OKLAHOMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
TREASURY ¶ NOTES
July 12, 2010
Editor: Brian Bakeman, 1501 NW 24th St, Oklahoma City OK 73106
Phone: (405) 530-2067; Email: bbakeman@okumc.org; Website: www.okumc.org
CONTENTS
Connectional Giving
Annual Conference Offering
2009 Annual Audits Are Due
Giving Electronically
Ministry Protection Minute
What’s First on Your Ad Council Agenda?
Connectional Giving
Total giving for the month of June dropped from last year by $42,275.42 with apportionments paid on an average of 41% for the year. A positive note is that the ministerial support apportionments that are required are being paid on an average of 48% with the highest paid being the minister’s moving fund at 56% and the lowest being the clergy health insurance at 47%. Remember that the Book of Discipline requires that these apportionments be paid in exactly the same proportion as the pastor’s salary. So if you have paid your pastor 50% of their salary through June, you should have paid 50% of the ministerial support apportionments through June.
Also worth noting is that 56 churches have already paid 100% of their apportionments. The McAlester District is leading the way this year with 10 churches paying 100%. The average paid for all of their churches is 48%, compared to the average for the conference of 41%. Congratulations to the McAlester District!
The biggest improvement in payment of apportionments from last year goes to the South Oklahoma City District which has paid 39% this year, up from 35% last year. Keep up the great work South OKC churches.
Annual Conference Offering
The offering at Annual Conference this year was up as we collected a total of $62,780.49. Bishop Thomas Bickerton did a great job sharing his message on the importance of ending malaria through “Nothing but Nets” and education. His enthusiasm came through for his passion to stop this deadly and preventable disease.
The other beneficiary of our offering this year was the support of the Cookson Hills Center, which is under the direction of Meri Whitaker. This vital ministry to our Native American population is in the process of building a new building to care for children in the area.
Thank you for your support to these two vital ministries that are transforming the lives of people here in Oklahoma and around the world. Remember that you can always support both of these ministries anytime during the year with your contributions.
2009 Annual Audits Are Due
Please don’t forget that the 2009 financial audits are due by August 1st. If your church received any funds from the conference office, your audit, in addition to being submitted to your District Office, must also be turned in to the Conference Office. Rev. Connie Gibson has already mailed letters to all of the entities that fall into this category.
Your help in getting the audits turned in on time this year saves hours of additional work that it took last year just to follow-up on those who didn’t.
Giving Electronically
Do you have a lot of members who leave for vacation during the summer time and while they are out of town, don’t turn their gifts and tithes in to the church? If that is the case in your congregation, I would encourage you to consider looking at offering your members the opportunity to give electronically. As more and more people do their banking electronically, it is only natural for them to consider doing their giving to the church electronically. The upside is that you are receiving their gifts, regardless of whether they are sitting in their pew on Sunday morning or not.
You might contact your local bank and ask them how you can set up opportunities for your members to give to the church.
Ministry Protection Minute
By Rick Carlin
The Ministry Protection Committee and PACT are focusing on reducing losses this year by providing literature, workshops and webinars to help the local church with risk management. PACT has Ministry Protection Memos on a variety of topics, that impact each and every church, on their website (www.umcpact.org) and PACT is continuing their webinar series on the first Thursday of each month at 3:00pm central time.
The August 5th webinar is on Cybersafety, Facebook and Back to School.
The September 2nd webinar is geared toward Reports for the Local Church.
These webinars are led by Joy Melton, PACT’s Chief Resource Officer, and an expert on the topic being presented. Every church is welcome and encouraged to attend. The web link and phone number are on the PACT website at www.umcpact.org .
The Ministry Protection Committee will have some workshops in the late summer or fall as well as having a class at each district’s Local Church Leader Workshop in January and February.
If you need information on a specific topic or just have questions about coverage please call our office at 1-800-460-5678.
What’s First on Your Ad Council Agenda?
In a recent article by Clif Christopher for the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, Clif states that our focus as a church, making disciples, should be the first item of business whenever we meet. When we make that our priority, and do that well, then our finances will also do well.
Let’s not start our meetings with the finance report, and maybe our attention will focus on what God is calling us to do.
