From August to October 2017, the Council on Finance and Administration (CFA) conducted a survey for the purpose of receiving feedback on the apportionment formula and gathering information on what ministry areas are important to our Local Church Leadership. The surveys were either emailed or mailed to the Pastors, Lay Leaders, Council Chairs, Finance Committee Chairs and Treasurers in our Conference database.
We received 458 responses and had the following results:
- The majority (74%) of the responders knew how their church’s apportionment was calculated.
- The top three ministry priorities for the responders were Local Congregation Support, Congregational Revitalization, and Mission Projects (local and global).
- The majority (71%) of the responders indicated that their church paid 100% of their church’s apportionment in the prior year (2016 at the time).
- When asked about whether the current apportionment formula (based one-third on Membership and two-thirds on Local Expenses) was good and fair, 57% of the responders answered Yes.
- When asked about the best basis for the apportionment formula, 43% (or 177) responders indicated that the Expense and Membership based formula was best. The other options included expense based, income based, membership based, and title on income.
Browse the summary and detailed results of the survey in either Microsoft Excel or Adobe Acrobat format.
At this time, the Council on Finance and Administration will not recommend a change to our apportionment formula, which is Policy 10.1.0 in your Conference Journal. However, CFA will continue to seek the feedback from Local Church leaders and periodically conduct new surveys.