In a survey identifying the most pressing issues in small church ministry, one pastor wrote:
A large proportion of a small church's income is devoted to basic staff and building expenses, leaving little for programs and outreach. This, along with scarce human resources and sometimes a less than adequate meeting place can lead to a survival mentality, stretching the pastor financially, physically, and emotionally. It's tough to maintain, let alone move ahead.I know that my situation when I was in a small church setting wasn't unique. Without my wife working as a teacher, it would have been quite difficult paying the bills and sending kids to college. I remember reading research that said the key to a long tenure for a pastor in a small church was the spouse's satisfaction in employment. I suspect that's true because of the need for a second income in many small church settings and that it's not the pastor who's getting the second job. (Unfortunately, I neglected to write down the source of that research - if anyone knows, please pass it along.)
After reading Bickers' comments on financial health I reviewed Kennon Callahan's chapter on "Generosity and Giving" in Small, Strong, Congregations. One of his observations made me do a reader's double take. In his work with small churches, Callahan saw that a shortage of personnel, supplies, and money is common in a weak congregation - no surprise there. But he saw the same thing in strong congregations - that was a surprise. The symptom is the same - a shortage of resources. But there is a significant difference in the congregation's attitude toward the resources on hand. Do the scarce resources have to be hoarded for survival or should they be given away with loving generosity?
Bickers says, "A healthy small church is led by a vision" (89). Callahan puts it in this way: "Are we shaping our mission according to our budget or our budget according to our mission? Small, strong congregations focus on misson, giving development, and budget--in that order" (284ff). Steve Stroope and Aubrey Malphurs, in Money Matters in Church, find that growing, healthy churches have budgets that look about like this:
10% – MissionsSmall churches may tend to be closer to 80% for facilities and staffing. How does your budget compare?
20% – Programming
50% – Personnel (staffing)
20% – Facilities
The money question is particularly difficult in these economic times. Many churches, large and small alike, are struggling over how to cut their budgets, not how to increase them. Bickers' comments on the need for stewardship education and and financial management, written before the economic downturn, are even more to the point now.
I'd appreciate a lot of your comments on this topic so others can benefit:
- I suspect "tithing" in small churches is higher than the 2-3% figure usually cited for evangelical churches. How is it in yours?
- What have you found effective for stewardship and financial management education in your congregation?
- How have you approached giving over and above the tithe?
- Callahan suggests there are five doors of giving besides annual (budget) giving: spontaneous, major community Sundays, special planned offerings, short-term major projects, and enduring gifts (endowments). Have you used any of these in your setting?
- Are you in a bivocational setting? What have you found helpful in balancing the demands of the pastorate and another job(s)?
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Allow me to be the first to weigh in and brag on my small, strong congregation. There is a strong enough core of true tithers (and I'm sure they give above the tithe), so that we just don't worry about money matters. For a church that these days is averaging 50 or so in worship, that is an amazing thing. We had a Ruling-Elder planned stewardship banquet 2 years ago, an excellent affair. It was a fine dinner, no "pledges" expected out of it. But the RE who spoke basically gave a talk on what you could do with $10. All the options available for $10, personal expenses, needs, wants, ministry opportunities. At the end each of us opened an envelope at our place setting, and found a crisp new $10 bill. Very powerful.
ReplyDeleteOur budgetary people plan for ministry, and trust that the money will be there to fulfill the vision. (Vision drives stewardship, not resources limiting vision.) Last fall, in the midst of a sluggish economy, we gave all of our missionaries a 10% raise. For 2009, our expenses are actually running above our income, but we still have several tens of thousands of dollars in reserve. I don't think it's honoring to the Lord for churches to keep excessive "money in the bank." I see Him letting us "pay out" some of that reserve before we start meeting budget again. But bottom line, our people give generously and we don't sweat money issues. I'm so blessed that that's one typical small church worry that I'm not burdened with.
The church I served for so long was in serious financial trouble when I first went there. They had a minimal budget that they were not making. Twenty years later when I left the budget had grown by about 8 times, and our weekly offering averaged several hundreds of dollars over the budget. As a result we had been able to increase our giving to our denominational missions to 15% of our offerings as well as build a new fellowship hall debt-free.
ReplyDeleteTwo things made a big difference. Although I did not dwell on stewardship, we did teach stewardship. I taught tithing, modeled tithing in my own giving, and our church was tithing to missions. It was obvious that our congregation tithed well above the 2-3% that we often read is typical in many churches.
The second difference was our church caught a vision of what it could be and do. There is no way we could have built our new facility debt-free if we had not believed that was part of God's vision for our church. For many years our budget drove our vision, but in my later years at the church vision drove the budget.
It was very freeing to not worry about finances. As a bivocational mininster with a good second job I never had to be concerned with providing for our family financially, and my wife was able to stay at home until our youngest child entered high school. She returned to work because she wanted to, not because of finances. But, the freeing part was in knowing that if God led us to a task we had the financial ability to do it. As Grady reminds us, it does not honor God for churches to keep large reserves in the bank. There's nothing wrong with a church having funds as long as it is willing to spend that money as God directs. That money is God's, and we need to be aware of when He wants us to use it to touch the lives of others.
Ed, this has been an interesting discussion. I've enjoyed reading the comments and have been blessed and encouraged by each person who has written.