Headlines and posts that talk about the difficulty and complexity of building and following budgets always catch my attention. You can imagine my interest when I read Ross Gerber’s post on X, “After four months, Elon learned what every natural-born American already knows. No one in the government wants to ‘cut’ any budget.” For those who are not aware, Musk’s task was to oversee the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), which, according to the official White House website, is to bring accountability and transparency to federal spending, ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively. It’s clear why the DOGE was needed; the U.S. Government continues to operate with a massive $1.83 trillion deficit. Since the U.S. Government uses the tax dollars collected from its citizens to pay for everything, it seems only right that the government should be accountable, transparent, wise, and effective with every dollar it spends.
While the U.S. Government throws around these concepts as if the DOGE is tapping into something new, most churches and other nonprofits had to embrace these values long ago to survive. Churches and other nonprofits depend on the generous donations of those who believe in and support their mission. There is no way to increase a “church tax” or raise prices. To pursue their mission, churches must operate within their means. To me, creating and following a church budget is a lot like having a Department of Church Efficiency (DOCE) built in; it promotes accountable, transparent, wise, and effective use of every dollar donated.
Accountable
With so much mistrust and suspicion in the world, the last thing churches need is one more example of financial impropriety. A church budget developed by a team reveals how the church plans to allocate its donations. It’s never a good idea for one person to be responsible for all the finances. Churches must develop processes that hold everyone who handles money accountable and annually submit their financial records to a non-related third party for review.
Transparent
The quickest way to eliminate distrust and suspicion regarding finances is through openness and transparency. It’s not enough to build a church budget; the church must share the finalized budget with the congregation. Finalizing the budget is a time to celebrate. Inform the church about your plans for spending their donations in the upcoming fiscal year and demonstrate how the budget will fulfill the church’s mission.
Wise
Creating a budget isn’t a lack of faith; it demonstrates wisdom. King Solomon, regarded as the wisest person ever to live, wrote this, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” – Proverbs 21:5. A church budget is a plan that allocates every dollar donated to fulfilling the church’s mission. Wise churches take the time to project donations for the upcoming year and work with, not against, each ministry and operations leader to ensure expenses align with the mission, vision, and goals for the upcoming fiscal year.
Effective
There are a lot of good things a church can do each year, but churches rarely have the funds to do them all. Building a church budget where the ministry and operation teams collaborate and plan around the goals for the upcoming year helps refine the focus, ensuring the church remains effective in its efforts.
It took Elon Musk four months to figure out what every church financial team already knows; it’s hard to cut a budget. No one wants finances to limit their ability to make an impact. For churches to remain efficient, they must build a budget that stays within the estimated projection. In doing so, they act as a DOCE and become accountable, transparent, wise, and effective.
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