Come 2017, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board can no longer spend more money than it has. That was the news given to the PMAB’s executive committee by Earline Williams, deputy executive director of Shared Services and chief financial officer.
By 2017, the PMA’s reserve funds – called the Presbyterian Mission Program Fund (PMPF) – will be depleted so there will be no more balancing the agency’s spending by dipping into the reserves.
Williams, PMA co-manager along with Barry Creech until the new interim executive director Tony De La Rosa begins work on Dec. 1, spoke of the upcoming “financial cliff” the PMAB is facing.
“We are going to have to make hard decisions,” she said, “because we will no longer have unrestricted reserves.”
Williams told the executive committee that as the PMAB and staff work on the 2017-2018 mission work plan – or budget – that it “must create the road map to live into our financial reality. We cannot spend more than we receive … unless someone writes a big check.”
PMAB Chair Marilyn Gamm asked Williams to clarify “will we have to start cutting [programs and staff] in 2016?”
The answer is yes. The PMAB’s 2017-2018 budget must be approved by the 2016 General Assembly which meets in June. Therefore, the budget must be approved by the PMAB’s April meeting. That budget is expected to include program cuts and possible PCUSA staff layoffs.
During its meeting, the PMAB participated in a prioritization exercise, where m embers of the board were given a list of 24 programs or services that are underfunded. They were asked to allocate 100 priority points between the programs based on their answer to the questions:
- “What are the programs that the PCUSA should prioritize in the coming 3 years, even if there are no restricted funds or program fees to pay for them?
- “What is needed for the PCUSA that no one else but the PMA can do?
- “If a particular program went away, who would notice?”
In addition to the priorities exercise, the PMAB will also conduct feedback sessions with constituent groups, conduct a telephone survey and participate in a church-wide discussion coordinated by the Office of the General Assembly.
Questions for the feedback session will include:
- What does it mean to be a connectional church?
- Why does the church need national church offices?
- What are the crucial issues facing our culture, and how has the Mission Agency been helpful to PCUSA congregations in addressing those issues?
- How does the Mission Agency currently help congregations do ministry that they cannot do themselves?
When people in the U.S. culture hear the term “fiscal cliff” they associate it with the reality where government spending exceeds revenues. The term is used here in reference to the same reality being faced by the PMA of the PCUSA.
In other financial news, the PMAB revised the 2016 budget from $78,027,204 to $77,499,036. The revised budget restored $549,164 to PMPF.
Related financial reports:
Presbyterian Mission Agency Mission Management report as of August 31, 2015
Presbyterian Mission Program Fund Report as of August 31, 2015
20 Comments. Leave new
I have a novel idea: What if the PMA were to forsake all of its current programs and focus on giving unbelievers compelling reasons as to (1) why they absolutely need Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior, (2) how the local PC(USA) congregation can help them (as new believers) grow in their faith, and (3) how the PMA can be a vehicle to send them (as mature believers in Christ) to unreached people groups to proclaim the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone?
Of course, it won’t happen, because the PMA is dead-set on “social justice” issues that have absolutely nothing to do with bringing unbelievers to faith in Jesus Christ. Besides, they can’t give someone something that they don’t have in the first place.
Then the witness of the church to the world would be diminished, we would be all proclamation and no active action based witness – words without actions – and poeple would see us for what we are when we abandon proclmation through BOTH word and deed – hypocrites. Many younger folks already see this and have abondoned the evangelical church, many are coming back to the main line exactly because of it’s balanced approach to word and deed as a life of real discipleship in Christ. Read the recent Pew research for yourself…
Visiting widows and orphans in their distress, and advocating justice on their behalf; visiting the sick and imprisoned; ministering to the poor, to provide food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and training in order that they can find gainful employment—this is what the Church of Jesus Christ is called to do, while not neglecting the proclamation of the Gospel. But the proclamation of the Gospel has been neglected in the PC(USA), and justice has been perverted to advocate for same-gender marriage, greater access to abortion providers to kill unwanted unborn children, the violent overthrow of totalitarian governments to replace them with totalitarian socialist governments, and the defamation of Israel. There is no “balanced approach to word and deed as a life of real discipleship in Christ.”
