If approved by the 222nd General Assembly, the GA per-capita rate will increase by three percent in 2017 and another three percent in 2018.
During Wednesday’s (2/3/16) joint meeting of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) and the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board Executive Committee, both groups approved sending the recommendation — which will raise the per-member apportionment to $7.33 in 2017 and $7.55 in 2018 — to the 2016 GA for approval.
The three percent increase was recommended because “it is clear per capita cannot sustain operations on its own,” said John Wood.
“We can do this. We’re on a pretty sturdy ark as we head into some tough times, and it is going to take all of us,” Wood said.
And while it wasn’t approved by the PMAB and COGA, Wood’s PowerPoint presentation included a slide showing three percent increases in the per-capita apportionments for 2019 and 2020, bringing those totals to $7.78 in 2019 and $8.01 by 2020.
Click on graphic to make it larger. Download pdf of the graphic here.
The slide also showed that COGA is predicting membership losses of 100,000 for both 2015 and 2016.
Membership losses for 2017-2020 are projected to be 75,000 each year.
That is more than the membership losses in both 2014 (-92,433) and 2013 (-89,296).
The plan also calls for a three percent reduction in expenses for each year 2017-2020.
Carmen Fowler LaBerge, President of the Presbyterian Lay Committee observed that “even with a 3 percent reduction of expenses and a 3 percent raise in per capita, year over year losses of more than 90,000 members per year is institutionally unsustainable. To put it into perspective, that’s the equivalent of closing an average of 1,000 PCUSA churches a year.”
Membership and per capita are inversely related. So, as membership declines, per-capita must necessarily rise.
Per-capita is the amount of money — per member — that congregations are asked to pay to the presbytery, synod and General Assembly. The amounts listed here reflect GA per capita only. Individual congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA) are not required to pay per-capita and many do not – withholding or redirecting the funds over theological or financial reasons. Presbyteries, however, are required to submit the full per capita amount allocated to them, even if the churches do not pay their portion. This has caused a financial strain for many presbyteries in the denomination.
Concern was expressed over the proposed recommendation.
“This won’t play well in the presbyteries,” said one member of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board.
Another made the comment that her presbytery is facing “financial shortfalls. … We discussed all our options and we found that our presbyters chose to pay for the services that they valued.”
She said that she appreciated the recommendation because it gave the PCUSA a way forward “so we don’t collapse before we get into what the future holds.”
23 Comments. Leave new
It appears that the membership loss in percentage will exceed the proposed percentage increase in per capital, so there will still be less money to support the denomination. Some further reductions in the budget still appear to be in order.
Perhaps it is time to consider merging presbyteries and synods to reduce administrative costs.
I’d be interested in hearing why they think net numerical losses will slow down after 2016. There are no factors I am aware of on which to base that scenario. Nothing in the demographic factors point to anything but collapse.
“Membership losses for 2017-2020 are projected to be 75,000 each year.”
Someone is louisville is drinking way too much Kentucky bourbon, or then maybe not enough……..
Maybe they figure that most of the churches that are leaving for ECO (or EPC) will have done so by 2017, so they’d be back to just normal attrition. Certainly the exodus to ECO affects the numbers for 2013-2015.
I thought that at first but all of the other demographic factors point to a rapidly graying denomination: infant baptisms dropping every year. Adult baptisms likewise are dropping at the same rate so there really is no “attractional” growth. I am aware of no available data but suspect many of the departing groups have younger mean age membership and higher than average number of infant baptisms. If the remaining congregations are in fact “grayer” than average the rate of loss of membership by death would be expected to rise.
On a percentage basis that is similar to what we’ve seen the last three years.
All this is is rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship, it’s a complete joke. They need to consolidate the presbyteries, get rid of the synods entirely, and put the louisville building on the market, and quite acting like this is a real Church, when people are bailing right and left.
If this were a business, there would be a wholesale restructing taking place. Until the lousiville sluggers understand that it was their decisions that have created this mess, raising the per-capita WILL NOT change anything, it will only delay the inevitable
Wow, did you think up that cliche all on your own. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. How original. The Layman has been a proponent of and cheerleader for the exodus of members and churches for years. That is where to vent your anger and fume.
The poor, elderly, disabled, etc. received 0 (zero) increase this year on COLA Social Security. Last year was something like a one percent increase. The national economy, assisted by multi-trillion dollar debt at the national and local level, is increasing about 1.9 percent this year–and that’s being generous. Yet PCUSA sticks us for a three percent increase? Sounds like PCUSA continues to take Cadillac benefits and pensions on the backs of the faithful.
This continual large per capita increase will encourage local congregations to purge their membership list of questionable members, resulting in possible less per capita revenue in the end.
