Budget Battles

By Andy Lawrenson September 27, 2013

For many of us, it’s budget battle time. These fall months are when the church budget is being built. Financial leaders are looking at what was spent this past year and estimating what giving will be for the coming year. Youth workers are being asked to put together funding requests for the next year.

This is a dance we have been to before. For many of us, we know that the church will ask us what we need, but in reality, we will be given what we had last year…or a little less. Seldom do we get that question: What are you dreaming of doing in the students’ lives, and how can we
fund it?

The truth is budgets are tight everywhere. The poor economy over the past five years has
required everyone to do more with less. We need to realize that the big bump in our budgets are not coming.

So let’s get creative and think of new ways of doing ministry that don’t cost as much. Let’s also realize that Mom and Dad are tapped out. Our mindset needs to be the following:

1. If youth ministry is about relationship, then good news – building relationship with students doesn’t cost money… just time.

2. We need a scholarship strategy. More and more of our resources need to go to students participate. How are we going to do that? Could we actually use the gift of scholarships as an opportunity to teach students about giving, community and unity?

3. We need a purpose for what we spend. We have to be able to show how our spending fits
with our vision – or for that matter, the churches mission. The clearer the purpose, the
easier it is for the church leaders to want to fund our ministries.

Image courtesy of [Master isolated images)] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net