A vision for funding regional conferences

Key points:

• Each regional United Methodist conference should contribute according to its capacity; equal constitutional authority doesn’t require equal financial obligation.  
• Connectional funds should support denomination-wide responsibilities, while regional funds should support regional needs.
• Funding structures should promote connectional interdependence rather than dependency, including capacity-based apportionments.
• Greater regional autonomy must be matched by strong financial accountability, transparent budgeting and safeguards against undue donor influence.

 

The Rev. Dr. Luan-Vu “Lui” Tran.
Photo courtesy of the author.

Regionalization transformed the constitutional structure of The United Methodist Church.

The denomination now has nine regional conferences — four in Africa, three in Europe, one in the Philippines and one in the United States — standing on substantially equal constitutional footing in matters of regional authority.

Regionalization addresses an important question: Should United Methodists in different parts of the world possess comparable authority to shape ministry and administration for their own contexts?

The answer is yes.

But regionalization creates another question that may prove equally important: How should regional conferences with vastly different economic capacities be funded?

A regional conference cannot exercise meaningful authority without resources. Conferences must meet, translate legislation, maintain administrative systems, communicate across national boundaries, provide financial accountability, train leaders and comply with different legal systems.

Yet the nine regions operate in dramatically different economic environments.

The future of regionalization therefore depends not merely upon constitutional equality but upon economic sustainability.

Different regions, different realities

Equal constitutional status does not mean equal financial capacity.

Some regional conferences serve countries with relatively high incomes, stable currencies, sophisticated banking systems and substantial institutional assets.

Others operate in communities where congregational income is much lower, currencies fluctuate significantly, banking infrastructure is limited, and domestic or international travel may cost several months of a pastor's salary.

Even annual conferences within the same region may face dramatically different economic conditions.

Regionalization should therefore avoid the assumption that equality means every conference must contribute the same amount.

A sustainable system should instead recognize a fundamental distinction: Equality of authority does not require equality of financial obligation.

Every region should contribute to the life of the church, but contributions should reflect economic capacity.

Regional yet still connectional

Regional conferences now possess significant authority to legislate for their contexts, but The United Methodist Church remains a connectional denomination.

The General Conference continues to exercise constitutional authority over matters that belong to the whole church, including the establishment and distribution of general church funds.

This means regionalization should not produce nine financially independent denominations operating beneath a common name. Regional ministry programs should increasingly be supported through regional financial structures.

That distinction suggests a simple principle: Connectional funds should support connectional responsibilities. Regional funds should support regional responsibilities.

The two will sometimes overlap, but the distinction should remain clear.

A three-level funding model

A sustainable post-regionalization structure could operate at three levels.

• First, the general church level. General church apportionments should continue supporting institutions and responsibilities belonging to the denomination as a whole, including General Conference, general agencies, the Judicial Council and other connectional ministries.
• Second, the regional conference level. Each regional conference should develop an operating budget supporting functions such as regional-conference sessions, administrative personnel, translation, communications, technology, leadership development, legal compliance and regional ministries.
• Third, the annual conference and local church level. Annual conferences and congregations would continue supporting ministries within their respective areas while contributing through apportionments to regional and worldwide responsibilities.

This structure would make financial accountability easier because the church could identify which level of governance is responsible for which expenses.

Apportionments, capacity and fairness

A flat per-member assessment would be simple, but simplicity is not necessarily fairness.

Consider two regional conferences with 100,000 members each. One may operate in an economy where churches own significant property, maintain professional staffs and generate substantial annual income. The other may serve communities where congregational income represents only a fraction of that amount.

Membership alone does not measure financial capacity.

Regional apportionment formulas should therefore consider factors such as:

• local church expenditures;
• purchasing power;
• currency stability;
• national economic and political conditions;
• extraordinary inflation or economic disruption; and
• the actual financial resources available to annual conferences.

No formula will be perfect. The goal should instead be proportional participation: Every region contributes meaningfully without being assessed at a level that undermines its ministry.

Equal commitment does not necessarily mean equal dollars.

Connectional solidarity without dependency

Some regions will inevitably require more financial assistance than others. That should not make them less autonomous.

The danger would be creating a system in which wealthy regions become permanent benefactors while poorer regions become permanent recipients. Such a structure could reproduce the very center-periphery relationships regionalization is intended to overcome.

A better approach would be a Regional Capacity and Equalization Fund authorized through the appropriate General Conference processes.

