The theology of church budgets: Part 1
A church budget names the things so important that the congregation will put money there. It’s a deeply theological document. Think “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…”
Church budgets teach people how to think theologically about money. For many congregations, there won’t be any other discussions about money at church. (Wait, you say - we had a stewardship sermon that one time!) This blog begins a four-part series on budgets:
the theology of budgets
setting the budget
deficit budgets
presenting the budget.
Before I launch into it, a reminder - mostly to myself - that money is a hard topic. It’s okay that we don’t have it perfected. The spiritual discipline of giving merits our attention. Together, our generosity allows us to participate in God’s work in the world. Giving builds hope and nurtures trust.
Generosity doesn’t take something from us; it’s generative and not extractive. Generosity grows our hearts.
The theology of budgets
Church buildings with pianos, pastors and budgets are a relatively new phenomena. However, money has been around for a long time. Jesus talks about money often and so does the Apostle Paul.
I talk about money often too, but I prefer to have a whiteboard or a flip chart so that I can draw as I talk. Hence, I’ve made a short video using the Circle of Grace model of giving. It’s a model of generosity based on gratitude, acting graciously action in response to God’s grace. The video compares the Circle of Grace model to a budget model. I’ve field-tested this model; feedback welcomed.
I develop this Circle of Grace model of giving more in my book Growing a Generous Church: A Year in the Life of Peach Blossom Church which has lots of diagrams and illustrations, plus questions for a church book club. I know many of you reading this post already have this book - thank you!
Next post: setting the budget.
P.S. David King from the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving wrote a great post on the ambiguities of the word stewardship. He notes that as a noun stewardship could be about money, time, talent etc. whereas as an adjective - think stewardship sermon, stewardship season - stewardship is about money. He’s spot on!