Anybody want to write a $450,000 check to National Community Church? You have not because you ask not. That is the gap between our projected income and expenses in round one of our 2007 budget. I’d rather have someone cut a check than cut the budget.
We basically work backwards when it comes to budgeting. We start with projecting income. For what it’s worth, we’ve never had less than 10% growth from year-to-year. And we’ve had over 20% growth every year except one. A testament to the faithfulness of God and the faithful giving of NCCers!
Just a few thoughts on the budgeting process. It is incredibly stressful, but I feel like it is one of the most spiritual things we do. Our staff proposes budgets for their portfolios. We pray over them. We talk about them. And our stewardship team is responsible for approving the annual budget.
For what it’s worth, we have target percentages for our different categories. We try to keep personnel at 35-40%. I’m not sure what average is, but I know some churches are in the 50-60% range which I think is fine. Facilities come in at about 20% which is pretty good considering we just built a $2.5 million coffeehouse. Missions is typically between 15-20%. We would never not give a tithe of our income to missions, but I wish this was more. Ministries is right around 20-25%–that includes things like discipleship, outreach, and media. And we try to budget 5% for development. I really think our church will keep growing if your staff keeps growing. Resourcing our leaders is a budget priority!
At the end of the day, budgeting is spiritual because it is a form of prioritizing. It reveals what is really important to us! It is the way we express our values. We don’t just say that we ought to redeem technology and use it for God’s purposes. We budget that conviction. We don’t just say missions is important. We budget that priority.
By the way, it’s not uncommon for us to have a large gap between income and expenses after round one of our budgeting process. I wish we could find a line item for every dream! But last year we added a wish list to our budget. We prioritize a list of dreams just in case God blesses us more than we budgeted.
