The Steal Trap
July 1, 2000
A church I know has a huge missions budget. They have, they say, a strong commitment to missions. But a closer look shows allocations for everything from Sunday school supplies to choir trips—anything the leaders think might be difficult to get approved—are labeled "missions." Now they're trapped. Any reasonable adjustment will look like they've cut funding to missions.
As you start next year's budget process, avoid these snares when dividing up the money.
1. The line-item trap. Someone who places a high priority on evangelism notices the line item for outreach is only half that for music. He concludes, with some disappointment and anger, that the church thinks more of music than saving souls. The squabble that ensues sounds like kids arguing over which one got the bigger slice of pie.
A couple of families once met with me about the lack of funds for youth ministry. I quickly agreed with them.
After some research I discovered the line item showed only 40 percent of the funding. Many other expenses were scattered throughout the budget, under "administration" and "personnel," for instance. The ministry to youth was more important than the line item showed.
Taken in isolation, line items don't communicate a church's true feelings about a ministry. You have to dig deeper to measure that.
2. The priority-demands-money trap. Leaders may give a ministry more money thinking they are giving it higher priority. Wrong. This works on the assumptions that (a) giving more money is the only way to raise a ministry's status and (b) a church has only one budget.
But every congregation has at least three budgets, only one is financial. A second and equally important budget is the time budget—the church calendar. Priority may not ...
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