The good news about United Methodist giving in 2019 is that the news was not all bad.
Immediately after the contentious special General Conference, giving to general church ministries plummeted. The denomination’s finance agency raised alarms in May that if trends continued, the apportionment collections rate would be in the 70% range — well below what was seen during the 2008-2010 global recession.
By the end of 2019, the General Council on Finance and Administration reports, the collection rate had rebounded somewhat. GCFA received nearly 85% of requested giving — below recent years but exceeding the most dire projections.
All told, United Methodists gave about $124 million in apportionments to support denomination-wide ministries around the globe. That’s about a $10 million decrease from 2018.
In 2019, 18 of 54 U.S. annual conferences paid 100% of requested giving to support general church ministries. That is down from 26 conferences in 2018 and 29 in 2017.
Meanwhile, 10 central conference episcopal areas — most of which contain multiple annual conferences — paid at least 100%. That’s up from eight central conference episcopal areas in 2018.
General Conference sets the formula for requested apportionments from annual conferences and those regional church bodies in turn set their apportionment formula for their local churches.
General church apportionments support bishops, ministerial education, most general agencies, general administration, and denomination-wide efforts such as the Black College Fund, ecumenical work and Africa University in Zimbabwe.
GCFA requests apportionments from each U.S. conference based on a formula that includes its local church expenditures, local church costs, the economic strength of the conference and a base percentage approved by General Conference.
The finance agency has a different formula for central conferences, many of which are in developing countries. The central conference apportionment formula takes into account both annual conference membership and the gross domestic product per capita of the countries where the conference is located.
Central conferences contribute to only two general church funds: The Episcopal Fund that supports bishops and General Administration, which supports General Conference, Judicial Council, the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, and GCFA.
In 2019, the U.S. church paid for 99% of general church ministries.
The North Georgia Conference, the largest conference in the U.S., has the highest apportionments and consequently gives the highest payout. That trend continued in 2019, when the conference gave more than $6 million to general church ministries, more than 90% of the requested amount.
It is unknown how many churches or conferences would depart the denomination if the church splits. However, GCFA has calculated that a 20% loss of churches would reduce the general church funding still further — by $99 million, a 35% reduction of the current budget.
Even before the proposed separation, GCFA made plans to submit to General Conference a general church budget for 2021-2024 of about $494 million — an 18% reduction of the current four-year budget.
excerpt from a story by Heather Hahn, multimedia news reporter, UMNS
United Methodist Church Giving is about people working together to accomplish something bigger than themselves. In so doing, we effect change around the world, all in the name of Jesus Christ. To read stories about the generosity of United Methodists click here.
