Following defeat of their proposed funding plan, the Administrative Committee of the Presbyterian Church in America (AC) now registers its concern about future financing in their report to GA. The report indicates that the AC finished this year in the black, as they have seven of the last twelve years

However, the report notes:

Since the enabling BCO amendments that were necessary to put the AC Funding Plan approved by the Thirty-eighth General Assembly into effect have not achieved sufficient votes in the Presbyteries, the AC will need to redouble its development efforts.

Heretofore, the AC has not had a full-time Development staff as several other C&As have. We may have to re-consider that. (305)

The AC notes that it has had trouble remaining in the black and projects that this will only become more difficult in the future:

. . . it is an annual struggle for the AC to end the year in the black, and as the PCA adds more churches the present method of AC funding will become even more difficult. (306)

Two “major ministry” efforts will not be implemented due to lack of funds:

– The rebuilding of the PCA’s AC website has been postponed for several years; it should have been done in 2010 at a cost of approximately $25,000.

– A proposal to prepare a new edition of the Book of Church Order is postponed probably until 2013 due to lack of resources.

In light of this difficulty, it is interesting to note that the AC is proposing a budget that includes an $84,805 increase in spending on byFaith. This is in line with the suggestion in byFaith’s report to the AC committee. They suggested, “Shouldn’t we invest more in a denominational magazine?” (320).

ByFaith was already a significant cost to the AC. Now four Presbyteries have called for its defunding (in four of the 15 Overtures so far to the 39th GA). Instead, the AC proposes increasing its budget by 26%.

These matters will all likely come under consideration in the Cooperative Ministries Committee’s funding plan subcommittee. They will also be considering several funding plans proposed by the presbyteries. Two of these plans (proposed by four presbyteries) would eliminate byFaith from the budget of the AC. We will have more on the details of these items in the days to come.

Wes White is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He is currently serving as the Pastor of New Covenant Spearfish Presbyterian Church, Spearfish, South Dakota. This article originally appeared on his web site

http://weswhite.net and is used with permission.