The Point

I won’t be doing much of this, but occasionally I’ll run across a post by someone who shares insight for ministries that is worth repeating.  Below is such a post and it happens to be by a Church Planter and web designer who I know does good work and has the best interest of churches at heart, if you’d like to talk to them about your design project you can click on their link on the right hand side of this page. Enjoy the read.

December 14, 2009 @idealitydesign

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As the faith based non-profits I work with are setting up plans for 2010, the economy is forcing us to do something we should always be doing, but can sometimes get away with skipping when the good times are rolling.  After all, we’re all a little more interested in optimizing income and controlling expenses when the money isn’t flowing in faster than we can deposit it in the bank. So how do we ensure that we’re spending our limited resources wisely?

Start with a risk/reward analysis

What will it cost? It’s important to have a solid understanding of the total cost of a project, both in dollars AND in time, remember…We can’t do everything, so we must focus on those things that will give us the highest return/greatest impact.

What are the benefits? People, Funding, Publicity, or just keeping up with the other church that has a billboard on that road?

What will we lose if we don’t do it? This is an important but sometimes forgotten question. Don’t forget to consider the cost of waiting and/or not doing.

Once you’ve gone through this exercise with all your planned projects, spend some time brainstorming, are there things you don’t have on your project list that could be a better use of resources than what you did this year and planned to repeat? This same exercise works for cost cutting too…If we eliminate that staff position, yes we’ll cut expenses, but which giver/customer could we lose as a result and what will it do to morale for everyone else?

This economy offers us challenges, but also the opportuniy to take a look around and ask “Is the Juice worth the squeeze?” 

If not, maybe it’s time to find some new fruit!

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If you’ve stumbled into my own home on the web, welcome!

What I hope you will find here is a collection of thoughts, some well developed and others half baked at best.

My goal in it all is to get my own ideas down and continue to develop them as well as record the good and bad I see in my daily routine of working with non-profits. Too often I see ministries re-creating the wheel when a great model to do that thing already exists and is working. 

In 2010, we’ve already got some exciting things lined up including guest posts, some insight on the use of social media from some of the best ministries using it, and a series of posts that will take us through every step of the church planning process from the parking lot and coffee to missions and small groups.

The one constant I hope I can share is a passion to help ministries reach further into the world and make a deeper impact, and I happen to come at it with a little more financial experience than the average Missiologist. If you find things that help, please share and give me feedback as well. We’re all in this together and as my favorite African Proverb says “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

With that let me offer one brief tip on your own planning for 2010.

Set a goal with target measures, a deadline, and accountability; then follow up on it regularly.

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It’s one of the simplest things to say, but also one of the most important.

In recent surveys, most non-profits are planning to freeze or even cut staff expense in 2010. So the value and importance of how and when you say Thanks to your staff and volunteers is more important than ever.

In this Holiday season, many organizations have cut bonuses, eliminated Christmas parties, and looked for other ways to control expenses. But, the unintended effect is lowered morale, which leads to lower performance, which leads to lower quality interractions between your staff and volunteers and ultimately can negatively impact every facet of your ministry and cause your congregation to start wondering if maybe it’s time to check out that other church down the street.

So how do we practice good financial stewardship and still maintain high morale and a spirit of excellence with our staff and volunteers?

Communicate Early, Openly, and Often-the greatest defense against momentum shifting into the negative is open and constant communication. Share wih your staff and volunteers the challenges, what we’re doing to address the issues, and always remind them of their importance and your thankfulness for their help! You may also be suprised when you include others in the communication at their insight and ideas to improve the situation.

Stay Positive, not Naive- Just because you have a good attitude and don’t dwell on challenges doesn’t lessen your resolve to deal with them, but it certainly helps make those meetings more enjoyable for all involved.

After you’ve ensured that you are doing all you can to show your appreciation and value of your people, start at the top and do it again! If you lead your team this way, you’ll be setting a powerful example that they will follow. This process is always helpful, but crucial in difficult times.

Communicate, Stay Positive, Say Thanks!

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I spend most of my week with ministries. Most of my time with ministries is spent talking about money. Today, I want to break down these hours long conversations into a simple discussion of income and expense optimization. I’ll obviously be oversimplifying but here we go…

Additional income-

Some ministries get very creative and open businesses, lease property,etc to increase income- My advice here is always to be cautious, as anything that takes your focus off the main goal of your ministry (Hopefully Reaching and Discipling) has the potential to take you off track.

Stewardship/Capital Campaign- Many firms are getting away from the idea of the traditional three year specific need oriented campaign and going to various other models, but some form of special need based fundraising is usually viable when looking to do a facility related project. Many churches are still able to raise in excess of two times their normal annual giving through a multi-year campaign.

New giving/givers- The national averages are staggering, and even if your church is above average (of course it is!) It’s very likely that not everyone in your church is giving as much as they should/could. Looking for ways to increase this are almost always worth while, especially when considering an expansion/building project. Ways to tap into these givers vary, but some things to consider include

-Do at least three messages a year, be it a single series or spread out, on stewardship and the importance of giving

-Offer personal finance classes from Crown Financial, Dave Ramsay, or others

-Offer aditional ways for them to give, i.e. Online giving, ACH, and Giving Kiosks

After you’ve ensured that people have been given resources that help them maximize their giving, the other side of the coin is ensuring that you are being a good steward of those resources and…

Control Expenses-

The two primary expenses for most non-profits are facilities and personnel, while it varies from one ministry to the next, it’s not uncommon to see the combination of these two lines acount for 75% of total budgeted expenses. So any effort to control expenses must start and end with an eye on the people and the place.  How can we maxmize efficiency and good stewardship here?

Don’t hire for positions that your volunteers can do-Some churches rely heavily on volunteers to do everything from lead worship, to clean the facilities, while others hire  for any task that needs to be done reliably. I would suggest that this is going to vary depending on a lot of things, but when looking to control costs always ask- Are we paying for someone to do something that a volunteer might gladly do just as well?

Pay by the project or hire consultants- Many churches have institutionalized roles that could be done better and cheaper by outside firms. Bookkeeping, web design, media, and other areas have turned into full time positions at churches when they could often be done BETTER for LESS by hiring a professional firm, outsource it!

Utilize facilities fully- after you’ve done all you can to modernize your facility by adding insulation, low flow water fixtures, and more efficient lighting which will all lower utilities and sometimes even lower your insurance rates; the next step to squeezing better stewardship out of your facility is to consider how many hours a week is it available for other uses. This is where many churches start a daycare, after school program, counseling center, or other ministry that allows for additional income and facility usage when it would otherwise be sitting empty. In my area, several churches have even opened up Sunday time for other ministries to hold services which reach people they might not.

The better your ministry gets with stewarding the resources that people entrust to you, the more they will give. All of this is only important if we remember why we do this to begin with. It’s not about raising funds, controlling expenses, or utilizing buildings. It’s about reaching and discipling a lost world, we simply have an obligation to use the financial resources we’ve been given as a tool…wisely.

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I posted a tweet about this commercial the first time I saw it on television…I was jealous and a little disturbed, as I watch it again I feel the same. This showed me a couple things…

1. A high quality production does make a difference

2. Images and spoken word together are more powerful than either one alone.

3. We should never stop speaking and promoting the Truth, because there are others pushing their versions of it.

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I had started this post a while back and just ran into a post by Tony Morgan that was a much better version of what I was working on. So I decided to cut and paste some of his and add a bit of mine in as well.

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