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| Tuesday, June 24, 2008 |
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GA asked to approve a baseline budget process
Church of God Ministries, Church of God - General
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By David Farlow and Dewayne Repass
 The General Assembly received a series of reports on Tuesday about the World Ministries Budget. S. Jeffrey Perkins, chair of the General Assembly budget task force charged with examining the issues relating to the shortfall in giving, presented a written and verbal report on the findings. The report was frank and to the point, noting that part of the shortfall in the budget were due to the fact that only 64 percent of our congregations gave in support of the GA budget in 2007. He likened the situation to a sports team with only two-thirds of the players actually participating in the game “You can’t win that way,” said an impassioned Perkins.
Doug Shearer and Dewayne Repass, of Church of God Ministries, then provided a historical review of giving trends, highlighting a multiyear decline in giving to the Basic Budget. Ronald Duncan, general director of Church of God Ministries, told members that budget projections must be based upon the reality of income. The decrease in giving to the 2007 necessitated cutting budget for ministry and support programs by 10 percent to remain within income.
To address the challenges, a new baseline budget process was introduced to the Assembly by Dewayne Repass, chief development officer at Church of God Ministries. He informed the delegates that “what they would hear today would be different from anything they had ever heard before in budget presentations.” Instead of approving a budget total, Repass called on the Assembly to approve a new budget process.
Repass explained that the new approach to the Assembly’s budgeting process would be built on a baseline concept, which would allow greater flexibility to align budgets to actual giving levels. The concept means that the previously approved 2008 budget would be reduced by 10 percent to reflect actual giving trends. This reduced budget would then become the baseline for the budget in 2009 and 2010. The new baseline process would not affect the Donor Restricted Budget.
While operating on the proposed baseline budgets, the general director and his staff will facilitate a financial analysis session annually in November. Results from the analysis may necessitate adjustment of the Baseline Budget.
GA members gathered in small prayer groups, uniting in faith to seek God’s guidance, wisdom, and strength to address the financial needs that provide for ministries so vital to accomplishing the vision and mission of the church.
A version of this article appears in the Wednesday, June 25, 2008, edition of the NAC roundup/08 newsletter. To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here (1.98 MB). The document is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat in order to read and/or print it. If you do not have Acrobat installed on your computer, you can download a free copy of Acrobat Reader here.
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