People falling into financial crisis is nothing new. I remember all too well starting my career in full-time ministry in 2006, and less than two years later, the Great Recession hit. As the Pastor overseeing the finances, I assure you the volume of requests for financial aid caught us off guard. We …
church budget Articles and Interviews (tag)
A Simple Donor Analysis To Reveal Giving Trends at Your Church or Nonprofit
We all do it. We report our thoughts and information from our observations or second-hand information, often without any actual facts or data. While anecdotal information may fit the bias of the person reporting it, when it comes to running a small business or non-profit, it's best to use facts. For …
Ways to Offset the Downward Giving Trend in Churches
Around 54 AD, that is almost 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote his second letter to the church in Corinth. It's a master class in encouraging the church toward generosity. Paul used examples of others, like the less affluent people from Macedonia, who demonstrated unrestrained generosity and …
California Churches Brace for Another Minimum Wage Hike
Growing up as a teenager in Southern California in the early 1980s was a wonderful time. The world seemed so much more simple back then. Like every other junior in high school, I couldn't wait to get my driver's license and hit the road, but that required buying a car. That meant working odd jobs …
Church Budget Percentage – A Healthy Measuring Stick
There has been a lot of discussion in the church world about church budget percentages lately. Questions arise like: Are we paying the staff too much? Do we have too many people on staff? Are we investing enough in local and global outreach? Is the rent or mortgage payment too high for our church …
Four Church Budgeting Lessons from Experience
The church facility where I serve is a converted industrial building in Southern California. Specifically, the building is in Temecula, known for its warm and dry climate, with an average yearly rainfall of only 14 inches. But, even in Temecula, roofs that leak can create a lot of havoc, and our …