And as far as “many younger folks…abandoning the evangelical church (and) coming back to the mainline”, you will note that you aren’t seeing anyone coming from the unbelieving world into the PC(USA) or other mainline denominations, precisely because evangelism and genuinely Biblical discipleship are neglected.
Loren – your broad sweeping generalizations – painting with this wide brush – are not what I see and experience at all, so am I deluded or crazy? I do not agree with your thesis. Why do you say every person and church in the PCUSA is not doing any real evangelism or discipleship? That is just simply not true. All branches of the Presbyterian tree have areas that are fruitful and some that are not, my thesis is you are seeing only what you want to see and are strongly biased against anything PCUSA – what evidence do you have to prove me wrong?
If you would like evidence of the decline of the PCUSA, I suggest you study the latest official statistics provided by the denomination. They actually provide 2001 through 2014 numbers. Less than 5,000 adult baptisms for the entire denomination should give everyone pause for concern. Other line items should provide the evidence you want, if you are serious.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing……..
“One Voice”,
Where did I say “every person and church in the PCUSA is not doing any real evangelism or discipleship”? And you would accuse me of “broad sweeping generalizations — painting with this wide brush”?
Look around you! Evangelism is not happening in the PC(USA)! Does this mean that absolutely no one in the PC(USA) is doing evangelism? I did not say that. But when the total membership numbers plummet every year for half a century, it’s pretty clear that evangelism is not happening in the PC(USA).
And it’s not really hard to see why. After all, when you have PC(USA) seminary graduates filling PC(USA) who believe that Christianity is just one way out of many to be made right before God, where non-Christian religions are just as valid as Christianity, PC(USA) Presbyterians really have no compelling reason to tell unbelievers why they should become Christians.
Donnie – Quote: “Look around you! Evangelism is not happening in the PC(USA)” – Wrong, I see it all the time, the issue here is probably your definition/understanding of “evangelism” and mine are different – can you see my point of view, I see yours and understand you want more of a focus on strict plain proclamation of sin and the need for a savior, but this is not the only form of proclamation of the good news. Your focus on membership numbers also indicates a mindset of “box ticking” for Christ. I encourage you to broaden your views and be open to new and differnet ideas. If you think it’s your job to “tell others why they should become christians”, instead of showing them in your life and actions what it means to be a disciple, you will not connect with current young people. Look at the research – all forms of organized religious christian denoms are showing “membership” declines in younger demographics. There is some chair shifting going on in some denoms, but overall a “membership” loss in all. Maybe we need to think differntly about how people will affiliate with a church.
Actually, there are great models of young people thronging to mainline worshiping communities. One great example in Kansas City is the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Downtown location. While all other mainline churches keep building mega campuses in the suburbs (including Church of the Resurrection’s Leawood, KS campus), COR now has 3 services every weekend attracting over a thousand people weekly in the midst of Downtown KC – where young people are moving in great numbers. I’m guessing that the average age of the worshipers is 25-30. The church is welcoming and affirming, and moderate to liberal in theology.
Social justice has come to mean calling on the government to enact liberal policies. It rarely means getting our hands dirty doing the work our neighbors need. Imagine if Mother Teresa had spent her time lobbying governments on behalf of a political party instead of tending to the destitute on the streets of Calcutta. Which is a greater act of witness?
“One Voice”,
Please address me as Mr. Golden; my name is not Donnie.
I do not, nor did I not, suggest for one moment that one’s lifestyle and actions are not required to be consistent with one’s rhetoric. Please do not suggest that I have such a shallow understanding of evangelism.
