By Ronald Kelly
February closed with a total income of $1,865,432.
Donations (income from members and regular contributions) were only one percent under our budget estimates for the year to date. Total income, which includes such things as income from estates willed to the church, was down 15 percent.
We appreciate the steady donation pattern so many of you use to fund the work of the church. As we have said, regular and steady donations make the work of financial management much less complicated.
We don't have any significant trends to report, so perhaps I can explain some of our financial calculations. We basically divide our income into major categories: donation income, festival offerings, PTM donations and product sales, and estate donations. We also receive contributions to the building fund, assistance to needy members, Summer Education Program and festival registration donations.
When we report total income, we mean all of the above. In the past we have primarily reported donation income, our largest single kind of contributions, on a daily banking day average.
This month our daily average donations were $85,580. That's just over $1.7 million for the month. But as noted above, our total income was more than $1.8 million. That's because we received about $70,000 from other types of contributions (such as from estates and the like).
For the most part, these daily income averages no longer have the same significance they did in the past. So we won't clutter the financial charts with this kind of information. That's why you may have noticed that we have simplified our chart showing income and expenses.
We feel it is best to simply note the monthly income and the monthly expenses. Of course that will show the effect on our already minimal reserve funds.
Unfortunately, for the past several years, expenses have exceeded income. This happens, of course, not because of extravagant spending (we have diligently cut expenses) but because income has gone down even faster than we have been able to cut.
We have kept financially stable by terminating many church projects such as the World Tomorrow telecast and Ambassador University. In addition we have downsized our employee base and have sold a number of corporate assets.
These measures have made it possible to maintain almost all of our congregations. About 270 of our U.S. congregations are served by a full-time pastor, and 180 additional congregations have pastoral care provided by a bivocational pastor.
But we have come to the point where we can no longer effectively downsize operations without, regrettably, downsizing field personnel, even though that is a last resort.
We don't have additional assets to sell, that is, of course, besides the two major properties in Texas and California. Both of these properties are in the process of being sold. So, we all pray that our total income remains strong enough that further cutting of any type doesn't have to occur.
We cannot thank all of you enough for your support during these years of transition. Your prayerful support has made it possible to maintain a sound, albeit much smaller, financial footing.
In future issues of the WN, we will normally report only the basic figures of income and expenses. From time to time we can give a more detailed accounting.
If you can attend one of our regional conferences, which are open to ministers and members alike, you will be able to participate in a thorough discussion about what we envision for our financial structure.
We'll see many of you at those conferences.
For the Month For the Year-to-Date
Income
Donation Income $ 1,796,125 $ 3,323,135
Other income 69,307 300,045
Total income 1,865,432 3,623,180
Expenses 2,640,110 5,178,029
Net loss to bank reserves $ (774,678) $ (1,554,849)
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000