The General Conference Treasurer's Quadrennial Report
By W. T. KNOX
Jan. 1, 1909, to Dec. 31, 1912
In submitting the quadrennial report of the Treasury Department of the General Conference, it is recognized that, to a very large extent, it will indicate the spiritual condition of the people, the degree of their devotion and self-sacrifice, and their love of the truth. It will be a telling index of their attitude to that cardinal feature of their faith, the second coming of Christ. In this report we may also expect to find material evidence of the degree of prosperity the Lord may have given to his cause and people during the time covered. It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that this financial statement of the operations of the General Conference is submitted, for it certainly reveals a remarkable growth in our mission work. The operations of the General Conference Treasury Department may be segregated into four divisions: first, the administrative and departmental work of the General Conference; second, those large cities of North America where conferences have not sufficient financial strength to properly care for them, the many foreign nationalities settling in the East and Middle West of the United States, and the Negroes of the Southern States; third, those organized fields other than North America, such as Europe, Australia, South Africa, South America, and the West Indies; fourth, those great divisions of the world designated under the general term of heathen lands, such as India, China, Korea, Japan, the Malay Peninsula and islands, the great island territory of the South Seas, and the scattered mission fields, such as West Africa and Mexico. With the ever-expanding work of the denomination, and the resulting increased demands made upon the General Conference, we should expect to see an increased expenditure of funds upon the first of these divisions. Additional helpers and expense in administrative and departmental work are unavoidable in an increasing work. A study of this report in detail, however, is most gratifying, in that it shows but very slight increase in cost to the denomination. In the second division, pertaining to the large cities of America, the foreign populations of the United States, and the North American Negro Department, increased appropriations have been granted in the years 1910, 1911, and 1912 to some of the union conferences of the East and South, due chiefly to the fact that some of these conferences, formerly barely self-supporting, by adopting the general policy of a liberal division of their tithe with the General Conference, have required corresponding assistance to enable them to care for their fields. One union conference, the Western Canadian, that has been receiving aid from the treasury, has become self-supporting, and is, according to its membership, one of the most helpful in securing funds for the mission treasury. Others give promise of soon being able to do likewise. The rapidly increasing foreign populations have necessitated increased expenditures for the North American Foreign Department also. It is with much satisfaction, however, that attention is called to the fact that notwithstanding much of the expense involved in these first two divisions is for the support of work entirely devoted to the general features of the denomination, the results of which contribute in a very large measure to the gathering of mission funds and the recruiting of laborers for foreign fields, the entire outlay for them is met without encroaching upon the gifts of the people to foreign fields; the tithe of the General Conference, the division of tithe from the local conferences, and special gifts being ample to meet all the expense involved, and leave a handsome surplus for foreign mission work. In the third division referred to, the European Division and Australia, which formerly made large demands upon the mission treasury, have not only become self-supporting, but are now, by the blessing of God, able fully to relieve the General Conference of all financial responsibility in sending the gospel message to large portions of the earth. A glance at the map of the world will reveal what this means to the General Conference treasury. To all the European nations, Iceland, Siberia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, German and British East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Sea islands, the message is now being carried independent of our treasury, leaving us free to devote greater energy and more attention to the great, needy fields of heathendom. South Africa gives encouragement that it will soon be able to care for its own territory. Two mission stations that in the past have received a large portion of the South African appropriations, are now financially independent. South America, while forging ahead and making a most gratifying record, will probably require our assistance for some time, as will also the West Indian Union Conference. Of the fourth division specified—the dark heathen lands of the Far East—the most encouraging word that can be said, is that the Lord is most wonderfully opening doors before us, and from them are coming many Macedonian cries. Their millions are reaching out their hands to us, calling for the best of our young men and women, for our means, and for our prayers,—calls that evidence that the Lord is rapidly preparing the way for the coming of his Son and the termination of this long reign of sin. This financial report is some evidence of how the Lord's people are relating themselves to his final work of mercy in behalf of those who have so long been in darkness and ignorance concerning him. In the body of the report are given the different sources from which we have drawn our funds, and the amounts received from them each year during the quadrennial period, a marked increase being almost always shown each year, with the exception of the Religious Liberty Offerings and the second tithe, there being nothing received from the latter source since 1909, the surplus or per cent of tithe from local conferences taking its place. The