Smart Church Finances

Hillman Jr. George M.

Description

What can the Church learn from the business world?You're a leader of a ministry, nonprofit, or church. You trained to be a faithful counselor, preacher, interpreter of God's Word-so why do you find yourself spending so much energy on administration tasks that threaten to drain your time, energy, and joy?Look to this book for the coaching you needed, yesterday. Written from years of ministry and business experience, Business for Ministry is built on a solid foundation of business principles but-unlike many business books-in a straightforward style that anyone can grasp. You'll learn how to:Communicate vision and strategize with a teamSteward resources well (yes, including budgeting) Prioritize goals, wisely make decisions, and evaluate outcomes based on vision and dataLeverage the existing talents of men and women at your church, many of whom don't fit in "traditional" ministry rolesThis field guide to building a holistic, sustainable system for your church will both help you address the business needs of your church and free your leaders to serve, fully and joyfully.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian Church
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lexham Press
• Date de parution: 22 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683593751
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Smart Church Finances
A Pastor’s Guide to Budgets, Spreadsheets, and Other Things You Didn’t Learn in Seminary
GEORGE M. HILLMAN JR. AND JOHN REECE
Smart Church Finances: A Pastor’s Guide to Budgets, Spreadsheets, and Other Stuff You Didn’t Learn in Seminary
Copyright 2020 George M. Hillman, Jr. and John Reece
Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
LexhamPress.com
You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail] .
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are the author’s own translation or are from the ESV ® Bible ( The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® ), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Print ISBN 9781683593744
Digital ISBN 9781683593751
Library of Congress Control Number 2020931422
Lexham Editorial: Matthew Boffey, Danielle Thevenaz
Cover Design: Lydia Dahl
To a generation of ministry leaders
who allowed us to come along
and invest in their journeys
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Stewardship and Joy
Chapter 2: Mission and Vision Casting
Chapter 3: Strategic Planning
Chapter 4: Budgeting and Program Planning
Chapter 5: Stewarding Staff and Volunteers
Chapter 6: Stewarding Resources and Facilities
Chapter 7: Funding Ministry
Chapter 8: Measuring Success
Chapter 9: Reporting and Forecasting
Chapter 10: Engaging Business Leaders
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Field Notes
Field Note 1. State-of-Your-Church Assessment
Field Note 2. Mission Prompter
Field Note 3. Vision Prompter
Field Note 4. Continuum of Business Planning
Field Note 5. Strategic Planning Prompter
Field Note 6. Operational Planning Prompter
Field Note 7. Sample Job Description
Field Note 8. Compensation Checklist
Field Note 9. Performance Review Form
Field Note 10. Square Footage Guidelines
Field Note 11. Sample Church Budget
Field Note 12. Program Impact Assessment
Field Note 13. Capacity Development Assessment
Field Note 14. Church Metrics Assessment
Field Note 15. Statement of Activities Example
Field Note 16. Statement of Financial Position Example
Field Note 17. Statement of Cash Flow Example
Field Note 18. Performance Dashboard Example
Field Note 19. Leader Engagement Assessment
Introduction
I n a way, this book is over thirty years in the making.
Decades ago, one of us (John) went to a Christian university to become a pastor. But there he rediscovered his love for numbers, became a math major, and soon entered the business-finance world. George, on the other hand, went to a large state university as a biology major and ended up with a social work degree and stumbled into pastoral ministry. As the two of us joke, John is a “business guy who loves Jesus” and George is a “ministry guy who doesn’t know a thing about business.” We guess it’s true—opposites attract.
Fast forward twenty years and the two of us are living literally blocks away from each other and running in the same circle of friends at church. John was a successful business consultant being greatly underused at our church, and George was a seminary professor trying to prepare students for the real and messy world of ministry. George saw immediately a place for John to put his business talents to work and asked John to come to one of his seminary classes to teach basic business skills (how to read a budget, how to make financial decisions, and how to manage personnel) to soon-to-be graduates. Out of these simple lectures, a more formal partnership formed.
Very quickly, George connected John to several of his students who had more in-depth questions about business issues in ministry, especially church planters and entrepreneurial ministry startups. As well, John was consulting nonprofit organizations who had started strong with passionate leadership but were getting bogged down in the business details as their organizations grew. We discovered very soon we had hit a nerve of unmet needs.
When we starting thinking about taking our consulting work and putting it in writing for this book, we continually thought of the old vaudeville opening joke, “Two guys walk into a bar …,” but our version was “A business guy and a pastor walk into a bar …” because the merging of our two minds as coauthors has pointed out some humorous clichés and different perspectives we had to reconcile as we worked to present this book in one voice. John (the business guy) tends to jump right into presenting the frameworks and processes, while George (the pastor guy) sets up the background of understanding with an illustration or a story. Both are important and beneficial. But sometimes we are speaking a different language.
Once, the two of us were leading a workshop with a room full of finance officers and business managers for some of the largest Christian nonprofit organizations in the country. Many of them had made the switch from corporate life to serving at these ministry organizations they were passionate about. We had planned in our presentation that George would set the stage with some real-world examples of what ministries deal with day in and day out, and then John would come in to deliver the meat of the presentation (much of which appears in this book).
About half way through the workshop presentation, John and the “business people” in the room started talking about donation exchange rates (there was a question about what currency was better for a multinational ministry to receive their donations in), and George (the pastor guy) was completely lost in the conversation. George thought they might as well have been speaking another language. It is true that the business world and ministry world have different languages, and sometimes it feels like cross-cultural ministry.
As we wrote this book, we met at our favorite local coffee shop to hash out the various chapters. There were several times when John would write part of a chapter and George would have the chapter marked up with words like, “I don’t understand the business terms you are using. Can you give me an example? Can you say this simpler?” Then there would be times when George would write a part of a chapter and John would say things like, “This is too wordy. Can you get to the point quicker?” The real work of the book happened during these “translation sessions,” usually with John taking out his pad of paper and drawing out concepts and ideas we then slogged through.
In short: we’ve done the work of blending our worlds so you don’t have to.

