When Vision and Discipleship Meet the Budget

by: Todd McMichen

0

Tweet

The church budgeting process does not rank high on the list of the most motivating and inspiring experiences in a minister’s life. Pastors will line up to deliver a message, shepherd the hurting, pray for wayward, and lead the body forward. However, if a pastor lies awake at night dreaming of the church budget it is usually for the wrong reasons.

Let’s take a look at a popular budgeting process. It begins with ministry leaders submitting their annual requests for funds. Sometimes that number will be inflated because they expect to not receive their request, other times it can be rather under-prepared. Then the long vetting process begins. It is usually shaped more by fixed expenses and relational loyalties than most admit. Tough decisions are always present which either result in hurt feelings or a stressful extension of reasonable financial limits. By the time the budget is complete the process has gone on too long and fear or disappointment can be present among the team. Finally, it is concluded with a church approval process where it’s secretly hoped few show up to participate.

Does a positive, rewarding, and visionary budgeting process exist? If so, what does it look like? 

Let me suggest an approach. One that can increase vision, disciple your people, and set you free from the bondage that sometimes accompanies money.

• Begin with a season of prayer and fasting.

Scripture teaches that the tithe is holy to the Lord (Lev. 27:30). This applies both to the one giving and the one spending. God grants you resources to use for His glory and to impact lives. Your leadership needs to feel deep gratitude and responsibility before the process begins. Releasing of ownership will change the language of the conversation from the very beginning.

• Recount how God has been at work over the past year.

Where do you see the fruit of His hand or the anointing of His Spirit? Seeing the hand of God can provide a good indication of what He desires to do in the future. Ultimately you need to align your resources to God’s work. Acknowledging God’s work will prevent personal agendas, subjective opinions, and ministry silos from occurring. Released resources and the Spirit’s leading create wonderful meetings.

• Stand on the foundation of vision clarity and a well defined discipleship strategy.

Every church is not great at everything. Do you know what your church does better than 10,000 others? God places unique people in unique communities in specific eras of time. Your church is called to a very specific mission that is not to mirror the church down the street or compete with the congregation across town. You are free to be you. This level of focus actually causes your ministry to expand. It helps you say a powerful “yes” as well as a confident “no.”

• Learn your ROI.

Do you know the impact of a dollar spent? Are you investing the proper amount to gain the desired result to accomplish your dream? The longer a church exists the more its budget grows. It is rare that a congregation actually evaluates an expense based on the return. We tend to continually fund ministries long after they have lost effectiveness. Every ministry line is not mission critical and not all ministries are created to exist forever. The vision to glorify God and make disciples never changes, but strategy does.

• Allow strength and strategy to lead.

This may be a radical concept for most, but give consideration to each budget year starting with a blank slate and not encouraging each department to make their own financial requests. Instead, allow the activity of God, the vision strategy, and a few select financially gifted people to create a solid business plan. This does not mean collaboration and dialogue are removed. It simply means those with the giftedness should lead under the clear direction of the bigger picture vision.

• Spend strategically, not simply less.

This might be the most shocking piece of advice. Create a spending plan that only spends 90% of your previous year’s undesignated giving receipts. (This may take a few years to accomplish.) Most churches increase their budget 3-15% annually. Why do we do this? “It’s faith based and visionary,” the pastor says. However, it tends to create a lot of stress and reduced spending throughout the year. In reality it is far from visionary. It can be careless, unfocused, and demotivating. It creates a crisis money culture instead of a generous culture.

• Plan to be surprised.

Every year God will call you to become engaged in something you can not currently see. Of course, something will break which is not fun. Finally the next growth step has to be funded. Prepare for what you can not currently see. Nothing is more financially freeing than cash reserves. It is a sure way to tell God “yes” before He ever asks you to go. Now don’t step over the line and hoard cash reserves either. God gives you money to invest in His causes.

• Inspire others with the vision investment plan.

This is the opposite of simply getting church budget approval. A well designed spending plan and presentation should bring glory to God, affirm those who have invested, validate what the leadership have said in the past, and inspire toward the future. It should raise generosity. Loyalty and confidence in the leadership should increase. A faith-filled expectation for the future inspires all.

