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Click the button below to view the report from GCAS regarding the financial health of our conference.
Gwen Speak
Treasurer
Comparative Tithe
After viewing the chart below, we would like to share with you the ways in which the finances of the Gulf States Conference have been managed over the last five years. We believe our story is one of the faithfulness of our members and God’s providing and leading.
The graph above reveals that during the past five years, faithful members of Gulf States returned to God a total of $55,567,647 in tithe. This is compared to the previous five-year period total of $51,070,983 in 2011-2015, which is a gain of almost $4.5 million.
Tithe and the Dollar
During the last five years, denominational policy has increased what the local conference retains by four-tenths of a percent. It has also increased what goes to retirement by three-tenths of a percent while decreasing the amount sent to the General Conference by seven-tenths of a percent.
Tithe is the main source of funding for the Conference. If you take a look at the above graph, not only does tithe provide funding for our local conference, but it literally goes around the world to spread the message into every nation, tribe, and tongue fulfilling our shared mission.
Conference Expense Report
During the past five years, expenses have been classified into five categories, which are shown in the graph below.
Ministry programs make up 32% of our cost. This includes pastor’s salaries and benefits as well as evangelism. Another 43% of our income was spent on education which includes our teacher’s salaries, as well as Bass Memorial Academy. These two categories alone were 75% of our expenses for the past five years. This leaves the remaining 25% of our costs for our youth, which includes things like Pathfinders, summer camp, and Alamisco; additional ministries such as Hispanic ministries, women’s ministries, publishing, etc; as well as the cost of maintaining the office and various personnel.
It is our belief that part of being good stewards is using our resources wisely as well as setting aside funds to help further the ministry when times are hard. This was really brought home to us in 2020 with the pandemic. We didn’t have to worry as much about maintaining or furthering the ministry of the Gulf States Conference because we had reserves to use if needed. As of December 31, 2020 our tithe reserves were $1,979,629. Praise God we didn’t need to use any of our tithe reserves, but they were there if we would have needed them.
Education
It is a true certainty that education is a vital part of our Conference, since we consider it a large part of evangelism. The chart below shows the breakdown and investments made from 2016 - 2020 by our churches and Conference for education.
The Conference funded 47.9% of the educational costs for our K-8 schools and Hoover, while the local churches covered the remaining 52.1%. The Conference has invested 25.5% of the total education costs into Bass Memorial Academy, which is $5,196,209. This includes the gym roof repair in 2020 of almost $750,000. The total amount invested in education in the last five years, including the investment of the local churches, is $20,371,153.
Bass Memorial Academy Endowment Fund
During the last quinquennium, it was determined that something needed to be done to help keep Christian education sustainable. In March of 2019, it was decided to grow the endowment for Bass to $10 million.
As of December 31, 2020, the BMA endowment was $2,768,555. We are hoping to reach the $10 million mark during this next quinquennium of 2020 – 2024. Once that goal is reached, we hope to start raising another $10 million for an endowment for our elementary schools to help reduce the costs for the local churches.
As a department, it is our passion and ministry to serve our conference membership, churches, schools, employees, and other institutions in our conference and support each ministry. We strive to receive, manage and release funds for God’s work and report on the financial position of our conference. God’s word states that all belongs to Him and it is our desire to be good stewards of what He has gifted us with.
I am thankful for all of the local church and school treasurers and their finance committees. Their hard work, dedication, and passion for the mission of Jesus and their local church or school are truly a blessing from God. We must always keep in mind a commitment to service; service to God, to our membership, our employees, and each other. It is a collective desire to look forward and together see God do great things in our conference for His honor and glory, as we approach Jesus’ soon return.