In clarification, the Pension/Health Plan of the PCUSA is a totally separate corporation, with totally separate funding/resource streams, and should not be confused with Per Capita or any other funding source to the corporation know as the PCUSA/OGA/Louisville.
As to Per Capita, three takeaways. 1. You can raises per capita any amount one wishes, $8 or $800. Does not mean you are going to be able to collect it.
2. Churches, people need not pay it, Presbyteries are. And that is their problem if they whine and complain, which they will. They need to fix that.
3. It goes to support the operations of all things PCUSA, if you support or love it, pay it and be happy. If not, not. I have said many times. If Liberals feel that greater taxation and assessments leads to better outcomes or their own sense of happiness and utopia, then liberals must support other liberal organizations, well, liberally. And silence their angst why so many other do not rally to their causes.
You own the process and the system, and the outcomes, support it as needed. But your hand ends at my wallet.
I just relooked and noticed something that didn’t hit me before. The bottom line of the table is Net Unrestricted Funds at year end. Look at the trend. If these numbers are realistic it appears that 2021 would be the crash & burn year.
It is rather stunning that the COGA slide estimating per capita needs through 2020 predicts a net membership loss between 2015 and 2020 of 500,000. That’s a 30% decline in church membership from the most recent recorded statistics of 2014. And yet this doesn’t seem to be raising any alarm bells for the denomination other than the need to inflate per capita amounts?
The behavior of the leaders of the PCUSA is perfectly consistent with that of people whose primary desire is to shrink a large and diverse group into a smaller and more ideologically pure group, while at the same time retaining as far as possible the capital and financial assets of the original larger group.
If this is true, and I believe it is, then the projected massive loss of members that you highlight is not an unintended by-product of the current turmoil, but a primary objective, as is the plundering of the assets of departing congregations. The goal here is the creation of a smaller, richer and more ideologically radical organization.
Those on the increasingly dominant radical left wing of the PCUSA do not fear or regret the loss of congregations or members, they rather welcome it.
Look what a couple of unbiblical stands does to a denomination.
There have been more than just “a couple of unbiblical stands”. The PC(USA) and its predecessor denominations have been taking “unbiblical stands” since the late 1920s, when the PCUSA rescinded the Deliverance of 1910 (reaffirmed in 1916 & 1923), which sought to safeguard the fundamental Christian doctrines of the Inerrancy of Scripture, the Virgin Birth of Christ, the Substitutionary Atonement, the Historical and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the historicity of miracles.
A 3% increase that keeps pace with inflation? Shocking! Actually it isn’t shocking at all, except to the folks here, apparently.
Also, it is very strange for a group of people who have consistently advocated for people to leave the denomination to then complain when the per capita of those who have left needs to be replaced. What exactly did you think was going to be the result? How could this be at all surprising to anyone who has been paying attention?
3% is large?
Are you aware that per capita for 2016 is $7.12, so we’re talking a $0.21 increase?
Are you aware that this is actually less than the 5% that the 2014 general assembly approved for 2015 and 2016?
And as you say, this could encourage local congregations to save money by being more responsible with their membership rolls.
The 3% increase well exceeds the rate of inflation which was 0.12% in 2015, 1.62% in 2014, and 1.47% in 2013.
It’s hard to miss the subtext of how gleefully the Layman reports on the steady decline in PCUSA membership. Interestingly the PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK rarely dwells on this sad fact.
This strategy is akin to a commercial business raising (or lowering) its prices because their product isn’t selling well – it is what is known as the pricing death spiral. The solution is always two-fold: 1. Improve the product (insert biblical fidelity here for PC(USA)), and 2. Reduce G&A costs (insert GA and and Presbytery infrastructure) to reflect the existing level of sales. I’d include pray, but that would be inconsistent with denomination’s desire to be a political organization rather than a church.
Or, you could wonder why the Presbyterian Outlook and the PCUSA rarely examine why individuals and entire congregations are leaving the denomination. Or what it means for an organization of 1.5 million to lose 75,000 members a year with no leveling off in sight. Or why they continue to attack (and steal from) critics rather than address their concerns. That quote about ‘insanity is repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different outcome’ is appropriate in this context.
Membership losses via Congregations leaving the PCUSA will grind to a halt in 2017, as many Presbyteries are already closing the “gracious dismissal’ door. Individuals will leave on foot or via the Pearly Gates in increasing numbers, with few replacements coming in the front door. That isn’t the fault of the EPC, PCA, or ECO, although the PCUSA continues to be in thrall to that delusion. The soon-to-be 1 million member PCUSA will still be sitting on a rather large Foundation, and their Lawyers will attempt to unlock the various restrictions on those funds. Too bad departing Congregations weren’t entitled to a portion of THOSE assets.