Chapter Sixteen - 2012 Stats - Direct Billing or Apportioned Benefits

Over the past decade many annual conferences have grappled with whether to apportion or direct bill the cost of pension and health benefits to local churches. When these benefits are apportioned then their cost is incorporated into the apportionment formula, which means that some churches actually pay less than what these benefits cost for their appointed staff and other churches pay more. When these items are direct billed, then each church pays the actual cost for their appointed staff. I thought it would be interesting to see if anything popped out when we looked at those that reported direct billing and those that did not.

Of congregations with at least five members:

• 14,624 congregations (45%) reported direct-billing of both pension benefits and health benefits 

• 9,591 congregations (30%) reported neither direct-billed pension benefits nor health benefits (We can assume both were apportioned)

• 6,686 congregations (20%) reported direct-billed pension benefits but not health benefits  (We can assume health benefits were apportioned)

• 1,539 congregations (5%) reported direct-billed health benefits but not pension benefits  (Not sure what assumptions to make about these congregations, as they represent a variety of annual conferences.)

Those congregations that reported both direct-billed health and pension benefits paid 88.01% of their apportionments and reported 8.75% of their expenditures went to apportionments.

Those congregations that reported neither direct-billed health and pension benefits paid 84.71% of their apportionments and reported 10.75% of their expenditures went to apportionments.

Those congregations that reported direct-billed pension benefits but not health benefits paid 86.05% of their apportionments and reported 10.71% of their expenditures went to apportionments.

Those congregations that reported direct-billed health benefits but not pension benefits paid 86.59% of their apportionments and reported 11.16% of their expenditures went to apportionments.

(Note: The reported percentage of apportionments paid to  expenses includes both district and annual conference apportionments)

Here are a couple of questions these numbers raise for me.

• Do congregations that are direct-billed feel better about the connectional church since their apportionments are a lower percentage of total expenditures?

• Do congregations that pay health and pension benefits as part of apportionments have a clear understanding of the actual cost of staff?

• What would happen if health and pension benefits were all direct-billed, and each church was asked to tithe 10% of their income to the connectional ministries? (Currently the total for all churches over 5 members is 9.19% of congregational expenditures go towards apportionments.)

The statistical data included herein were provided at no charge by the General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church (GCFA) and may be obtained directly from GCFA, PO Box 340020, Nashville, TN 37203-0029. This data is proprietary and is owned by GCFA and may not be used in any commercial or exploitative way, to make a financial profit, or in a manner that defames the United Methodist denomination or its agencies or organizations. GCFA does not endorse any particular use of the data or accept responsibility for its interpretation or analysis by another.

Chapter Fifteen - 2012 Stats - Slicing the Cost of Staff

The last chapter looked at how congregations spent their money. Some were surprised at how much was spent on staff. If you are like me, 2.8 billion dollars is a bigger amount than I can get my head around. This chapter tries to break those figures down into a more imaginable number by looking at the relationship between the number of worshippers and staff costs, sliced in a variety of ways.

For all United Methodist congregations with at least five members, the average cost of staff per worshipper per week is $16.37. In other words, if each Sunday every person in worship put $16.37 in the offering plate, it would cover most of the cost of local church lay and clergy staff. (I qualify that with "most" because that doesn't include the costs of insurance and pension for those annual conferences that apportion rather than direct bill these costs.)

I thought it might be interesting to see if the staff costs seemed to vary based on average worship attendance. Here is what I discovered. As in the example above, this is the amount that every person attending a worship service would need to put in the offering, every time they attended worship, to cover the most of the the costs of the congregation's staff.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 50 or less have an average staff cost of $14.60 per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 51 to 100  have an average staff cost of $17.65  per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 101 to 200  have an average staff cost of $18.85  per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 201 to 300  have an average staff cost of $19.00  per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 301 to 400  have an average staff cost of $19.77  per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 401 to 500  have an average staff cost of $19.80  per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of 501 to 1000  have an average staff cost of $19.97  per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of  1001-1500  have an average staff cost of $20.43 per worshipper per week.

• Churches with an average worship attendance of more than  1500  have an average staff cost of $17.82 per worshipper per week.

I then decided to see if there were any obvious differences based on region.

• Churches in the Southeastern Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $15.27 per worshipper per week.

• Churches in the North Central Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $16.14 per worshipper per week.

• Churches in the South Central Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $16.42 per worshipper per week.

• Churches in the Northeastern Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $16.97 per worshipper per week.

• Churches in the Western Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $22.09 per worshipper per week.

I also did a slice based on the ethnic majority in the congregation. 

• Churches that are predominantly Asian American  have an average staff cost of $17.53 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that are predominantly Euro  American  have an average staff cost of $16.68 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that are predominantly African American  have an average staff cost of $13.23 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that are predominantly Pacific Islander  have an average staff cost of $13.04 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that are predominantly Hispanic American  have an average staff cost of $11.18 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that are predominantly Native American  have an average staff cost of $7.65 per worshipper per week.

