A bishop of the United Methodist Church has sounded the alarm on the denomination’s current funding issues, declaring that its “financial house is on fire.”
The board of the UMC General Council on Finance and Administration held its final gathering for the year last week to discuss various funding matters. GCFA Board President Bishop David Graves told those gathered that the mainline Protestant denomination is facing major financial challenges.
“The church’s financial house is on fire,” said Graves, as quoted by United Methodist News. “My intent is not to create fear but to address the reality with honesty and urgency.”
“When a house is on fire, the first thing you do is focus on what matters most. For us, that is people, mission and ministry. … That means every church and conference doing its part through apportionment giving — not because of obligation alone, but because ministry depends on it.”
The Christian Post reached out to the United Methodist Church General Council on Finance and Administration for more information, with a spokesperson directing CP to the UM News report.
The spokesperson told CP that, last year, UMC General Conference “reduced our overall general Church budget by more than 40%” and that Graves’ remarks were “part of an earnest conversation between board members about anticipated funding requests.”
UM News attributed the crisis to the combined factors of a poor economy and the exodus of several thousand churches in recent years due to the internal denominational debate over LGBT issues.
A key concern is the rates of apportionments, or shares of UMC giving that sustain denomination ministries apart from individual member congregations.
GCFA noted that total receipts from requested apportionments were approximately $14.8 million lower than last year, reports UM News. Also, GCFA projects an 83.6% apportionment collection rate for the year, which is comparable to the rate during the peak of the Great Recession in 2009 to 2010.
For decades, the UMC debated whether to amend its Book of Discipline to allow for the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of noncelibate homosexual clergy.
While efforts to change the rules had previously failed, many theological liberals within the UMC refused to follow or enforce them, prompting many theological conservatives to leave in protest.
At the 2024 UMC General Conference, which took place after over 7,500 mostly conservative churches left the denomination, delegates voted to remove the rules from the Book of Discipline.
A few months prior, in February 2024, the GCFA approved a proposed 2025-2028 denominational budget of approximately $346.7 million, the lowest since 1984.
The total contrasted with the approximately $604 million denomination-wide budget approved by the UMC General Conference delegates in 2016.
“Although we are navigating challenging financial times, the GCFA Board, along with members of the Connectional Table and the Council of Bishops, are focused on the work before us: ministry and mission,” said GCFA General Secretary the Rev. Moses Kumar in a statement at the time.