But let me challenge you to broaden your horizons of what evangelism means. Is your life so compellingly different from unbelievers around you that all with whom you come into contact are irresistibly drawn to you and beg you to tell them the reason for the hope that lies within you? If not, then perhaps you might, as a former pastor of mine once said, “Put in a good word for Jesus.”
Do you tell those around you, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3.23) and, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6.23)? Do you tell them, “For it is by grace that you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the free gift of God, not of works that no one should boast; for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2.8-10)? Do you tell them, “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2.16)? Do you tell them that Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14.6)? If you do not tell them these things, how will they know, in order that they might put their faith in Him alone for their salvation and thus be saved from the penalty, power, and presence of sin?
Loren – I think where I struggle with your words is tone and emphasis, you emphasize too much “telling” not enough listening and just standing with those who are curious about why your life seems different. My experiences indicate your type of “altar call” evangalism may be doing more harm than good in some demographic slices and geographic areas – may have a place in some cultures, but not all for sure. Interesting in my church we have a lot of “other participants” that are more engaged and active than many “active members” – I think there is some change going on and your sarcastic initial observation of your post here, that PMA/PCUSA is not doing anything right, smells of sour grapes or some other agenda?
Evidence for this first sentence? The people I interact with who have a heart for social (or any kind) of justice are very engaged on the ground and in the arena of public discourse. Both are OK, but as with all things, balance is needed – is that what you are trying to say?
“One Voice”,
It truly amazes me how much you attribute to my “type of evangelism” things that I never said. Where, in all that I have written, did I ever refer to leaving evangelism to professional preachers who issue an “altar call”? What makes you think that I believe that evangelism is not best done on an individual, one-on-one environment, where the Christian gets to know the individual(s) he or she is introducing to Christ to best address concerts that said individual(s) might raise?
And by the way, why do you not use your real name? Are you too ashamed to use it, or are you afraid that someone here might cyberstalk you?
Loren – you do not seem able to have a meaningful discourse, sorry to waste your time. We shall agree to disagree, fair enough?
“And with many other words (Peter) bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2.40-41)
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2.47)
“But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about five thousand.” (Acts 4.4)
“Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” (Acts 5.12-14)
“And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” (Acts 5.42)
“And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6.7)
1965 combined UPCUSA + PCUS membership = 4,254,597
1983 PC(USA) membership = 3,131,228
2000 PC(USA) membership = 2,525,330
2014 PC(USA) membership = 1,667,767
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that has lost its trust in the reliability of the Word of God, and which will not receive its correction.
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that has compromised itself to the ways of this fallen, sin-sick world.
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that holds error on par with truth.
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that “will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears (has) accumulated for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and (has) turned away from listening to the truth and wandered off into myths.” (II Tim. 4.3-4)
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that has lost its heart to seek and save the lost.
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that cares more for the monetary value of departing congregations’ property than it does for those congregations’ members.
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that uses its members’ financial contribution to advocate for actions that the Word of God calls sin.
When I look at the Presbyterian Church (USA), I see a church that has fallen far from “the light of the world,” it was called to be, the “city set on a hill (that) cannot be hidden.” (Mt. 5.14)
Numbers, to be sure, do not always tell the whole story. A congregation might faithfully preach the Word in season and out, faithfully tell its friends and neighbors of the love of Jesus Christ, faithfully serve its community in caring for its widows and orphans, its indigents and felons, its visitors and its sick and dying—and still lose members. It might be placed in a rural town or a part of a city where men and women are moving out and not in. Or it could do none of these things and still gain members—for a time. But when a denomination puts more faith in being relevant to the younger generation than it does in being faithful to the Word of God, it loses Someone far more indispensable to its long-term health than the members it has gained or lost. “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” (Ps. 127.1)
OK – it’s clear what you see and think Loren, what are you doing about it, except posting scripture verses on the Layman? Your words of judgement and condemnation toward the PCUSA here come across as mean spirited and nasty – do you realize that? What are you personally doing to make the PCUSA a better place? You realize the PCUSA is not a “thing” it’s made up of the real people out there in all the congregations – right? People don’t want to hear your judgmental preaching, they want to see your love for them and your care, how can you show that in this communication space? What you are doing now is not working, hope you can hear that message.
