Budget Woes?

One of the responsibilities that I have taken on this year is that of becoming an Elder at my church. And one  of the responsibilities of the elders is to come up with the church budget. Not an easy task in this economy! I live in an area that has been hit hard by the recession. In what used to be a booming GM town, there are now nothing but empty fields where huge factories once roamed. Add the current economy to an area that was already in decline and you have a mess!

We were looking at cutting about $100,000 from an $850,000 budget. Not pretty. I feel good about the budget we came up with, although I am not a big budget person. And I am not really here to talk about money today anyway.

Tuesday we made a preliminary presentation of the budget to the congregation at a meeting that was open to anyone, attended by few. But sometimes those few can be vocal and oppositional. It didn't happen. That in itself really impressed me.

One of the comments made during the meeting was "we have to learn to do more with less." What a concept! Actually putting ourselves into ministry instead of just throwing money after things. Whoa! This could change things.