I’ve used it enough that I think our council is probably tired of it. But I call August around churches the annual Hair on Fire month. Why? There are a number of reasons. Attendance is often a bit depressed as people get in the last summer trips before school starts – the actual New Years Day. Leadership teams are usually turning to budget season. And they are turning to budget season usually at the lowest point. And this year is probably no different. If you haven’t looked, through the month of July we are reporting offerings of $118K against expenses of $163K for a deficit of -$45K. That is why I call it Hair on Fire. Almost every August in my experience you look at bad numbers at exactly the time you are thinking about next year.
Now I do want to call attention to something just under the covers of those top-line numbers. The first is that on the expense line, year to year comparison, we are running roughly -1.5% less. Our expenses are less than we said they would be. And that will continue for the foreseeable future. The iPad Organist is cheaper. I hate to say that. And it might not be good long term because I tend to think live music is important. But right now it is true. The live portion is going to be your voices and the person pressing play. And the iPad in my judgement is a lot better than it has any right to be. But, that reduction still would not solve that deficit. Not completely.
The real problem is the top line. Offerings year to year are down almost 18%. I can’t really blame attendance as it has been solid year to year. Collectively we managed to close in the black last year. Although that came late. In August our hair was on fire. Maybe the same thing happens. Maybe it doesn’t. The main point here is that you can’t make up an almost 20% decline in the top-line with stuff below it. Not really. Unless you want something that looks dramatically different.
And I think this really is the time of trial. Of course the answer is more people sharing the burden. Most people when they say that mean something like “we need more people in here.” And I’m not saying that is false, just that is not how God tends to work. Saying to God “you need to send more people because I don’t want to bear the cost of this church” is rarely a compelling argument with God. What He tends to say is something like Haggai. “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD…Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruin?…Consider your ways, Go up to the hills and bring wood to build the house (Haggai 1:2-11).” Or God says something like Malachi. “Bring in the full tithe…and thereby put me to the test, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no need (Malachi 3:6-12).” Or if you want the New Testament and Jesus, he has no problem saying something like “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. (Luke. 6:38).” Or “Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9).” Or, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt. 6:19-21).”
Stewardship is always the acid test of are you on mission with God. God wants people who are on mission with him. Budget problems are almost always spiritual mission problems. Do you believe the promises? Do you want to see the Kingdom grow? Prove it. Put God to the test.
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