Each year the annual conference votes on a budget that includes income from fees, investments, charitable gifts and apportionments. These apportionments are distributed by a formula as a fair share of each local congregation’s participation as a United Methodist Church. Apportionments have been part of our denomination from the beginning, although they were not always called apportionments. The following are bits and pieces of apportionment history.

In 1774, the Methodist Church had ten circuit riders who were paid a salary of $64 per year plus traveling expenses. Each established Methodist community was expected to receive a special Easter offering to “relieve the preachers in want.” In many ways this expected offering was the first apportionment.

By 1868, the Book of Discipline states that the supervising elder (district superintendent) was to receive, from each congregation, a quarterly collection. The collection was to be given to the supervising elder when he (and they were all men) visited each church quarterly. The purpose of this collection was to support the office of bishop and supervising elder. This meant if the collection was not received, the bishop and elder were not paid. I can imagine the pressure on local congregations to fulfill this obligation! The second purpose was to provide a pension for the “worn out preachers,” their widows and children. The third purpose of the quarterly collections was to support the common mission projects and benevolent askings that had been determined viable by the General Conference.

In the 1900 Book of Discipline, the word “apportionment” is used. It was used to support an episcopal fund, presiding elder fund, and Conference Claimants which is the pension fund. The second part of the apportionments was for benevolent causes. Each Annual Conference assigned to each congregation, by some formula, an amount that was expected of the church.

In 1956, the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church provides a definition of apportionment. It is an amount “assigned to a local church or other Methodist body by proper church authority to be raised by that body for some Connectional purpose. ”The basic definition of apportionment hasn’t changed since that time.

The roots of the apportionment system can be found in John Wesley’s own instructions when he tells his followers to “earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can.” He also believed that the amount saved should be given to address the needs of the poor. The assumption of the apportionment system is that all United Methodists are structured as a family, working together for a common cause. Each local expression of the United Methodist Church is a member of the same common family and is expected to share in the benefits and the cost of that family relationship. Apportionments are one way that working together as family can make a difference in today’s world and that together we can accomplish more for the ministry of Jesus Christ.