Budgets

Since it was handed to me some months ago, I've been struggling with this chart:

  Now, I want to confess now that I don't pretend to have any answers, that I don't believe that New Hope is a church failing in the calling that Christ has given to us, or that we need to change things.  But I've been staring at this chart for months, and it leaves me deeply uncomfortable.  Why?

  I'm glad you asked.

  67% of our budget is spent on payroll and benefits.  For those of you without a calculator handy, that's roughly $114,000, spread (unequally) between six individuals (nursery worker, youth director, secretary, music director, organist, pastor).

  19% of our budget is spent on utilities, insurance/taxes & maintenance.  Stuff that comes with having a building.

  8% of our budget is spent on benevolences, from missionaries to Madagascar to local mission and various things in between.  I'm pretty happy with this--if every individual in the church gave 8% of their budget to mission, I imagine that would be an improvement.  I'd like to see this number be 20% of the church budget, but 8% is a good start.

  6% is spent on committee work.  This includes everything from stamps for cards that an elder sends out to funding Vacation Bible School.  I think we are good stewards of this 6%.

  I'm wrestling with the overall picture of this chart.  Maybe that's the most faithful way to spend this money.  Maybe we're doing everything we should be, and I'm just feeling guilty, since I'm the largest line item in the budget.  Maybe it's part of my anxiety because I don't see new faces in the pews and so I put pressure on myself.  I believe that a portion of that 67% of our budget is part of our outreach, part of our equipping of the disciples.  I don't at all believe that it is wasted or misspent.

  Or maybe the way we need to think about how we do church needs to change.  Maybe we need to flip everything on its head, to reverse those numbers, so that the largest portion of our budget is money that leaves the church and goes out into the community.  Now, giving money blindly doesn't do a whole lot of good if it's not followed by new relationships and deepened fellowship.  But maybe we need to think about how we're investing ourselves in our community.

  I don't know what the answer is.  But I believe it's good to ask questions.  Should some 21st century churches consider all-volunteer staff, people who have different vocations but are called to lead the church in teaching and preaching, leaving some of the other work of full-time ministry to those called with certain gifts and time to do them?  Does the church simply pay some people, like a secretary and perhaps a few others, while asking others to serve bi-vocationally?

  Does this make us the best stewards of our resources?  Or is it doing something different for the sake of change?  I don't pretend that any one model is the most faithful--but I do believe it's important for each church to consider what is the most faithful.  Christ gives individuals as well as churches different gifts, and we are called to discern our own path with honesty and humility--and maybe we need to change.

  Or maybe we don't.  I'm not sure.  I do believe that this congregation, like all the others on the planet, is imperfect and sinful.

  I just want us to be as perfect as possible.  And to do so may require asking some tough questions, and the answers may be even tougher.  But that doesn't mean they're unnecessary.

  I've just been wrestling with it all.