And finally, here is a slice based on total church expenditures

• Churches that have total expenditures of  less than $50,000 per year have an average staff cost of $11.02 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of between $50,000 and $100,000 per year have an average staff cost of $16.36 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of between $100,000 and $150,000 per year have an average staff cost of $19.93 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of between $150,000 and $200,000 per year have an average staff cost of $21.45 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of between $200,000 and $300,000 per year have an average staff cost of $22.66 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of between $300,000 and $500,000 per year have an average staff cost of $21.45 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 per year have an average staff cost of $22.28 per worshipper per week.

• Churches that have total expenditures of more than $1,000,000 per year have an average staff cost of $23.76 per worshipper per week.

Note: All of these slices are based on churches with at least five members.

These numbers are easier for me to imagine. Here are a couple of things I observed.

• In general, as expenditures increase the amount spent on staff costs increases at a higher rate than the average worship attendance increases.

• There is a pretty big jump in the average staff cost per worshipper between churches with yearly expenditures of less than $50,000 and those with more than $50,000.

I wonder if when worshippers place their offering in the offering plate how they imagine the money gets used?

The statistical data included herein were provided at no charge by the General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church (GCFA) and may be obtained directly from GCFA, PO Box 340020, Nashville, TN 37203-0029. This data is proprietary and is owned by GCFA and may not be used in any commercial or exploitative way, to make a financial profit, or in a manner that defames the United Methodist denomination or its agencies or organizations. GCFA does not endorse any particular use of the data or accept responsibility for its interpretation or analysis by another.

Chapter Fourteen - 2012 Stats - Where the Money Goes

In the last chapter we looked at the money received by local congregations. This chapter focuses on how the money is spent. 

If you look at the combined expenditures of all churches with at least five members, for every dollar that is spent, approximately:

 • 46 cents is spent on providing local church staff, both clergy and lay.

 • 17 cents is spent on other local church operating expenses.

 • 9 cents is spent on capital expenditures for buildings, improvements, and major equipment purchases.

 • 9 cents is spent on apportionments, both annual conference and district. (It is important to note that some conferences apportion pension and health insurance costs, so that part of apportionment expenditures is actually a local staff cost that is not included in the previously mentioned 46 cents.)

 • 8 cents is spent on debt repayment.

 • 5 cents is spent on  local church program expenses.

 • 4 cents is spent on non-United Methodist benevolent and charitable causes.

 • 2 cents is spent on United Methodist benevolent and charitable causes. (These include Advance Specials, Youth Service Fund, Special Sunday offerings, and so forth.)

If we look a little more deeply at the expenditures for charitable and benevolent causes, for every dollar of local church benevolent spending, approximately:

• 58 cents is given to non- United Methodist benevolent and charitable causes.

• 19 cents is given directly to United Methodist causes.

• 9 cents is spent on local church and community work by the United Methodist Women.

• 6 cents is given to General Advanced Specials.

• 4 cents is spent on United Methodist Men local projects.

• 3 cents is given to  Annual Conference Advance Specials.

• 2 cents is given to World Service Specials.

• two-thirds of a cent is given to One Great Hour of Sharing.

• two-tenths of a cent is given to World Communion Sunday.

• one-tenth of a cent is given to Human Relations.  

• one-tenth of a cent is given to Peace with Justice.  

• one-tenth of a cent is given to Native American Ministries.

• one-tenth of a cent is given to United Methodist Student Day.

• two-hundredths of a cent is given to Youth Service Fund.

So how much do United Methodist congregations spend? Combined they spend about:

 • 2.8 billion dollars for clergy and lay staff.

 • 1.1 billion dollars on other local church operating expenses.

 • 587 million dollars on capital expenditures.

 • 570 million dollars on apportionments.

 • 485 million dollars on debt repayment.

 • 306 million dollars on local church program expenses.

 • 226 million dollars on non-United Methodist benevolent and charitable causes.

 • 166 million dollars on United Methodist benevolent and charitable causes.

I hope these numbers prompt some interesting conversations. Below are a few things that I wonder about.

• I wonder why we give substantially more to non-United Methodist charitable causes than we do to United Methodist ones, particularly when 100% of money given through the Advance goes to the designated projects while often non-UMC charities use significant amounts for administration?

• I wonder how the amount collected from designated special Sundays compares to the amount of money used to publicize them?

• Considering that nearly half of local church spending is for staff, I wonder if those staff are well equipped to provide effective leadership?

• I wonder how many local church leaders have a clear understanding of how the church is spending its money, and what changes is priorities might result if they did?

The statistical data included herein were provided at no charge by the General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church (GCFA) and may be obtained directly from GCFA, PO Box 340020, Nashville, TN 37203-0029. This data is proprietary and is owned by GCFA and may not be used in any commercial or exploitative way, to make a financial profit, or in a manner that defames the United Methodist denomination or its agencies or organizations. GCFA does not endorse any particular use of the data or accept responsibility for its interpretation or analysis by another.