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.
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