Cleveland, TN–The Church of God International Executive Council gathered for their quarterly meeting and released a report on their deliberations and actions. In addition, a full report from the Executive Committee to the Executive Council was presented which contains details and statistics on where the Church of God departments and ministries have taken action regarding personnel and ministry reductions.
Two days preceding the International Executive Council (IEC) session, the International Council met September 20 and 21, and then held a joint session with the IEC on September 22. The agenda included eleven items:
1. That each field area process their own appli¬cations and grant the first level of ministerial cre-dentialing rank of exhorter. Ordained and Bishops would continue to be processed through the International Offices.
2. That women be eligible for ordained bishop.
3. That the ordained bishop name be eliminated.
4. That the International General Assembly be conducted every four years.
5. Recommendation of an amendment to the Minutes that women be allowed to serve on the Church and Pastor’s Council.
6. That any appeal of the decision of a trial board must be presented first to the next level of administration. An appeal to the general overseer is only offered as the last stage of appeal.
7. Recommendation to develop a more accurate reporting system for Church of God credentialed educators. The format currently used does not adequately detail the ministerial activities of educators.
8. Recommendation to change the name Field Director to International Area Administrative Bishop.
9. Recommendation to include the position of Field Directors in the general structure of the Church of God Minutes.
10. That national overseers have unlimited tenure, except in countries where a tenure has been agreed in their constitution. Further, that ministers vote every two years. Two-thirds of ministers must vote.
11. That a representative, creative team be appointed by the general overseer to study and make possible proposals regarding a global initiative for World Missions for the 21st century.
Four items were sent to the Executive Council from the International Council. They were:
1. Ministerial Credential—That women be eligible for ordained bishop.
2. International General Assembly—That the International General Assembly be conducted every four years.
3. Church and Pastor’s Council—That women be eligible to serve on the Church and Pastors’ Council.
4. Ministerial Discipline—That any appeal of a decision of a trial board must be presented first to the next level of administration. An appeal to the general overseer is only offered as the last stage of appeal.
The IEC meeting was positive and focused on creative ways to deal with the downturn in the economy and how it is impacting local churches and the international offices. In addition to discussing upcoming events, a major portion of the time involved the report of committees:
1. Association of Affiliated Churches. This committee will continue their work and prepare a recommendation to the General Council.
2. Pastoral Reviews System. This requires additional evaluation and study.
3. General Council Agenda. Items are still being studied. The agenda will be finalized in the next two Executive Council meetings.
4. Study of Bylaws and Structure of the Church. The report contained items being considered as it relates to finances, personnel, and organizational structure.
The following is the report presented by the Executive Committee to the Executive Council:
Introduction
After the 72nd International General Assembly, we, the newly elected members of the International Executive Committee, immediately began to tackle the tremendous challenges facing the Church of God. Among those challenges were the economic realities of a recession in the United States and a corresponding decrease of receipts at the International Offices. On December 1, 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States had officially entered a recession beginning in December 2007. A variety of factors contributed to this economic prognosis, including the subprime mortgage crisis, rising unemployment, a general downturn in economic growth, and the precarious state of major financial institutions such as Fannie Mae and AIG.
The International Offices, like the state/regional offices and local churches, have been adversely affected by this recession. In fiscal year 2006-2007 the International Offices received $26 million in tithe fund income. In 2007-2008 this figure dropped to $25.6 million. This past budget year (2008-2009), the accumulative total tithe receipts dropped to $24.6 million, a shortfall of nearly $400,000 in the budget approved by the Executive Council for 2008-2009. In anticipation of the possibility of further decreases in income receipts, the Executive Committee proposed a budget of $23 million for the 2009-2010 budget year.
In addition to the decrease in receipts, in April 2009 the Committee of Action on the Reallocation of Resources adopted a measure reducing the current 7.5% tithes and World Missions offering coming to the International Offices to 5% over a 5-year period beginning in September 2010 and that a portion of the tithe fund receipts would be used to offset the reduction in World Missions receipts.
At the end of the 5-year period 25% of the tithe fund receipts are to be designated for World Missions. Based on a budget of $23 million in tithe fund receipts, this amount would be $5,750,000. So, the Executive Committee is faced with cutting, in addition to the cuts already made and the reduction in tithe fund receipts, a total of nearly $6 million in operational costs over the next 5 years (beginning in September 2010).
In its January 2009 meeting, the Executive Council gave the Executive Committee the following authorization:
That we authorize the International Executive Committee to make any and every managerial decision required for the church at this time including finances, structure, personnel, property and capital assets permitted within the parameters of the International General Assembly Minutes.
With this authorization, the members of the Executive Committee have been proactive in facing this challenge and the following actions have already been taken:
•Conducted an in-depth analysis of the personnel of the International Offices, including salary and benefits and their significance to the mission of the church.