Everything is a choice. As leaders we choose the financial culture we create. Every conversation can be both a vision and discipleship conversation. It all depends on how you lead it. For more resources on how to grow a generous culture you can check out my blog toddmcmichen.com or my book, Leading A Generous Church.

Want to know more? Start a conversation with our team. We’re glad to offer our input. Your vision is at stake, so let’s talk.

> Read more from Todd

Tags: Todd McMichen, budget, church budget process, discipleship and budgeting

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Resourcing >

Seven Commitments to Refocus Your Leadership

by: Thom Rainer

0

Tweet

I see the New Year as a time for recommitment and re-focus. And though it is simply the changing of the page of a calendar, it is still a good time to be reminded about those areas that are most important in our lives.

With that in mind, I have seven suggestions for church leaders. Consider these seven resolutions to be statements of renewal. Ask others to keep you accountable. Above all, ask God for the wisdom, strength, and perseverance to move these commitments of renewal to reality.

1. A commitment to move beyond the inward drift in our church. It does not take long for a church to lose its outward focus. It does not take a long time for the tyranny of the urgent to replace the priority of the important. It does not take a long time for most ministries and activities to be focused inwardly instead of outwardly toward the community we serve.
2. A commitment to renew our attitude. Leading a church is tough. Church members can be critical and demanding. But God has called us to serve in the messiness of life and people. We all can use renewal of our attitude toward others and towards our life situation.
3. A commitment to become a more grateful leader. It can be natural to focus on the negative, the naysayers, and nitpickers. But we need to turn to prayer and ask for supernatural help in focusing on all the blessings God gives us. A review of Philippians 4:8 would be helpful as well.
4. A commitment to be a leader of greater faith and courage. Again, this commitment cannot be realized in our own strength and power. But we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
5. A commitment to be the leader who realizes our family is our first line of ministry.We seek not to fall into the trap of putting family in opposition to church. First Timothy 3:5 is a clear reminder that our families are our first line of ministry. We can’t be blessed in the totality of our ministry if we are lacking there.
6. A commitment to clear the church of clutter and activities. By clutter, I mean all the ways we keep our members busy. We are often expecting our members to participate in so many activities that we implicitly discourage them from caring for their families, their health, and their ministries.
7. A commitment to be an Acts 6:4 leader. If we are not giving focused attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word, we need to get out of vocational ministry. Ministry has become human-powered rather than God-centered.

I remain an obnoxious optimist about the local church. I see God working in so many great ways. I have no reason to believe 2017 will not be a great year for our congregations, especially if our leaders are willing to make these commitments of renewal.

Learn more about developing your own leadership this year – connect with an Auxano Navigator.

> Read more from Thom.

Tags: Leadership, Refocus, Thom Rainer

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Leadership >

Is Up and to the Right, Always Right? Understanding Church Giving Increases

by: Dan Reiland

0

Tweet

I had a conversation with a pastor last week who told me that the giving in his church was on the rise and he asked how he should interpret that.

That’s a sharp pastor.

Normally, we only do an analysis to understand what’s going on when the giving decreases. That’s necessary and can be helpful, but it’s mostly playing defense.

It’s better to know how to interpret giving when it’s increasing, so you can understand it in the moment and lead accordingly.

You might consider this semantics, asking, don’t we use the same factors to understand giving regardless if it’s increasing or decreasing? Yes, to some degree that’s true. But deliberate cultivation of generosity when it’s increasing is the wiser stewardship because it’s proactive rather than reactive.

In other words, it’s like attendance. When a leader says to me, “My overall church attendance is increasing rapidly, but I have no idea why,” he or she can’t learn from or leverage the momentum. They are so excited and grateful, they receive the attendance as a gift and think, “I don’t know why I’ve received this gift, but I’m sure happy about it.” That’s a great attitude, but not the best leadership.

More importantly, if you don’t know why it’s increasing, you are less likely to understand why it’s declining, (if or when it does), and therefore, it takes you longer to change the course of giving.

If you only know why your attendance is decreasing, you are always reacting and playing catch up to a problem, rather than seizing the power of momentum. It’s the same with the giving in your church.

So, here are the factors the pastor and I discussed to help interpret an increase in giving.

1) A positive response to the vision.

