It’s your responsibility to create the church budget. How do you do it? How do you forecast your income for next year? How do you allocate resources between a variety of ministries that are all important (and who all have their advocates)? How do you gather input from staff or volunteer ministry leaders without handing over the reigns? How do you involve church leaders and the congregation-at-large?
You might be an elder, a deacon, a Director of Operations, a pastor, or another staff or volunteer leader tasked with leading the budget process. Whatever your position, you carry a weighty task and we are here to help.
Pastor Ryan and I had a great discussion about church budgets on Live Leadership that will help as you think through the process of creating a church budget and some of the challenges.
One of the first and most important things you can do when leading the budget process is to lay out the vision and the process for all involved. This helps others know the goal, their own role in the process, and have a sense of the steps involved. This free resource is the process overview we use at Peace Church, and you are welcome to download, modify, and use in your own church.