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The insights of local church leaders are now being sought as part of a comprehensive study on the effectiveness and equity of the current apportionment formula of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

The payment of apportionments is one of the hallmarks of The United Methodist Church. 'This money, collected from every congregation, enables us to do programs and mission that none of us could do alone,' said Martha Knight, the conference treasurer. 'Apportionments connect us in shared ministry.'

To study this connection and how it is being lived out within the Baltimore-Washington Conference, Bishop John R. Schol called for the creation of a task force in early 2007. This nine-member group, organized by the conference Council on Finance and Administration, has researched the formulas other annual conferences use to collect apportionments and identified several issues surrounding apportionments, which they hope the conference will consider.

Every annual conference develops its own budget and means of gathering apportionments, Knight said.

The Baltimore-Washington Conference uses a local church's expenses as the basis for determining each church's apportionments. Certain items are excluded, such as capital expenses or money sent directly to missions, Knight explained. This leaves 'operating expenses,' or what a church spends on itself. That figure is multiplied by a 'benevolence factor' to calculate a specific dollar amount.

This year the benevolence factor, which is set each May at the annual conference session, is 22.5 percent, which will enable the required $16,042,678 apportionment budget to
be raised.

The 22.5 percent is down from the 26 percent approved by the 2004 annual conference session. Today a congregation's apportionment is 13 percent lower than it would have been following the 2004 annual conference. The conference leadership is committed to reducing the benevolence factor to 19.5 percent by 2012 or a reduction of 25 percent, said Knight.  For a church that pays $50,000 in apportionments, over five years the church will give better than $5,000 less a year or more than $30,000 during that period, money the congregation can use in its community to make and engage disciples for the transformation of the world.

For some people, the numbers can get complicated, but when one remembers that these numbers are ministry, they become easier to relate to, Knight said.
 
To determine one's apportionment for 2007, she explained, a church would add lines 64-72 from its 2005 statistical report (operating, program and pastor's costs). Because the benevolence factor is 22.5 percent, the total is then  multiplied by .225.

This 'expense-based,' model is a relatively straight-forward, workable one, said the Rev. Charles Harrell, president of the Council on Finance and Administration and convener of the task force.

Some other annual conferences use income-based models, asking churches to tithe a certain percentage of their income, but this system is raising caution lights, Harrell said. Others delegate the collection of apportionments to districts, but this is an old model and is disappearing.

The expense-based model seems to be the most popular, Knight said. However, some annual conferences are tweaking it to take membership or worship attendance into account as well.

Another issue in apportionment equity involves bricks and mortar concerns. Currently capital expenses are excluded from the apportionment formula. If a church is growing and adds a new wing, those costs are excluded; but if a church is growing and adds a new ministry with staff and other resources, its apportionment payment will go up, said Harrell.

Harrell believes there is a built-in tension in the system that hinges on a philosophical question. 'Should all churches pay the same or should all of us be pulling together as best we can to fulfill the mission of the church,' he asked.

The task force, in a memo on its progress, puts the question this way: Should the apportionment formula 'be ability- and fairness-driven, or should it be purpose-driven? These two possible approaches are not the same, and may be in tension.'

In addition, Harrell said, 'We live in the tension between the conference's need for income to do its work and the conference's mission of equipping local churches for disciple- making.' These tensions, he concludes, 'deserve serious attention from conference leadership at every level.'

To assist conference leaders in making these decisions, an electronic questionnaire is being sent out later this fall to pastors, church council chairs, financial secretaries, financial chairs and lay leaders.

The task force is also considering holding regional gatherings to share the results of the survey and seek further input in early 2008 before making its recommendations  to CFA and to the annual conference session in May.

'We need to stress that there is no guarantee that apportionments will change radically although conference leadership will continue to present budgets that enable the conference to reduce the benevolence factor to 19.5 percent.

'We may find we already have the most workable system,' said Harrell.

However, he is looking forward to hearing from local churches 'what some of the stress points are and how apportionments might be more reflective of the values of the conference as we work together to build Acts 2 churches.'

In addition to researching the apportionment formula, the task force is also seeking information on the perception held by some that apportionments 'get in the way' of churches meeting their own programming needs; the fact that a lack of auditing procedures limits the conference's ability to ensure that everyone is participating by the same set of rules and gbwc_superuserelines; and the reality that some churches cannot, or do not, pay any apportionments.

People are glad the task force is doing this work, Harrell said. 'They seem to be suspending judgment,' until a report is made.

'The annual conference is an extension of the life of the local church,' he concluded. 'It's important we hear from everyone.'