John H. Adams Hearts and Hands confession By John H. Adams Commentary Special to The Layman Online Tuesday, March 11, 2008 The Presbyterian Church (USA) finally has admitted that $7.6 million – nearly one-fourth of the money that the Joining Hearts & Hands campaign had reported in gifts and pledges – would not be collected. This is a long overdue confession by the Mission and Funding Support Committee of the General Assembly Council. The $7.6 million (and there may be more) was what presbyteries "promised" to spend on new church development. Previously not bothering to extract evidence from presbyteries, the campaign greatly exaggerated the largess apparently in hopes of convincing the misinformed to bankroll more missionaries and new church developments. Chastised for 'negativity' Since the campaign began issuing financial reports five years ago, The Layman repeatedly declared that the bulk of the pledges from presbyteries was merely numbers on paper with little reason to be considered a campaign coup. After all, the presbyteries already were responsible for new church development – with little success when hemorrhaging membership and closed churches are taken into account. For insisting on truth in fundraising, The Layman was repeatedly chastised for "negativity." Now, the Mission and Funding Support Committee admits that "an analysis of campaign status and campaign contributions … resulted in a reduction of more than $7,000,000 [actually, $7.6 million] from the $27,560,000 in cash and pledges reported as of June 30, 2007. This adjustment was due primarily to unrealistic commitments by several presbyteries and presbytery campaigns that did not reach commitment objectives." So, where does this leave a campaign that began with warnings from a consultant hired to evaluate the prospects of raising $40 million in a five-year (now going on six-year) time zone? The Sept. 30 quarterly report shows that the presbyteries and congregations have raised $5.3 million in cash (as they should have done anyway), but only $120,498 of that is for mission personnel. There's still $9.8 million on the books in pledges by presbyteries and congregations. Meanwhile, the total cash raised – which was the objective for all of the contributions when the campaign that is administered by the General Assembly Council began – is only $5 million. $5 million raised in six years. The average Presbyterian would have to give 35 cents a year to meet that goal. Hardly a cause for celebration. Other observations A few more things should be said about the campaign: It's probably too little and too late, but the General Assembly Council's Executive Committee has approved new rules to "guide the conclusion of the campaign." One rule states that donors express in writing their intent that the gift or pledge will go to the Joining Hearts and Hands campaign. In other words, no more undocumented promises. As originally conceived – and approved by the General Assembly in 2001 – the campaign was intended to invigorate the PCUSA's world mission outreach. That same General Assembly reduced the number of full-time foreign missionaries from 330 to 300. Today, the PCUSA has 220 missionaries, and by next year the number will drop to 190 due to retirements and attrition The fund-raising problem in the denomination is not because Presbyterians are strapped for money. Former Moderator Doug Oldenburg said a few years ago that Presbyterians had moved past Episcopalians as the wealthiest per-capita denomination in America. The problem is that Presbyterians don't trust the denomination to spend the money wisely. Back up to the Bicentennial Campaign in the 1990s. The denomination scrapped it at the halfway mark. In addition, the PCUSA spent some of the money from that campaign to co-sponsor with the World Council of Churches the Re-Imagining God women's conference. That resulted in a costly backlash against Presbyterian appeals. Still, expect the conclusion to the Joining Hearts and Hands campaign to be one of those self-deceptive "celebrations" with commendations for all the hard work by so many people. But now we know better. John H. Adams, a longtime observer of the Presbyterian Church (USA), retired in 2006 as the editor of The Layman.

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