Conference at a critical point in history

“We are at a critical point in our history,” said Dr. Charles Smith during his “Church Treasurer and Statistician“ report to the 2012 Annual Conference session.  “Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to make God’s presence known throughout our world,” he added.

Click to hear the audio recording of Dr. Smith's report

“The United Methodist Church and the Iowa Conference have decided to express that mission with the goal of making disciples for Jesus Christ and develop leaders who can help transform the world…our mission and goal match well with the great commission from Christ who told us to ‘go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that he commanded.” 

Introducing the statistics of his report he said, “the numbers I report match well with the Pentecost sermon of Peter which ended with a report of 5,000 men profession a new faith.”

• 2011 average worship attendance: 55,790, a decrease of 770 from 2010
• Highest average attendance: 1,079, an increase of 19 over 2010; average attendance, for Iowa UM congregations: 70
• 2011 membership: 175,487, a decrease of 4,124 members
• Largest congregation: 2,610 members, and increase of 24 over 2010; average congregation membership: 221
• 249 congregations reported an increase in membership;  406 decreased; 139 reported no change 

Reviewing statistics from 1987 to date, Dr. Smith noted that worship attendance was 37 percent of membership at that time and is currently 31.8 percent.  In 1987 there were 891 congregations in Iowa; in 2011 there were 794.

Other statistics:

• In 2011 there were 2,509 received by profession of faith, a decrease of 29 from 2010
• 385 congregations received at least one new member; 407 congregations did not receive any; the most received by any one congregation: 66
• 2011 baptisms: 2,217, a decrease of 68 from 2010.  497 congregations had at least one baptism and 295 had none.  The most baptisms in any one single congregation were 70
• 2011 income: $106,377,670, which was a 4.05% increase from last year.  Our income average for 2011 was $606.19 per member, and $1,906.75 per average worship attendee
• 2011 expenditures: $103,223,614, a 3.77% increase from the previous year.  Our congregations spent on average $588.21 per member.  The spending per worship attendee was $1,850,217.
• 2011 value of assets, other than land and buildings: $111,377,800 which was a 0.72% decrease
• 2011 apportionments: $13,334, or 82.09% which was 0.52%% higher than last year.  Of the three funds our General Church apportionments were paid at 86.83% meaning that we used the contingency fund for these apportionments in order fund our General Church apportionments at 100%, Conference Ministries percentage was 81.98% an increase of 0.4% and Conference Missions was 78.41% a 1.12% increase.
• 2011 apportionment payment percentage: When we closed the remittance system in early January 66% (the same as last) of our congregations had paid their apportionments at 100% since that time an additional 4% of congregations have reached the 100% level.

The large numbers related to our money seems difficult to comprehend so let’s put them in dollars and cents.  For every one dollar that was put in the offering plate….

• 2.2 cents went to fund General Church apportionments
• 10.1 cents went to fund the apportionments that support the ministry and mission of the Iowa Annual Conference
• 7.9 cents went to fund the benefits (pension and health insurance for the clergy and lay staff of local congregations.)
• 1.1 cents went to fund Advance Special Projects
• 78.7 cents were left to use by local congregations at its desecration for ministry

Concluding his final report to the Iowa Annual Conference – Dr. Smith will be retiring on July 1, 2012 after 16 years of service as Conference Treasurer/Director of Administrative services, Dr. Smith said, “Our mission should we choose to accept it is to make God’s presence known throughout our world.  United Methodist chose to meet this mission with the goals of making disciples and developing leaders who will transform our world.  How well we meet these goals will determine our future.”