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Dealing with a Pinch?
Our church has been feeling a pinch financially in the light of the current economic conditions. Are other churches being affected by what’s going on economically as well? If so, what types of things do pastors minister to encourage their people during these times, and what types of adjustments are pastors making to keep their churches healthy financially?
Responses:
Pastor Reggie Scarborough – Lakeland, FL
Recently I heard someone say, 'Flat is the new up,' in reference to business. So I suppose that is true in church work as well. The nation is certainly being challenged for sure and that affects most of us in some way. Although we have seen modest forward movement in our church financially, it isn't what it was before things started going 'south' in the economy. Since often we can't do that much about a downward spiral in the economy, which again does often affect most of us, there is something we can do. We can do something about expenses. So to me, the biggest key is to possibly postpone expenditures until things begin to recover. No doubt we will recover, but it may be a little later rather than sooner and in the meantime, let's operate in faith of course, balanced by wisdom.
Now may not be the best time to do some things we would like to do, and we probably should not. (However, should the Lord deal with us to advance, then certainly 'where He leads, He provides.’ We just need to make sure He is leading if that statement is true). Therefore, my approach is to recognize the downturn [which isn't the same as 'walking by sight' in my opinion], adjust to it and when the dust settles the bottom line will look fine.
Again, when we can't do anything about the downturn, we can do something about the outgo and probably should.
Secondly, the worst thing I feel we could do is put pressure on our congregation to make up any lack. They are probably feeling the same squeeze we are and the church should be a refuge, not a pressure chamber.
Just some thoughts from an ole' guy whose been around a while, and has gone through recessions before, ha. "Shall I look unto the mountain god for my help; no, Jehovah is my God who made the mountains and the heavens too. He will not allow my foot to stumble, slip, nor fall, for Jehovah himself is caring for me' (from Ps. 121).
Pastor Bob Yandian – Tulsa, OK
At our church we have gone through a downturn in finances (about 8%). Our Christian School has also seen numbers of parents delinquent on their payments because of job cutbacks (housing, auto sales, etc.).
I am on a ministry board with Tommy Barnett and he told us his church also was going through a financially difficult time (down about 7%). He was in touch with other large churches across the country. Saddleback had let 40 staff go and Willow Creek had let 65 go. Focus on the Family has laid off over 200 employees. At times, it is necessary.
At our church, we have let a few employees go and looked at every area of spending to cut back. One of the best things we did was let the congregation know during a church business meeting, of the downturn, the budget cuts and layoffs we had made. Many of them were grateful to know we, as a church, had done what they knew they were going to have to do in their businesses and personal lives. Fiscal responsibility is important.
We all trust the Lord for increase, but God will not bless if we will not act in a responsible manner when necessary. After multiplying the loaves and fishes and feeding the multitude, Jesus still had the disciples pick up the scraps. Your next miracle may be in the scraps of the past one.
Pastor Tim Gilligan – Ocala, FL
As the church is made up of individuals and families, all of which are to some degree "feeling" the affects of the current economy, still others are "hurting". As our people have been affected, so has the church's income. To deal with this, there are several key issues for us to focus on. It is important to address these issues by principle and not just react to circumstances. To name a few: stewardship, trust, adjustment and encouragement. In times like these, we must handle things spiritually, emotionally and naturally.
I have been preaching / teaching a number of series to help keep the people encouraged and to put and keep their trust in the Lord – to live by principle and not by circumstance. Some of the series titles have been, "Tough Times Don't Last," "Goodness Gracious," "Day By Day," "Fresh Start - Strong Faith," etc. I also, every service do a brief, encouraging, faith-building, never manipulative, offering teaching before the offering. This is to build an on-going awareness of the importance of proper stewardship. I constantly emphasize the 10-10-80 rule (give - save - live).
I sent out a letter to all of our givers at the beginning of this year to thank them, inform them and to encourage them to continue faithful stewardship. This was received wonderfully!
We offer both Crowne Financial groups and Financial Peace University classes to our body. These help people to get their finances in order using God's principles and to get out of debt. We are about to start a Business Owners / Leaders quarterly meeting. And we are researching doing a church directory so that our people can be aware of businesses and services offered from people within our church. There are many issues to consider, such as a listing does not constitute an endorsement. The jury is still out on this one.
We have reviewed our stewardship as a church and have made adjustments accordingly. In 2008 our income went down 23% but we were able to reduce our spending by 29%. To keep our budget in healthy ratios, we recently saw the need to reduce our payroll percentage. This is the most gut-wrenching...these are people we love and work together with. But real leadership includes making the tough decisions. We laid off several positions and reorganized or shut down a number of areas of ministry that we felt were not vital and / or not exactly what we were to be doing as a ministry. Also, I asked several of our staff of retirement age to semi-retire, essentially cutting their pay in half, yet they could draw Social Security and retirement benefits as income not available to younger staff members. Further, I implemented a 7% across-the-board salary reduction, including me. The staff actually rallied and I couldn't have asked for a better response from them. Sacrifice always releases power and we are fully expecting to see God's power work on our behalf!
Along the same lines, it has been said that retaining incompetent or non-productive staff is the worst stewardship. I am currently reviewing our personnel and have issued a number of time-task audits to measure this. In the end, a new rule of thumb for staff size is, "The better, the fewer."
Bottom line, for us this is a spiritual issue. We must, I must, approach it as such. On a personal level, I give every service. I prepare my offering privately, truly as an offering to the Lord and then I publicly place it in the offering, not necessarily to be seen, yet to show an example. I believe that God sees in private the heart and efforts of a pastor. Plus I try to do what I want all of our people to do.
We must be careful to never put the pressure on people, but to always keep it on God. To sum it up, we must do everything we know to do, on every level. Just as if we were fighting a fire or a disease...use everything available. In conversation with my mentor he once said, "We must pray and believe God like we used to, when we had to." You guessed it...we have to! And really, if you think about it, that's a good place to be.
