A few weeks ago I had dinner with Dave Gibbons. Dave is the pastor of New Song Church in Irvine, CA, author of The Monkey and the Fish, and all-around nice guy. Just read his cover article interview in Outreach Magazine. Good stuff.
Dave says, "Scarcity brings Clarity. When resources are super-abundant you can proceed with flawed assumptions for a long, long time. In more pinched circumstances, you have to examine your true values." That is so true and so good.
Few things are healthier for an organization than having to slice its budget. I know that is counter-intuitive. But it forces you to evaluate your priorities. You have to drill down to your core convictions.
I love one other observation Dave made: "It's not about the buildings. It's about what happens inside the building."
Here's a question: what percentage of your church budget goes to brick and mortar? I know there isn't a magic number, but I'd be interested in hearing where some others are at. I think facilities comprise about 21% of our budget this year. Our theater leases are pretty cost-effective.
Dave says, "Scarcity brings Clarity. When resources are super-abundant you can proceed with flawed assumptions for a long, long time. In more pinched circumstances, you have to examine your true values." That is so true and so good.
Few things are healthier for an organization than having to slice its budget. I know that is counter-intuitive. But it forces you to evaluate your priorities. You have to drill down to your core convictions.
I love one other observation Dave made: "It's not about the buildings. It's about what happens inside the building."
Here's a question: what percentage of your church budget goes to brick and mortar? I know there isn't a magic number, but I'd be interested in hearing where some others are at. I think facilities comprise about 21% of our budget this year. Our theater leases are pretty cost-effective.
7 Comments:
We are just starting out as a church plant in Northern Michigan. At the beginning our facilities cost was eating up at least 60% of our budget! We had a killer facility (they even gave us free coffee and did basic set-up/tear-down). But it was killing our ability to be a movement of grace!
One day I drove around town pouring my heart out to God for direction on this issue, and happened to remember a new recreation area with awesome pavilions and a kids area.
We now meet there on Sunday nights. At 5 PM we grill hot dogs, and at 6 PM we start our service.
We are still small, but this has allowed us to pour more resources in to our ministry projects like free financial classes and job coaching. Plus, we are setting aside a nest egg for the fall.
Thanks for the post!
Some credit "guidelines" suggest 35% or less towards facilities is healthy. Still others look at the combination of facilities + staff salaries/benefits = 65% (the 2 big ticket items). Really, it's a vision / strategic philosophy question. How does the X% I'm spending on my facilities further our purpose as a ministry. Perhaps a church can justify spending a higher percentage of their budget on facilities by the ministry opportunities it creates and the utilization (stewardship) of that facility. In other words, how is the church leveraging that asset for the Kingdom?
But there's a trade-off. Higher facilities cost mean lower staff salaries and/or programs. So evaluate it in the greater context of the church's mission/vision and budget.
Jared wow. God is amazing. We were/are in a similar situation. We did some major community activities that cost a lot of money but yielded few new people and we were flat broke in March, not even a year old, and I was on my way to the Church 2.0 seminar @ NCC (thanks Mark for hosting). While I was on the train that morning God just started showing me a new direction. He showed me that we had gotten good at serving the HAVES of our community and ignored the HAVE NOTS. He showed me that we thought we were doing a good work but were in fact deluding ourselves and needed to get back to the vision He initially gave us and our Core Values. That day on teh train I had prayed because we were out of cash, could not pay our bills, I am bi-vocational and had been out of work and had no clue where to go next. It was in that scarcity that God brought great clarity.
http://twitter.com/atibadesouza
Our rental costs are 20% of our budget. We are a 1 1/2 year old church that rents a middle school.
So do you do away with churches that have buildings? Jared said that expensive facilities were killing their ability to be a movement of grace. Huh? Grace is free and springs from prayer (prayer as a response to the movement of the Holy Spirit). You could have zero money and be a movement of grace, so how does an expensive facility kill the ability to be a movement of grace? Sometimes buildings are needed and buildings are expensive (ask anyone in NYC or DC where Mark is). If it works for one church to rent and spend money on others great. For another church, location (and owning property) may be necessary, and so much more of the money goes into buildings.
Rob, you are dead on!
It sounds like my sentence "killing our ability to be a movement of grace" bothered you a bit?
An edit would read:
It was showing us that using the facility was not where God was moving at the time because we couldn't afford it!
And then in our desire to follow His movement of grace in Northern Michigan, I was perplexed and poured out my heart to God for wisdom and direction.
And guess what?! A fantastic door of opportunity opened up, and we are following God there to see if that is where He is moving.
First thoughts: He is, and man I love the fact that we can be so flexible at this point in the life of our church.
Finally: Romans 12:1 is a big part of the life of our congregation. In view of God's great movement of grace, our joyous response(the only one we have) is to offer everything we are as an act of worship.
God bless you man! Hope that clears it up a little bit...
Jared
twitter:JaredYaple
Jared,
I love that concept of seeing God at work and joining him. There are a lot of exciting things (movements of grace) happening around the country and around the world in new church starts. New church starts often do not have buildings and when God is at work in those new start-ups that meet in schools and storefronts, it is very exciting.
But, God is also still at work in some traditional churches and that can just exciting. Thanks for your words. God bless your work (your joining where God is at work)!
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