Foreword

Acknowledgements

Julie

Visible Problem Indicators

Stewardship

Agents of Change - Issues

Institutional Dynamics

The Institutional and the Local Church

Operative Theology

Prognosis for the Future

Revival - What is Needed?

Closing Remarks

Chapter Three
Stewardship

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" Luke 16:10,11 (NIV)

"At the beginning of last year, I traveled to Jacksonville, Florida to respond to allegations made that our data in "The 1997 Stewardship Report on the United Methodist Church" was "inaccurate and misleading." Mr. John Edgecombe, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who attends Lakewood UMC in that city, wrote an analysis of our information and I had been invited by Dr. Ernest Lott of that church to defend our information. I carried thousands of pages of data that we had used in our analysis and met with the leadership of Lakewood Church. I invited the people to discuss our data with me if they had any problems with its accuracy; there were none. Even though Mr. Edgecombe was sitting in the congregation at the time, he did not say a word to me. The next day at church, I attempted to speak with him; when he saw me, he turned around and walked the other way. I caught up with him, introduced myself, and started to speak with him; he excused himself and walked away. He was willing to criticize our work when none of us were there to defend it; when I was, he would not engage me in discussion. I was eagerly looking forward to discussing with him the accuracy of our information and that of the document he had published to rebut ours: "Apportionments - A Review of the Issues." An open public debate would, and will, reveal what is the truth.

This is a recurring situation in our denomination. We research the data before we disseminate it and invite others to challenge its accuracy - with a willingness to correct de facto errors. Instead, what we find is that some people will make allegations in our absence of its being "inaccurate and misleading" but then are unable to back up their claim - like a mantra that is repeated without thinking."
- Allen O. Morris, Executive Director, Concerned Methodists, MBA

Believing that an informed, aware membership is vital to the renewal of our denomination, we present information on the expenditure of church funds. This is by no means comprehensive, but provides a means of showing what the real priorities are of our denomination's employees. The adage "follow the money" holds true in giving a reliable indicator of what one - be it individual or institution - deems important. Giving money is an affirmation of the program or body which uses it. For instance, one former executive with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) attempted to tell the GBGM staff that there was resentment about perceived Board activities. Someone replied, "Well, if they're as upset down there as you say, they wouldn't keep sending us all this money!"(1)

I invite you to examine the "Financial Report on The United Methodist GBGM" in Annex K extracted from the more detailed "1997 Stewardship Report on the United Methodist Church" found on the Concerned Methodists website. You may also review the report by Rev. Ed Ezaki, CPA, who was on the Audit and Review Committee of the General Council on Finance and Administration (Appendix L). Both detail the accumulation of hundreds of millions of dollars in the UMC's general boards and agencies; the GBGM alone has $402,047,203.

After these two reports were published, there were the usual disclaimers that our information was not true, claims were exaggerated, the funds are restricted, etc., but it is interesting to note that the GBGM suddenly discovered $25 million, which it then allocated to "missions" and is using for a variety of purposes. Two questions come to mind: 1. If excess money had not been accumulated, how was it that the GBGM could suddenly make $25 million available for missions? 2. Why couldn't that money have been used to ease the burden that the apportionment poses for many of the local churches?

Since the figures from The 1997 Stewardship Report are based on 1996 statistics (the most recent available at that time), following is an analysis done by The Reverend John Warrener using 1997 data:

General Board of Global Ministries' Financial Mini-Analysis 1997
World Service Apportionment Income $23,520,608
Stock Market and Financial Instrument Income $60,709,471
Total Income $192,989,212
Excess income (profit) $52,309,176
Total Assets $410,759,020
Direct and Indirect Missionary Support $19,221,816

  1. There are 17 years' worth of World Service Apportionment Dollars in Excess Assets!
  2. The Stock Market Income of these Excess Assets earns the equivalent of almost three years of World Service Apportionment Dollars every year!
  3. Excess income (profit) equals more than two years of World Service Apportionment added every year!
  4. If Churches never paid another World Service Apportionment Dollar, the GBGM would continue to have income in excess of its expenses!
  5. Only 10 cents of every income dollar goes to missionaries while 27 cents goes to excess assets (profit)!
- Source: Official Financial Statement of GBGM mini-analysis by John Warrener, MDiv., MBA (Master's Degree in Business Administration)

An additional factor is that money that leaves the church in the form of the apportionment is a drain on sometimes scarce resources at the local level. Look at Village Baptist, Berean Baptist, Northwood Temple, Covenant Love, and other churches in Fayetteville, which are independent or congregational-type churches. They have the resources to buy buses, gas, etc. to go out into the local community.

