 2009 and 220 in 2010.
The budgets will utilize $3.5 million in Presbyterian Mission Program Fund reserves each year, which will still leave the GAC’s cash reserve levels nearly $5 million above GA requirements at the end of 2010.
Joey Bailey, the GAC’s deputy executive director for shared services and CFO, said money is budgeted from reserves each year, but that the amount budgeted is never all used and “in many years we actually add to the reserves.”
“We constantly look at how much we are spending each year,” he told the GAC’s Stewardship Ministry Committee. “I think we’ve given you as realistic a revenue plan as we can.”
And nearly $2 million will flow from available but previously unused funds held by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation.
The budgets do not include anticipated rental income from 30,000 square feet of space in the Presbyterian Center that is currently being marketed. Bailey said he’s in conversations with “a couple of very interested prospective lessees.” Signs advertising the space read at the bottom: “Transforming space, changing lives.”
“We’re not just in the rental property business with this,” Bailey told the Presbyterian News Service. “This is all about the mission of carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ into the world.”
The expansive budgets follow positive financial reports for 2007 in which every category of giving to General Assembly mission increased.
Last year also saw an outpouring of support for PC(USA) mission workers as a result of the Mission Challenge, in which nearly 50 mission workers visited congregations and presbyteries during the month of October, generating heightened interest in PC(USA) mission and a net of $500,000 for their support.
Building on that response, Deputy Executive Director for Communication and Funds Development Karen Schmidt told the council her office is committed to raising more than $2 million in Extra Commitment Opportunity gifts for world mission in each of the next two years.
One element of that effort, she said, will be a “Top 200 Churches” effort, a funding strategy that entails asking for greater mission support from the denomination’s largest congregations.
“We’re also working off the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) seeds that have been planted the last five years,” she added, “that we are sure will bear fruit in the coming years.
The MIJHH — a five-year $40 million fund-raising effort launched by the 2002 General Assembly to raise funds for new mission workers and for congregational development in this country, particularly new racial ethnic and immigrant congregations — recently celebrated the deployment of the 25th new mission worker through the campaign. The campaign concludes at this General Assembly, though pledged funds will continue to flow for a number of years.
Honorary MIJHH campaign chair and GAC member Thomas Gillespie told the council he believes the appeal to large churches can be successful.
“I’ve called a lot of ‘tall steeple’ pastors and was not turned down by a single one,” he said. “Many were, in fact, eager, though some were unaware that we still send mission workers. “We’re going to see many answers to prayer.”
Also added for both budget years is $100,000 for an Environmental Ministries office. A similar office was eliminated as part of May 2006 budget cuts. Six presbyteries have petitioned the GA to reinstate the office.
“We’re doing our best to respond to what Presbyterians tell us they want,” said Deputy Executive Director for Mission Tom Taylor.
“We’re very pleased that this budget process began in a different way historically,” he told the council. “We asked, ‘What do we think God wants us to do?’ rather than ‘Here’s how much money we have, how should we spend it?’
“The result is a budget that is mission-driven,” he concluded.
GAC Executive Director Linda Valentine agreed. “This has been a great collaborative process between GAC elected and staff since February. This has not been done in a vacuum.”
And there is more work to be done, she added. “The needs in our church are huge, and we need to continually ask: ‘What is it GAC can do best to advance the mission of the church?’ We’ll continue to work on these processes but we’re in a very good place for 2009 and 2010.”
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