Consultation Opens up Governing Body Boundaries for Soliciting Extra Commitment Funds By Bill Lancaster Presbyterian News Service CHICAGO - The synods and the General Assembly Council are giving Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) governing bodies permission to do what parachurch organizations such as the Salvation Army, World Vision International and Promise Keepers already do - go directly to congregations, presbyteries or synods to seek funds. As they do so, they are adopting guidelines to ensure that this takes place in an orderly process that respects the integrity of the solicited governing bodies. Representatives from the 16 synods and the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met here May 28-30 to polish the guidelines. They also approved a distribution of the 1999 National Mission Partnership Funds, approved principles for using 10 percent of those funds as seed money for developing other funds and discussed issues to be dealt with at future consultations. The guidelines cover the national mission partnership section of the Extra Commitment Opportunities Program already familiar to many congregations. These projects or programs fall into four areas: vital ministries in congregations, campus ministries, racial/ethnic ministries, and presbytery or synod administrative or mission staff. Any governing body may initiate a national mission partnership project. Each project must be validated and accountable. Consultation required The guidelines state that validated projects have the right to seek access to all synods, presbyteries and sessions. However, project fund-raisers must consult with the appropriate governing bodies ("synods before contacting presbyteries; presbyteries before contacting congregations; sessions before contacting members") before asking for funds. A "soliciting body" must agree to inform the other governing bodies of its "intent to solicit funds for a validated project and agrees to be guided by the counsel and advice of the governing body as to (1) the desirability of funds solicitation within its bounds and (2) the most effective methods of soliciting funds. ..." The consultation rejected stronger language that would have given veto power to the governing bodies being solicited. This would have substituted "abide by" for "be guided by" in the above statement. Synod and presbytery officials at the consultation believe this process will be received without problems at the local level if dollars are given over and above Basic Mission Support and if these guidelines are understood as a matter of fairness. "I think there will be some that want that kind of relationship and will value that personalizing of mission and partnership where they can put names and faces on what they wish to support," said the Rev. Tom Johnston, executive of the Synod of The Trinity. "There are other parts of Trinity," he said, "that have a long tradition of supporting Basic Mission Support of the church and have preferred not to try to designate dollars to any particular mission. I think that continues to be strong, and in some presbyteries, therefore, there will be a desire to assure that these extra commitment projects beyond the budget are not eroding Basic Mission Support. "Once the consultative process satisfies the fact that this is not going to be taking away from a holistic supporting of basic mission worldwide of the whole church," Johnston said, "then I think there is some excitement that will generate new dollars for extra commitment partnerships in national mission." No competition for undesignated funds One of the reasons for consulting is to assure that the solicitation does not lead to competition for undesignated or Basic Mission Support funds. "For instance," Johnston said, "it could be that a program wishing to have such partnership within our synod would consult with a presbytery, and the presbytery would say, `We would prefer you not go to these churches because they have a tradition of supporting basic mission and do not have extra commitment projects. But these [other] churches do not support basic mission and prefer to support designated mission and have shown that their people get generative around personalizing mission and giving new dollars for new partnerships in extra commitment opportunity giving. And we would suggest it is to these churches you would make your contact.' That's what partnership and consultation are about." The Rev. David Dawson, executive of the Presbytery of Shenango, said congregations there are already doing this. He said the presbytery encourages congregations to give to extra commitment opportunities by choosing three extra commitment projects and saying to its churches, "These might be of particular interest to you." He said they receive about $150,000 for the three extra projects, and this summer they will probably add two or three more to the list. "That way," Dawson said, "we're trying to say to our churches, `We want you to be supporting things you believe in. We want you to support basic mission, too - we think that's important. But we want you to challenge your people to grow in areas that are of particular interest and concern to your church so you will see that mission is your responsibility as a congregation.'" He does not think congregations give much unified (undesignated) funds to these extra opportunities. "I think it's a mixed bag," he said, "but I don't think particularly so, because the unified is not really going down. ... I think if they weren't giving to these they'd be giving to something else, outside the denomination. And if they are decreasing their Basic Mission Support, at least we're getting it back into the Presbyterian stream. Otherwise it would go somewhere else. What we would say to [leaders] is, `Basic Mission Support is very important. You need to maintain that. What portion of your mission giving it is your decision. ...' But we say to them, `You ought to use a personalized, designated pattern as a way to help your people grow,' because that is what people respond to in our contexts. So we're trying to get growth out of designations." The Rev. John Bartholomew, executive of the Synod of South Atlantic, sees a rougher reception for the funds solicitation. He said, "There's going to be problems with it. I think if folks understand it as a fairness issue - that everybody else is free to come in except Presbyterians - that they will be much more sympathetic. Why shouldn't we ask among the family when so many groups from outside the family feel so free to come in?" |
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