BWC churches respond strong and faithfully in connectional giving
BY CHARLES E. MOORE, JR.
I concluded my report from the Commission on Finance and Administration at last year's annual conference session by stating that "We are indeed in unusual economic times and we recognize the need to be more diligent and more flexible than during periods of economic stability."
I will begin this year's report by stating that the membership and leadership of our annual conference have responded to these economic challenges in ways that can best be described as "inspiring."
As you may recall, our 2009 Apportioned Expense budget was revised and dramatically reduced in late January 2009 by $1.9 million (11.81 percent).
This savings was passed on to every local church through a similar percentage reduction in 2009 apportionment billings. This was a bold and unprecedented step that was taken only after deep prayer and careful consideration.
As the year progressed, conference leaders carefully monitored our apportionment giving and managed expenses within the bound-aries of the reduced budget. While I am sure that our Lord knew how things would turn out, none of us mortals entrusted with tracking our financial progress through the year could have confidently predicted the outcome.
The year's total income reported here incorporates only those apportionments received through the extended Jan. 15 deadline and the approximately $55,000 paid in 2009 toward 2008 apportionments.
The total income for 2009 came in at $17,150,728 which was within $127,754 (0.7 percent) of our budget of $17,278,482.
Of this total, the comptroller reported, $14,182,869, came from apportionment payments. This resulted from a collection rate of 89.24 percent of apportionment billings which was up substantially from our 2008 collection rate of 87 percent. This was also a reversal of the downward trend over the past several years.
On the expense side of the ledger, our 2009 expenses ended up at $17,125,369. This was $152,058 (0.9 percent) under our reduced budget of $17,277,427. Therefore, on a net income basis, we exceeded our 2009 budget by $24,304.
We are either incredibly accurate forecasters or you are overwhelmingly faithful stewards of the resources entrusted to us by God. Which do you think it is? What a humbling result in these uncertain times. Praise the Lord!
I am very pleased to report that the Baltimore-Washington Conference has continued its long standing tradition of paying 100 percent of our General Conference and Jurisdictional apportionments with 2009 payments totaling $3,693,925.
As an indication of these difficult economic times, The Baltimore-Washington Conference was one of only 14 out of 63 U.S. annual conferences that paid 100 percent of its General Conference apportionments. This is down from 17 annual conferences that paid 100 percent in 2008.
It is CFA's great pleasure to report that the financial status of our conference has remained very strong through this first phase of the worst global economic recession of our generation.
As we now move into what we hope to be a period of sustainable economic recovery, we remain confident that our members will continue to be faithful in their giving and that all of our local churches will strive to pay 100 percent of their conference apportionments.
Charles E. Moore is president of the conference Council on Finance and Administration.
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