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Dear Folks:
“The measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Luke 6:38
We both have now been in our offices long enough to be able to take a hard look at our Conference’s financial trends and forecasts. We’ve adjusted line items and reporting so that our finances are more readable. Our investments of nearly $1.5 million are doing well, maybe better than we expected.
However, to make payroll we have needed to pull $15,000 out of the investments every month. To run our offices and pay our staff we spend approximately $175 annually per member of our Congregations. We expect to use some of the return on the investments each year. But the draw for non-profits is suggested to be around 5% of the total investments averaged over the last 3 years, and currently we’re drawing over 10%. We recognize that this is unsustainable, and we are working to reduce our expenses.
We also need to increase income. We receive money at the Conference from our congregation members through two sources: dues and OCWM giving. OCWM, or Our Churches’ Wider Mission, is one of the five special offerings taken for denominational work. Typically it is not actually a special offering but a part of each congregation’s annual budgeting expenses. We probably don’t need to tell you that OCWM giving is down and has been trending downward for many years.
We’ve learned that congregations are unclear about how much dues are. We recommend $20/member. For budgeting purposes on our end, it would be helpful if your church gives us an estimate of how much OCWM and dues we could expect from you for 2025.
We are grateful for the covenant that binds us together and for your passion for participating in it. While other denominations have mandatory giving to their regional bodies, in the UCC we rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit and your generosity in our covenantal mutuality to share resources.
It may feel that the Conference is invisible. The Conference work is done by volunteers and staff. It includes resourcing search and call for open pulpits, supporting clergy and congregations, forwarding special offerings to the national setting, preparing for conference annual meetings, reporting annual yearbook statistics, and programming such as the Green Team, LGBTQ events, and Outdoor Ministries. This can only be done because of your big hearted financial gifts that parallel the Big Sky we live under.
We are blessed by your commitment to this ministry.
Thank you.
Pastors Tony Clark and Teressa Clark
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