Dear friends,
As we enter another year let me provide an update on our current and future challenges and opportunities.
Our congregations practice good stewardship and support ministry activity both locally and beyond their walls. This happens most effectively when there is high involvement and knowledge about the various ministries. We know from experience that generosity breeds generosity…giving begets giving even when times are tough. Many congregations reduced their mission support of the Southern Ohio Synod and the ELCA at large as they weighed their own internal needs and obligations, but many increased their support. You should also know that many have met their mission support goals or even exceeded giving plans. However, the amount sent on for ministry to the greater church has suffered in recent years resulting in nagging deficits and cutbacks in ministry both in the synod and other areas of the church. In some respects the church has mirrored the world instead of being a model for it.
The challenges:
Among the congregations that did not take affiliation votes, some continued financial support of special ministries, but took the money out of general Mission Support to do so.
Complicating the situation, some congregations that have normally paid their fair share for Mission Support of the whole church did not report changes or challenges in meeting their giving plans to the synod until the last two quarters of the year. This caused the synod and ELCA great difficulty as we would not know this information until it was too late to make necessary adjustments to our budget.
Our synod sent on all the gifts designated by congregations and individuals for specific ministries, including our unrestricted general percentage of income as ELCA Mission Support set by the Synod Assembly. The ELCA and Southern Ohio Synod could not meet many financial obligations simply because we continued spending to support key ministry obligations and commitments not having been informed by some congregations that funding had ceased or been reduced.
All our funded ministries and partners are annually informed that we will fund them based on our income. If our income goes down, so does our funding support. If our synod income is sustained so, too, is synod funding, with one exception: if our income grows so does our Mission Support for churchwide and global ministries. When the synod reduced funding of common agencies and institutions it was not across the board, but determined by their capacity for self-support, other funding streams, and if they have fund raising and financial development staffs.
All the congregational ministries under development and rejuvenation received what we promised as a moral obligation and because, for the most part, they have no other financial resources.
In the main administration of the synod office, wages for program and support staff were maintained with modest increases. The salaries of the Bishop and Assistants to the Bishop had been reduced and frozen for several years, and they paid their own Social Security without allowances or employer contributions.
The synod staffing was reduced by two people this year (and some functions were contracted out or eliminated), we spent minimally for operations and removed some program items from the budget entirely.
One of the positions of Assistant to the Bishop has been eliminated because of income shortage and because the position could be divided into separate responsibilities. How the other Assistants to the Bishop will serve the congregations and leaders in the Central Ohio Conference is posted on our synod website and was sent to our entire list-serve. Across the whole synod, the Assistants will still serve by conference territory but will focus more on partnerships for mission purposes and planning than on general relations. Staff involvement in consultations and meetings will be made on an “as needed” and “as called” basis. They will also be more focused on involvement in personal relationships for pastoral care, mobility interest, mutual information sharing, specific issue discussion, unity building, and increased lay leader involvement. We have already enlisted specialists for conflict management, personal and vocational counseling, and are developing a process for as-needed special intervention.
Ecumenical and interfaith relations, theological reflection and review sessions, mission visioning and coordination will be handled primarily by the bishop and appointees. All the other functions and duties of the bishop will remain intact. Congregational Youth and Family Ministries coordination will remain
as is.
The Synod will still provide direct partnership assistance and service for leader mobility, vocational discernment and support, congregational vacancies, pulpit supply, general consultations, mission planning, conflict management, resourcing for education, mission interpretation, congregation planting and rejuvenation, mission partnerships, ecumenical cooperation, legal matters, and so forth. The list is too extensive to report here, but you get the idea.
We have a contract with Mr. Jerry Haun for the management of the Southern Ohio Synod Candidacy processes. He has served on the Candidacy Committee for many years and has served as interim Director in the past. This was a major responsibility of Pastor Bill Wong, our former Assistant to the Bishop in Central Ohio. The candidacy process in this synod is particularly important to our Southern Ohio Synod processes and produces the third/fourth highest number of rostered leaders in the ELCA (there are over 50 candidates in the process at this time).
Mrs. Arlene Dykeman, retired CPA and member of Old Trinity, Columbus is the new manager of our Congregational Tracking System. She will monitor, record, process, and balance all congregational remittances to the synod. She will also validate information with the congregations and report balances to the ELCA and monitor our Synod Mission Support data and trends. This was a responsibility of our synod Comptroller/Bookkeeper (a position eliminated in the summer of 2011).
I will be sending a visual message to each congregation of the synod updating our leaders on news about our synod ministry activity, issues in the church-at-large, ELCA/SOS LIFT conversations, et cetera. Look for it to arrive in the next few weeks.
The opportunities:
REGARDING MISSION SUPPORT:
This letter is mostly about business stuff. There is a lot more to the church than doing business stuff. There is also the business and joy of being CHURCH…God’s people on the move. As I visit synod conferences, clusters, and gatherings I hope we can share the stories and experiences of Christ’s people and our partnership in the Gospel. May God bless you and our vocation.
Thank you for your support and partnership in the Gospel. You, your families and your congregations are in my prayers. Please keep me, the synod staff and the entire ELCA in your prayers. May God bless our continued ministries in the world.
In Christ,
The Rev. Callon Holloway, Jr.
Bishop