Administrative Committee Implements Budget Cuts as Church Giving Decreases
The Administrative Committee’s (AC) written report to the General Assembly highlighted the effect the economic crisis has had on churches and on the denomination as a whole.
“With the economic downturn, giving to most PCA churches is flat or declining … [and] church giving to General Assembly agencies and committees has declined,” the report said. “In order to reduce expenditures, the Administrative Committee/Office of the Stated Clerk (AC/SC) has reduced the 2009 budget by 17%, reduced salaries, reduced the number of staff, and instituted a hiring freeze.”
The report continued, “The Administrative Committee has the responsibility of evaluating and making recommendations to the General Assembly regarding the annual budgets of GA committees and agencies. The Assembly should note that the majority of committee and agency budgets for 2010 are less than their approved budgets for 2009.”
Over the coming year, the AC is seeking to educate churches throughout the PCA about the way it is funded and the importance of doing so to continue providing ministry support.
“One of the unique features of the PCA is that funding of support services (AC/SC) is a separate funding request to churches. We do not know of any other denomination that operates in that way,” the report stated. “For some, ‘administration’ is unspiritual, which makes our ministry ask more challenging … about half of the churches in the PCA do not contribute to the AC/SC and many do not give anything to the General Assembly ministry.”
The Administrative Committee handles logistical, administrative, ecclesiastical, and legal aspects of the PCA as a denomination, operates the PCA office building, handles logistics for the annual meeting of the General Assembly, and serves churches and ministers through a placement ministry.
Today, the Assembly learned of the AC’s intent to inform churches, presbyteries, and individuals of the supportive nature of its services; to make personal contacts; to promote percentage giving to the AC/SC; and to work with CE&P in promoting the 2009 Women in the Church Love Gift, which will go to the Administrative Committee.
Other AC updates were as follows:
1. Three future General Assemblies were announced: 2010 in Nashville (hosted by the Nashville Presbytery); 2011 in Virginia Beach (hosted by the James River Presbytery); and 2012 in Louisville (hosted by the Ohio Valley Presbytery).
2. ByFaith, the online and print magazine of the PCA, announced a steady increase in readers over the past several years. Some 7,000 people now subscribe to the quarterly print magazine (with pass-along readership, that averages 18,000 readers per quarter) and 11,000 unique visitors log into the website each month, reaching an average of 50,000 people per quarter.
“We’re continuing to enhance our online presence with three e-newsletters per month,” said Richard Doster, editor of byFaith. “We’ve also launched a new podcast gathering well-known respected leaders to discuss tough issues like deaconesses, generational conflict, and differing ministry perspectives.”
3. The PCA Historical Center, tasked with preserving church records for future generations, reported nearly 9,000 unique visitors to its website each month over the past year. Additionally, the total annual bandwidth consumption—a measure of data transferred—showed an increase of 19.5% over the previous year.
If you’d like to download stated clerk Roy Taylor’s presentation to the Assembly, please click here.
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Mike Anderson
North Carolina
Your discipline and discernment are an example of the ordinary working of our God in His church.