Pastors make three observations about their contribution

As fall approaches, budgeting season may be upon your congregation.

What is a pastor’s role in budgeting and making annual church financial plans? Interviews with 20 pastors by Teleios turned up three observations about what pastors do during number crunching time.

First, pastors recognize relationships between ministry and budget planners may contain tension. Pastors often help manage that dynamic.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the relationships are adversarial. Many of the interviewed pastors see this tension as necessary, acknowledging it’s always a work in progress. Eight pastors said improving working relationships between the church ministry and finance groups is a priority in their pastoral picture.

John Yoder at Griner Conservative Mennonite Church in Indiana and Carl Shenk at Crossroads Brethren in Christ in Pennsylvania both said relationships are good between ‘the counters’ and ‘the dreamers’ in their churches, but they continually work at improving the conversation.

“We see this as a good and healthy process. We look for tools to empower the conversation between creative ministry people and those who understand the realities of actually writing the checks,” said Keith Blank of Mountville Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania.
Yes, tension at budget time may be real – yet appropriate and healthy.

A second observation: Pastors yearn for improved conversation about budgets, church debt, and other financial issues with people populating the pews. Pastors look for ways to bring up the subject.
With desire for these conversations in mind, interviewed pastors often reflected upon how to do just that within their congregational patterns. “We are a small congregation with lots of people in and out . . . and I preach once per month,” said James Rissler at Atlanta (Ga.) Mennonite Fellowship. “It’s hard to communicate a particular message – whether it’s finance or something else – to the entire congregation.” He wonders if this challenge in his congregation is unique.

Rachel Epp Miller, pastoring in San Antonio, Texas, recognizes she must find ways to raise awareness in the whole congregation about budget issues as she goes about pastoral tasks.

Meanwhile, Rod Stafford at Portland (Ore.) Mennonite Church views church budget structure as the key to living out the congregational vision. The church is just now organizing itself around five core ministries led by a pastor and elder, making a core ministry team who will meet regularly, coordinate budget requests, and tell their story to the congregation.

“We are shifting from ‘pastor-sized’ to ‘program-sized’ and at the same time increasing the cohesiveness of our ministries around our central vision of ‘seeking the peace of the city,’” Rod said. “In my experience, people are eager to link their lives and money to what matters. If we can help them see what we are called to, people will support it – they are smart enough to understand that mundane tasks like pledging and budgeting are required.”

Other pastors also shared their experiences and practices in keeping heightened awareness of budget issues before the congregation:

• Send pledge commitment forms for the upcoming year when yearend receipts are mailed to members.
• Form mission outreach teams for each ministry – and give them responsibility for telling their story to the congregation.
• Have a transparent process of receiving offerings and post financial information
• Periodically evaluate the finance process and report the results to the congregation.
• Plan sermons or classes on stewardship and money management – for the home and in the congregation.
• Explain that paying for utilities, maintenance, and payroll – the cost of being here – is an important part of the church’s ministry presence in the community.
• Link mission with the budget by printing vision statements on section headings within the annual budget document.
• Include department or ministry leaders and pastoral staff in budget review and planning meetings.
• Announce proposals to the congregation, providing a setting for impassioned speeches from members on budget issues before making final decisions.

Third, Pastors can heighten the connection between members and the funding of ministries.
In five churches, giving increased significantly when special projects were identified as outside the budget. Pastor can heighten the relationship between member and ministry funding. Mike Derstine at Plains Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania thinks people may feel more connected to special projects that are separated from the regular budget. “We think because of the relational component, the giving increased for the same project when we placed it outside the budget,” he said.

Bill Davis at United Christian Church, also in Pennsylvania, says they regularly place mission trips and vacation Bible school outside of the regular budget, which usually exceed project goals.

Some churches simply accept the concept of relational giving and don’t try to place everything in a unified budget. At North Main Mennonite, Nappanee, Ind., adult Sunday school classes have several ongoing projects that they fund but that don’t fit in the budget, said Pastor Ruben Chupp. Those include helping households with medical expenses, funding mission trips, and community transitional housing.

20 interviewed pastors at a glance

Affiliation

Mennonite Church USA: 9

Conservative Mennonite Conference: 2

Missionary Church: 1

Brethren in Christ: 2

Mennonite Brethren: 2

Evangelical Friends International: 1

Fellowship of Evangelical Churches: 1

United Christian Church: 1

Non-affiliated Anabaptist: 1

Average Sunday attendance (for 13 pastors only)

30: 2

40: 1

60: 1

90: 3

200: 3

300: 2

400: 1

Does your church ask for annual pledges?

No: 16

Yes: 4

Does your church operate with a unified budget or depend upon specific offerings each week?

Unified budget: 16

Weekly specials: 4