April Apportionments Remain Lower than Last Year

 After a slow start in January and February, and some improvement in March, our apportionment receipts declined again in April.  But before we get to the numbers, let’s continue sharing stories about the many ministries that your apportionment contributions support.  This month, we will focus on the World Service Fund.

The World Service Fund is the largest of our general church apportioned funds and it is the heart of our denomination-wide ministry, underwriting Christian mission and ministry around the world.  The largest portion of the World Service Fund goes to support the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) and United Methodist Communications (UMComm).  Through GBGM, we undergird a network of United Methodist missionaries that serve around the world, and we cover GBGM’s administrative costs so that 100% of all Advance Special gifts (such as those for Spring storms in the U.S., the Haiti earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, tsunami relief, etc.) go directly for those in need.  And through UMComm, we develop many resources and utilize the mass media and new communication technologies to help make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  So when you contribute your apportionments, the World Service Fund truly allows you to accomplish ministry throughout the world.  We appreciate the diligent efforts of all of our churches to support the World Service Fund and the other ministries encompassed by our apportionment system. 

Now let’s take a look at the numbers.  Our year-to-date apportionment contributions are shown in the following graph:

For the first four months of 2012, 26.4% of apportionments was contributed by our churches.  As you can see from the detailed report, this was 0.7% and $38,000 below last year.  It was also 0.3% below our average apportionment contributions through April for the last ten years.   At this rate, we project year-end apportionment contributions of 85%-89%.  Let us all continue to work hard together to get back to the 90% level so that we can keep up the good ministry we are doing.

Remember that apportionments are a way to be connectional and look beyond just ourselves.  We hope that all of you are able to contribute your apportionments as fully as possible so that we can continue all of our important ministries together.  It is the commitment of all you that provides the financial stability for our connectional programs to work.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

 Randy Bowman

Conference Treasurer