People at churches that are already founded do not need as much spiritual guidance as those who are unsure and don't know what they believe in. Also, why does it seem like teen programs, whatever we happened to have left, are being cut? It seems somewhat hypocritical to me to cut teen programs and then wonder why teens are slipping from the church at alarming rates. I find myself slipping from the church, not necessarily belief, but church attendance. When I, as a teenager, seem unimportant to my church I don't have the interest to continue working on my faith within a church setting. How can the church explain why it has chosen certain programs to be cut, and not others?

After that we cut forty professors and staff positions at our four schools. Although there is little money for expansion, we have not to date eliminated any of our home missionaries.

We have cut nearly one-third of our world missionaries, but most of these have been strategic cuts. That means most of our reduction in world mission staff was in fields where local national pastors can take over the work. Since 1990 the number of native national pastors has grown from 25 to 125. So, even though we have had to call home some of our expatriate missionaries, world field pastoral staffs have more than doubled.

According to our administrator for youth ministry, we still have all the funding and program for youth and teens that we had before our budget cuts began. The only reduction is in the amount of money available for regional youth rallies. You will be happy to hear, however, that a down payment has been made to reserve a site for the regional youth rally in your district next summer.

It may seem like we are cutting missions first, but that is only because those cuts are the latest to be reported.