Today's announcement by Church of God Ministries regarding new administrative practices for missions projects reminds me to complete my two part reflections on the state and future of missions in the Church of God. I will get to that shortly.
But, today's announcement does reveal the changing landscape which is forcing changes upon our national organization. In short, CHOGM has decided to begin, in 2010, assessing an 8% administrative fee on a number of missions projects (excluding Living Link) to cover the real costs of implementing these projects. This is a common practice among charitable organizations, but one that we have avoided thus far through the general World Ministries Budget. With giving to the latter in decline CHOGM has little choice but to search for ways to pay for the admininistrative engine that runs behind the scenes.
In principle, I don't have a problem with this decision as donors have to accept the reality of administration, and the overall decline in unrestricted giving has left no obvious alternatives. Of course, not everyone will be as understanding of this decision, which could see even less interest in support of these centralized projects. This should result in new discussions concerning the giving to the CHOGM and its role in missions.
More reason for me to get on to my next blog post...
But, today's announcement does reveal the changing landscape which is forcing changes upon our national organization. In short, CHOGM has decided to begin, in 2010, assessing an 8% administrative fee on a number of missions projects (excluding Living Link) to cover the real costs of implementing these projects. This is a common practice among charitable organizations, but one that we have avoided thus far through the general World Ministries Budget. With giving to the latter in decline CHOGM has little choice but to search for ways to pay for the admininistrative engine that runs behind the scenes.
In principle, I don't have a problem with this decision as donors have to accept the reality of administration, and the overall decline in unrestricted giving has left no obvious alternatives. Of course, not everyone will be as understanding of this decision, which could see even less interest in support of these centralized projects. This should result in new discussions concerning the giving to the CHOGM and its role in missions.
More reason for me to get on to my next blog post...
