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Finances 7: More Budget Thoughts

We've posted previously about our Budget process and preparation.  I thought I'd do a quick follow-up on our Budget, because there can easily be some confusion.  We list all our staff salaries, then we group staff health insurance separately.  We also don't designate whether someone is full-time or part-time.  So, if you look at the salaries, people may wonder why Paul makes more than Matt (as they are co-lead pastors).  They actually make the same rate, but Matt is 3/4 time to take care of his daughter (although often he works more full-time than 3/4 time).  Mark is raising some of his own salary over the next year, so his total is lower on the budget as well.  When we hired Virginia, we told her, this is all we can pay you for now, so if you're good with that, we'd love to hire you.  She was.  We all froze our salaries this year due to a tightening economy and some next steps at The Journey that we want to be focused on.

Another question we get is about health insurance and retirement.  Matt is the only one that has a retirement line, but that is simply because he doesn't receive any health insurance.  In our Staff Policy Handbook, pastoral staff can receive retirement if they don't take any health insurance.  This is the first year we have had a full health insurance policy for staff.  So, Matt doesn't receive health insurance and the rest of the staff doesn't receive retirement benefits.

Hope that makes sense.  If you ever have questions about the budget, email or talk to one of the Lead Team members or staff.

Finances 6: Spending money at Bath and Body

Early on in the life of The Journey we would bring major spending decisions to our Lead Team for discussion.  One of the difficult things with our growth was that spending often times out-distanced our budget.  We could do that because our giving was also out-distancing our budget.  We have always put money into marketing, into our Kids Spaces, into our tech and decor for our Worship Gatherings.  And, we have also always looked to give money away - to be generous.

Some people would say - you don't have to spend money on Kids spaces.  Just have people who love children.  It's true we need people who love children, but as we target people who have previously said no to church, we want their reaction and their kids' reaction to be "Wow!  I didn't know church would be like this!".  Everywhere our kids go they have wow factors:  Play Station 3, Imax movies, Michigan's Adventure, Disney Channel.  The church should be the most creative place on the planet.  We want our facilities to be fun, to be safe, to be clean, and for kids eyes to bug out.

The same is true for our Worship Gatherings.  We want people to think "this is not what I expected church to be like".  We believe we should bring excellence to the table on Sunday mornings.  Our best honors God.  We also don't want poor facilities, or graphics, or music to be a distraction for people.  We also believe people learn in a multitude of ways - so banners, videos, props are all important learning tools. 

We also look to go the extra mile in providing an environment that exceeds expectations, even in the simple things.  For example, it's why we have hosts who introduce themselves to new people and walk with them to show them the facility.  It's why we have soft toilet paper and Bath and Body soaps in the bathrooms.  It's why we serve chai and have hot chocolate as well as tea, and why donuts are always available.

Lastly, we market.  Some would say the church shouldn't market itself.  We read a stat that said 4 out of 5 people can't name a church in their area.  They can tell you there's a Catholic one down the street, or maybe a Baptist one around the corner, but they can't name the church.  So, what happens when that person has a crisis and decides to check out a church?  We let people know what's going on at The Journey through mailers (primarily), promo events, billboards (launch and a series last fall) as a way to put and keep our name out there.  It also is a discussion starter for journeyers with their unchurched friends.  You would be amazed at how many people have shown up because they got a mailer.  By the way - a mailer to 20,000 homes cost us about $4,500.  That seems like a lot.  But, if you have ONE family that comes and gets connected it is worth it - from a spiritual standpoint - definitely worth it.  But, if that family begins to give to the church, literally, one family can pay for that mailer.

Of course, we can do all the mailing we want, if we don't have a quality experience, with friendly people, who are inviting their friends, it won't really matter.

Finances 5: Stewardship

We've been talking over the last week about finances and integrity.  When we were first launching The Journey, one of our sister church plants got taken for about $40,000 because they didn't have adequate systems in place - there were breaches in their system.  Beyond trying to have checks and balances, we have tried to be good stewards of the finances we have been entrusted with, while also trying to be generous.

Early on, we didn't want to put pressure on our little church to support salaries for Matt and I, so we raised much of our own support.  Matt leaned more heavily on Stephani's salary and they had her insurance.  I raised a fuller amount of our salary, and originially paid for our own insurance.  Eventually the church could pay some of our salary and then a fuller amount.  Then The Journey picked up our insurance, but we kept a simple major medical policy to keep costs low. 

As we began to grow, we decided to start putting money away in a Savings Account for a future staff position or campus.  Due to our staff hires, we have drawn on some of that money, but we still have about $19,000 in a Savings Account.

It wasn't until we determined that we were going to hire more staff that we rented our office space.  We simply met at our homes, worked in coffee shops, and kept everything mobile to save on costs.

I remember when we were about 2 1/2-3 years old as a church.  We were trying to hang something up at our Schamber Drive site and we were trying to figure out who had a ladder tall enough and if they could bring it.  Then one of us (Matt or I) said "You know, we could probably afford to buy a ladder now!".  Funny.  Because we had spent the first 3 years with little salary, pinching pennies, borrowing.  It didn't even dawn on us to buy one.  We still have that same mentality in many respects.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about spending money and why we do some of what we do when it comes to using our resources.

