It is budget preparation time in many congregations as they anticipate how to allocate their financial resources to operate during their next fiscal year. They are also hoping there may be enough money to engage in high quality, effective programs and ministries plus to engage in missional engagement. As to this latter point, many will be disappointed.
I have talked with or read accounts of the budget development in several congregations this week. The news is not good Many congregations are going to begin or continue being managers of museums rather than leaders of congregations engaged in missional action. What do I mean?
Once the expenditures for facilities and staff reaches 80 percent of the annual budget of a congregation it has moved from being a congregation to being a museum. The staff are not leading a missional movement. They are curators of the museum. To be leading a missional movement facilities and staff need to be no more than 70 percent of the annual budget.
The other two annual budget categories are programs/ministries and missional engagement. Once the 80 percent level for facilities and staff is crossed then programs/ministries and/or missional engagement fall to single digit percentages of the annual budget. Each of these areas need to be at least in the range of 12 to 15 percent of the annual budget for the congregation to be doing the real work of a Christian congregation.
Many reasons exist that get congregations to the place where they become a museum rather than a congregation. Some are avoidable and some are not. Some can be anticipated and some cannot. Some can be changed and some cannot. It is a complicated situation that often will take several years to resolve. However unless congregations resolve the dilemma as to whether they are a museum or a congregation, they will be relegated to permanently being a museum. That is, short of the direct, dramatic, divine intervention of God.
Where is your congregation as you prepare for the next fiscal year?