When people put their money into the offering plate, giving in good faith to what they believe is the Lord's work, their donations are sometimes used inefficiently. In the,book Rekindlng the Flame, Professor William H. Willimon and (the late) Professor Robert L. Wilson stated that benevolent and mission causes received a smaller share of the [UM] funds:...13 percent." [down from 16 percent](2) This indicates that proportionate giving to true mission benevolence is on the decline. To apply this sense of value to our own personal lives, who among us might be satisfied with receiving 13% of the expected value from our purchases in a store? If one were to project that figure to 1996, the estimate would be 10%. In fact, the most recent calculation by Concerned Methodists shows that this figure has dropped to 8.69991%. A related question is "What happens to that other 87%?"

We are constantly told about "worshiping God with our tithes and offerings." Dr. William H. Willimon and the late Dr. Robert L. Wilson have written, "Keeping a steady flow of funds necessary to maintain the institution receives the highest priority. Despite the rhetoric, maintaining and managing the institution are what many officials feel is important." (Rekindling the Flame,* page 63). Since less than full disclosure is provided to the people in the pews and their money is often spent in ways distasteful to them, the problem is exacerbated. In The Faithful Christian, Billy Graham has written, "...when legitimate Christian organizations and churches refuse to be completely open about finances they are conditioning people to accept unquestioningly the contention of the...leader that he is not accountable for his financial dealings." (3) Paying the apportionment is the first benevolent responsibility of the local church, but there is a prior obligation of the hierarchy to exercise responsible leadership so that it will merit the money paid by those same churches. Untruthfulness, withholding information, and diverting of funds constitute a breach of trust and do not reflect good leadership.

The Scripture passage from Luke 16 talks precisely to this issue of financial integrity, saying that if you are dishonest in just a little, you will be dishonest in much. The footnote to The Wesley Study Bible explains verses 10-12 further, "Only those who faithfully use the wealth of this world for God's kingdom will be sufficiently trustworthy to receive the true riches - new life now and a home with God for eternity."(4) Further insight is given through the parable of The Talents and accompanying footnote for Matthew 25:16, 17, 23, "The first two servants were 'good' and 'faithful'..making them responsible for their master's money for his benefit....With God, the basis of reward is not how much we have, but how faithfully we serve."(5)

One example of problematical accountability is an appeal to help retired pastors and wives in poverty made in a brochure entitled "Take Another Look." Mr. Jack Kruppenbach stated in a letter to Bishop Peter Weaver dated June 25, 1997, "The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) and General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (GBPHB) have made frequent references, in their appeals for stewardship, to retired pastors and pastor's wives who are living in poverty." Mr. Kruppenbach has made multiple appeals to the GBPHB as to how this could have happened, with its multi-billion dollar fund. (Currently the agency's total assets have grown to $12.1 billion, as of May 31, 1999 from $11.5 billion on December 31, 1998).(6) In a subsequent letter to an EPC elder, he confirmed his phone conversation with him: "During our discussion, you advised me that the situation never did exist where actual retirees or retirees' spouses underwent those hardships (i.e., 'needing orthopedic shoes or the retired clergy living in poverty in government-subsidized housing'). You indicated that the references should never have been used...because they were only hypothetical parables of good works, when extra funding might be needed. Did I hear you correctly?" The pastor disavowed this conversation, but he is certain that is what was said. Over the space of three years, Mr. Kruppenbach has attempted repeatedly to get the names of the retired pastors and/or spouses so that he, along with others in his area, could provide more immediate help to these "faithful servants"; as of yet, Mr. Kruppenbach has received no names nor other information.

A second example concerns Mission Church in Sierra Leone (Advance Special #00826). The Soddy-Daisy (Tennessee) United Methodist Men (UMM) and lay delegate Sherman Morton provided $7,000 to build a little mission church in Sierra Leone where there was none. Later, the UMM chapter was informed that more money was needed to build the church. Afterwards, they found out that, instead of being used to build the mission church, the money was used at the Moyiba-Kissy Brook Church, the bishop's home church. Subsequent efforts to recover the money failed, despite the services of an attorney.(7) We have heard of multiple instances of this happening across the country.

