Heartland churches re-direct per-capita and mission offerings
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online, December 1, 2003
Heartland Presbytery has released a report indicating that five of its congregations will not make per-capita payments in 2003. Three additional congregations are listed as making only “partial payments” to this fund.
Per-capita is often described as the “rent and utilities” budget that covers denominational overhead expenses. In fact, the stated clerk of the General Assembly uses this fund to remit multi-million dollar payments to ecumenical councils that are deeply immersed in liberationist movements abroad and leftist politics at home. Per-capita underwrites meeting expenses and selected salaries in the program budget, including the salaries of those who superintend lobbying activities in Washington and other ventures that irritate Presbyterians in the pews. Per-capita also underwrites the salary and office expenses of the stated clerk, whose duty is to “preserve and defend the [denomination’s] Constitution.” The clerk’s unwillingness to discipline those who blatantly defy the Constitution has contributed to the increasing number of churches that no longer make per-capita contributions.
National giving trends
But per-capita is not the only denominational fund that is shrinking. Heartland Presbytery’s report also indicates that six of its congregations have begun redirecting or applying restrictions to their mission fund giving. In 2001, Heartland’s total mission receipts were $1,234,775. In 2002, that figure dropped to $961,107. Mission pledge receipts as of October 31, 2003 total only $786,339.
Heartland’s decline in mission fund receipts appears to reflect a trend experienced by other presbyteries. Citing national church conferences whose leaders have denied the lordship of Jesus Christ, curricula and programs that undermine the church’s teaching on sexual ethics, and the activities of denominational lobbyists who support a host of leftist/liberal causes, including partial birth abortion, churches are curtailing unrestricted mission dollars to the Presbyterian Church (USA). More than 70 percent of the denomination’s contribution income is now restricted by donor designation.
Officials in the Office of the General Assembly (funded by the per-capita budget) and the General Assembly Council (funded by the mission budget) are scrambling to compensate for anticipated shortfalls. The stated clerk has increased his allowance for non-payment of per capita in 2003 to 425,000. Non payment of per capita was $23,000 in 2001. The General Assembly Council is studying plans to tax all restricted contributions that are processed by denominational headquarters in order to generate new funds for programs that the council wants but congregations will not support. Those plans will be presented to the council in February, 2004.
Coercing contributions
The Book of Order provides that presbyteries should make up for shortfalls in per-capita collections from local churches “if funds are available.” But several presbyteries, Washington Presbytery, for example, have declared that they will not undermine a congregation’s statement of conscience in this manner. They will pass on to the General Assembly only those funds that are collected from local churches within their bounds. Other presbyteries have determined that they do not have “funds available” because making up for non-paying churches would require them to reduce their own mission priorities. The Office of the General Assembly reports that in 2002, 42 presbyteries – almost 25 percent – failed to pay per-capita in full.
But Heartland Presbytery is taking a different tack. In spite of two rulings by the denomination’s highest court declaring that per-capita and mission contributions may not be coerced, the presbytery is attempting to punish local churches that choose not to remit per-capita payments. Charges have been filed against the presbytery over this practice.
Heartland has also ordered that up to $50,000 be taken from its mission budget to pay the per-capita apportionments that local churches choose not to remit. This, too, has unleashed a firestorm within the presbytery. Critics say that in robbing the mission fund to bolster the per-capita fund, presbytery officials are violating donor intent, and they warn that this could trigger a precipitous decline of mission gifts, as well as per-capita contributions, that would otherwise flow through the presbytery.
Defending with distortion
On October 18, the Presbyterian Lay Committee issued a “Declaration of Conscience,” encouraging local church leaders prayerfully to consider re-directing their per-capita and unrestricted mission giving. John Buchanan, co-founder of the Covenant Network, an association seeking repeal of the denomination’s ordination standards that includes a large number of former denominational executives and General Assembly moderators, and the Issues Ministry of Presbyterians for Renewal, have joined Louisville leaders in warning that the practice of redirecting per-capita and mission funds will diminish support for the denomination’s missionaries.
“That is not necessarily the case,” says Peggy Hedden, Chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. “Re-directed offerings could vastly increase support for the missionaries if congregations decide to designate their gifts for such purposes.”
The Presbyterian News Service and Presbyterians for Renewal have alleged that the Lay Committee has called for “withholding,” a word that does not appear in its “Declaration of Conscience.”
“Our committee consciously chose not to use that word,” says Peggy Hedden. “We do not believe that Christians should withhold the Lord’s money, but we do believe that as good stewards, we should carefully direct that money to ministries that are demonstrably faithful in carrying out the Great Commission.”