God’s Realities versus the United Methodist Church’s Realities

I just watched this video below put together the by United Methodist Church’s General Council on Finance and Accountability. There are some seriously sobering statistics in here that deal with the hard numbers of money.

To not paint this as total doom and gloom they highlighted that the church was still doing good work (and it is & has been) however I was stopped in my tracks by this statement towards the end of the video.

“But what we have is sufficient to fulfill God’s Call.”

before that was

“We may not have as many resources as we would like.”

I don’t know, maybe it is just me. But isn’t this a terrible way to frame the work of the church that you were just telling me is in a finance ticking time bomb?

We have not grown since the early 60′s, we’ve lacked any growth that matched the population growth, our spending has gone up in the hundreds of % (125% for lay staff, which I am a part of. 284% I believe in total debt). We might not have as many resources as we would like, but it obvious we are spending without regard. What we have to fulfill God’s call is not actually something we have in the first place.

So what is sufficient to the United Methodist Church?

Seems our leadership needs to roll up their sleeves and do some dirty work of cutting finances that are sacrifices to them and not just to the local churches. Churches need to be sold off and/or repurposed, conferences need to dissolve their staff unless they are gaining quantifiable results that produce that return on investment.

UMC Realities from GCFA Admin.

Now, I don’t particularly care for all this money language and return on investment. I am not a huge fan of cutting peoples jobs who I am close friends with. But it seems to me we have our heads in the sand peeking out to see & hope if it is getting any better. And I would rather us see ourselves through some tough decisions that we can control with care versus a bankruptcy situation that we have no control over as a church body.

As A Side Note: My buddy Kevin has highlighted, the finances will not get much better by trying to grow with young adults.