From Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
March 15, 2016

As Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conferences consider coming together to create a new Mountain Sky Conference, I hear questions about the health of the two conferences. 
  
QUESTION: How is the Financial Health of the Two Conferences? What liabilities do the two conferences carry?

Recently I heard a scary rumor that if Rocky Mountain “took on” Yellowstone, it would have dire consequences for Rocky Mountain Conference. I went straight to Rocky Mountain Treasurer, Noreen Keleshian, and asked her if there is some danger that we’ve missed? Noreen and Yellowstone Treasurer, Anita Saas, got together to compare the financial health of the two conferences, as of the end of 2015. 
 
ANSWER 1: While one Conference is larger, they are both financially healthy.
Yellowstone’s annual general fund income is slightly less than 1/4 the size of Rocky Mountain’s. For shared area-wide expenses the rule of thumb is Rocky Mountain pays 3/4 of the expense and Yellowstone 1/4.
In 2016 Yellowstone’s budget is  $1,369,767. “Mission Share” apportionments to local churches are likely to generate about 90% of the total budget, or $1,232,790. Total income has remained remarkably flat at about $1.2 million for many years. Since 2013 the budget has been built on a realistic projection of anticipated income, rather than on the requests and needs submitted. This has reduced the amount apportioned to the churches, but increased the percentage paid, resulting in a budget that is closer to actual income and expenses than previously. Rocky Mountain’s budget for 2016 is $5,600,000. It has grown slowly from $5.35 million in 2011. Rather than an apportionment formula, Rocky Mountain Conference asks local churches to contribute 13% of their adjusted income each month to connectional giving, called “Tithe Plus Mission” giving. Over the past 5 years the budget has been funded each year between 98 and 102%.

             Yellowstone Annual Conference        Rocky Mountain Conference
Year      Budget         %     Income                      Budget          %      Income
                            
2011     1,439,635    82    1,177,928                  5,350,000    100    5,373,287
2012     1,459,988    80    1,170,351                  5,500,000    98      5,392,784
2013     1,497,984    87    1,303,246                  5,500,000    98      5,389,175
2014     1,360,716    90    1,224,644                  5,600,000    102    5,722,087
2015     1,356,660    89    1,210,107                  5,600,000    99      5,572,286
2016     1,369,767                                              5,600,000       

ANSWER 2: Both Conferences have shown strong commitment to apportioned general church funds.
Rocky Mountain Conference has improved its general fund contribution rate from 90% in 2010 to 100% for both 2014 and 2015, with a firm commitment to maintain 100% in the future.
When I arrived in 2008 Yellowstone Annual Conference was well on its way to paying 100% of its general church asking. At my recommendation, to help bring stability to the whole financial program of the Conference, it has settled at 90% since 2012, keeping slightly ahead of the denominational average. Commitment is high, however, to improving in the future.    
ANSWER 3: Neither Conference carries significant debt or liability. 
 
Pre-1982 Pension
A place some annual conferences have a large unfunded liability is in pre-1982 Pension obligations. A target funding level for this commitment is 130%. Both conferences are prudently well above 130%: Yellowstone at 154% and Rocky Mountain at 145%. Just as salaries are lower in Yellowstone than in Rocky Mountain, the 2016 past service rate for pre-1982 pension is $455 in Yellowstone, lower than the $558 in Rocky Mountain. When a merger of two conferences occurs, the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits does not insist that the past service rates for clergy coming from the two previous conferences be reconciled. Clergy who served in Yellowstone before 1982 could continue to receive pension based upon the Yellowstone past service rate.  Clergy who served in Rocky Mountain could continue to receive the Rocky Mountain past service rate.  Over time there will be fewer and fewer clergy affected by this portion of pension for service before 1982. 
 
Other Pension and Benefits funds
The two conferences subsidize for retiree healthcare in different ways and at different levels.  Yellowstone is funded at 73% with an unfunded liability of $597,271, or 27%. Rocky Mountain is funded at 30% with an unfunded liability of $6,578,287, or 70%. Both conferences have adopted Comprehensive Benefit Funding Plans and fund other pension and benefits at the rate required of all conferences.

RETIRED CLERGY HEALTH        Yellowstone     Rocky Mountain
Assets                                            1,648,021         2,826,757
Actuarial Liability                           2,245,292         9,405,044
Unfunded liability                         -597,271           -6,578,287
Funded liability                              73%                  30%

Arrearages for Insurance, Pension and Health
In Yellowstone Conference each local church is responsible for its own property and liability insurance, at levels established by the Conference Trustees. There is, therefore, no conference arrearage for property and liability insurance. However, there may be churches that are under-insured or un-insured for property and liability. Each local church is billed for its pastor’s pension and health insurance. There are no arrearages for these billings.

A few churches in the Rocky Mountain Conference fail to pay all their total costs for insurance, pension and health insurance. At the end of 2015 the total arrearages owed by local churches to the Conference totaled $296,870.

SUMMARY
Both conferences have robust and responsible volunteer and staff systems of financial management and accountability and are continuing to make concrete improvement in areas that are not functioning as well as they should.

