Ninety-one percent of ELCA congregations returned completed reports for 1994, according to the report from the Office of the Secretary. Total disbursements by ELCA congregations increased by 3.02 percent, significantly less than the 1994 level of income growth. Almost 89 cents of every dollar was committed by ELCA congregations in 1994 to operating expenses, capital improvements, debt payments and other expenses. Local, synodical and other benevolences accounted for the remainder. Through the ELCA Mission Partners program, established congregations give financial gifts, loans or gifts of equipment and supplies to new ministries, or they can share time and skills through volunteer projects.
Gifts go directly to the new ministry without administrative costs.
Sixty-one percent of ELCA congregations reported that they had no debt in 1994. Instead, the ELCA should collect what has been learned during six years of study, state what consensus has been reached and continue a theological conversation on issues of disagreement. DCS has been leading the church in a study of human sexuality and the drafting of a social statement on which an assembly could vote in 1997. During the study, the division has issued study materials and two different drafts of a possible social statement, receiving responses from ELCA congregations and individual members. This isn't going to work in the form that we thought, but there are a lot of positive things to celebrate.