Category Archives: Church Growth

Big Day Planning for Christmas 2020
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November 17, 2020

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Church Growth, Congregrational Ministries, Pastoring

Big Day Planning for Christmas 2020

by Franklin Dumond, Director of Congregational Ministries

The principles described here are designed around planning for a Big Day. The Big Day concept has been utilized for some time now as a means to focus the energy of a congregation around a specific day. By planning at least two but no more than four of these days in a “normal” year the evangelistic efforts of the church may be channeled into specific, intentional outreach.

As the church reconfigures outreach in the new normal efforts must be made to reconnect to our communities in a safe, effective fashion.

  1. Start Early!
    Thanksgiving comes on Thursday, November 26 and Christmas will arrive on, December 25, 2020.
    How long will it take to prepare for the worship events you will schedule around Christmas?
    Advent will begin Sunday, November 29, 2020. Three Sundays in December will precede Christmas. What will you do on December 6? December 13? December 20?
    When do you need to start gathering resources?
    When will Christmas decor show up on stage and around the building?
    Should our Big Day be early in December so we might gain return visits from guests?
  2. Add a Special Feature or a Special Service.
    How many people are usually involved in leading worship on a given Sunday? Add a special feature where more people can be involved in meaningful participation and watch the visitors arrive…especially if you use the Children’s Choir and its members rehearse for a few weeks in advance!
    Children’s programming is especially popular at Christmas, but even adults can master simple drama and pantomime.
    Other special services might be scheduled on Christmas Eve.
    Many churches find that Christmas Eve-Eve (i.e.—December 23) works well for them.
    Customize your schedule to your local context.
  3. Develop specialized promotion.
    How will everyone know of the special day if you don’t tell them? How will they realize what’s going on if they only hear it once?
    Newspaper ads and yellow pages listings do little to attract the unchurched. Consider a saturation mailing. You can develop your own material, but you may want to bring in the professionals for the first time or two. Check out www.outreach.com or thumb through Outreach Magazine for suggestions. If you use this plan be sure to include the cost of both the promotion package and the postage to send the cards. The good folks at Stinson Press can also help you with similar services to blanket your area with special invitations.
    Equip your folks with an Invite Card that carries your theme graphic and an invitation to your services. Be sure service times, locations, and other pertinent information is included. Emphasize that everything will be done with safety in mind.
    • Keep in mind, however, that if you invite them you’ll want to be able to offer what you’ve promised. Make it a special day. Clean off the coat rack. Pick up the clutter. Dust the corners. Company’s comin’! Make your worship service user friendly: keep the prayer list short and focused, eliminate any announcement that does not directly impact at least half of the people present (remember small group promotion needs to be done in the small group, not in the large group setting), start on time, eliminate the dead time in the service, preach a positive message of hope and resurrection!
  4. Use the power of focus. Concentrate your effort.
    • Focus on the family connection. Research continues to show that the most effective network we have to reach people is in the family arena (see Thom Rainer’s Surprising Insights from the Unchurched). Develop a list of family members who should be part of your church with the rest of their family. Then be sure someone from the family invites them!
    • Focus on recent visitors. What has happened to those visitor cards? What has already been done with and to the folks who have visited in the last six months? Who are they? Where are they attending church now? What do you need to do to get them to attend this Easter? Mother’s Day? 4th of July Weekend? Now you’re getting the picture.
    • Focus on the larger congregation. If your church has an average attendance of 50 you probably have at least 100 people who are part of your larger congregation. The larger your church becomes the broader is its larger congregation of folks who attend infrequently but who do attend some. Keep a list for 6-12 weeks of all the folks who attend at least one of your services.
    • Focus on increasing the frequency of attendance. If they attend once in 12 weeks, work with them until they attend twice. The unchurched population in America who become churched attend church several times in the year before they come to faith in Christ and become part of His Church!
  5. Pastors set the pace, but everyone needs to get involved! If you don’t invite then your people will not invite. If you don’t share your faith then your people won’t share their faith. The unchurched who are seeking the church want brief but meaningful contact from the pastor. Develop a system that works in your location.
  6. Be user friendly! How do we create an environment where people will want to come and hang out in this Covid infected world?
    • • Focus on safety. Remind people of social distance measures that are expected and take extra precautions to ensure safety.
    • If Communion is included use the pre-packaged elements to reduce person-to-person contact.
    • Get ready for company! Encourage your people to “Park in the back. Sit in the front. Move to the middle. Speak to those around you.”
Is Your Church Fiscally Fit?
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October 20, 2020

