How much should Old South give to Christian Outreach and to the UCC?
While we have always funded “Christian outreach” as one of the several integral parts of our church life, carefully balancing the needs of each, we are being urged to evaluate separately the percentage of our giving to Christian outreach, in comparison to other churches. If we do decide to judge our Christian outreach giving by a percentage driven model, we should then at least consider the model proposed by the Mass. UCC. In 1994 the Annual Meeting of the Mass. Conference UCC, delegates from the various churches, encouraged Mass. UCC churches to allocate to “all benevolences and charitable contributions” an amount equal to at least 10% of “local” expenditures (presumably the operating expenses for the church building, pastor, and program, excluding outreach), with an additional challenge that outreach expenditures be raised by 1/4 to 1/2% of current local expenditures annually towards a goal of at least 25% of local expenses. Applying this UCC formula to Old South, our budgeted local
