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How to Develop a Budget

Sean Cronin — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:00:19 +0000

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How to Develop a Budget

By Ed Stetzer

Where does all the money go? The question every church planter must ask. Money follows to vision, so the type of church you plan to start significantly influences the money required to start.

Budgeting and fundraising are often two of the most daunting things that church planters face. This doesn’t have to be the case. In simple terms the overall goal of the Church Planter is to determine what God is calling them to do (budgeting) and to discover how God will provide for it (fundraising).

After initial planning most church planters discover they need more money to accomplish what they would like to do than they currently have commitments in donations.

The Church Planter has three options; raise more money, spend less money, or some combination of the two.

In general, expenses through launch (pre-launch phase) can be grouped into the following categories:

Staffing – How much will you spend on staffing? Depends on how many staff will be hired, how much they will be paid, when they will be hired, and whether they are expected to raise any outside support. In a house church, staffing expenses may be zero. In a multi-staff, sponsorship plant, staffing expenses could be well over $100,000. Staffing is often a major expenditure for the new church and will include at least the lead planter’s salary.
Equipment – Most new churches have a number of one-time expenses for equipment purchases. These include but are not limited to a sound system, lighting, multi-media projector, storage cabinets, children’s supplies, Bibles, and a trailer. Depending on the quality and size, total equipment costs can range from zero (house church) to $80,000 or more. Unlike staffing expenses which are ongoing, most equipment purchases are one-time expenses in support of opening day. Most churches will spend at least $10,000 to $15,000 in getting started.
Marketing and Outreach – Marketing and outreach are all about starting conversations with seekers in the community. Too many church planters rely on one big marketing campaign just prior to launch to establish name recognition rather than a more balanced approach of outreach and marketing activities. A new church is ready for a big direct mail campaign only AFTER establishing broad name recognition in the community. Like equipment expenditures, total marketing and outreach costs can range from zero (house church) to $80,000 or more. Most churches will spend at least $10,000 to $15,000 in getting started.
Facilities – Many new churches can not afford to purchase worship facilities. Instead, they rent either schools, movie theaters, or community centers. Sunday rental typically ranges from $12,000 to $50,000 per year for Sunday rentals. Additional facility costs may include rented office space. During the pre-launch phase when the new church has not yet started weekly services, facility costs will be much lower. Costs will be driven by the timing of starting weekly worship services.
Operations – Ongoing operations including printing, copying, office supplies, insurance, phones, pagers, etc.

Developing a Budget

Church planters are encouraged to develop a budget through opening day and a second budget for the first year of the church after opening day. In developing a pre-launch budget, we recommend the following approach:

Work through the development of a philosophy of ministry and picture of opening day
Develop a detailed action plan (launch plan) that will help turn your vision into reality.
Assign cost figures and completion dates to each of the actions in your launch plan.
Sum up the total expenditures and compare them to available income. If expenses exceed income, you will need to raise more money, spend less money, or some combination of the two.

NOTE: Budgeting requires that you look at two different aspects of expenses vs income. First, you need to verify that your total expenses over a given period of time are less than or equal to your total income over the same time period. Second (and often completely neglected), you need to verify that your “cash flow” stays positive as a function of time and that your bank account does not go negative.

Source: How to Develop a Budget

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5 Addictions Pastors Need To Overcome (To Grow Their Church In the Future)

Esther Ritchey — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 09:00:00 +0000

By: Carey Nieuwhof

You’ve probably learned a lot about yourself in the last year.

Crisis does that to you. Crisis isn’t just an accelerator, it’s a revealer, showing you some surprising things about yourself—some good, some not so good.

Since COVID struck, church leaders have seen more than a few addictions, wants and preferences revealed.

At this point, with only half of churches re-opened, and with most re-opened churches experiencing low attendance numbers compared to pre-COVID, it may be wise to take stock of what we’ve learned so far.

You never know how much you love something until it’s taken away. And for church leaders, some of our most dearly held ways of doing church were snatched away overnight.

Despite the fact that church leaders claim that the church never closed, many behaved like it did, bemoaning what was lost and racing to get back.

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As the culture becomes more and more digital, mobile and home-centered (think work, school, shopping and more), the church needs to respond to keep reaching people.

If the people you’re trying to reach change, your strategy needs to change with them. Otherwise, you lose touch and become irrelevant. And while the Gospel is never irrelevant in a fast-moving culture, outdated models of church get old, fast.

If the church is going to thrive in the future, here are 5 addictions church leaders need to overcome.

While the Gospel is never irrelevant in a fast-moving culture, outdated models of church get old, fast.

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1. Buildings

Probably the first dependency to be revealed by the crisis is how facility-centric most approaches to ministry have been.

For a lot of pastors, losing access to a building felt like losing access to their ministry.

If you look at the filter through which almost all ministry has been run for decades (or centuries) it’s this: ministry happens in a central facility where people gather.

