My pastor showed members in our congregation the new Local Church Income and Expense Report being sent to him every month from Pasadena.
First, thank you for this report, because it gives us a greater insight into the church's finances. Second, though, could you clarify what expenses are included in the line labeled Central Administration?
Thank you for your remarks. The compliment belongs not to me alone, however, but to a team at headquarters who work together on our plans to help empower local congregations in their quest to more effectively evangelize locally.
This team includes people from Finance and Planning; Computer Information Systems; our Legal Department; Church Administration; and others. We are grateful for their tireless efforts
As I explained to the pastors in a memo accompanying the first report they received, Central Administration includes various items other than monies solely used in the local church areas (such as ministerial salaries and ministerial expenses, which are listed separately on a different line of the report).
It also excludes the cost of the headquarters facility and the cost of discretionary retirement type payments to former, now retired ministers and employees. (Again, these expenses are listed on the report under their own headings).
Specifically, Central Administration includes all expenses not found in the other categories of the report, even though the expense may, and often does, directly or indirectly support the field ministry or local churches.
In fact, our calculations, given in my column previously on one or two occasions, show that about 70 percent of the Central Administration can be fairly allocated as directly or indirectly in support of the local congregations and ministry.
For example, this category includes expenses for the WN, for ministerial conferences and for mailing member letters.
If it is acknowledged that the only reason the church as a body exists in the first place is because we have local congregations, then almost all of Central Administration can be fairly allocated as directly or indirectly supportive of the congregations.
Here, then, are those income and expense items posted to the Central Administration heading of the report. Central Administration is the net effect of various income and expense accounts as shown here:
Income types: All interest and dividend income, Festival fund income, estate donation income, any miscellaneous income.
Expense types
Facilities: sale, salaries, wages, phone, office supply, depreciation.
Legal: Salaries, wages, FICA, professional fees of outside attorneys.
Finance and Planning: shipping and receiving costs, depreciation, group life insurance (not including field ministry), group health insurance (not including field ministry), unemployment compensation, workers compensation, employee disability, property insurance, liability insurance, bank charges, credit card charges, salaries and wages for administration, accounting, human resources, professional fees for outside experts retained, depreciation expense, copier expense.
Computer Information Systems: salaries, wages, FICA, monthly lease payments to IBM for AS400 computer system, depreciation and amortization expense, contracted services for AS400 maintenance, computer software purchases, telephone--ministerial support.
Church Administration and Pastor General's Office: salaries, wages, FICA, telephone, postage, travel, depreciation, Pastoral Development: salaries and wages, professional development--ministerial training, books and periodicals--ministerial training; Worldwide News, Church Administration salaries and wages, postage and freight--member letters, Festival letters, contracted printing--member letters, Festival letters, church relations, church visitation, Women's Ministry, Personal Correspondence, Festival Administration--all expenses, ministerial conferences--headquarters and regional, international administration (not subsidies).
May 20, 1997, WN, page 12
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