PASTORS NEED BUSINESS HELP
Most pastors typically focused their studies in Bible college or seminary on biblical studies, theology, and pastoral care. * They studied the Old and New Testaments, biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek), systematic theology, church history, preaching, and likely pastoral counseling. And these are all fantastic disciplines in which pastors should be well-versed. But if there is any focus on organizational leadership skills or business management practices, it is most likely limited to just a couple of lectures in a general overview course on church ministry fundamentals.
You do not learn business management in a Bible college or seminary classroom. Many of our brightest graduates leave with the best biblical training possible yet struggle in ministry because of all the “business stuff.” Personnel conflicts, poor hiring choices, financial mismanagement, strategic miscalculations, lack of supervisory skills, and just not knowing how to manage people all can become sources of downfall in these young pastors. None of these graduating leaders were morally corrupt or purposefully neglectful. What unfortunately happened in most cases was the church’s business complexity overwhelmed them. †
As we will discuss throughout this book, business—that is, resource management—is an integral part of the work of your church. You cannot stick your head in the sand and ignore the money issues, the strategic challenges, or the personnel difficulties. If any of these issues are ignored, they will bring you down with them. Business must be recognized as a reality in every church.
Our driving vision behind this book is for you to get the help you need. Pastors need help in understanding how to do the basic business side of church, not just understanding the concepts in theory. Pastors need guidance in applying basic business disciplines to the functioning of their churches. And trust us, pastors will at some time face a very complex business situation and will need help navigating their churches through a series of multifaceted decisions. While we can teach you some things in this brief book, the long-term help you need is probably already in your church and is just waiting to be tapped. *

PRAYER OF DEDICATION
As we begin this journey, let’s start off with a prayer: “Prayer for Vocation in Daily Work” in The Book of Common Prayer :
Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
CHAPTER 1
Stewardship and Joy
I n the parable of the talents, Jesus illustrated some clear business principles relevant to today’s church:
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had