If your giving is up, take a look at what you have been doing to communicate the vision and how the congregation is responding. Ask yourself why it’s working. Learn from it, ask questions of key leaders to discover how they are responding as well. Continue to refine and bring clarity to the vision and how you communicate it. A real test of vision is whether or not the congregation takes action.

2) Maturing of faith.

We know that giving follows in tandem with the increasing spiritual maturity.

As believers learn to trust God and obey His word, giving is part of a natural expression of faith. It’s rare that a nominal believer consistently practices percentage giving. When giving is increasing, be keenly aware of the spiritual dynamics in play from the prayer life of the congregation to their hunger for the Word.

What practices seem to be increasing and why? When can you learn and leverage to help people continue to mature in their faith?

3) Confidence and trust in the senior pastor.

In general, people will not give to the church where they don’t have confidence in the leadership of the pastor. And they certainly don’t give if the pastor is not trusted.

The more extreme examples need no explanation, but this is often difficult to discern in the more moderate illustrations. For example, if the pastor is liked, but doesn’t seem to have a clear direction of where the church is headed, the confidence of the people is likely low.

Strong giving is not only an indicator of mature and obedient believers but also that they have confidence in the leadership of the pastor. If you are not sure, one of the best ways to know is to ask several trusted leaders and confidants in the church, such as board members, prayer partners, and one or two key staff.

4) Relationally connected with others in the church.

People always feel more connected when they share meaningful relationships with each other as part of the congregation.

There are two primary long-term points of connection. They are small groups and serving.

Small groups carry a strong sense of community and belonging as people open up, get to know each other, pray and support each other in their everyday lives.

Serving teams often carry an even stronger sense of community because of the bonding that takes place when people serve together on a team focused on a particular goal or mission.

There are obviously other factors at play when it comes to increased giving such as the possibility that a single large gift caused the offering to increase substantially that month.

We learn different things if there are a few additional significant contributions or if there many smaller ones. It’s important to understand why a large contribution is given, but it’s more important to understand trends.

I’m more like the pastors who are just grateful when God blesses. I have caught myself saying, ‘You know, I’m not sure why the giving is so strong, but I’m very grateful.” That’s obviously not a bad thing, but the leader in me needs to be grateful and have a good understanding of God’s blessing. That enables me to lead farther and extend God’s Kingdom to the greatest potential. That will help you too.

Learn more about generosity and giving patterns – talk with an Auxano Navigator.

> Read more from Dan.

Tags: Church Giving, Dan Reiland, Generosity, Giving, budget giving

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Resourcing >

10 Ways to Build Your Church Staff Dream Team

by: James Emery White

0

Tweet

I love the church staff team I have the privilege of leading at Meck. They are dedicated, loyal, unified, joyful and deeply missional. Sadly, staff discord and dysfunction is all too common. So I shouldn’t be surprised that one of the most common questions I get asked by fellow pastors and church leaders is, “How did you get a staff like this?”

It wasn’t always this way, to be sure. I have made more than my fair share of staffing mistakes. In fact, they’ve been my biggest as a leader. I think I’ve chronicled almost every one of them in my book, What They Didn’t Teach You In Seminary (Baker), still one of my favorite books that I’ve written. Painful, as it involved sharing a lot of “learning through mistaking,” but a favorite.

So how did our staff get to the place that it is? Here are the top ten things I’ve learned to do, or to look for, from over thirty years of pastoral leadership. I believe most are transferable to almost any organizational setting – whether at a church, business or school:

Ten Principles to Build Your Church Staff Team

1. We hired from within. I’m continually surprised by how few organizations do this. The biggest reason to look from within your own ranks first is simple: they already have your DNA. There is also a sense where you know what you are getting. But DNA is the biggest issue. They inculcate who and what you are in a way no one else can. Some might find this insular – I find it protective. It’s easy to stretch yourself as a learner – it’s not so easy to flesh out a culture.

2. They came to Christ here. There is no substitute for someone who is a product of your mission. Their loyalty is off-the-charts, and you never have to convince them “why” you do “what” you do the “way” that you do it. They are the poster child. If you’re in a business, think of hiring your most rabid fans. Regardless, the product of what you are trying to do is often the best recruit.