same is also the case with conferences that in the past have undertaken the support of laborers in other fields. Special attention is called to the Annual Offerings, which amounted in 1909 to $27,066.29, in 1910 to $54,374.08, in 1911 to $48,676.47, and in 1912 to $71,676.46. The First-day Offerings increased from $18,789.68 in 1909 to $25,236.14 in 1912; the general mission fund from $87,832.92 in 1909 to $102,477.45 in 1912. The Harvest Ingathering Fund, beginning with $41,183.46, reached the sum of $50,164.45 in 1912. The most remarkable showing, however, is found in the Sabbath-school Offerings, which in 1909 contributed to the treasury $81,911.65; in 1910, $99,779.95; in 1911, $115,651.65; and in 1912, $188,421.82; the Sabbath-schools thus contributing to our funds during 1912, $8,000 in excess of the entire mission offerings to the General Conference in 1906. It is evident that we can learn valuable lessons in raising mission funds from the Sabbath-schools. Their constant education concerning our mission efforts, their catchy devices and their special features to maintain a live interest in the fields, and their weekly appeals for contributions, without doubt, have largely contributed to the remarkable success made in this line of work by our Sabbath School Department. Great relief has also been brought to the treasury by the liberal attitude of the local conferences in sharing their tithe with the General Conference. Without this aid, the Mission Board would not only not have been able to make an increase in its mission work, but it would have continued in the dire distress prevailing in 1910, during which year a heavy deficit was created. This division of tithe gave the treasury in 1912 the sum of $157,688.38, and has placed the General Conference where, if nothing unforeseen occurs, it can carry its work through the trying summer months without15embarrassment to the mission fields or itself. For a number of years we have been endeavoring to educate the denomination to a systematic giving to missions that would equal ten cents a week per member. At one time it was thought that the amount thus raised would be ample for all the needs of the Mission Board. Some advancement has been made in this effort each year, as shown in the reports from the Treasury Department; but the rapidly advancing movement of the message has, in the past two or three years, made it very evident that our ideas and plans concerning mission work and offerings must be enlarged. At the Friedensau meeting in 1911, with some trepidation and misgivings, it was decided to appeal to the churches of America to increase their offerings to equal an average amount of fifteen cents a week per member, the necessities of such a request being placed before them. The result has been most gratifying, the offering for 1912 amounting to $472,610.87, or a weekly basis of only a fraction of a cent less than fifteen cents a week per member. The summary of the report gives the total receipts and disbursements of mission funds in a way that all can see the growth of the work during the period under consideration. There were in— |
RECEIPTS |
DISBURS'TS |
|---|
| 1909 |
$377,972.79 |
$357,532.56 |
| 1910 |
374,639.37 |
410,611.48 |
| 1911 |
427,861.98 |
404,922.53 |
| 1912 |
653,458.28 |
495,361.92 |
A total of receipts for the four years of $1,833,932.42, in contrast with $888,607.45 for the previous four years, a gain of $945,324.97. The total disbursements for the four years have been $1,668,428.49, as compared with the previous four years' disbursements of $833,871.04, an increase of $834,557.45. During this same period, there was received by the treasury on the $300,000 Fund, $177,999.30, the fund being closed July 1, 1912. Of this there was disbursed as follows:—
China ........................$57,119.76
Japan ........................1,414.34
Korea ........................14,729.02
India ........................29,039.68
Europe .......................7,972.40
Australia ....................1,000.00
South American Union ........14,000.00
Brazil .......................4,500.00
West Africa ..................1,500.00
West Indian Union ............4,500.00
Cuba ........................300.00
Canadian Union ...............571.23
Montreal church ..............1,949.89
Total ........................138,596.32
Balance ......................39,402.98
$177,999.30 In the past, one of the perplexing problems of the denomination has been a proper provision for the care of the aged and infirm conference workers. During the fall council of 1910, the present plan, known as the Sustenation Fund, was adopted,—a fund created from five per cent of the tithe of all the conferences of America. Thus far the plan has afforded universal satisfaction, and has proved a great blessing to the denomination. Since it has been in operation, from Jan. 1, 1911, it has yielded $110,963.60; one hundred eighty-five ministers, Bible workers, and other conference laborers have regularly drawn their support from the fund, at an outlay of $103,538.16. Temporary assistance has been given to the amount of $3,801.07. From the rapidly increasing demands made upon the fund, it is evident that it will be necessary in the near future to raise the per cent of tithe devoted to this work. We have in this report much to encourage us. The funds connected with our evangelistic work are all in healthy condition. Much of the heavy financial pressure of the past years has been removed. With this there comes to our brethren in distant and difficult fields a feeling of security that has not always characterized their labors. This is as it should be. But, without doubt, this Conference will give voice to many pleas that should be granted, and if they are, they will call for still greater outlay, all of which should only confirm us in the faith in which we hold the message, but will necessitate greater devotion and liberality than in the past, in order that not only every opportunity to advance the kingdom of God may be improved to the full, but also that every phase of our denominational finance may be properly cared for. W. T. KNOX.