A Third example involves the first International Youth Conference for Mission (IYCM).(8) On August 10, 1999, the United Methodist Women's Division sponsored a missions training camp for teenagers from around the world. The first International Youth Conference for Mission (IYCM) convened July 3-11 at Geneva Point Center in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. The Women's Division paid for the travel of the 150 youth and 50 adults who attended. Each person's travel cost averaged about $2,000, making the total cost about $400,000.

The beginning of the week started out like any other church camp. Icebreakers were used to help everyone get to know one another, but theological persuasions eventually were revealed. The adult leaders seemed to test how far they could go with certain concepts, such as calling God Mother, or referring to people as "co-creators" with God. Sometimes students openly objected to unorthodox theological assertions or at least shared their puzzlement.

Some youth from the South Central Jurisdiction asked the camp organizers for a workshop on homosexuality. At first the leaders liked the idea, until they found out the students intended to reinforce biblical principles and official UM teachings regarding sexuality. According to some of the students, Joyce Sohl scotched their proposal, explaining that such a workshop would be too troublesome.

Some of the workshop subjects were: Mission and Justice, Racial Justice, and Environmental Justice. Some youth asked what these themes had to do with missions. Many youth were looking for practical ways to share their faith in Christ, but instead learned about the political agenda of the Women's Division. David Wildman, a seminar designer for the Women's Division, led a workshop on Violence and Justice. He claimed that Jesus was assassinated for His political beliefs.

Rebecca Pridmore led a workshop on Environmental Justice. She performed a satire about the "Biotic Baking Brigade"(BBB). The BBB is a group of comic vigilantes who throw meringue pies in the faces of corporate "criminals" and their accomplices: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco, Milton Friedman, lawyer Robert Shapiro, and Sierra Club director Carl Pope. Most of the youth looked uncomfortable during the play and did not appreciate its supposed humor. A staunch advocate of civil disobedience, she told the youth that sometimes violence is necessary to combat certain injustices.... and claimed that Jesus was a radical political activist, based on His clearing the moneychangers out of the Temple. She gave advice to students on how to avoid getting arrested at protests, and how to get arrested when politically desirable.

Tamara Walker, a GBGM staff person, led the workshop on Mission and Justice. Like Roskos, she also condemned capitalism, focusing on the exploitation of foreign labor markets by large American corporations. But her solution appeared not to be based on spiritual transformation through the Gospel, but rather government regulation and control of private industry. According to a hand-out that Walker distributed, our "mission is to challenge the false gods of our times": ego-centrism, materialism, militarism, economic exploitation, exploitation of the earth, race, class and gender privilege, etc.

Throughout the conference the youth questioned statements from workshop leaders. A young woman stood up and read the first stated goal of the GBGM: to witness to the Gospel for initial decision to follow Jesus Christ. Upon finishing she asked, "If this is a missions conference, and this is your number one goal, then why hasn't it even been mentioned?" The adult leaders seemed unable to respond.

Stewardship is important to God. How about to us?

Notes:

  1. The Faith that Compels Us by Dr. H. T. Maclin, The Mission Society for United Methodists, 6234 Crooked Creek Rd., Norcross, GA 30092; p. 32.
  2. Rekindling the Flame, p. 19.
  3. The Faithful Christian by Billy Graham, McCracken Press, New York; 1994, p. 113.
  4. The Wesley Study Bible, pub. by Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990, p. 1552.
  5. Ibid, p. 1461.
  6. UMNS #384; July 22, 1999; Nashville, Tenn.; 10-31-71B{384}.
  7. Correspondence from the former pastor of the Soddy-Daisy United Methodist Church, their attorney involved in the situation, and the attorney for the General Board of Global Ministries.
  8. Mark Tooley and Holland Webb; Institute on Religion and Democracy; http://ucmpage.org/umaction/mtooley42.htm; Aug 12 13:06:17 1999.


Web Site Designed and Maintained by JCN

|| Home || Introduction || Stewardship Report || The Unofficial Confessing Movement || Lifewatch ||
|| Independent Committee on Alcohol and Drugs || News Update || Advisory Board ||
|| Case Studies || Testimonies || Interconnection into the United Methodist Church ||