Finances

It's scary to spend money in ministry. The fear is that if we spend what little we might have, there won't be enough for later. But this is the wrong way to think of spending money. As a church, ultimately, everything we spend money on is to make disciples. And in this sense, whatever we're spending money on isn't an expense, rather an investment in people's eternity. And here's how it works: The return on investment is always greater than the initial investment.  A church is about destinies, … [Read more...]

It's been a snow filled winter here in New England! As a result, many pastors have had to cancel church - some for a couple weeks in a row. And as every pastor knows, when you cancel church, many people don't make up their giving (i.e. give next week what they would've given this week had church not been canceled). Even when most of the church gives online, you still can expect about half the normal offering when you cancel. Well this is one of many reasons that at New Day we keep two months … [Read more...]

In January you ought to be sending out giving statements to each person who financially contributed to the work of the Lord through your church over the past year. In this post I want to share the kind of letter I write and enclose along with the actual giving statement. My hope is that you'll be able to use this as a guide to help you in writing your own end-of-year giving letter. Dear New Day Church Family Member,  Enclosed you will find your 2014 End-of-Year Giving Statement. Because we … [Read more...]

At New Day we use Money Matters in Church: A Practical Guide for Leaders to project income for the upcoming year. The book outlines two main ways to project income. In this post I'll cover the second. In my previous post I covered the first which you can view by clicking here. The second method is called the "Projected Attendance x Projected Per Capita Method." This is straight out of the book (which I highly recommend you purchase): Year       Avg Attendance     Increase        Giving         … [Read more...]

At New Day we use Money Matters in Church: A Practical Guide for Leaders to project income for the upcoming year. The book outlines two main ways to project income. In this post I'll cover the first. In Thursday's post I'll cover the second. The first method is called the "Numerical Increase Method." This is straight out of the book (which I highly recommend you purchase): History of Giving                                                         Increase over Previous Year   2004             … [Read more...]

God has a kingdom and it's funded through tithes and offerings . That being the case, as leaders we better have a solid grasp and biblical understanding of what they are (and aren't). For an Old Testament Israelite, tithing was the returning of the first 10% of their gross income to God through their local church to fund God's work on this earth. Let me explain this definition piece by piece, making application along the way. 1. Tithing was returning, not giving. The tithe was … [Read more...]

I don't recall who taught it to me, but I've been living by "reward what you want repeated" for years now. As often as I can I reward a behavior I see one of my staff exhibiting that I would like them to keep doing. Here's just one example. Each time my staff find a way to save money, I give them 20% of the total savings to keep for themselves. I don't care if it's $10 or $10,000, they get 20% of whatever they save the church. And let me tell you, my staff finds ways to save our church money! … [Read more...]

When someone writes a check or makes a donation that hits or exceeds $1,000 I always write a handwritten thank you note. I always have custom New Day thank you cards ready in my drawer for just such occasions. Someone recently sent a check in for $4,000. Here's what I wrote in the note I sent them: Thank you so much for your recent gift of $4,000. We are launching a new tween ministry and this money will really help with the associated start up costs. So far in the first half of 2014 … [Read more...]