Finances 4: Budgeting

We're just finishing up our budget for the coming fiscal year.  We have an April-March fiscal year.  A couple of years ago we had a church planter ask if he could see our budget because he needed to come up with a budget for his proposed new church.  I just laughed.  Our budget went from $60,000 to $120,000 to $165,000 to $345,000.  How do you predict that??  Budgeting has been one of the toughest things we have to do administratively.  Why?

1.  We want to be wise stewards.

2.  Our growth makes if very difficult to predict.  We try and budget based on past growth, etc.

3.  We have always had money that is separate from budgeted expenses.  For example - Matt and I had to have outside income and raised a bunch of our salaries for the first couple of years.  Mark is doing some of that now.  We have had expenses that went beyond budget when we moved to the Schamber Drive location and when we had the Cinema experiment.

Our budget isn't a strict dollar for dollar budget, but rather spending guidelines.  We work through, as a staff, what we believe the budget needs are, we compare those to our projected growth patterns, and we try to look towards new ministry needs in the future.  We then look at what our giving was for the previous year and what our projected giving is.  We then make our budget recommendations to the Lead Team who approves or disapproves and asks questions.  We then bring it to the congregation at our Volunteer Celebration for affirmation. 

Finances 3: Integrity

Over the next couple days we're going to let you know what we are doing to make sure there is financial integrity in our processess at The Journey.  To be honest, when we started The Journey we weren't exactly sure how to do that.  We knew we needed some safe guards, and we put some in place, but learning to record and account for our money, our transactions, our income and expenses has been a work in process.  We've had volunteers that have been handling that part of the recording, check writing, etc. since we began.

So, here are a couple things we do.

At the end of the morning on Sunday's we collect the offering.  There is a key that unlocks our offering boxes.  It is in a secure location.  There are always at least two people that watch the transfer of money from the boxes to a bank bag.  Once the money is collected, the bank bag is locked and then there is another step we take that separates the bag and the key and provides a high level of security that I won't devulge (because anyone can read a blog).  When the money goes to be counted, we have two to three people (none staff or Lead Team members) who meet, and have the money now with them to count it.  They need to get the key from another person to unlock the bag.  Once they are done, they lock back up the money and it is returned to the bank for deposit.  The deposit obviously has to match their records.  I know that was probably a little confusing - bottom line we keep everyone away from having both key and access to money.  There is always more than one person handling money.  We've tried to provide a high level of security and accountability when it comes to our offerings.

Next, I'll talk about our budgeting and also how we're taking steps to record well and live with financial integrity.

Finances 2: Cinema Campaign

Last year we did a one day campaign at The Journey to give towards the cinema & office projects. We committed to three months at The Cinema. We raised a little over 30,000 dollars. The money was spent on renting the theater, fixing up a few things in the office, and supplies for The Cinema. So, you might be wondering what happened to the stuff. Well, we are using about half of the supplies currently. The projector replaced our broken one at church. We are using some of the kids toys & supplies in our kids stuff. Virginia has been trying the gate system in the nursery to separate the infants and 2 year olds in the nursery. We have been using some of the sound system pieces (like monitor, chords, stands). We used part of some lights to kinda fix the lights this past Sunday. We replaced part of our nursery call system with the cinema one. We are using some of the extra coffee carafes and tables too. Mark is using the computer from the cinema. So we have some speakers, other sound system parts, coffee supplies, kids stuff supplies and rugs that aren't been used current, but we are planning on using 95% of the pieces in the near future. We knew going in that the money and supplies wouldn't be wasted even if the cinema didn't work long term. We have had a few other things to replace like the TV monitor. We have had some special gifts to cover these things so thanks again...you know who you are.

Journey Finances

We are in the process of finalizing our budget. Our fiscal year runs from April - March. Since we are working on this, we thought we would chat a little about journey finances. To begin, we want to say thanks to everyone at The Journey who brings the tithe. As a non-profit organization, we are obviously dependent on this giving. By bringing back your tithe at The Journey, it is more like an investment in blessing. We are committed to be wise with our funds while doing whatever we can to reach more people and help people take next steps. The budget has been hard to work out every year because we continue to grow and giving is way beyond what we are expecting. This past year was the first year that the budget was somewhat accurate (probably because we more than doubled it). We will have some copies of the new budget available in the next weeks if you want to see it. Over the next week, look for more posts about Journey Finances.

Money, Money, Money

Money is one of the most difficult topics to talk about on a Sunday morning.  People have all sorts of baggage, all sorts of history.  Some walked away from the church because they thought the church was "all about money".  BUT, it is crucial to talk about for a couple reasons.  1.  It takes money to do ministry, and not just a little money.  If we're going to really reach effectively into the unchurched population of the lakeshore we can't make half attempts.  It needs to be quality, and quality takes money.  2.  If we're really going to be the church that God has called us to, it takes broad involvement.  All hands on deck.  We can't have 20% of the people funding the church.  3.  It's a spiritual issue.  Money is an indicator of our heart, of our trust, of our faith.

As your staff, we promise to the lead the way in bringing back our cantaloupe.  I know for the rest of the staff team, they all could be making more money somewhere else.  Most of us were before we came to The Journey, but we're all in.  That includes lower salaries, that includes higher levels of giving.

Our desire for our leaders and average Joe pew-sitter is that we would each experience the blessings of God that only comes from living with open hands.  Oh, and by the way, down the road here at The Journey, we will all have the opportunity to put our money where our mouth is.

Money, money, money; tangible; seeds; harvest; cantaloupe.  Eternal Impact.