Church Hopping

Consider this graph which reflects a typical giving and expense cycle for a church. How would you like to be in charge of planning that budget? I read a stat that says most churches plan their budget based on each member giving between 2-3% of their income to the church. And if you’ve ever been involved with church budgeting you have heard the saying “20% of the church gives 80% of the money.” Though many would say 10% gives 90% is more accurate.

Every church I have been a part of has spent the most on salaries for their employees, usually about 50% of the total budget. A survey of mega churches showed in 2005 there were 20 full-time leadership staff, which is up from 13 in 2000. A growing staff seems to be the focus of many landlocked churches that I’ve seen. If you can’t enhance your facilities, then go for a lower staff to member ratio. In my experience, this is a much more effective strategy than just building a bigger church that’ll fit more people. But a building can usually be built a lot faster than deep, meaningful relationships.

Of the three churches I have gone to recently, the missions budget was 6%, 10% and 30% of the total budget. The most recent survey shows that the average missions budget in American churches is 5%. Of course many churches consider their entire budget to be missional. This is a great mindset to have, but I prefer a church that recognizes the “all nations” part in Matthew 28:19 and gives away a lot of money instead of adding luxuries for their members.

Another graph to consider is this one relating to the average number of baptisms over a year. Maybe all those people who were baptized in August decide to start tithing for a few month, until the spiritual high passes in January. Or maybe people are just conservative budgeters and underestimated their giving ability until later in the year. While those are nice thoughts, it more than likely people just trying to get in a tax deduction for that year. As for the baptism trends, its pretty obvious…who wants to get dunked in water in the winter.