As the two conferences get to know one another and consider a shared future, financial soundness is not an impediment. Both conferences have benefited from generous giving, prudent planning and sound management, standing them on solid financial ground.

So, when you hear me say that Yellowstone is facing viability concerns, it is not due to mismanagement, or poverty. It is about scale. Its size and numbers are not large enough to easily support the complex structure of an Annual Conference. But more about that later ...

From Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
March 1, 2016




America’s Changing Religious Landscape
Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow
The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men.

SOME GOOD NEWS: there are vital ministries in the Mountain Sky Area!
There are amazing, vital, congregations in the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences, where people encounter the empowering love of Jesus Christ, grow in their personal lives and reach out to engage and serve their communities. They come in all sizes, in large and small communities, on the plains, in cities, in the mountains. Some are more than 100 years old, some just began. Some vital congregations are growing, some are not. They can be found gathering in old buildings, new buildings, shared buildings, a pub, a coffee shop, on a piece of vacant land or in a City Park.
 
SOME NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS: fewer people are growing in faith through our ministries.
Vitality, by any measure, is not the trend among United Methodist churches in most communities across a four-state region. Our churches have been in decline for decades and there is no change in sight. We aren’t alone in this trend. We are in good company. It’s not like someone else is doing it right, and we aren’t. But it does call for those of us in leadership to sit up straight, pay attention and to try to lead into a new season of vital ministry. That’s our job.
 
SOME CHALLENGING NEWS: vital ministry for the future requires deep change now.
What we are learning, when we sit up straight, is that these trends are so big and so deeply rooted in what’s happening in the lives of people that they aren’t going to change by a new sign, a fresh coat of paint, or a better preacher. As a Church we are called into “adaptive change.” It’s the kind of change that is necessary when familiar patterns of life are no longer suited to the environment in which we live.  It’s like when our toddler rolled his bouncy chair down the basement stairs. We had to install one of those removable gates at the top of the stairs to keep him safe. Our habit of keeping the door open and sprinting up and down the stairs unimpeded did not support the survival of our son. Or, it’s like when my dad fell on another set of basement stairs and blew his knee joint all to pieces. His body was no longer suited to an environment of stairs. He had to adapt to survive. He had to move to a home without stairs.
 
What we are learning is that the forms of religious life we know how to offer are no longer attracting the people in our communities. They are no longer engaging the spiritual longings of the people. The pattern of Sunday morning worship and Sunday School structured for a nuclear family with one working parent who live within a 15 minute drive of the church building, has been on a steady decline since the 1970s, when women re-entered the work force. Church as an institution that defines and promotes social norms of behavior is no longer in high demand. Church where people sit in pews and look to the pastor to dispense pastoral wisdom and comfort does not connect with urgent yearnings of people. Alan Roxborough, of the Missional Leader Network, says the place for mission is at the intersection of the biblical story and the stories of our lives. That intersection is more and more likely to happen outside the walls of our churches or in the weekly order of worship.
 
More and more people are describing themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious.” They seem to know themselves as spiritual beings, seeking to grow in frank, intimate, spiritual community, but don’t look for it or find it in the traditional forms of church.
 
SOME REALLY HARD NEWS: change involves loss.
We can’t fix the decline by improving. It’s not about the pastor or the preaching, or the bible study, or the coffee. It’s not about the street appeal or the parking, or the hymnal. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about these things. We should. And we should always strive to improve. BUT, improvement is not adaptation. Adaptation requires that we let go of what we were raised on and learn how to behave in new ways. Adaptation requires that we quit doing what we know how to do that isn’t working, and try new things.
 
It is not easy to adapt. Nobody wants to let go of what we love. It’s like a camel fitting through the eye of a needle. It’s like entering your mother’s womb a second time to be born again. It might even be like death and resurrection. We’ve gotten used to things the way they are. It’s less disturbing to hold on to the forms we know, even as they decline, than it is to step out of those forms into a formless and uncertain future. Suffering loss is only worth it if your life depends on it.
 
So, Dad, you really need to move out of this house. We want you well and safe. You might not survive another fall like that.
 
THE REALLY GOOD NEWS: God has prepared us for difficult change.
Who better than the Christian community of faith to look up, see a pillar of fire, gird up our loins and march into the wilderness? This is what we are made for. This is what years of bible study, and prayer have prepared us for. John Cobb named us people of “self-transcending selfhood.” We are spiritually capable of being more than we are or have ever imagined ourselves to be capable of. And God leads the way. “Behold, I make all things new.” “Behold, I am doing a new thing, can you not perceive it?” “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”
 
If I were you, reading this, right about now I’d be thinking, “I see the need for change, but what’s to say that THIS CHANGE will lead us into a new season of vitality?” If you aren’t ready to let go of the Rocky Mountain Conference and the Yellowstone Conference to create a new conference, what are you willing to give up to open the possibility of new creation?   
 
Stay tuned. Join the conversation with your comments. There’s more to come ...

Elaine J. W. Stanovsky