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Church Growth, Congregrational Ministries, Pastoring

Is Your Church Fiscally Fit?

by Franklin Dumond, Director of Congregational Ministries

Fiscal fitness and financial health are not only important for individuals and families they are also very important for local churches.

Here are a few measures of church fiscal fitness.

  1. Income to Expense Ratios. Does total annual income meet or exceed total annual expenditures? If expenses occasionally exceed income this may be a sign of health as when a building program results in a major expense one year with funds generated in the previous year. Unfortunately, if expenses routinely exceed income by substantial amounts the church cannot remain solvent indefinitely.
  2. Income History. Is the church plagued by a feast-or-famine mentality of giving to special needs at the expense of ‘routine’ ministry? If the folks respond only when the coffers run low this is not healthy.
  3. Income Sources. Do estate gifts underwrite the operating budget? This is not wise! Are a few generous members providing a large portion of the operating budget? Fiscal fitness comes from a broadly supported ministry.
  4. Income Percentages. Churches should expect to spend 40-65% of budgets on employee costs. Factory and retail managers cringe at this since in business the lower the salary percentage the higher the profit.

Educational institutions cringe because, in their model of high-touch personal connections to students, up to 90% of the budget may be personnel-related.

A church spending too low a percentage on staff probably underpays or expects over performance.

A church spending too high a percentage on staff may under serve by reducing program ministry and mission outreach to cover salaries.

Newer churches or newer facilities often have mortgages. Fiscally fit churches generally spend 15-25% of income on regular mortgage payments.

Fiscally fit churches will give 10-15% to missions. In some cases, more will be given. Although there are exceptions, if a church gives more than 20% of its general income, much needed local ministry often goes undone.

When preparing a spending plan every General Baptist Church should consider three broad categories of expenditures:

  • Our Work in the World — Missions
  • Our Work in the Community — Local Church Ministry
  • Our Work in Facilities — Buildings and Grounds

I. Our Work in the World—Missions

Within this category, General Baptist churches should identify their mission giving through the denomination, association, and local projects. Denominational mission giving through the church should be targeted for Unified Giving. Ideally, every church encouraging tithing by its members will in turn tithe to Unified Giving as a means of participating in the larger mission of the Church.

Other mission offerings and mission projects may also be included in this category and should then be funded by special offerings rather than the general giving of the congregation.

Association and Local Mission Projects are developed based on local needs and local traditions.

II. Our Work in the Community—Local Church Ministry

Within this category, General Baptist churches should identify the ministry targeted to the local community. Early in this list, there should be a fair level of compensation for the pastor and staff ministers. Compensation guides based on years of experience and education for the full-time pastor and based on hours of employment for the bi-vocational pastor are readily available from several sources

Professional expenses and personnel benefits should be fairly computed and listed as line items separate from base salary, housing, and self-employment tax.

Other local church ministries such as Sunday School, youth and children’s ministries, church office expenses, and worship needs will be included in this section.

III. Our Work in Facilities—Building and Grounds.

Within this category matters such as utilities, insurance, custodial services, maintenance, debt retirement, and property improvements should be considered. It is also prudent to develop a reserve fund to allow the church to accumulate the dollars needed for occasional high ticket items such as heating/air conditioning equipment upgrades, parking lot repair, or roof replacement.

A final section of the budget should include projected income. Tithes and Offerings should support the general work of the church. Special offerings or project income should support the special needs of the church.

The following parameters, presented on the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability website, can be useful guidelines when reviewing local church budgets.

