NEC Financial Difficulties

I have a large number of serious questions that really need answering relating to the above points.

1. If historically only 40% of the membership are faithful financial supporters of the church and it is still 40% today, then nothing has changed and there should have been no surprises on how much income there is from the membership.
2. The recession has been going on for some time now so surely there should be some understanding that this would affect the income of the membership and hence the tithe income. The figures published by the BUC seem to show that there has been an INCREASE in tithe giving in the NEC no matter how you compare it.
3. What are the increased costs of the Conference? This is a bit of a throw away statement without supporting info.
4. Granted that there has been a decrease in the enrolment in our schools, but how much and how much has this financially impacted on the Conference?
5. Has the Conference only now realised that they are not getting as much interest payments from cash held in the bank? Interest payments have been low for years now. Also, you only get interest if there is capital in the bank. No or low capital then no or low interest. Surely we cannot be depending upon bank interest payments to run the church either in the past and especially not now?

Why did the problem only come about after the last Audit? Are trends not looked at on a regular basis and reacted upon when required? It would be poor for any family not to look ahead and plan but wait until financial ruin is staring it in the face.

No matter what is said, all of this looks very bad coming so close after a well publicised NEC Workers and Office Staff Meeting in Israel paid for how? Pastors I have asked the same question to say that it was out of/in lieu of part of their Equipment Budgets. If that is the case then the allocation should have been cut to help with the savings the members are now being asked to contribute to. It also looks bad (no matter what the reason) that the Area 4-6 Inter-Session Town Hall Meeting that should have been a few weeks ago has been cancelled. If the thought is legitimate or not it looks like the Conference Leadership did not want head-on challenges to the bad news.

All of this gives me no confidence that the solutions stated will clear the situation

Almost every Conference Department seems to asking for the members to support their programs by paying up to £160+ to attend weekend seminars in high quality hotels for good, spiritual fellowship and learning that can be achieved elsewhere. Members now have to pay £1 to go to hear the word of God on Sabbath mornings (more if it is in a nice hotel) or attend Rally days because we no longer seem to have sufficient competent secretaries working in the Conference Offices.

Remember, faithfulness is not just measured in what the membership put in the offering plate and send to conference. It also includes the unmeasurable gifts of time, energy, petrol, kindness and giving that no receipts can be written for by any local, conference or Department Treasurer.

Please tell me that I am wrong or the letter was badly written or I don’t understand or have got the wrong end of the stick. Please show me reason to have confidence that our Conference leadership knows what it is doing with the finances that they receive without making the faithful Family feel they are guilty of being without faith.

Please take for granted my prayers for the NEC leadership team.

Thanks Muriel for your suggestion. The Stewardship department will study further into this topic.

Thanks Ore, for your comments. This is not the first time that the North England Conference has faced a challenge like this and on the previous two occasions that I have been aware of with careful planning and the support of the membership we came through succesfully. The steps taken then, were essentially fire fighting, but now we are saying that more fundamental things need to be done to address the apparent spiritual and financial issues highlighted by this situation.

With respect to the workers meeting in Israel, it is part of the General Conference policy for workers to travel to sites like the Holy Land as part of their continuing education programme and for personal spiritual development. While in Israel we met a team of 200 ministerial workers from the Inter American Division on a similar tour as we were. The Conference holds regular events in this country where the worker force gets together for encouragement and in service training. Quoting from the correspondence sent to the churches by Pastor Sweeney, “In the past these residential meetings have been hosted at retreat centres around the UK, however, the pastoral Team voted to self fund this meeting so they are foregoing a number of personal annual allowances and entitlements. Accompanying spouses have had to fund their own airfares.” It must be said that the wider educational value and spiritual benefit of the trip was incalculable for those taking part. With respect to your second comment; the size of the Camp Hill Membership (nearly 700) does demand more ministerial input. I trust that this has proven helpful.

With leadership comes responsibility. It is not enough to ask members to be faithful stewards when the money we faithfully return is not being managed properly - what evidence of stewardship is this? God will also require of the conference.

The NEC needs to lead by example. If the majority of the expenditure is salaries there should be a pay-freeze for the next financial year as in keeping with other organisations including the public sector.

With regard to continuing professional development as a professional myself, I have to pay for any conferences or courses I attend. I do not have the luxury of bringing my spouse, for even if they do pay their own airfare who is paying for the accommodation and food? There are usually a set of objectives to be attained by the end of the conference - I don't understand the objectives of the trip to Israel.

The NEC and its pastors are not only accountable to God but to its members and it appears at present that pastors feel that they are above the laitity in their day to day activities, not giving an account and therefore not truly providing the service they are employed ( for not all are called). However, not all of the pastors are hirelings and some are doing the work that is required of them, I thank God for your ministry.

Amos, In my personal opinion because Stewardship is a spiritual issue we would be barking up the wrong tree if we simply look at our present difficulties as one of lack of people supporting the finances of the church. Personally my answer to your question is that our problems is simply an indication of the fact that many of our members are not as spiritually committed as they should be to the mission and purpose of the church and until that changes the purpose of God in completing the gospel commission will be delayed. Our church books are audited annually and as has been said in the past, page 47 of the last NEC Session report highlighted the longstanding issues of lack of compliance to TED financial policy which the Administration is seeking to address at this time.

As to your reference to Haggai 1:6, (not verse 7 as you referenced), the context does not suggest that the tithe given to God is being put into a bag with holes but rather that their wages are being put into a bag with holes because they and all their resources are not being blessed because they are with-holding from God that which is rightfully his. That indeed is a salutary warning to us all.