LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB) will recommend to the 221st General Assembly that changes be made to two of the four special offerings received by the denomination.
In approving the report of the Special Offerings Task Force, the PMAB has recommended changes to the Peacemaking and Christmas Joy offerings.
If the GA approves the recommendations, the name of the Peacemaking Offering will be changed to the Peace and Global Witness Offering.
Marci Glass, a member of the task force, said that “adding global witness as a recipient of the offering would invite new congregations to collect the offerings.” Research shows that support for the change, she said. “There is great interest in the church for global mission support.”
Participation in the offering has not declined, Glass said, but according to the task force report, it has “remained stagnant over much of the last two decades, with about 20 percent of PCUSA congregations contributing around $2 million annually. … Restructuring the offering as the Peace and Global Witness Offering will allow greater collaboration at the cross-section of justice and evangelism and empower congregations and mid-councils to use their portions of the offering in ways consistent with the current trends for mission engagement at those levels.”
For established donors of the Peacemaking Offering, their contributions will continue to be designated for peacemaking through 2016.
Funds raised from the Peacemaking Offering are divided three ways: 50 percent to the PMA, 25 percent to the presbytery and 25 percent to the congregation.
As for the Christmas Joy Offering, Glass said that while the task force affirmed the current purpose and distribution of the offering, there is a need to examine the list of schools that receive the funds.
Fifty percent of the receipts of the offering are used for the Board of Pensions’ assistance program, and 50 percent is distributed to a list of Presbyterian racial ethnic schools.
“We need to look at the schools,” she said, since some of them are no longer in existence and some are no longer accredited.
The task force recommended that the PMA create an advisory committee on the allocation of racial ethnic leadership funds to report back to the PMA by the end of 2015.
“The pie remains the same,” she said, but there are “fewer colleges receiving bigger shares of the pie.”
Glass said there were no proposed changes to the Pentecost Offering. “It has grown each year it has been offered,” she said. There were also no changes suggested for the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering.
Why is giving going down?
During the board’s deliberations, Clark Cowden, a member of the PMAB from San Diego, Calif., asked if anyone was “addressing what the real problem is … Why is giving going down?”
The quick answer to the question, said Glass, is that “as churches leave the denomination giving is going down.”
“Of course churches leaving is an impact,” said Samuel Locke, director of Special Offerings, Communications and Funds Development for the PMA, but he mentioned another factor, that “the average gift size in congregations is decreasing.” He said he didn’t know if that was because of “fewer people in the pews, or if we are not telling the stories.”
“I hope that we do not begin to say that these offerings are going down because churches are leaving,” said Marianne O. Rhebergen a board member from Hopewell, N.J. “I know that is happening, but I don’t want that to be our message.”
Her reasoning was that the “patterns of giving are changing. Folks want to give to something they can connect with in a tangible way. … Some offerings suffer from being too vague.”
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“I hope that we do not begin to say that these offerings are going down because churches are leaving,” said Marianne O. Rhebergen a board member from Hopewell, N.J. “I know that is happening, but I don’t want that to be our message.”
Her reasoning was that the “patterns of giving are changing. Folks want to give to something they can connect with in a tangible way. … Some offerings suffer from being too vague.”
More “Don’t worry, be happy” talk from leadership that do not want to acknowledge the reality of what is happening in the denomination.
“‘The average gift size in congregations is decreasing.’ (Samuel Locke) said he didn’t know if that was because of ‘fewer people in the pews, or if we are not telling the stories.’”
The churches that are leaving tend to be the ones that give more per member. As that happens, the average size of the annual contribution per member goes down.
Of course the decline in giving for these offerings is partly due to churches leaving. Especially given that many of those leaving are among the largest and most generous churches. Equally responsible is the decline in membership in those churches remaining–the quiet departure of traditionalists who follow their consciences out the door. There’s nothing surprising or confusing about what’s happening. It was totally predictable.
Those who advocated 10A, and now same-sex marriage, wanted a complete victory: their views to prevail and everything else to stay the same. But it doesn’t work that way. There’s a price for the hubris of 51-49% political victories. Alienation of those who strongly disagree, to begin. Followed by their need to follow their consciences elsewhere. Followed by a rapid decline in giving that supports the PCUSA and all its programs. The Special Offerings are just one part of it. All levels of our government will continue to adapt to less income and get smaller. Pension and benefits, especially health insurance, are unsustainable at current levels over the long term. One trustee recently admitted, privately, that PCUSA health insurance would likely go away in five years.
Old generals understand victory always has a price, even the easy ones. Liberal social/political activists in the PCUSA either didn’t grasp it or don’t care. The PCUSA lost 5% of its members in 2012. I expect the 2013 numbers, to be released in the May time frame, will match or exceed that. And when the GA passes same-sex in Detroit in June, the stage is set for equal/greater declines in 2014 and 2015. We’re a 1.84 million member denomination right now. Expect 1.5 million by the close of 2015. And all the financial stress that comes with decline.