A weapon is something used to harm or damage people or things. It’s what happens when someone with ill intent takes an amoral object and misuses it. In the hands of a skilled construction worker, a hammer can build shelters for the poor, hospitals for the sick, or churches for those to find and follow Jesus. However, in the hands of a violent criminal, a hammer easily becomes a tool of destruction, harm, and even death. While the comparison is overly drastic, it makes the point that in the wrong hands, even something designed to help can quickly become something that hurts – even a church budget.
In its most basic, simplistic form, a budget is a tool designed to tell money where to go. A budget is not a report to see where overspending or underspending occurred; it’s what happens before spending a single dollar. For a church, the budget is a plan that designates the amount of money allocated toward each ministry and operational designation to accomplish its mission. It seems simple enough: get the church elders, finance committee, ministry leaders, and staff together to determine how to spend the financial resources God entrusted to the church. And just like a hammer, the budget can be used to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” or to protect ministry silos or stroke egos.
Weaponizing the Church Budget
Since churches are not immune to weaponizing the church budget, here are a couple of practices to look out for:
Protecting Silos: In the secular world, it’s common practice to ensure that your department spends up to or just beyond the allocated budget amount; otherwise, your department will not receive the same funding in the upcoming year. Then, as the fiscal year comes to a close, there is typically a lot of unnecessary spending on frivolous items to ensure an equal or greater financial allocation in the upcoming year. Increasingly, this practice is entering the church as a way for ministry leaders to protect “their” ministry dollars.
Stroking Egos: For some in the corporate world, the size of the budget entrusted to them was a status symbol of their worth and value to the organization. Somehow, they were more important because their budget was larger than their co-workers. Sadly, there is a church budget equivalent where a dollar amount equates to value. For example, if the facility budget exceeds the outreach budget, some believe the church must place a higher value on the facility than on outreach.
The Church Budget as a Tool
Instead of creating silos and stroking egos, it’s up to the church’s leadership to turn the focus on the mission, vision, and goals. One simple way to overcome weaponizing practices is through a zero-based budget. A zero-based budget begins each budgeting season with a blank slate. That’s right—do not copy and paste last year’s budget and add a percentage for inflation or a new initiative. Instead, ask each area to map out its spending based on the upcoming year’s goals to support the church’s mission and vision. Of course, using historical data is allowed for ongoing expenses like utilities and determining baselines, but each category needs examination for effectiveness and fit. It’s a lot of work, but in doing so, it eliminates silos and needless spending and promotes unity and destroying egos as each person works toward the same goal.
The church budget is one of many tools churches use to fulfill the Great Commission. However, when people decide that “their” ministry or area of interest needs to maintain a certain level of funding, warranted or not, this tool becomes a weapon that harms other areas of the ministry, ultimately impairing the effectiveness of the church. It’s time to beat our swords into plowshares and work together – even on the church budget.
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