•Gave no cost of living increases for any personnel in 2008-2009. (Note: Administrative personnel have not received a COLA for 3 years.)
•Reduced departmental appropriations from the tithe fund by 20% ($2,885,365).
•Combined the ministries of Ministry to the Military, Romanian Territory and Cross-Cultural Ministries into one office.
•Placed non-contiguous church properties on the market for sale (possible net gain of $1.2-1.5 million).
•Reduced the line of credit obligations at BB&T from $8.4 to $6.6 million.
•Achieved $972,523 in total salary savings (departmental, tithe fund and general evangelism funds) since the 2008 General Assembly, through termination, reassignment or retirement. Included in this total are the following:
– Reduced the supplement to National and International Evangelists ($77,336).
Report on National & International Evangelists Appropriation
Year Amount Decrease
2007 342,578
2008 341,969 (609)
2009 113,336 (228,633)
2010 36,000 (77,336)
Total Reduction (306,578)
– Reduced Security and Housekeeping Costs ($69,128)
– Reduced Receptionist Costs ($27,226)
– Restructured the General Assembly, separating Teen Talent and its associated costs, and shortening the total number of services by two (a projected savings of nearly $300,000).
– Recommended a moratorium on loan underwriting to the Executive Council.
In spite of these budgetary adjustments, our ministries and fulfillment of the mission have continued. The prayer Initiative has been received overwhelmingly by local churches. Over 16,000 study guides have been sold, and nearly 3,900 kits have gone out to our churches. The spiritual impact of this initiative can be seen in the number of conversions (297,907) in the USA and Canada since the General Assembly.
Each division of the church has been affected by these readjustments. The following summarizes the actions taken by each division:
Division of World Evangelization
The Division of World Evangelization recognizes its role in shouldering responsibility, being creative and implementing a partnership strategy that results in Kingdom advancement and greater denominational effectiveness. The radical change in the social, financial, political and religious climate of recent years present the church with the marvelous opportunity to evaluate itself, focus its resources and realign its efforts toward making its greatest impact in the least amount of time.
The Church of God has a rich history of impacting the world harvest. Historically, God has used the church in the United States in a great way to largely fund, resource and provide manpower to the mission areas throughout the world. We have been blessed as a denomination because of a strong commitment to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. As a movement, we must never stop in our efforts to evangelize the world.
America has 235 million lost persons and is considered to be the third largest mission field in the world. Only 17% of Americans attend church and 15% of those who regularly attend say that God is the top priority in life. Half of all churches in America did not add a single member by conversion last year. Membership in Protestant churches declined 10% in the past 10 years. Bottom Line: Christianity is not growing in America.
(*Statistics used above are provided from Barrna Research.)
The astronomical growth in various cross-cultural communities as well as the continual explosion of immigration to the United States testify that America is now a “nation of nations.” By the year 2020 there will be 334 million people in this country and many of them will have come from far away regions of the world. Almost 43 million of our citizens are part of the Hispanic community. Three and one-half million people in the US are from China and over 2 million are from India. The total Asian population is now over 15 million.
While the church continues to reach the world, it is time to ask the hard questions and utilize innovative and even non-traditional strategies to impact the whole world.
– Our finances must be focused on the harvest.
– Our budgets must speak of our mission to reach the lost.
– Our financial reports must testify of our burden to impact both America and the world.
The church must answer the challenges before it and make the necessary adjustments to be healthier, relevant and effective in its own harvest.
With this as a background, the Division of World Evangelization considered the following items as we analyzed our division:
Assessment Criteria for Realignment
1. Added value to the local church
2. Added value to International Offices operations/ministries
3. Future Viability/Vision
4. Personnel Reduction and Attrition
5. Reclassification of Departmental Leadership
6. Consolidation of departments and budgets
The Division of World Evangelization has already made cutbacks in the following areas:
World Missions – Reduced staff 2006-2009
2006 2009
69 employees 58.5 employees
Administrative – 9 Administrative – 8
Field Reps – 13 Field Reps – 10.5
Hourly employees– 48 Hourly employees – 40
Salary Savings – $461,992
Evangelism and Home Missions – Reduced staff
Reassignment/Retirement: Savings – $303,643
Reduction of Supplement to National/International Evangelists – $77,336
We understand that every action will have a reaction and that the greatest answer to all of our challenges is growth at every level. However, as we grow out of a problem, we emphasize that this is our opportunity to take advantage of challenges to adjust, realign and retool for greater effectiveness. We believe the above are steps in the right direction.
Division of Education
When it comes to mission fulfillment, few ministry initiatives are more critical than training and forming a people ready for works of service. This is especially true if the Church of God seeks to effectively proclaim a Biblically rooted, historically informed and culturally aware Gospel that will reach a 21st century, postmodern mind.
