Update from Finance & Planning

June income
continues negative trend

By Ronald Kelly

Reporting not-so-good news is not easy. I often wonder what it would be like to write a banner headline: "Church income soars to new heights!" That would be gratifying. However, that does not seem to be likely in the near term. But we can hope!

At any rate, June income continued the negative cycle we have been reporting for the past few years. In fact, June’s decrease was at an even greater rate of reduction than the "normal" trend. Mail income of just over $1.3 million was down 22 percent from June one year ago.

If you look back at recent WN reports, you’ll see that our trend for the year so far was more like a decrease of eight to 10 percent.

Total mail income for the first six months was $8.8 million vs. $10.2 million for the first half of 2000. That is a decrease of just over 13 percent. Obviously we pray the second half of the year will find income picking up and those negative figures turning around.

June’s income projections were affected by a number of factors, so the picture is not quite as bleak as it might appear at first glance. First, the Pentecost offering was collected and mailed in June. Our small staff gave priority to this offering, thus holding a portion of the regular June offerings till July to tabulate.

Second, since we have downsized to keep expenses in line, the smaller mail processing staff takes longer to do its work. And finally, more of our churches are taking up collections during the worship service, boxing them and shipping the offerings to Pasadena for processing. This procedure also affects our work force and takes a bit more time.

So while June tabulations are down, we would expect to see some of the deficit made up in July and August.

On the positive side of the coin, special or festival offerings have totaled $1.9 million for the year so far. Last year the festival offering total for the same period was also $1.9 million. If that trend holds it will be a big help.

When we combine all sources of income: mail income, festival offerings, estate donations, escrow extension payments and auction sales, total income for the first half of the year was $13.1 million. Last year it was $15.1 million. So even including these, we are down 13 percent.

As we reported last month, Legacy Partners now estimates that escrow on the church property will not close till the end of this year.

As we work toward the completion of the sale and relocation to a new facility, we have much work to do. Dale Trow, our facilities manager, and his team are busy planning the move and all it will entail.

We have reported before that our hope is to eventually purchase a small headquarters office building. But as we evaluated our needs, we now think it will be better to lease a facility for two to five years and plan later for a building. After the main campus sells, we can invest the projected funds to purchase an office facility and use the investment revenue to pay the lease. That way, no funds from regular tithes and offerings will be used to pay for the headquarters building. This will allow a greater percentage of member donations to be retained for local use.

At the district conferences, we explain plans for future local church financial models. Members who have attended the six conferences we have already conducted are excited about the possibilities for local outreach, evangelism and growth that the new financial model will make possible.

If you live close to Athens, Ohio, or Dallas, Texas, and if you can arrange the time, plan to attend one of those conferences. You’ll be inspired as you worship with fellow WCG members.

That’s about it. We know that our loving God supplies our needs, so continue to pray for his will to be done in our lives and in our denomination.

Statement of Income and Expenses for WCG and PTM combined for June 2001

                                                         For the Month     For the Year-to-Date

Income

       Mail Income                           $ 1,357,000              $ 8,876,000

       Festival offerings                         405,000                 1,920,000

       Other income                                444,000                 2,646,000

            Total income                         2,206,000               13,442,000

Expenses                                         3,754,000              17,055,000

Net gain (loss) to bank reserves $(1,548,000)       $ (3,613,000)

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2001