3. They passed the “beer” test. Sorry if that’s offensive to some of you, but it’s part of Meck’s internal culture. We have a saying about people: “Do they pass the beer test?” Translation: If at the end of a long, hard day of work, would you want to go out and have a beer with them? If the answer is “yes,” they passed. I think most of you know that this is about chemistry.

4. We don’t have to be suspicious. Have you ever spotted someone talking to someone else in a hallway, or out in a parking lot, and got a pit in your stomach wondering about the conversation? In other words, you wondered whether it was divisive, undermining, gossipy, slanderous… or mostly, if it was about you? Never, ever hire anyone you are suspicious about. We all know to hire for character, but few throw in the idea of “relational” character. Are they a “safe” person relationally?

5. They have a bias for action. I’ve long said that I would rather rein someone in than kick them forward. There is no substitute for being catalytic, meaning someone who initiates, takes charge and creates action. Some people have a “ready, ready, ready, ready” mentality instead of a “ready, aim, fire” mentality. Go for the fire.

6. This is what God wants them to do. There is a significant difference between someone who wants a job, and someone who is answering a call. I’m not simply offering employment – I’m offering a life investment. I’m offering a way for them to fulfill God’s clear direction and invitation. Meck is a fantastic place to work, and many, many want to work here – but what is most important is whether working at Meck fulfills a clear sense of life-calling.

7. They’re good at what they do. In a word, they are competent. Very competent. They have a skill set, an aptitude, an intellect, an ability that matches the job. There’s no sin in hiring this way, even for a church. People can be a ministry, but you shouldn’t hire them as one. I look for people who are “tens” where we need them. And we need them in every role.

8. They do not need to be, or want to be, micro-managed. This may speak more to my personality, but I have no interest, desire or time to micro-manage anyone or anything. I remember reading of a 33-page government manual outlining how to buy hammers. If I had to oversee that, then shoot me now. Just hire someone you trust to buy them! If they can’t be trusted to do it, hire someone who can! This also goes to the way people need to be managed. If someone comes to my door every morning wanting to know the five things they should do that day, again, put me out of my misery. I want people who will figure it out, chase it down, and keep me in the loop.

9. If you didn’t pay them, they would still be serving, attending and giving. This is key. They are doing what they love, doing who they are, and doing what they believe in. If it’s just for a paycheck, then they don’t have real passion or commitment. When you have someone who would do what they are doing even if they weren’t being paid, you have a keeper.

10. They get the mission, and as a result, are mission-animals. I know I alluded to this under the idea of “hiring from within,” but even people who come from your mission may not be committed to it afterwards (that’s another blog, to be sure). You want people who truly embody, understand, live and breathe the mission. At Meck, this means they “get” who we are after (the unchurched), and are unwavering in that pursuit.

So what makes Meck’s staff special?

We strive to have everyone on staff reflect all ten.

And if I can brag on my team, they pretty much do.

Learn more about developing your staff team – connect with an Auxano Navigator.

> Read more from James Emery White.

Tags: James Emery White, church staff, church staff team, dream team

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Leadership >

3 Hard Decisions of Generosity

by: Todd McMichen

0

Tweet

The desire for a more generous culture is an inspiring one. After all, we all need more resources released into ministry. The discipleship conversation around giving is filled with hope and expectations. Pastors light up, ministry teams engage, and downhill momentum is gained. Then it happens, right in the middle of a robust conversation, reality hits. At first there’s denial, followed by resistance, and then the room goes silent. Teams are dug in. I’ve seen it over and over again. Yet, developing a generous culture is within reach, but not without making some really hard decisions. What are the three hardest calls that can ultimately result in experiencing a generosity surplus?

#1 – REDUCE staff expense.

Having served on church staff for decades, I 100% support a well-compensated team. The job of a pastor is both rewarding and grueling. Being on call 24/7, giving up your holidays, living in a glass house, all while trying to advance the Kingdom is a noble life effort. However, most church budgets will invest somewhere around 50% of their expenses toward staff – this is a big chunk of your resources.

As a church grows both larger and older it tends to expand staff, often times in advance of the income. Over time, work that was done by volunteers has now become work for hire. Then, once a staff member is well entrenched relationally it becomes difficult to recreate your staff budget allotment. Churches need to make the hard choice to steadily reduce staff expenses from 50% to 45%, then toward 35% and some may even dare to achieve 25%.

