Presbytery diverts mission money to pay per capita
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, November 19, 2003
The Presbytery of Heartland, which includes 110 congregations in Kansas and Missouri, has voted to divert $50,000 that was designated for missions to cover a shortfall in collecting per-capita apportionments that underwrite the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The sessions of several congregations in the presbytery have decided to redirect or escrow their per-capita payments as a means of expressing their dissatisfaction with decisions and actions of the national governing body and the General Assembly Council that is charged with carrying out its decrees.
In defense of diverting money from missions to denominational support, presbytery leaders declared that they were compelled by church law to remit the full amount – $5.44 per church member for 2003, even though it meant dipping into mission funds.
There is no such requirement. The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, has twice ruled that sessions cannot be coerced into paying per capita or punished if they fail to pay it.
In an authoritative constitutional interpretation, the 1999 General Assembly said, “If churches refuse to pay their portion, … the presbytery [has] the responsibility to pay the full amount irrespective to the specific collection from churches, as long as funds are available within the presbytery.”
The Rev. Kirk Johnston, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Paola, Kans., one of the congregations that is redirecting its per-capita apportionment, was among the commissioners who opposed diverting mission money to pay the denomination’s bills. He argued that those funds were raised for mission alone.
Johnston said it was legal “to send what you can and not send what you can’t” and that mission money should not be diverted. Johnston pointed out to the presbytery that the denomination has written off as uncollectible more than $206,000 that 42 presbyteries failed to collect from local congregations in 2002. Furthermore, there was no effort by the denomination to use the church courts to compel presbyteries to remit the full amount.
Nonetheless, presbytery leaders prevailed, with a voice vote on Nov. 18 supporting their call to divert mission money to the denomination.
“They have chosen, rather than do local and national missions, instead to fund the institution while silencing the legal protests of churches grieved by a substantial lack of fidelity to Christ in General Assembly missions,” Johnston told The Layman Online.
Johnston is among a number of presbytery members who believe the presbytery has overstepped its authority by punishing congregations that do not remit their full per capita. The presbytery has a policy that prohibits presbytery approval for loans that would allow congregations to expand or renovate their property.
In what one of its ministers termed “short-sighted,” the presbytery voted in September to reaffirm its policy of punishing congregations that don’t remit their full per-capita apportionments or meet other presbytery requirements.
But the Sept. 15 presbytery vote to rescind the policy showed a dramatic shift. In June, Heartland commissioners voted 102-76 (a 57.3 percent margin) to adopt the policy. At the September meeting, the vote was 92 to 58 (61.3 percent) to rescind it.
However, the vote on rescission required two-thirds approval, while the June vote required only a simple majority.
Tom Sparks, pastor of the 1,300-member Presbyterian Church of Stanley, one of the largest congregations in the presbytery, made the motion to rescind the policy.
“I think their action is short-sighted,” Sparks told The Layman Online after the Sept. 15 vote.
At the end of the presbytery meeting, Sparks joined a complaint, filed on Sept. 5 by Johnston. The complaint asks the synod court to declare that the presbytery policy is unconstitutional.
With its commitment to missions diluted by the diversion of money to pay the per capita, the Heartland Presbytery has sent out a fundraising letter. That letter asked congregations to increase their mission giving.