A very good question to ask is ‘why’?

For a lot of pastors, losing access to a building felt like losing access to their ministry. You have to ask why.

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While I completely agree the church needs to gather in person as well as online, gathering can happen in homes, smaller venues and a whole variety of places. The emerging idea that a church can be a church with hundreds or thousands of locations (i.e. peoples’ homes) is a really liberating idea.

While we’ll need facilities in the future, the idea that for ministry to happen it needs to take place in a public building officiated by church staff feels increasingly restrictive and anachronistic.

I’m not suggesting we should move to the house church movement as it’s existed in North American, which are disproportionately filled with insider-focused, disgruntled Christians who actively resist affiliating with others, but I do think it’s worth rethinking a more distributed and released church that can be more effective at reaching friends, neighbors, co-workers and communities.

In 2020, if coming to Christ means coming to your church in a set location and a set hour, you need a new strategy.

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2. Packed Rooms

Look, I’ll lead with a confession here. I love packed rooms. Packed rooms at church. Packed rooms when I’m speaking somewhere.

I’ve spoken to empty rooms and to full rooms, and I’ll take a full room any time.

There’s a bit of a thrill when you run out of seats and people are standing at the back or sitting on the floor.

And, yes, those of us who love that kind of thing know exactly where you need to take the picture (from the back of the room) to make the room look even fuller than it is in real life.

And you know what the ugly underbelly of that is? Ego. (See point 3 below).

Look, I get it. Communicating without a crowd is a different art and science than communicating in front of a crowd. And there’s something about a sermon that gets richer when you’re interacting with real people. Sermons are more than just content drops.

But packed rooms don’t always mean full impact.

What if God’s plan for your church is bigger than the size of your room? What if the number of people you’re called to reach don’t fit in a room, no matter what size room you build?

If the size of your vision shrinks to the size of a room you can fill, you’ve missed the church’s mission.

If the size of your vision shrinks to the size of a room you can fill, you’ve missed the mission.

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3. Our Own Egos

Okay so I guess this is turning into a confession post.

Ego is a real struggle for most of us in leadership.

Some leader’s pride springs from narcissism. Far more leaders grow proud because of insecurity than by narcissism.

I know…you’re thinking…but I’m insecure. I feel bad about myself.

How can that be pride?

Well, if pride is an obsession with self, then (surprisingly) insecure people qualify as proud. After all, insecurity makes you think about you all the time.

So let’s play that into this moment. The future is so uncertain, and so foreign. And you’re asking yourself

Do I have what it takes to lead into tomorrow?

All my gifts and skills have been honed to work for what was, not for the future that’s emerging.

If I can get us back to where we were, I’ll feel good about myself again.

You know what that is, right? Sure. It’s your ego. That’s all about you, not the mission.

As a Christian leader, you know that self is something you need to die to.

I have to die to self daily, hourly. Minute by minute.

But on the other side is a trust that is the only thing that can supplant the fear of the deep unknown.

When you die to yourself, something greater rises.

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4. Budgets and Staffing Centered in the Last Era

If you want to see someone’s idols, just look at their bank account and calendar. Regardless of what you say publicly, your bank account and calendar reveal what you really value (and what you don’t).

The same is true for churches.

Look at most church budgets though, and try to find some line items related to digital ministry. You’ll come up empty-handed.

The vast majority of churches spend 99% of their staffing dollars on in-person gatherings.

Outreach and ministry online is usually tagged onto someone’s job description as an afterthought (if it’s listed at all), and the budget for digital ministry usually has to be scrounged from other line items.

The point here is that’s probably not a wise 21st-century strategy.

Increasingly, this will be the year many churches realize you can’t have a massive impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing resources on it.

The internet is the venue in which the entire community you are trying to reach lives. If you want to reach them there, spending 1% of your resources on it is likely not the smartest strategy.

Do you know of any church near you that’s spending 30% of its resources to reach people online?

Didn’t think so.

And we wonder why we don’t see more direct results from online outreach.

Mystery solved.

It’s hard to have a massive impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing and budget on it.

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5. Creating Your Own Truth

So many leaders have started spinning their own truth.

As a former President of the United States once said, “In my presidency, people were entitled to their own opinion. They were not entitled to their own facts.”

It seems pastors are increasingly falling for creating their own facts in this post-truth era. It’s so strange that church leaders who profess adherence to truth try to create their own truth when they don’t like the facts they’re facing.

It’s so strange that church leaders who profess adherence to truth try to create their own truth when they don’t like the facts they’re facing.

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You can’t make up truth, but we try.

I’ve had so many pastors tell me “Well, the coronavirus just isn’t an issue here” when thousands of people in their state are hospitalized.

I’ve had others tell me that people will return to church in droves, when the evidence points in the other direction. (Look, I hope they’re correct. I’m just not holding my breath. Here’s why.)

Truth is hard.

