With many churches facing financial challenges in the midst of an economic recession, I’ve been curious to know if there are some common themes that are compounding the problems. Since Casey is working with churches across the country to help solve their financial issues, I asked him to outline the most common mistakes he has identified. Here’s what he shared:
1. Lack of clarity
“When I ask a church leader where they want to be twelve months from now financially, few can tell me. When I ask a church leader what their annual operational budget is, they look at their executive pastor or bookkeeper and say, ‘How much did we bring in last week?’ The lack of financial education among pastors is VERY scary to me.
“With this lack of understanding about dollars, few churches we meet with plan more than a few months in advance. Well, it isn’t rocket science to figure out that if you don’t plan, you probably will not accomplish! We suggest every church develop a whiteboard session with their key team and write no more than four financial goals for the year. The goal has to be twitterable (140 characters of less) and has to have a date and amount connected to it. When its clear, it works!”
2. Living on faith more than wisdom
“Unfortunately, leaders run their church finances like they run their personal finances. Most pastors I meet with believe God will just ‘provide’ and there is no need to plan more than paycheck to paycheck. This is not biblical. The Bible is full of examples of people making faith moves but it was usually a few times in their life, not everyday or weekend! The Scripture has way more examples about being diligent and wise with our money than living with faith in a miracle all the time. We suggest living in reality with budgeting, spending and debt. Base your budget on past REAL trends of income and expense more than HOPING we take in more this year. God is into miracles, but he is also into margin.”
3. Too many staff
“Tony, you are the expert on this, but I see so many churches that hire people to do what volunteers could easily do. Overhead walks on two feet! One of the quickest ways to limit the ministry God has for you is to just hire a bunch of people to do administrative work that volunteers can do. The litmus test for staff (especially early on) should be can they build volunteer teams and raise up leaders?”
4. Low accountability
“Staff will spend the churches money DRY unless you have a plan they can follow. Churches that have a low accountability spending system spend more than churches that are on top of it. We suggest developing a monthly allotment that each person can spend in each budget category. If they go over, take it out of their paycheck (just kidding). You have to monitor spending or it will get out of control.”
Casey Graham is the co-founder of The Change Group, one of my new ministry partners that helps churches with their finances. If you’d like to learn more about how his team helps churches address these financial mistakes, fill out this online form.
So those are Casey’s top four mistakes? Do you agree? What would you add to the list?
I agree with the “Hiring” someone to do what a volunteer could do. I had that happen to me. I was serving without pay, they asked me to be paid staff and then money ran out because I was told after taking the job that I had to fund raise half of my salary.
Being clear is key. Good post.
I agree with each one. Unfortunately they don’t teach these things in seminary. I posted about that subject recently. Without my 20 years business experience I don’t know how I would know how to lead a church that is growing.
Casey is doing great work!
Ron Edmondson
This post makes me glad that I’m a lowly Youth Pastor! I would be clueless in this area. I do think, however, that I’m apt to learn. I love learning new things, and I think that’s probably the biggest hold-up to any church moving forward. So many Pastors and church leaders think they have it all figured out. Or, they focus their learning only on Spiritual matters, but fail to keep up with the practical side of running a business. There are other things to consider (does that make me sound like a heretic?)
I have found in my eleven plus years of being in the stewardship field that this is very accurate. As a former senior pastor I get embarrassed at how little pastors know. There are a multitude of reasons for this but none are a good excuse. It is true we were not trained in this in seminary but how many other things did we have to pick up on our own? Think of all the books, services and other opportunities pastors have. One sad reason too many do not do better at this is laziness. So, while it pains me to say I would add Number Five – Laziness.
I would say one thing that effects the financial temperature of a church can be the facilities. The solution isn’t always bigger boxes. You can be an effective steward of your facilities too. You have to plan for facilities too and plan for growth within them. It’s important to have a great team in place for this (ahem) and to seek advice from people like Casey. One church that has a great take on facilities and finances is Church of the Highland in Birmingham. Wouldn’t it be great to have planned for a building, so you can just build it out of your budget, without a campaign?
I’d add two more:
* Low Expectations of members – are people living up to our low expectations? How high do church’s set the bar or are we just too scared that people will go away? In reality, people are more willing to live up to higher standards if they know what they are.
* Low Teaching by leadership of biblical financial principles – many church leaders are scared to talk about money because they don’t know how to. They don’t know how to because they’re scared to talk about it. Somehow they’ve got to get off the merry-go-round.
I’d elaborate on two others:
* Low Accountability of church leaders (both paid and volunteer) – Who holds church leaders accountable for what they spend and how they spend it? Do those expenses advance the Kingdom or are they just frivolous spending? In the area of staffing, does every position on staff support the churc’s mission or did we create a position “because it sounded good at the time?” Clear out deadwood both in people and positions.
* Low Transparency of church finances – Do churches have fuzzy numbers? Can church members get a copy of the church’s monthly financial statements without hassles? If your church’s checkbook were posted online, would you be embarrased at any expenses?
Good post – it pushed my button!
I’m not quite sure what the topic means by “the 4 financial mistakes that churches make”. “living on faith more than wisdom” and “low accountability” don’t sound exactly like “financial” issues to me.
Maybe i’m taking the meaning of “financial” too strictly.
I’d say having a comprehensive understanding of the business of a church is number one. The Lead Pastor needs to be as much of an entrepreneur as he needs to be a pastor. he needs to know whether or not he’s got the critical mass necessary to make it a successful go.
and he needs to stick to budgets. that means making hard decisions on a timely basis. cutting cost. that may even mean closing the doors if necessary.
one more mistake i see is that if the Lead Pastor doesn’t understand the church as a business, then he’s not going to be able adequately cast the vision because the financial need is the fuel behind the mission. they go hand in hand.
[...] 4 Financial Mistakes that Churches Make [...]
From the financial side of the post, I have seen churches make plenty of mistakes on the purchasing side, especially with furnishings for the number of environments they try to provide. Both upfront investment and long-term benefit come into play here of course.