“What are you doing about it, except posting scripture verses on the Layman?”
Praying and proclaiming the Word, because there is nothing else I can do, inasmuch as the problems plaguing the denomination are far more grave that any person can solve. The PC(USA) must repent of its worldliness, and I don’t have the ability to grant that—only God can.
“Your words of judgement and condemnation toward the PCUSA here come across as mean spirited and nasty.”
How have I judged or condemned the PC(USA)? What judgment have I spoken against it? What have I condemned it to? I point these things out in order that those in the PC(USA) might see the error of their ways and turn to Jesus Christ for repentance, lest He judge and condemn them for their sins.
“You realize the PCUSA is not a ‘thing’ it’s made up of the real people out there in all the congregations.”
“The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Gen. 8.21) “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17.9) And the picture Paul paints of fallen humanity in Rom. 3.9-18 is downright bleak. All men and women are born with a natural bent toward sin, and collectively they cannot be otherwise. The Church of Jesus Christ is called with a higher calling: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afflication, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (Jas. 1.17) But the PC(USA) is rather currying the world’s favor in the manner I outlined above. Yes, the PC(USA) is composed of people—men, women, and children. But all people, individually and collectively, are called to repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ for healing and forgiveness. “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Rom. 2.4)
“People don’t want to hear your judgmental preaching, they want to see your love for them and your care.”
And neither do people who go to a doctor’s office want to hear him say that they have a terminal illness; they want him to tell them that the pain they are experiencing will subside in a few days and will not return. But if he does not tell them the truth, how would he be showing them love and care? Jeremiah was called the “weeping prophet” because of the tears he wept over all the judgments he foresaw in his prophecies that would come on Ancient Judah because of the multitude of its sins. Likewise the Lord Jesus wept over the cities in which He had done many of His mighty works because of their hardened hearts and lack of repentance (Mt. 11.20-24).
The Bible is unmistakably clear: God will judge humanity for its sins (Mt. 25.31-46, Rev. 20.11-15), and judgment will “begin at the household of God” (I Pet. 4.17). And those who falsely preach in His name and cause others to sin will be judged all the more harshly for it (Mt. 18.6, Jas. 3.1, Rev. 20.10). But do you think that God delights in the judgment He must pour out? “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? … Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” (Ezek. 18.23,31-32)
So, if my words “come across as mean spirited and nasty”, I apologize, but that is not my intention. My intention is that the PC(USA), and especially her leaders, would see how they have been led astray and are leading others astray, in order that they might repent, turn to the Lord Jesus for healing and forgiveness, that the judgment of the Lord would not come upon them.
Dear Pres- Girl,
The things Loren are saying cannot be said out right in the GA, the Presbytery, to Executives at every level of the PCUSA. Even pastors feel stifled in speaking truth to their Presbyteries in some cases. Going through discernment at my church there was NO debate, each member got up and said their ideas then sat down. Both sides gave their views in written form and panel without emotional undertones.
Thie Layman offers a place to voice the angst people feel.
One thing I see is that there is a lot of anger on both sides: the ones who are mad at Leaders and GA and the ones who are in disbelief that people and churches are leaving and rejecting the Big Tent theology.
I think Loren gave facts…..the facts are in themselves a judgment..
Going forward, it is time to let go of anger and ask “where does God want Me and you to serve Him in this troubled world!” See 1 Corinthians 12:18. “But God has set the members, each one of them, in the Body just as He pleased.”
Move into that place, not out of anger, but out of a call from God to speak, act, move out or stay!
It is this inbetween time as God moves us that is a little messy.
So, thank you to the Layman for offering this format, because it is a place to speak out when the PCUSA is no longer willing to hear from people like Loren. It is a way to weigh our thoughts and see more clearly where and what God is calling us to.
Amen!