Vision Driven Budgeting

An article by Matt    1 Comment

Yesterday I had the great honor to spend some time with a church that I have been able to serve through my work with Dime.  Over Indian food we spent several hours talking about the church’s vision and it’s goals for the coming year and how that should drive the church’s spending plan for the year.  We spoke about what the priorities for the church need to be and put in place the beginnings of a plan to see those be fulfilled and talked through how to fund different ministries of the church in a way that will help make these priorities and goals achievable.

I love having the opportunity to work through this stuff with churches!  I often say that my work with Dime is a great excuse for me to get to hear about what is happening in churches all across the country and how God is moving through them.  Many people will read that sentence and think that I am crazy… thinking “how can anyone enjoy developing spending plans?”  As odd as it sounds I love doing it because we take a vision driven approach as opposed to a program driven approach.

Over the years I have sat through more than my share of program driven budget meetings.  Somewhere around the ninety minute mark of these meetings it took all the will power I had to keep from clawing my eyes out.  Program driven budgeting bases funding allocation not on what is important to the fulfillment of the church’s vision, but what each individual program needs in order to survive.  What makes vision driven budgeting so exciting to me is that you are hearing the vision of the church, hearing where church leadership believes that God is leading them, and creating a road map based off that vision.  Some examples from last night include a decision to focus on intentionally developing leaders in the church so that next year those leaders may be deployed to lead the small group and marriage ministries of the church.  In order to do this, the church has intentionally decided to allow other areas of the church be focused on a little less in the upcoming season so that in seasons to come they may be far more successful.

Intentionally deciding to make something less important is difficult… especially when it is a ministry or activity that is close to our heart.  It is during these times that we need to keep in mind Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

In the same way there is a time for building into the body of a congregation so that it is ready to reap what has been sown in a later season.

Thinking of engaging in a vision driven budgeting process?  Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Before engaging in the process you need to have a clear understanding of what your vision is and what is important to your church.  You need to know where you are headed and in what fashion you are going to proceed along the journey before you begin the process of budgeting.
• Understand that money is not what drives this process, vision is!  Which statement excites you more: “here is $6000, go spend it on children’s ministry” or “here is how we are going to change the lives of countless children and their families: (insert ministry plan and vision for children’s ministry here). In order to accomplish this, we have set aside $6000″.  I know which one inspires me most!
• Every church goes through seasons.  During certain seasons a church may need to focus on certain areas or ministries in order to ensure continued success in the years to come.  Just because a church needs to focus more on one area over another during a season does not mean that one area is less important than another… it just means that  a church needs to spend more time focusing on one area than another.
• If you are not inspired by the vision of your church and how you are intending to go about doing ministry for the next year something is wrong.  Spend the time to determine why you are not inspired and make the necessary changes immediately.

How does YOUR church handle the budgeting process?