The most disheartening and discouraging thing a church can do is adopt an unrealistic budget because you are planning to fail. Why is it that churches tend to abandon all common sense and reason when it comes to budgeting? They budget $100,000 in income and expenses knowing full well that they never bring in more than $90,000 in income.
When you challenge them on this, the most common response is, “This is where you need to have faith.” Didn’t you have faith last year when you fell short? And the year before that? They’re obviously not talking about faith that the income will come in. Is it faith that the church board will once again approve a crappy budget? A realistic budget doesn’t start with knowing what you want to spend, but with knowing how much you money you can expect to receive.
Useful Links
- Bottom Line Calculator (Excel): https://www.dakotasumc.org/media/files/old/00/Fin_Ben/Finance/FinAdminRes/Bottom_Line_Calculator.xlsx
- Steve Stroope has several good ideas on church budgeting on RightNow Media: https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Content/Speaker/999387