But wise leaders don’t deny the truth. The smartest leaders realize their approach isn’t working and adapt.

The more you deny reality, the crueler reality is to you.

Just ask anyone who went bankrupt or whose spouse walked on them because she just couldn’t handle being treated that way anymore.

The truth is your friend. Even the truth you don’t like. Especially the truth you don’t like.

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You Don’t Go As Far As Your Dream. You Go As Far As Your Team.

It’s never been more important for your organization to hit your goals. It’s also never been more difficult.

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Any Other Addictions?

As hard as all this is, there’s a brighter future ahead if we embrace it.

What do you see?

Any other addictions you see or you’re weaning yourself off?

The post 5 Addictions Pastors Need To Overcome (To Grow Their Church In the Future) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Addictions Pastors Need To Overcome (To Grow Their Church In the Future)

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Multisite Churches After COVID-19

Sean Cronin — Sat, 23 May 2020 09:00:36 +0000

Home > Blog > Multisite Churches After COVID-19

Multisite Churches After COVID-19

By New Churches Team

Many churches are making contingency plans around their multisite campuses and plans for after COVID-19.

Online Campuses

One thing that will almost definitely come out of this season is that more churches will have an Internet campus. This approach is good for the future of multisite churches, as it means that more people are becoming comfortable with seeing their pastor on a screen. Over the past 30-40 years, church attendance has dropped from 2-3 times a week to 2-3 times a month. One thing we don’t know yet is how attendance will be affected when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. People might consider staying home and attending their church, or another church they found, online. Keeping an Internet campus allows you to stay connected to those members who now prefer attending church online.

Financial Considerations

From a financial perspective there are several things to consider.

If your church was setting aside a reserve fund to start a new campus soon, will you be able to keep that fund? Or during this time of lower offerings, will you need to use that fund for regular operations? If using that fund keeps you from taking on debt, then that approach might be something to consider, even if it means delaying or changing your plans for opening another campus.
Also, it is likely that many churches will close. Their buildings will become available, which could be a future option for multisite campuses. But as Internet campuses become more normalized, will it be wise to take on the debt of a building?
Larger and mid-size churches may have more difficulty during this time than smaller churches. Smaller churches that only have one or two people on staff, who may be bivocational, will have an easier time continuing to pay their staff than a large church that has large staff numbers employed. The smaller rural churches that are very community based will find a way to get through this. Larger churches that aren’t as community based will struggle more, even though they will likely have a much better Internet experience. All churches should focus on building an army instead of an audience.
Regardless of what happens, multisite will likely continue, but people won’t be willing to put as much risk of investment into it. They will likely start with a very small staff and a low budget and not add things until they grow. The time of fully finding a large campus from the beginning won’t be as common.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 484: The Future of Multisite Churches. Click here to listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.

Source: Multisite Churches After COVID-19

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Episode 491: Preparing for the Financial Impact of COVID-19

Sean Cronin — Thu, 21 May 2020 09:00:42 +0000

by NewChurches.com: In Episode 491 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed discuss preparing for the financial impact of COVID-19 in the short-term and mid-term.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

The waves of financial challenge to expect
How gospel work continues in light of financial changes

Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“There are three waves of financial challenge.” – @edstetzer
“The more people you have giving online, the easier you walk through the first wave of the challenge.” – @edstetzer
“We are beginning to see what the new normal is looking like.” – @edstetzer
“You have to figure out where the new bottom is, where the new normal is, and then refigure your finances.” – @edstetzer
“Job disruption impacts your church, your mother church, and could impact you as well, but that doesn’t mean your mission is done.” – @edstetzer
“If your funds are dried up and you are in financial difficulty, it doesn’t mean that God has withdrawn His call.” – @edstetzer
“Huge disruption does not end gospel work, it sometimes propels gospel work.” – @edstetzer
“There are people in your church that had money 2 months ago that don’t have money now, and there are people in your church that did not have money 2 months ago that do now.” – @edstetzer

Recommended Resources:

Read Leading Beyond the Blizzard by Andy Crouch

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

This Episode’s Sponsor:

For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

The post Episode 491: Preparing for the Financial Impact of COVID-19 appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 491: Preparing for the Financial Impact of COVID-19

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What Percentage of a Church Budget Goes to Staffing Costs?

Patrick Bradley — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 09:00:43 +0000

by Dave Travis: In our most recent FREE report “Seven Vital Benchmarks in Church Compensation” (available at this link), the second finding deals with the percentage of church budget that goes to staffing.

In this post I want to elaborate on several Frequently Asked Questions I get in this regard.

First, the overall average was…

This article was originally posted in Leadership Network Advance. Not a subscriber? Get access to research, reports, trends, and more by subscribing to Leadership Network Advance here.

The post What Percentage of a Church Budget Goes to Staffing Costs? appeared first on Leadership Network.

Source: What Percentage of a Church Budget Goes to Staffing Costs?

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