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 recognized as … [Read more...]
Reward What You Want Repeated
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...]
Handwritten Thank You Notes
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 (compared … [Read more...]
How to Make Purchases
Back in 2008, in preparation for our very first service, there were lots and lots of purchases to make. I was crippled by how many choices I had. For example, not only were there a hundred different kinds of speakers to choose from, but each brand then had about ten different tiers of speakers. I shared this problem with a pastor named Dave Highlander and he shared with me this purchasing principle: Quality, not extravagance. I found this so helpful! I would go to Guitar Center (or wherever) … [Read more...]
Why Percentage Based Budgeting is So Helpful
In my post How to Spend the Money I laid out four categories of spending as well as recommended percentages for each category. Now I want to talk about why these categories and recommended percentages have been so helpful to me. It helps your board of directors determine an appropriate pay package for you. Your board will decide your base salary, benefits (i.e. health insurance, retirement) and bonuses (i.e. like an end of year performance based bonus where you can earn up to 5% of your base … [Read more...]
How to Spend the Money
When we first started New Day, among other things, I was contemplating this question "How will we spend the money that God entrusts us with?" In the realm of personal finance I knew of recommended percentages for the various categories within your budget, but I knew of no such resource for church finance until I came across a book called Money Matters in Church: A Practical Guide for Leaders by Aubrey Malphurs and Steve Stroope. In this book the authors give you four main categories of spending … [Read more...]