I know you are ready to stop reading, but what would you give to have 10-20% surplus over the next few years?

REMEDY: Develop a new staff structure and empower more volunteer leadership. If you are going to reduce your staff expense, you will need to reorganize with a few multi-managers at the top of the organization. Then move from an activity or even ministry-based framework to a process and systems framework. This will enable you to hire a less expensive management level team to implement. You should also be able to hire more within the organization reducing the risk of outside hires that end up as misfires. Finally, you will need a solid leadership development pipeline and training process. Volunteers can and will do more. Most high capacity volunteers sit on the sideline unengaged.

#2 – FOCUS on the one thing that matters most.

Most pastors are uber confident in their vision crafting and casting prowess. It is really hard to get most pastors to evaluate their vision. Nevertheless, I find most churches exist on a vision that is some version of “we want to do church bigger and better next year than we did last year.” I so appreciate the drive for improvement and expansion. I also understand the fear of saying something that may feel less than the maximum best.

However, if vision is not clear, accountable, and actionable by every staff member, then it is not clear enough. Vision should clearly determine how a staff member goes about his/her work. It should be an obvious filter of what we do and do not do when the pastor is not around to help. It should direct all resources toward the main objective. Finally, it should be powerfully obvious to all when we succeed as a team.

When a vision is not crystal clear, pastors struggle with rogue staff and a disunited team. Team members struggle with clear direction and proper support. All levels of an organization are drained by sideways energy and less forward momentum than originally hoped.

REMEDY: Create one clear unifying goal each year and lead all ministries to rally around it. I know it can feel very limiting to have only one goal and terribly unspiritual to measure what God may do. Please hear me, when you create one strikingly clear goal like, “Provide people with a clear path of personal discipleship seeing a 50% increase in small groups participation,” you have not limited what God can do. However, you have made a choice to do one great thing together instead of five isolated, unconnected wins in different ministry silos. You have to believe me when I tell you that I have seen staff members release their budgets for the greater cause of a clear vision.

#3 – STREAMLINE ministries and supportive programming.

You know you are doing too much because you are tired. Your staff is tired. However, another Sunday is coming and expectations have been created. There was a day in your past when you “surrendered to the call of ministry,” only to now be living the life of a highly effective event manager. Unfortunately, I have seen it time and time again. Ministry success is measured by great events in amazing environments that cause large groups of people to leave feeling happy. I am all for high quality events, full rooms, and inspiring moments. No one wants their ministries to stink! However, successful activity is not the same as accomplishing the vision of kingdom expansion.

Remedy: Spend time measuring every ministry activity to determine its ROI (Return On Investment) toward your clearly articulated and measurable vision.

I would suggest you put your leadership in a room and do an objective analysis of the resources invested in all calendar events versus the return on the investment in terms of mission advancement. Measure the following using a simple green, yellow, red grading system, green = good to go, yellow=hey, wait a minute, and red=police flashing lights in your rear view mirror if you keep your foot on the gas.

• Does this ministry activity align 100% with our clearly articulated and measurable vision?
• Are we investing the proper amount of trained staff and volunteer time?
• Are we investing the right amount of financial resources?
• Does this ministry activity happen in the right room, at the right time, and at the right time of year?
• Are we providing this ministry activity the proper marketing support?
• Does this ministry activity provide a proper anchor for our strategy or bridge to the appropriate next step?
• Does this ministry activity accomplish its desired and clearly stated goal?

These three conversations consistently receive the most resistance in my generosity coaching with pastors. If you finished this blog CONGRATS TO YOU! I know you probably wanted to challenge my thoughts many times. However, what would it be like to lead a church in 3-5 years which was led by a smaller more nimble staff, that were clearly unified and rallying together around one clear goal that produced obvious results over and over again. Not to mention you have created more margin spiritually, relationally, physically, mentally, and financially. Being a church with surplus goes way beyond preaching on money, leading a Financial Peace class, and capital fund raising. You must have the hard conversations. You can actually accomplish more, do less, and enjoy a surplus to reinvest in ministry and your team.

Are you facing some hard decisions related to generosity? Connect with an Auxano Navigator to learn more about how to work through those decisions.

> Read more from Todd.

Tags: Generosity, Generosity Decisions, Todd McMichen

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Resourcing >