Such a fund could provide support for essential regional infrastructure, including:

• regional conference sessions;
• translation and interpretation;
• technology and communications;
• financial and administrative systems;
• legal compliance; and
• participation by delegates from economically disadvantaged areas.

Eligibility should be governed by transparent criteria rather than personal relationships or access to wealthy donors.

Assistance should also supplement — not replace — regional stewardship. Every region should contribute according to its capacity.

The goal is not dependency but connectional interdependence.

Financial accountability, regional authority

Greater regional autonomy must be accompanied by stronger financial accountability.

Regional conferences should adopt transparent budgets, maintain appropriate reserves, establish internal financial controls and provide regular financial reports.

Where practicable, independent audits or equivalent professional review should become normal practice.

Regional bodies should also establish policies governing:

• conflicts of interest;
• restricted funds;
• procurement;
• investments;
• outside grants; and
• major donor relationships.

The last point is particularly important. If an outside organization, foundation, annual conference or individual provides a substantial portion of a regional budget, financial support should never translate into ecclesiastical control.

Regional decisions must remain accountable to the church rather than to the region’s largest benefactors. Financial sustainability requires institutional trust.

Geography and currency matter

Worldwide governance carries costs that cannot be understood through a purely American financial model.

Exchange rate fluctuations may radically alter purchasing power. International bank transfers carry fees. Visas cost money. Translation is essential. Airfare between two countries in the same region may exceed the cost of crossing the United States.

Regional conferences should therefore have flexibility to design administrative structures appropriate to their geography.

Hybrid meetings, shared administrative services, rotating conference locations, advance travel planning, regional technology platforms and strategic use of virtual communication may substantially reduce costs.

Regionalization should not require every region to reproduce an American-style administrative structure. Contextualization applies to governance as well as ministry.

Diversifying regional revenue

Apportionments should remain foundational because they express shared connectional responsibility.

But regional conferences should also explore sustainable sources of income consistent with the Book of Discipline and applicable national law. Possibilities may include endowments, investment income, grants, educational programs, publications, training ministries, property development and partnerships.

Revenue strategies, however, must be contextual. A financial model that works well in the United States or Europe may be legally unavailable, economically impractical or culturally inappropriate in another region.

Each regional conference should therefore have sufficient flexibility to develop revenue strategies suited to its own legal, economic and missional environment.

The objective is diversification without commercialization. A regional conference should not become dependent upon a single grant or donor, nor should financial incentives begin determining theological or missional priorities.

Predictable unrestricted income remains essential to genuine autonomy. Financial sustainability ultimately requires not only multiple sources of revenue, but also the freedom of each region to develop those resources in ways appropriate to its own context.

A better vision

The deepest question is theological as much as financial: What does it mean to be connectional when economic resources are distributed so unevenly?

One answer would be complete financial independence: Every region pays entirely for itself.

That would be simple, but it would hardly embody connectionalism.

Another model would allow one economically powerful region to finance much of the denomination and thereby risk exercising disproportionate influence.

Regionalization should move beyond both models.

The better vision is connectional interdependence. Every region contributes. Every region possesses meaningful authority and autonomy.

Regions with greater resources shoulder a greater portion of certain common burdens. Regions with fewer resources nevertheless participate according to their capacity. And all regions remain accountable to common standards governing the ministries that belong to the whole church.

The constitutional architecture of regionalization is now taking shape. Its economic architecture must follow.

The guiding principle should be clear: No region should control another because it possesses greater wealth, and no region should be prevented from exercising meaningful regional authority because it possesses less wealth.

General church responsibilities should remain connectionally funded. Regional responsibilities should be supported through transparent regional budgets. Apportionments should reflect economic capacity rather than simplistic numerical equality. Connectional assistance should promote partnership rather than dependency. And greater autonomy should be matched by stronger financial accountability.

The ultimate question should not be, “Which region pays for the others?”

It should be: “How does each region contribute according to its capacity so that together we can sustain the mission of the whole church?”

That is more than a funding formula. It is connectionalism translated into economics.

Tran is assistant chancellor for church law of the California-Pacific Annual Conference. He served on the United Methodist Judicial Council from 2016 to 2025 and is currently the senior pastor of Garden Grove United Methodist Church. He founded UMChurchLaw.com and authored “Constitutional Grace: Regionalization and the Future of The United Methodist Church.”

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