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...]
The Importance of Two Months Reserves
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...]
Sample End-of-Year Giving Letter
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 are … [Read more...]
One Approach to End of Year Bonuses
If you decide to give out end of year bonuses to your staff, here are several things you'll have to decide: What kind of bonus will it be? Is it simply a Christmas bonus? Or is it an end-of-year performance based bonus? The Christmas bonus is given simply because it's Christmas and you want to be generous. The performance based bonus is determined by...you guessed it...how well that staff member did their job that year. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other. But you have to … [Read more...]
How to Project Income: Method 2
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...]
How to Project Income: Method 1
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...]