I am an avid Lakers fan. Growing up in the 70s, I remember laying on the living room carpet and watching Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Happy Hairston, Gail Goodrich, and Jim McMillian with my dad. As a Lakers fan, the 80s were an incredible time for basketball. Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Scott, Cooper, Rambis, and Green dominated the court. On May 14, 1989, as I drove to San Diego to make the final arrangements for the honeymoon suite for my wedding night, I listened to Chick Hearn call the game between the Lakers and the Seattle Supersonics on the radio. It was game four of the Western Conference Finals, and the Lakers had not lost a game throughout the playoffs. As I drove south on I-15, I couldn’t believe my ears – by the end of the first quarter, the Lakers were down 12-32.
Games Are Not Won In The First Quarter
Sadly, I was not in the best mood when I went into the hotel to make the final arrangements; after all, my team was down by 20 points after the first quarter. But, talking with the people at the hotel lightened my mood and put the focus back on what really mattered: I was getting married in a week. While driving home, when I turned the radio back on to check the game when something happened – something historic. I listened in as the Lakers mounted the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history (at least it was at the time). Yes, the Seattle Supersonics had a tremendous first quarter, but games are not one in a single quarter. They couldn’t sustain their momentum throughout all four quarters.
Church Giving By Quarters
When you break it down by quarters, church giving can be a lot like that historic game between the Lakers and Sonics. October, November, and December seem like the 12-32 lead your church needs to propel the church into a victorious year. But January, February, and March giving look very different, and without a plan, your church is dealing with a full-blown financial letdown.
The Plan
Overseers of the church’s finances feel the weight of managing God’s resources well. They want to ensure that every dollar accomplishes the church’s mission. In the simplest of terms, the church budget is the plan showing the designation of each dollar donated. A solid church budget uses projected (forecasted) income based on attendance and giving trends and supports the mission, vision, and specific goals for the upcoming year. But it’s important to understand that each month is not equal when it comes to donations and spending. That’s why a basic understanding of the seasonality of giving by quarter provides valuable insight into spending decisions.
Giving By Quarter
A lot has changed since 2020, including church attendance and donations. For many churches, that means finding the new “normal” when discovering trends. While using historical data provides valuable insights, running a few scenarios using shorter periods may be noteworthy to see if something new is emerging in the seasonality of giving at your church. Avoid overcomplicating this process. Use a spreadsheet and set up the years in the columns and each month as a row. Create an additional row every three months for the sub-total of each quarter. Enter the giving data by month for each year and calculate the percentage of each quarter. Most churches find that October, November, and December are their largest quarter, and January, February, and March are their lowest.
Spending By Quarter
Spending trends are just as important as giving trends. Churches are no different from other businesses; utility bills vary from month to month; some services send bills quarterly or annually. And there are always unexpected costs to repair or replace broken, old, lost, or stolen items. But there are trends found in spending, and it’s good to understand when those high-expense quarters fall. Use the same process to discover the quarterly expenditures trends as used in calculating donations.
The historic game between the Lakers and Supersonics in 1989 taught me a great lesson – don’t make assumptions based on one great quarter. Instead, savvy church leaders plan for the year through a solid budget and monitor their spending and giving using quarterly trends to ensure they can fulfill their mission.
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