The Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) Board approved revised mission budgets for 2015 and 2016 on April 16, 2015.

PMA chief financial officer Earline Williams told members of the PMA’s Finance Committee in its meeting yesterday that since the budgets were originally approved at the 221st General Assembly in June 2014, members of the PMA’s finance and accounting staff have been reanalyzing the data with each of the ministry areas in order to reach the budget changes that were presented to the committee and subsequently to the board.

Upon the committee’s recommendation, the board approved a revised 2015 budget of $76,611,903, a net increase of $1,190,929 over the previously approved budget; and a revised 2016 mission budget of $78,027,204, which is a net decrease of $1,814,840 over the previously approved budget.

Williams identified the following areas with changes in the 2015 and 2016 budgets:

  • Executive Director
  • Funds Development
  • Mission Resources
  • Mission
  • Shared Services

The mission category reflects an increase in expenditures related to disaster relief efforts within the Compassion, Peace and Justice ministry area; a decrease in expenditures due to program realignments in Evangelism and Church Growth and reduced Youth Triennium costs in 2016; and a decrease in World Mission expenditures related to the prioritization of mission coworkers and regions.

The changes will require that additional amounts of $989,592 for 2015 and $811,991 for 2016 be transferred from the Presbyterian Mission Program Fund (PMPF), the unrestricted cash reserve.

In a related budget matter, the board approved that $500,000 of the $1 million committed for World Mission contingency or emergency expenses be restored and returned to undesignated funds.

In other business from the Finance Committee, the board approved a recommendation that the Presbyterian Foundation and the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program (PILP) work together to develop a green initiative church loan program product designed to use available church loan funds to help congregations reduce their carbon emissions and become more energy efficient.

The motion also gives the PMA’s Executive Committee permission to act on the board’s behalf prior to its September meeting.

“We want to get the new church loan product in place prior to the September [board] meeting,” said James Rissler, president of PILP, during his afternoon presentation to the Finance Committee with Greg Rousos, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Presbyterian Foundation. “Although the loan program may not be ready for marketing by September, we want the Executive Committee to be able to approve any actions so that we won’t have to wait until then.”

In earlier Finance Committee business, Chad Herring, Kansas City, Mo., chair, and Tom Fleming, Los Angeles, Cal., vice chair, were both reelected to their current positions for 2015-2016.

A larger conversation about PMPF moving forward will be postponed until the committee’s next meeting, tentatively scheduled for May 8, via GoToMeeting.

“Our committee had hopes of having a really detailed discussion about the ongoing unrestricted reserves that are part of PMPF, but have been unable to do so at this meeting,” Herring told the board. “We will dedicate a substantial amount of time in the near future to that discussion.”