Salaries/Wages and Benefits — 45%
Facilities — 20%
Ministry/Program — 22%
International Missions — 6.5%
Domestic Missions — 4.5%
Addition to Cash Reserves — 2%

Ready for the next step? Then download our e-book “YEAR AHEAD PLANNING: GETTING READY FOR 2021“. YEAR AHEAD PLANNING is a Church Talk Publication designed to help stateside General Baptist leaders cope with the “new normal”.

5 Reasons to Develop a Church Budget
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October 13, 2020

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Church Growth, Congregrational Ministries

5 Reasons to Develop a Church Budget

by Franklin Dumond, Director of Congregational Ministries

Many church leaders resist developing a church budget. For them planning the financial life of the church seems to lack genuine spirituality and thus eliminates faith.
But achieving objectives does not happen by accident. It takes a plan, supported by budget dollars, to realize the goal. To paraphrase the Apostle James, faith demonstrates itself with a working plan.

  1. Developing a budget requires the church to develop a plan and to plan for at least 12 months in advance. This is perhaps the most important aspect of developing a budget since all too often churches function only in the immediate rather than recognizing the longer term.

    Even households that do not write down a household budget often find themselves signing up for an equal monthly payment plan with the local utility. In essence, they develop a utility budget.

    By simply looking back over the previous 12 months of expenses church leaders can project many of the basic needs for the upcoming 12 months.
    By prayerfully considering “What does the Lord want us to do in ministry?” additional programs and line items can be developed and placed in the budget plan. In many cases exploring this kind of question will result in the need to plan for more than 12 months to be able to accomplish the goal.
  2. Planning in advance also means that permission is given in advance to spend within the agreed on categories included in the budget. One of the greatest drawbacks of frequent business meetings is that what is done in one meeting can potentially be re-done or un-done in the next meeting. A church with a monthly business meeting could potentially rework their ministry plan every month. While flexibility is important, so is continuity and consistency.

    Flexibility must exist in the church budget. For example, if income is inadequate then certain budget categories may not be funded. One wise pastor when faced with the prospect of an economic downturn explained his budget strategy to his finance team. “We’ll pay utilities and salaries. Everything else is on hold.” But because he worked with, rather than against, his leadership the impending economic downturn did not affect the congregation nearly as seriously as originally projected.
  3. Budgeting helps develop strategies and establish priorities. Since no church can do everything, budgeting helps determine what ministry priorities will be chosen. Also, budgeting helps identify the strategy used to accomplish those ministries and it helps church leaders set goals that are realistic and meaningful.

    For example, when adding staff positions it is sometimes wise to begin with interns or short-term contracts. Some pastors plan for the salary in the full-year budget but only fill the position later in the year. This allows some stockpiling of reserves to carry the new position forward.
  4. Budgeting can reduce turf wars over available resources. A wise budget plan, for example, will generally allow for the program budget of a ministry to be spent over the course of several months. This same plan, however, also recognizes that one-time programs, like Vacation Bible School, may spend their entire budget in just a few days.

    Because a budget is a projection, the use of a check request system or purchase order allows the financial leaders to review needed expenditures. Sometimes program leaders are unaware of how much of their program budget they have spent. At other times program leaders may wish to make a larger purchase at year’s end if the dollars are available for such an expenditure.
  5. Budget planning can also help unify a congregation. When the plan is explained in a town hall or reviewed in a business meeting everyone has an opportunity to understand priorities and strategies. Only rarely does a church commit the sin of over-communication. More likely the church will commit the sin of under-communication.

    I always found it helpful to profile the financial summaries in the church newsletter or bulletin under the two-fold categories of:
    Our Budget Needs…………………..$______________
    The Lord’s People Have Given….$_____________

    When folks in the pew come to understand finances from a spiritual perspective every check in the offering plate becomes a testimony of spiritual maturity.

Ready for the next step? Then download our e-book “YEAR AHEAD PLANNING: GETTING READY FOR 2021“. YEAR AHEAD PLANNING is a Church Talk Publication designed to help stateside General Baptist leaders cope with the “new normal”.