Is the House on Fire?

Severe Cutbacks or Workable Downsizing

by

UMC Future

United Methodist Focus | April 30, 2026

Bishop David Graves knows how to get the church’s attention. He is the board president of the United Methodist General Council on Finance and Administration. At their meeting last November, he said in a presentation, “The church’s financial house is on fire.” As reported by Heather Hahn for United Methodist News Service, Bishop Graves said his intent was not to create fear but to address the reality with honesty and urgency. That’s what good leaders do. They help define reality. No progress is ever made without coming to a common understanding of the challenge.

I first knew Bishop Graves when he was a new district superintendent in the Holston Conference. He was an effective pastor and district superintendent with a passion for the Wesleyan witness to reach people the church often misses. As a superintendent, the churches in his district increased their professions of faith, including among poorer people whom United Methodism has increasingly failed to reach. While all bishops during the recent era have faced daily challenges, Bishop Graves has navigated some of the especially contentious contexts with wisdom and grace.

The denomination’s financial challenge he so starkly presented is real and the result of long-term trends that were accelerated by the pandemic and disaffiliations. Despite membership losses for sixty years, United Methodist finances had followed a different trajectory.

Funds Available Since 2000

While financial challenges are present at all levels of the church, the general church funds are affected by a host of factors beyond their control much more than congregations and conferences. For example, lost funds from closed churches impact the general church but not other local congregations. Those closed churches will impact annual conference finances, but conferences also begin new churches. One other factor has given general church funds fewer dollars in recent decades. The percentage of all money given to congregations going toward general church purposes has always been small but has now grown smaller. I remember a time when we spoke about 4 cents of each dollar contributed to congregations going for general church purposes. Today, that percentage is most likely closer to 2 percent.

For a long time, declining levels for general church funding came primarily from general church apportionments not growing as fast as total church giving. However, we are now in a period in which significant actual decreases in apportioned amounts are a reality. The approved budget for 2025-2028 represented an almost 40 percent decline from the previous budget according to GCFA.

The other variable beyond the size of apportionments on funds available for general church purposes is the rate of payment on the apportionments. The payout rate for 2025 was 83.9 percent or about the same, according to GCFA, as what the denomination saw during the worst of the Great Recession in 2009-2010.

Recession

The word “recession” may offer an appropriate interpretative framework for the denomination’s current financial dilemma. While we know that we have had a membership and worship attendance recession going on for many years, it is only in relatively recent years that we have experienced a church funds recession. One could hardly have expected anything else would happen when you add to the nonfinancial recession trends a national economic recession, a pandemic, and secession of a quarter of churches through disaffiliation.

The chart below shows the sequence of financial phases of denominational giving and spending by all congregations for all purposes since 2000. Remember, it is this grand total baseline from which general church funds come. These changes did not impact all annual conferences equally, but they did affect general church finances at the dramatic levels reflected. A detailed chart with the figures is included at the end. The figures may need further editing, but my purpose is to show some general trends that affect those who must make decisions regarding general church funds.

Options for the Future

Annual conferences and congregations should not face the scale of financial distress these figures represent, though in some cases they will. As we have known for a long time, there must be a rebalancing to achieve financial equilibrium at all levels of the church. Here are some options for the general church. The first two were named in discussions of the November GCFA meeting.

Income sources beyond the offering plate. This source is on the agenda of every church body today as it should be. There could be inevitable competition for these extra resources from the same sources. However, the church has utilized various means of supporting themselves from biblical times until today. No one way is divinely blessed. But it will be important for general church initiatives to fit as denominational ventures and not efforts that might more appropriately fit annual conferences or congregations.

Use of reserve funds. Again, every level of the church needs to make sure they are using all of their funds and assets to strengthen their ability to sustain and extend the United Methodist witness. However, extra funds generated in the past can be an alluring temptation for people looking to avoid hard decisions. To the extent that reserve funds are used to prolong ministries for which there are no sustainable sources of income, then we are merely delaying the day when those efforts die. Every dimension of the church must move its operations into a sustainable financial position shortly in order for future growth to take place. If one is drawing upon nonrecurring funds to cover deficits, then remember that even generating new income will not permit advancing the mission because the new money will always go toward the deficit. True growth requires establishing a solid operating baseline where new funds permit new ministry.

Cost savings. This source goes without saying since all parts of the church have been finding ways to eliminate expenses. Typically, we try to make those changes around the edges and then discover the savings are not very great. In our situation today, some basic systemic adjustments will be required to save funds large enough to meet today’s shortfalls.

In the end, the church at every level depends on the freewill giving of people who join together in a connection so they can do more together than apart. It has been easy to depend on loyalty from members that may be fraying. That should send us back to the basics of making our case, asking, and saying thank you. Obligation is of limited power as a motive for giving in our times.

We can be thankful for leaders who name our financial realities and also for those brave souls who offer an alternative future that is achievable without squandering our inheritance.

For more information:

“Bishop warns of financial troubles ahead” by Heather Hahn, Nov. Nov. 17, 2025 (UM News)

“GCFA Announces Year End Financials, Seeks Prayers for New General Secretary,” Feb. 25, 2026 (GCFA)

2025-2029 UMC Budget Handbook (GCFA)

The Rev. Dr. Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is distinguished professor of church leadership emeritus at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. He came to Wesley in 2003 as the founding director of the Wesley’s Lewis Center for Church Leadership after eighteen years as president of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. Previously he was a pastor in Mississippi for many years. He is the author of many books on church leadership that have had a broad appeal to a large constituency of leaders in both the public and private sectors. 

This article is republished from Dr. Weems' Substack blog, United Methodist Focus.