Addressing church budgets starts with understanding the broader context of a church’s mission and purpose. If a budget represents the financial blueprint for carrying out a church’s ministry plan for a particular period of time, then logic would dictate that such a blueprint and its related ministry plan should be a function—a derivative—of the church’s mission and purpose. Many times, however, churches engage in elaborate budget development processes without first evaluating whether their activities are directly in furtherance of their mission and purpose. In some cases, churches operate without a well-defined expression of their mission and purpose. Ensuring that the church’s budget is a function of its mission and purpose will help church leaders avoid putting the cart before the horse, or for that matter, having the cart detached from the horse.
_
Michael E. Batts is the president and managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales and Lee (nonprofitcpa.com), a national CPA firm dedicated exclusively to serving churches, ministries, and other nonprofit organizations across the United States.This article is excerpted from his book, Church Finance: The Church Leader’s Guide to Financial Operations.
