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How do you communicate a budget shortfall to your church?

23 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn 10 Comments

We live in challenging times and though our churches are about good news in Jesus, sometimes we have to communicate bad news and currently many churches have to communicate that the budget is not being met.

I recently got the email below from a church communicator asking how to do that. Below her question I’ll give some answers and I’d like to invite you to add your comments in the comment section. If you’ve never commented on an article before, please give it  a try we all value your input!

Yvon,

Our church budget is experiencing a large shortfall. Is there anything on your website about how to/how not to communicate such information?

I dislike posting the information in the Sunday bulletin as I feel it is a real turnoff to visitors. Any advice or leads would be appreciated!

Name protected

Suggestions on how to communicate budget shortfalls in the church

There are a number of communication issues in this question.

First, let’s discuss guideline suggestions for communicating about financial matters on an ongoing basis and then how to deal with a situation where members have not been informed.

Every church needs a way to keep members updated on the church finances.

Just like every family needs to be continuously aware of where they stand in relationship to the family budget, the church family needs to understand finances.

In most churches this means some sort of announcement in the bulletin. Though it is totally understandable that you do not want to present finances in a way that is a turn-off to visitors, a discrete notice, a sort of box score can be put in each week in a very subtle way, without comment. Many churches have something like this:

Last week’s offering:              $XXX.XX
Weekly budget goal:               $XXX.XX
Year-to-date total offerings:   $XXX.XX
Year-to-date budget:              $XXX.XX

With something like this, the congregation is informed and the Lord can speak to them about their response. When the congregation has no idea week-to-week if the church is slipping behind and suddenly they get a letter that the financial situation is desperate, that will cause far more problems.

What visitors dislike is a big emphasis on money, but everyone knows churches need money to operate. I’ll never forget an example (this is true) of one church bulletin I saw. Across the front it  said in HUGE LETTERS:

THE DEBT is 3.5 MILLION!

HAVE YOU MADE A PLEDGE YET?

Now that would most likely be a turn-off to visitors.  A little weekly box. . . . .I wouldn’t worry about that.

In fact, that is what our church has done for years. Members like it and we have never received any complaints about it. We are challenged right now, but as we go up and down, because the congregation knows each week what is happening, when the pastors do mention finances or present a gentle challenge, it is not a huge issue or surprise.

Suggestions for your current situation

  • If your people are not up to date, no matter what form you take to inform them, here are some questions you need to consider in the content of your communication:
  • Is there a reason for the shortfall that your congregation needs to be reminded of? Did a factory close or similar challenge in your area? Has your membership dropped significantly?
  • How big is the shortfall? Is the church in danger of having to lay-off staff or make other very drastic cuts? Do you have a proposed plan to deal with the consequences if the money does not come in? You need to decide what you will do and present clear options and consequences.
  • How long has it been since the church was updated on the financial status? If it has been a long time and the shortfall is serious, you must include reasons why the congregation is just now finding out about it.
  • Present specific steps people can take to bring the situation to what it needs to be. Remind people of the current weekly needs. Tell them how much additional money needs to come in to meet the shortfall. Challenge people to give a certain amount for a period of time to meet the shortfall.
  • Tell them exactly how the staff is handling the situation and what they will be doing.
  • All of these facts would be good to clearly put down on paper (and later on the website) prior to informing your people.

How to inform your people

If you are in the habit of quarterly or other regularly scheduled letters to the congregation, one with the above information would be good to send. You would not want to go into all that detail in the bulletin and it would not be appropriate for visitors. This is a family matter and should stay in the family.

There are times however when a shortfall is too significant to be handled in a letter. In these difficult situations, few things are more painful, but more productive than face-to-face communication. If the shortfall is significant, people will have questions. To keep peace, you must communicate in a way that they can get answers to their questions. A church meeting can do that and will prevent numerous phone calls answering the same questions.