As has been stated earlier, the United States is a mission field. Philosophy has shifted to the existential, education to the skeptical, art to the sensual and man to the transcendental, believing that he is his own god, with no need of redemption. It is an America that is biblically illiterate, schooled by secular education and pop culture to believe there are no absolutes. The need for colleges and seminaries that present a Christian worldview and trains its ministers in the faith has never been greater. For this reason the Church of God is committed to education, not as a tool to segregate the degreed from the non-degreed, nor as an instrument of idolatry to replace the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We believe in education because education is part and parcel of the Great Commission. Whether formal or informal, intentional or incidental, education is the call of 2Timothy 2:2, “And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also”.
With 108 post-secondary institutions and the responsibility of bringing “in context” leadership training to ministers seeking enrichment the International Executive Council decided to unite all educational initiatives into one division, thus creating the Division of Education. Consolidating with Ministerial Development in 2004 the purpose of the Division is now two-fold: (1) To provide ecclesiastical oversight of our post-secondary education, and (2) To implement the ministerial development initiatives.
The progress already made in streamlining the education ministry funding is revealed in the following chart:
Chart 1: Reduction in Tithe Fund Appropriation
2004 2009
DOE
$389,359 $283,572
Min. Development
$174, 371 $147, 996
School of Ministry
$655, 753 $224,820
MIP
$0
International Bible College
$50,000 $0
In the present financial environment, the Division of Education has taken the lead in reducing its dependency on the tithe fund. Reductions will continue with the goal of eliminating the need for tithe fund support. The following charts demonstrate the reduction in DOE staffing and tithe fund appropriations since 2004 and the tuition grants to ministers:
CHART 2 – Personnel Reductions (2004-2008)
2004 2008
Division of Education
5 4
Ministerial Development Offices
17 —
School of Ministry Offices
9 —
MD/SOM Offices
— 15
HIM Dallas
9 —
USAHEM
— 3
Total Personnel
40 22
*Reduction in Tithe Fund Appropriation since 2004 – $563,095
Transfer of HIM to Cleveland
2007-2008 2008-2009
Hispanic Educational Ministries
$210,000 $168,000
CHART 3 – DOE Ministerial Grants (Sept. 1999-August 2007)
CIMS Tuition Grants MIP in the US – 3,009 Students (16 CIMS credits @ $60/credit) – $2,888,640
CIMS DLC Enrollment in the US – 2,540 Students (Average 12 CIMS Credits, 50% Grants) – $924,400
CIMS DLC International Enrollment – 5,580 Students (Average 8 CIMS Credits, 100% Grants) – $3,062,400
Total Tuition Grants to Ministers – $6,875,440
As the above charts demonstrate, the Division of Education is committed to the advancement of postsecondary education in the Church of God and to continuing to develop and implement ministerial training programs for ministers seeking credentials with the Church of God and offering continuing education for pastors and laity.
In the future, the Division of Education is looking at these important areas of concern to the Church:
– Encouragement of a culture of lifelong learning by ministers
– International preparation of ministers
– Worldwide use of uniform curriculum (CIMS) for primary ministerial training
– Expansion of CIMS to include specific ministries
– Reduction of tithe-fund dependency.
– Based on IDP growth projections, DOE under present structure could be completely self-funded within 10 years.
The Division of Education is committed to providing the training the Church of God needs using the resources that are available.
Division of Church Ministries
The Division of Church Ministries is tasked with providing resources for worship, evangelism, education, and family ministry in the local church. Our vision is to design and promote multi-faceted ministries that will attract, enlist, train, and empower believers as an all-inclusive spiritual force in this new millennium. Through unified efforts we are attempting to inspire laity, refocus emphasis on the family, offer a variety of worship emphases that appeal to varying preferences and to disciple and mentor a generation of young men and women for national and global outreach.
In today’s world, “growing up” is not what it used to be. The lives of youth today present a wide range of educational, family, employment, and health experiences that depart in major ways from those of youth one or two generations ago. These different experiences can be attributed to the effects of globalization, technological advances, and widespread economic development. There are more youth in the world now than ever before, and they are concentrated in developing countries. Youth spend a longer time in school, begin work at a later age, and get married and have children later than their counterparts did 20 years ago. They are also less likely to live in poverty, unless they are growing up in sub-Saharan Africa, or parts of Eastern Europe or Central Asia. While in many ways the lives of young people are more complex and challenging than ever, in most countries they are also more varied, full of opportunity, and more secure than in the past.
The challenge we face as the Church of God is to continue to present a relevant gospel, a contemporary worship experience and an intentional discipleship program for both the youth and their parents with decreasing resources. God has blessed our divisional ministries.
