The board of The United Methodist Church’s finance agency revisited bishops’ compensation and voted to increase both bishops’ pay and funding for their office staff.
At its Nov. 17 online meeting, the General Council on Finance and Administration board also approved agency spending plans for the coming year. In addition, the board heard an update on giving and ongoing church disaffiliations — both of which affect the proposed 2025-2028 denominational budget going before General Conference delegates for approval.
Your support of the World Service Fund apportionment supports program-related general agencies, which are especially important to the common vision, mission, and ministry of The United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Moses Kumar, the finance agency’s top executive, stressed at the beginning of the meeting that the four-year denominational budget remains very much a work in progress.
“As we go through change, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to the values that have always guided us: compassion, community and a shared sense of purpose,” Kumar said. “Our budget as a reflection of these values will need to be reviewed and adjusted.”
In the meantime, the board made decisions about what denominational spending will look like in 2024.
Apportionments — shares of church giving — fund the work of bishops, general agencies and other denomination-wide ministries. For the record, United Methodist News is part of apportionment-supported United Methodist Communications.
Denomination-wide ministries receive apportionments from annual conferences, regional church bodies that in turn receive apportionments from local churches. About 90% of the offering remains in the local church.
With the turbulent times the denomination is facing, the General Council on Finance and Administration has encouraged general agencies, since 2020, to budget with the expectations of lower apportionment collection rates.
Next year’s agency spending plans continue that trend of belt-tightening.
The board approved spending plans for the 10 United Methodist general agencies that receive at least part of their funding from apportionments. Overall, most agency budgets assume a 60% to 75% apportionment collection rate for the coming year.
In total, agencies, including the General Council on Finance and Administration, and Africa University, a United Methodist, pan-African university in Mutare, Zimbabwe, project expenditures to be about $142 million. The total spending in the 2024 plans shows a decline of 15% compared to 2017, when the current denominational budget approved by the 2016 General Conference first took effect.
All but two agencies expect to see a drop in their reserves in the coming year in part because they help behind the scenes at General Conference. However, General Council on Finance and Administration staff calculate the agencies have sufficient reserves to cover the reductions.
“Between the last General Conference and now, there’s been a 40% reduction in agency staffing,” Hare said. “And yet, people I love are doing their best to provide needed resources and ministries across the church, to the best of our ability, to the best of our capacity as we seek to work together.”
excerpt from a story by Heather Hahn, assistant news editor for UM News.
The World Service Fund provides basic financial support to program-related general agencies, which are especially important to the common vision, mission, and ministry of The United Methodist Church. Through World Service funding, agencies support annual conferences and local congregations in living out God’s mission for the worldwide Church. General agencies also provide essential services and ministries beyond the scope of individual local congregations and annual conferences through services and ministries that are highly focused, flexible, and capable of rapid response.
