By George Crumley

Tithe is what sustains mission in the Adventist church. It is because of tithe that pastors are able to bless their communities, and teachers are able to reach the hearts of young people. This mission is being carried forward day in and day out across this conference because of our workers’ committed efforts.

In 2012 and 2013, base tithe within the Rocky Mountain Conference was basically flat, meaning there was virtually no increase from one year to the next (base tithe excludes windfall tithes which are non-recurring amounts of tithe in excess of $50,000). This flat tithe created a deficit budget in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 because costs went up from inflationary pressures while budgeted tithe income did not increase. The good news is that even though we had budgeted deficits for these two years, our actual results for each year resulted in financial gains. This kept our working capital strong.

Additionally, in 2014, we had a healthy base tithe increase of 4.39%. This gave us increased dollars to use when preparing our 2015 budget, which resulted in a balanced budget for the conference this year. This enables us to continue to advance our mission of “Knowing Christ and Making Him Fully Known.”

So I want to express my deep appreciation to each of you for your faithfulness in returning your tithes and offerings, and also I want to thank the Lord who is the giver of “every good gift.”

–George Crumley is RMC vice-president for finance.