It’s the time of year when many folks set intentions for the new year. If you happen to be in a leadership role within your church, it’s often the time to set the yearly budget as well. If you are a member of the executive team, a treasurer, an elder, a council member, a churchwarden, or hold another leadership position in your church, you will probably have some oversight of your church budget and spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
Kindred has developed a Church Finance Toolkit to help you do just that! The toolkit includes tools to help you set your budget, manage various funds, set up ministry teams, and develop policies in these areas.
Christine Ruza, Treasurer at Elmira Mennonite Church, has found that Kindred’s Church Finance Tools have helped her in her role. “They build capacity,” she reports. She took on the Treasurer role a little over a year ago, and feels like she has finally flattened the learning curve after a full year in the job. She readily admits that even though she was familiar with personal finances, and departmental budgeting in her job, church finances were a whole new ballgame.
At Elmira Mennonite, Christine is responsible for the first draft of the yearly budget. The first tools she used were the Narrative Budget Report Explainer and Template. The concept of a Narrative Budget was new to her and she has received really positive feedback from her congregation. “It’s not just money and numbers,” reports Christine, “It brings things to life for the members of the congregation.”
Christine has found that different tools are useful at different times. “I go back to them every few months.” The Best Practices for Handling Offerings tool came in handy as Elmira Mennonite emerged from pandemic restrictions. Like most congregations, they had to make the best of difficult circumstances during lockdowns, and are pleased to be following best practices once again.
In addition, Christine has found the tools that help with policy development to be really helpful. She states, “Policy development is a never-ending process, and it was nice to have advice and examples to work from.” MCEC (Mennonite Church Eastern Canada) provides a lot of guidance, but at the end of the day, Elmira Mennonite cultivates their own policies and priorities.
Christine believes that the challenges ahead revolve around cultivating a spirit of stewardship in a world that is more and more online. “I learned to give by being given a quarter to put in the offering basket each Sunday,” states Christine. “How do you reach young people and those who are engaging digitally in a virtual congregation the same way and instill that sense of stewardship?”
Those in church leadership know that there is a business side to church, but that church isn’t a business. Christine found that the Kindred Church Finance Tools provided a nice balance between really practical advice, and the important and meaningful work of Christian stewardship. It is that sense of stewardship that will allow congregations to continue to meet the needs of their communities today, and into the future.
Book an appointment with an Account Manager to see if Kindred can help you in the stewardship of your church finances.