Many churches do this with a congregational meeting after church. You can take a 10 minute break, visitors leave and then the members of the church return for an update. At that time, you would present your situation, answering all the concerns above, PLUS providing your suggestions for a solution on paper. You need to do this even though you’ll verbally communicate it because some dear folks may not hear, they will be tired, hungry and ready for lunch. Some will be upset. But to not meet with folks can cause many problems with gossip and misinformation.

Suggestions on what to do at an after-church meeting

  1. Begin with prayer.
  2. Hand-out the printed information.
  3. Apologize—for not keeping more current in your updates if you need to do that and so defuse that issue.
  4. Present the situation and solutions.
  5. Ask for questions in a calm and Christ-honoring, peaceful way.
  6. Tell the congregation what you will do next, what you want them to do, and how you will update them.
  7. Provide email, phone, contact person for further questions.
  8. Ask for prayer; end in prayer.

Our church has done a similar thing at times where challenging information needed to be shared and it has always been much more peaceful and productive than first feared. We press ahead by God’s grace.

Those are my suggestions.

PLEASE add your comments, suggestions, or experiences below and thank you for participating!

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Church Financial Communications Tagged With: church budget shortfall, church finances, church financial communications, communicating church budget

Pledge Card/Committment Card Sample that includes more than money and reminds us of our committment to discipleship

1 November, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

In church we often talk about giving our "time, talent, and treasure," but when it is time for the congregation to give its annual pledge, many churches only ask for money. In this wonderful sample from Gordon M., his church asks for not only a monetary pledge, but asks for very important commitments in all areas of spiritual growth, as shown below. It is only after these areas that the financial part of the card comes in. Here is the sample text, the PDFs and editable files are described below.

Pray for Duncan Memorial at least   ___ Daily  ___Weekly ___Monthly

Worship at Duncan Memorial (or elsewhere) ___Weekly  ___ 2x/Month  ___ Monthly

Discipleship Growth Group participation (Accountability/Bible Study/Prayer/Sunday School, etc.)  ___Yes

Volunteer to help with other Duncan Memorial ministries:  ___Children/Youth Sunday School   ___Serve on Committee

___Meals  ___Office Help  ___Yard Work/Maintenance  ___Visitation  ___Mission  ___ Other ____

Serve the poor at least one hour ___ Weekly  ___ Monthly  ___ Quarterly

Share our faith with others and/or invite others to experience Christ here  ___Yes

On the back of the card is a Tithe Chart.

I like so much about this card because not only does it ask for commitment, but it very strongly reminds church members that being a Christian involves prayer, worship, discipleship, volunteering, helping the poor and sharing our faith. As leaders in the church, we need to remind our people that ALL of these actions are important in our faith and this card is a fantastic reminder.

Below is what the card looks like on the Front and Back.

 Below the images is a link and you can download Two Zip Files:

One is titled "Commitment Cards" and it has a PDF, 3-up of the card, a PNG image if you wanted to put it on PowerPoint or use it for training, plus an editable MS Publisher file so that you can modify the file and make one for your church.

The Second file is titled "Tithe Chart" and it has a PDF of the chart, 3 up, ready for you to print, a PNG image to use on PowerPoint (show it to the congregation and encourage them to look it over and pray about it) and an editable MS Publisher file of the chart. You probably don't want to modify the chart, but you may want to change the header to personalize it for your church.

The files can be accessed below the images.  Again a HUGE thank you to Gordon! You've blessed us all!!!

Committment Card Image

To access the files click on the link, download the ZIP file and SAVE IT to your desktop. Then just click on it to open the files. Remember you do have to have MS Publisher to open the files, but anyone should be able to use the PDFs and the PNG image files.

For the Commitment Card ZIP FILE, click here.

For the Tithe Card ZIP FILE, click here.

 

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Filed Under: Church Connection Cards, Church Financial Communications, Church Pledge Cards Tagged With: church pledge card samples, church tithe cards, church title card samples, Communications, Pledge cards

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