Sample Church Budget

Imagine you are a 28 year old who just accepted his first pastorate and the wonderful folks at that little church do two things. First, they hand you the church keys & checkbook and second, they say, "Okay, just let us know if you need anything."

Feeling overwhelmed would be an understatement but many pastors can empathize with a similar situation of their own. When starting at a new church or just starting in ministry, four crucial tasks that every pastor needs to address in his first year are how to set goals, how to develop ministry plans, how to manage your calendar, and how to develop a church budget. While none of these may "zing" you with excitement, the longer you wait to address these tasks, the more difficult and frustrating life and ministry will become.

So what does a generic church budget look like? Here is a suggested breakdown:

• Missions - 10%
• Ministry - 10%
• Personnel - 45%
• Operations - 30%
• Debt/Savings - 5%

Any of these can be adjusted because each church will have its own context and situation.

• If a church has a large amount of debt, then 5% may not be enough to cover the monthly note.
• If a church has a large overhead (electric, gas, insurance, etc.), then 30% may be too low.
• If a church is struggling financially, then Missions giving may currently be at 0%.

These percentages are meant to serve as goals. Your goal is to develop a healthy, repeatable, and God-honoring process for your budget. Your first step in being a good steward is to grab your bills and plug in your current numbers. Using these five categories, what are your current percentages? Find out where you are and prayerfully begin to plan out where your church needs to go.

If you are willing to prayerfully do this task, God will honor your effort and your church will appreciate your leadership.

Misleading Names

Names that are misleading:

• French Fries - came from Belgium, not France
• Fairy Tales - are usually not about fairies
• Funny Bone - is a nerve, not a bone
• Backbone - is actually 33 different bones
• Rice Paper - has no rice in it
• Mountain Goats - are small antelopes, not goats
• 10-gallon hats - can only hold about a gallon of water

And now you know . . . which is half the battle.

I'm a young pastor . . .

Recently I was asked by a funeral director to preach at a graveside service for a homeless man.  Since this man had no friends or family, the service was going to be at a little cemetery way out in the country.  I had never been to this area and apparently neither had Google maps.  Thus, I got a bit lost and being a typical man, I didn't stop to ask for directions.

I finally arrived about an hour late and saw that the funeral director had already left and the hearse was nowhere in sight.  There were only the diggers and crew standing around eating lunch.  I saw that the vault lid had already been put in place and that some dirt was already covering it.  So I apologized to the men for being late and I just went ahead and started the service.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around.  My heart truly ached for this man with no family or friends at his graveside so I attempted to preach my heart out.  As I preached the resurrected Christ as our only hope, I actually got a few "Amen's" and "Hallelujah's" from the workers.  As we closed in singing "Amazing Grace", I don't think there was a dry eye there.
It was a solemn moment so I simply nodded a goodbye to the workers and headed towards my vehicle.  My head was low, my heart was full, and as I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "That was beautiful.  I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

Apparently I'm still lost . . . it's a man thing.

So what did Jesus look like?

In short, we don’t know what Jesus looked like because the Bible does not give us a detailed description. What we do know is how the Ancient Near East portrayed Jesus, which can be seen from the earliest images we have of Jesus.

The oldest surviving icon of Jesus is entitled "Christ Pantocrator" (Christ Ruler of All). It is an encaustic painting from the 6th century, in St. Catherine's Monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai. An encaustic painting is a hot wax painting, where beeswax is heated and colored pigments are added. While commonly known as St. Catherine's, the official name of the monastery is the "Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai" - in case you wanted to impress your friends.

Two other images of Jesus worth noting are "The Good Shepherd" and "Christ Between Peter and Paul".

"The Good Shepherd" is from the 3rd century and is found in the St. Callisto catacomb in Rome.




"Christ Between Peter and Paul" is from the 4th century and is found in the St. Marcellinus & St. Peter catacomb in Rome. The fresco is found inside a cemetery villa that belonged to the Emperor Constantine and depicts four martyrs in the foreground: Gorgonius, Peter, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius.

Push Button, Receive Bacon

Not too long ago, I was able to take a quick road trip with a pastor. The sun was shining, the traffic was light, the conversation was pleasant - things were going well. We then decided to stop for food and a restroom break when, much to my delight, I noticed this hand-dryer in the restroom.

Realize, this is no ordinary hand-dryer; this is the "push button, receive bacon" hand-dryer from my youth. Years ago, someone scribbled those four glorious words on a restroom hand-dryer and a magic bathroom-bacon-dispenser was born. From that moment on, I could never "unsee" that wonderful graffiti. So, I did what any normal person would do: I chuckled, took out my phone, and proceeded to take a picture of it.

Just then, the pastor walks in and sees me taking a picture. He stops, is silent for a moment, and then asks, "Adam, do I need to be concerned that you are taking pictures in the men's restroom?" I wanted to explain the humor and the nostalgia behind the picture, but in a move that made the situation a bit more awkward, all I could do was point to the hand-dryer and say, "It's bacon."

So while it was great to find an iconic image from my past, unfortunately it was also the last time I was asked to take a road trip. For your enjoyment, here is that glorious picture and may those wonderful words of graffiti, "push button, receive bacon" be forever etched upon the walls of your heart.