Update From Finance

Update From Finance & Planning

A new way
for church finances

By Ronald Kelly

PASADENA—The last quarter of 2004 marked the first months of operating under our new financial model. All 389 U.S. congregations now have funds in local banks and are responsible for budgeting and planning programs for evangelism, outreach and community service. It’s been an exciting time in our fellowship.

New financial model

As I have been saying the past few months, our denomination now has a whole new way of doing business. For 70 years we operated on a centralized system for donation processing. Employees in Pasadena received and opened the mail and deposited the funds in a bank.

The Finance & Planning staff planned annual budgets and paid virtually all of the bills, including pastors’ salaries, fringe benefits, hall rental and member assistance, maintained the collegiate educational system, and sponsored the World Tomorrow television program, the magazine and booklets and many other budgeted expenses.

The primary focus of the Worldwide Church of God was media outreach and Ambassador University. Local church funding was generally limited to funds that could be raised through fund-raising efforts such as bake sales, orange and grapefruit sales, store inventories and other creative means of raising cash.

Now, in the new financial model, donations contributed at worship services will be retained locally, and budgeted and spent locally.

Smaller headquarters staff

The work of our headquarters staff has also changed. Now the much smaller headquarters staff will concentrate on providing services to pastors and the congregations.

We will continue to publish literature as an educational and inspirational service to our members. We plan to conduct regional conferences that all members are welcome to attend. Headquarters is also responsible for doctrinal studies and doctrinal integrity.

Transition

Another new service is offering continuing educational services for pastors and many of our members through the Ambassador College of Christian Ministries. These are just a few of the services that support pastors and members around the world.

The centralized budget for the past two or three years has been more than $1.5 million a month or $18 to $20 million a year. Through apportionments paid by each local congregation, the projected budget to finance headquarters in the future will be $300,000 a month or about $3.6 million a year.

That demonstrates the intent of our denomination to focus outreach and evangelism at the level of the local church. This financial transition has not been easy, but the hard work has paid off, and the transition is complete.

New headquarters facility

The church campus in Pasadena is far too large and too expensive to maintain. Once we had several hundred employees in Pasadena. We plan to relocate to nearby Glen-dora, California, in a few months and will have only about 35 employees on the headquarters payroll. Quite a change!

Property sale

As President Joseph Tkach announced in his weekly update to our pastors, we are in the final sale process for the Pasadena campus. The upper campus is in escrow, and the sale is scheduled to be completed by the last week in January or early February. So hopefully by the time you read this issue of WCG Today, that sale will be finalized.

A certain amount of renovation is necessary for us to occupy the office and warehousing building we purchased in nearby Glendora. Preliminary planning and drawing are nearly complete, and work should begin within a few weeks. We hope to have the building ready for occupancy by mid summer

We certainly appreciate your dedication and faithfulness through these past few years. Now, we trust each one of you will join your pastor and leadership teams to reach out in your communities to serve as examples of Christian love.

Wills and Trusts

Many members have requested information on how best to make a gift to the Worldwide Church of God, either during their lifetime or upon death through wills, trusts or other means.

If you want to receive information regarding such gifts, the Legal Department of the church is available to aid you in this regard without cost or obligation.

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