Since the 2006 International General Assembly, the division has reduced staff by eight:
Total Savings: $413,193
Looking forward, the division is committed to networking with other ministries to avoid duplication of efforts, providing contemporary, relevant resources for discipleship, and employing every media available for evangelism.
Publishing House
With the sale of Pathway Bookstore and extensive restructuring, the Publishing House has also undergone a significant reduction in the number of employees. The following chart shows the net number of employees released and the total salary savings:
Employees Released snd Total Salary Savings:
FY 2007
13 $ 899,565
FY 2008
26 $ 280,697
FY 2009
32 $ 522,163
Totals
71 $1,702,425
These totals reflect 50 full-time employees released and 21 part-time employees—many of whom only worked 2-4 hours per week. These savings do not reflect the cost for temp workers and outsourcing.
In addition, during the same period of time, the overall budget was reduced by $3,365,275.
Division of Care
The Division of Care is a worldwide ministry reaching more than 100 nations around the world; feeding the poor and hungry, clothing the naked, housing the widowed and orphaned and a host of other ministries too numerous to describe. We must not, and will not become satisfied with what we are doing as if it is enough. The Care Division must constantly strive to remain innovative in their approach to becoming even more missional ministry focused.
1. Being missionally focused, in a post-modern world calls for a higher degree of honest and critical dialogue at all levels.
2. State, regional and national offices need to be in a workable partnership with local churches in reaching the needs of special categories of individuals: the handicapped children, the orphaned, the widows, the mentally and emotionally challenged, the dysfunctional, etc.
3. Being missional calls for seeing our role at regional, national and international levels as that of “customer driven” or in our case, existing for one primary reason, assisting the local church. A vast study completed as a project of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, which ended up in a 600 page book called “Ministry in America,” basically called for the church to shift from being “headquarters driven” to “congregationally driven.” This study saw a major gap between what the congregation perceived the needs of the local church to be and the resources being provided by the church headquarters and schools in regard to their needs.
4. This missional vision for care puts a high premium on prevention, not just intervention. It is a church that is pro-active particularly in regard to the training, development and care of clergy and their families.
Having said all of the above, in terms of finance, we need to see money from a missionary-vision perspective, that is, work towards providing good financial funding resources to get the “most bang for the buck” at all levels.
The Smoky Mountain Children’s Home, while no general tithe fund appropriations are given, is impacted by the current economic climate regarding American charities. SMCH continues to grow in its ministries to provide care for approximately 200 children, both on and off campus. Through employment reduction and operational costs, we have made a budget reduction of $438,000.
CARE DIVISION
Income Expense Budget Tithe Appropriation Employees
2006
$809,321 $821,291 $672,168 $445,147 7
2009
$855,871 $858,025 $736,027 $371,376 6
Savings $73,771
CHAPLAINS COMMISSION
Income Expense Budget Tithe Appropriation Employees
2006
$892,166 $886,094 $495,162 $250,162 3ft 7pt
2009
$823,173 $649,339 $532,776 $188,904 3ft 7pt
Savings $61,258
STEWARDSHIP
Income Expense Budget Tithe Appropriation Employees
2006
$470,276 $481,718 $476,895 $284,566 5
2009
$498,494 $498,977 $408,805 $160,824 4
Savings $123,742
Division of Support Services
The Division of Support Services has also participated in the reductions:
Business and Records – Reduced 3 employees through retirement – $107,928
Security and Housekeeping – Reduced staff – $ 69,128
Communications – Reduced staff – $140,000 (3 employees through termination or voluntary resignation and 2 reassigned)
Action Plans
In addition to the adjustments the Executive Committee has already made, the following items are under discussion for additional savings to the tithe fund:
• Proposing a Triennial or Quadrennial General Assembly – The biennial General Assembly costs the Tithe Fund nearly $1 million per year.
• Reallocating the Supplemental Retirement Benefit for Pastors
• Focusing Resources on the Areas of Greater Harvest Potential (Realignment of Mission States, Borderline States and States/Regions)
In summary, the church has achieved the following employee and salary reductions since 2006:
Reductions
2006-07 – 5; 2007-08 – 6; 2008-2009 – 14; 2009-2010 – 10; New Hires – 3; Net Employee reduction – 30
Savings
2006-07 – $76,833 ; 2007-08 – $152,422; 2008-09 – $394,230; 2009-2010 – $578,293; New hires – ($191,211); Net savings in salary – $1,010,567.
Our task is challenging, but our God is sufficient and we are seeking His guidance in our decisions regarding what is best for the Church of God. We will continue to restructure, reallocate our resources, and revitalize our ministries. Our goal is to increase the effectiveness of the Church of God in fulfilling the mission to which God has called us.