An Example (2015)

I mentioned in an earlier post that often times “we look at church finances the same way as we look at finances in politics, business, or non-profit organizations.”  I also stated that “none of these comparisons actually matches the pictures we find in Scripture.”  These are big statements that merit further investigation and explanation.  Rather than diving right into the Scriptures, though, I’d like to set up our investigation into the Scriptures with a real-life example.  We’re going to look at a slice of the financial picture of Life Bridge Christian Church for 2015.

In 2015, $130,816.28 was given to Life Bridge Christian Church general offering.  This does not include income for designated programs or events like 500 Turkeys, Toolbox Ministries, Garden Walk.  This money is used essentially to pay staff ($88,244.60), building ($50,343.48), utilities ($14,607.14), office expenses ($5,164.82), insurance ($4,948.64), and any outreach/marketing expenses ($463).  Expenses clearly outstripped income and the church had to borrow money to meet these expense. 
The church had the same problem in 2014 (expenses greater than income), so it implemented budget cuts in 2015 to help eliminate a repeat.  We did building work (insulation), eliminated contracts, and changed service providers to save $500/month ($6,000/year), but the financial effect of these changes won’t be seen until 2016.  This, in addition to staff salary cuts ($14,000) would have eliminated the 2014 problem.  People moving out of town and shifts of funding to designated ministries, however, lowered general giving by nearly $14,000 – essentially cancelling out any benefit from the salary cuts. 
Life Bridge’s assets ($617,382.06) still outweigh its liabilities ($536,677.55), so the additional borrowed moneys do not place Life Bridge at financial risk yet.  The trend, however, cannot continue for the financial viability of the church.
With this scenario in mind, we’re going to examine the numbers from three different perspectives: Business, Political, and Non-Profit Organization.  Then, we will explain how we will approach finding a Biblical Perspective for looking at this picture.