I Hate Church Budgets

It's Charge Conference time again, which means it's time to devise the annual church budget.  There's few things I dislike more about being a pastor than having to come up with a new budget every year.

I've always felt like budgets do more to restrain ministry than to promote it.  Back when I served as a city council member in Pierson, I was part of the budgeting process for the city.  According to state law, once something was budgeted the city was locked into that amount.  It didn't matter if some item came in under budget and there was money in the account, those funds could not be used to address any other need that may have arisen.

One of the problems I have with church budgets is how anyone to know where God might be moving in a some new way a year from now.  How many opportunities have churches missed through the years because, "there's no money in the budget for that"?  I have this strange belief that if God is calling the church to do something, God will provide the resources to make it possible regardless what the budget says.  In our rapidly changing world, the church must be able to move quickly to meet the needs around it.  Too often, rather than making that happen church budget inhibit that from happening.

Another problem I have with church budgets is the fact that most every year of my 20+ years of ministry, the primary question centered around the budget is "how do we keep from spending any more money than is absolutely necessary?"  Now I am profoundly aware that the money the church has comes as gifts from its members who rightly expect that their gifts will be used wisely.  This is especially true during the difficult financial times we live in where many people's gifts are more sacrificial than during good times.  However, I firmly believe that the problem lies not in the fact that the church is spending too much money, but the fact that people are not being obedient to God. 

The scriptures consistently speak of a tithe, 10% of one's income as the standard by which faithfulness is measured.  Because so few people live out that standard the church is left to struggle and try to restrict spending money on ministry.

Church budgets then end up addressing the symptom rather than the root cause of the problem.  It's like a doctor prescribing a cough drop for someone who has pneumonia.  The person's cough may disappear for a short while, but eventually it's going to return because the real disease hasn't been dealt with.  I have never served a congregation where I thought that the budget was too high, that is not the real problem. 

It seems to me that if churches spent half as much energy teaching and encouraging people to financially support the work of the church as they do trying to control spending, trying to control spending would be rote.  I'm praying for the day when all God's people act faithfully and the Church doesn't know what to do with all the money. 

Comments

[John]

Amen!

I feel your pain and frustration. Many churches don't seem to recognize the difference between stewardship and fund-raising.

A committee gets together and irons out what they want to spend money on and then sets out to tell the congregation to support it. Fund-raising!

Your challenge is for us to teach and practice stewardship. Thanks. Stay blessed...john

[Lindsey]

Thanks for the post. This is a huge issue at my church right now. We have a budget shortfall so the church clergy and administrators are launching a new fundraising campaign. Yet not one of them, NOT ONE, has even uttered the concept of 'tithing.' My husband and I tithe, and I am frustrated with being asked over and over to give more money when so many around us aren't giving anything, and it's only because no one has taught them what the expectations are.

[Karen]

Working on stewardship message/month right now. Mindful of a colleague's church whose attendance dropped 35% for same message series/time of year. How do you challenge folks to step out and try tithing without the suggestion of prosperity gospel? There's a fine line, especially in asking them to step really far out, which is what the perception of "really" tithing seems to be. Wasn't that just for OT folks? right...Do we really want to be obedient, or do we want just a little bit of Jesus? Your post makes me analyze more clearly what I am seeking to convey. Thank you.