Future funding uncertain for new official publicationPublic relations piece exhibits growing appetite for scarce financial resources

LOUISVILLE, Ky - "We’ve got this 900 pound gorilla," declared Communications and Public Relations Executive Gary Luhr, in his December 12, 1997 report to the General Assembly Council Executive Committee.

By Parker T. Williamson

Luhr was enthusiastic about growing circulation tallies for the denomination’s every household publication, and said he was pleased with compliments that his department has received following the first two issues, but he expressed concern for who will pay the bill.

Luhr said that a national church campaign, encouraging local church leaders to send in their congregational mailing lists, had gotten a positive response from 2,000 of the denomination’s 11,400 churches. As a result, he believes the January 1997 edition will go to 500,000 homes. But there are dollar signs attached to those figures, and Luhr says the $250,000 he was given for this project in 1998 will barely get it through the first quarter of the year.

When former moderator John Buchanan urged the General Assembly Council to sponsor an every household publication, he said it was such a high priority item on his personal agenda that he would go out and raise the money privately if necessary. But according to Luhr, Buchanan and another former moderator, Robert Bohl, who joined him in the campaign, have little to show for their efforts. "They have been marginally successful … I would say not greatly successful at this point," Luhr told the Executive Committee.

Other avenues have been explored, but with similar results. GAC officials approached Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick in the hope that funding the publication might be lodged in the Office of the General Assembly’s per capita budget, but Kirkpatrick indicated no interest in pursuing the venture.

Luhr told executive committee members that he faces a real dilemma. Having publicly announced that this new publication would be an ongoing service to the denomination’s membership, he said the GAC would encounter a "public relations problem" should it drop the project now due to lack of funds. "And charging readers for it would cause a different set of problems," said Luhr.

Temporary funding to launch the project was found when the GAC experienced surplus income at the end of 1996. Out of that windfall, Luhr’s department was given $250,000 to publish the paper. But when feeding a 900 pound gorilla, that barely buys the appetizer.