October 27, 2011

Dream Budget

Our finance committee held its first meeting this week to build the 2012 budget. For the third year in a row I have encouraged staff and ministry leaders to submit “dream budgets” that will let the vestry know what directions they would pursue if resources were no limit.

However, resources ARE a limit and becoming more so each year for Episcopal churches. In a 2011 Episcopal Church survey and prepared by Dr. Kirk Hadaway and from recent parochial reports of the Episcopal Church, the following sobering findings were presented:

  • Normal operating income in 2010 showed a decline of 2.3% over the previous year. 
  • 72% of congregations in 2010 are facing financial difficulty. This is up from 44% 10 years ago and 66% three years ago.

At St. Andrew’s we are still growing and the issue of managing growth is certainly more fun than managing decline. Still, those dream budgets show that there is much more ministry we could offer if the resources were there. The time has come, for example, for us to buy a church van, but the initial costs and ongoing maintenance and upkeep put that out of reach. So it is only a dream. Unless an angel appears.

That is one purpose of the dream budget exercise; to be ready with a vetted project if a new bequest or gift comes in. By having the finance committee and vestry check off on these dreams we have already accommodated the possibility of new work before the fact.

Our budgets are value statements. They represent in cold hard cash what our intentions for ministry and service are meant to be. These values become clearer both when we are able to add new resources and when we are required to plan to work with less. Either way having a number of people in on the conversation – staff, vestry, a finance committee, ministry leaders – helps assure that the outcome is clearly understood and expresses the shared values of the community.

Many of us hate the budget season. Some of us actually enjoy using numbers to express values. All of us share a responsibility to be good stewards. Everyone should have a dream.