Detterick: Future funding shortage will require some ‘bold dreams’
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 22, 2005
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – John Detterick, the executive director of the General Assembly Council, tried Wednesday to convince council members to dream up new strategies for ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the face of a downbeat reality.
After a pep talk on dreams, Detterick turned solemn: “There’s one more element on the horizon that I need to tell you about. It now appears likely at 2007 and 2008 our revenues will be less than our current expenses.”
Detterick said he and the staff already had “been through more reductions than we ever want to go through. And none of us wants to go through another budget reduction.”
Without forecasting any figures necessary for future budget cuts, Detterick strongly advised against the way expenses have been cut in past years, when “we estimated the shortfall and divided it among the divisions, with each division making its own decision.”
The denomination has two major budgets. One is underwritten primarily by the per-capita apportionment to local churches. The per-capita contributions – which are not an assessment or “tax” – pay the basic operating expenses of the church. Although some local congregations have withheld or diverted their per-capita payments, the collections remain adequate to meet those expenses.
Through August 2005, the denomination had collected $14.8 million in per-capita funding. The budget for the whole year is $15.1 million.
But most of the ministry of the church is paid out of the mission budget, which includes income from the PCUSA’s nearly $2 billion investment portfolio and special offerings, such as One Great Hour of Sharing and the recent campaign that has a goal of raising $10 million for relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The mission funding has been nosediving rapidly. The budget for 2001, for instance, was $144 million. In 2004, the Mission Budget was down to $126.9 million. In a report prepared for this week’s General Assembly Council meeting, the denomination’s Mission Services office projected the mission budget will be $113.9 million.
“We need to begin to attempt to decide what are the essential things the church calls us to do at the national level,” Detterick said. “We want to invite you into that process.”
In the past, Detterick has gently – and sometimes frustratingly – challenged the General Assembly Council to make the tough budget decisions. Having already announced that he will retire after the 217th General Assembly meets in Birmingham, Ala., in June 2006, Detterick was more aggressive at this meeting in urging the council to “be more visionary.”
In previous budget battles, the council generally has concluded that everything is necessary, including some of the programs favored by the council’s liberal majority, especially peacemaking, social witness, ecumenical work and lobbying Congress and the government.
Detterick didn’t mention any of those battles, but he did give some hints about what he thought was visionary, including paring down the size of the General Assembly Council, now nearly 100 members including corresponding members who can address issues but do not have the right to vote on them.
Later this week, the council will review proposals of its governance task force that would, in one case, reduce the council to about half its current membership.
Detterick provided his own snapshot of what the General Assembly Council will look like in five to eight years:
“One, I see an organization that will look very different. It’ll probably be a much smaller organization.
“Two, an organization that specializes in sharing people expertise, rather than resources.
“Three, an organization that focuses on networking like-minded mission efforts.
“Four, it functions more as a consultant to presbyteries.
“Five, the staff is located more out in the church rather than being concentrated in Louisville.”
He added, “I am sure there will be change. The General Assembly Council, in order to be vital and responsive, must go through change. The governance task force is going to ask you to discuss alternative ways. The mission funding task force will have a recommendation about creative ways to do mission. All of these different works are attempts to face the future boldly.”
He said he had two fears: “My fear was that the staff would be too timid, that the elected folks wouldn’t be bold enough. But if we have bold dreams, we will be ready to seize the future.”