Budgeting for Church Growth
Today’s Alban Institute Roundtable discusses church budgets — a topic we’ve addressed before.
We have long advocated that a church budget be used as a tool to motivate a congregation from Point A to Point B, instead of simply representing what was spent last year plus a bit for inflation. See just a few of our posts on this topic.
Budget Time! Does Your Church Have Money for Ministry?
Why Church Growth Is So Elusive
The Future Belongs to the Underdogs and Innovators
Structuring the Church for Change
The way we think about our money and assets will predict failure or success. If we approach our budgets as “hanging on” to the way we did things last year and the year before, your ministry will die. If you look to the future with a vision of where you need to be, and anticipate the costs of getting there, you have a fighting chance. That planning must happen before the budget is presented, but often churches do things the other way around.
This requires more than approval of a budget. That is a small part of the equation but it is often where ministry starts and stops.
The budget is a map. If it plans to go nowhere, your church will go nowhere.
Teach your budget. Preach your budget. This does NOT mean begging for money. It means showing people how their offerings can be put to work for the true reasons people are motivated to give to churches.
Do this and your budget will become a living tool—not a mirror of your past.