Home    David Mays   January 28, 2009

 

2009 Church Missions Budgets

David Mays

 

In January, 2009, 74 missions pastors responded to a survey regarding their church's missions budget.*

•        29 (39%) increased the missions budget

•        22 (30%) kept the missions budget the same

•        19 (26%) cut the missions budget

•        4 checked "other"

The most frequently cut items were

•        Projects - 18

•        Trips - 17

•        Administration/Education - 11

•        Organizations - 10

•        Other - 9

_ _ _ _

*A number of churches are not on a January to December budget and are still waiting to see what will happen to their next missions budget.

 

Samples of comments from respondents

Principles for Deciding What to Cut

  1. We cut some local outreach programs to help some of our foreign missionaries.
  2. First the strategic importance of the ministry and second the relationship base. 
  3. Our priority is to maintain or increase giving to career missions.
  4. The last cut would be the monthly support of our overseas missionaries.
  5. We wanted to keep our word and fulfill commitments we had made.
  6. Our position has been that missionaries are equal to staff pastors.
  7. Principle: effectiveness on the field
  8. Long term work is what we want to be about. 
  9. Personal relationships in ministry, effectiveness of ministry, consistency of ministry with our vision.
  10. We looked at the over all impact, what is critical.  We cut some small things but picked them back up as funds came in.
  11. We took off any “extras” or undefined projects, no new expansion for projects internationally.
  12. The educational scholarships for our mission minded college students and third world students would not be touched.
  13. We cut local outreach. If our people see the need because they are near it, they will fund it out of their pockets instead of our budget. 
  14. Assess strength of relationship with that global worker or partnership, as well as the strategic priority of any given missionary or ministry.
  15. The unreached, persecuted, or limited access countries get highest priority
  16. We do not “hoard."  We still gave some end-of-year grants.
  17. We would probably cut internally before we would decrease an opportunity to reach the world for Christ.
  18. Undesignated budget items were the first to cut.
  19. We did not cut our missionary support.
  20. We would cut by a percentage of almost everything.
  21. Church planting (not including construction of any building), leadership training and evangelism are primary and would be last to get cut.  Building of buildings and some humanitarian aid would more likely be first to be cut. 
  22. We tried to avoid cutting field ministry or our strategic plan.
  23. We plan to stay focused on our strategy to plant churches among the least reached.
  24. We cut 20% across the board.
  25. 1) Is our body engaged?  2) Are we sure we are called to this?
  26. We are refocusing on those going out from our church to unreached people groups.
  27. If we have to cut the budget it will be in areas other than outreach.
  28. Having recently rewritten our missions policy it was easy to see what missionaries and organizations no longer fit our priorities.  Support is being eliminated quarterly.
  29. When forced, we choose people over projects.
  30. We cut projects where we no longer had a direct relationship through one of our supported missionaries.
  31. We are trying to narrow our focus and go deeper with fewer ministries.
  32. We are wrestling with how much for our 'sent' missionaries and how much for our 'supported' missionaries.
  33. What could we do for less money?
  34. What activity or purchase could we do without this year?
  35. We are looking at 1) strategic focus and 2) level of partnership.
  36. We are trying to focus more on our strategic partnerships.  We dropped some people and cut others proportionally.  Our strategy is to go much deeper with fewer, connecting with national movements and churches, focusing on self-sustaining projects and mobilizing national workers to the 10/40 window.
  37. We are placing a cap on local ministry to maintain strategic global involvements.
  38. We may cut back on missionary partnerships or ministry partnerships as driven by strategic concerns. We have not cut admin, staff, or trips for financial reasons.

 

Our Feelings about It

1.     Good, we felt like we were narrowing our focus.

2.     Tough economic times are causing organizations around the world to evaluate the quality of their personnel.  For a long time at our church some people have been protected because of sacred relationships.

3.     There needs to be better accountability.

4.     The economic times are a good thing to whip us into shape.

5.     I'm not sure other ministry areas within the church are making the same sacrifices.

6.     I feel challenged, sad, and yet excited/expectant to see what God will do to teach us more about trusting HIM, versus our resources.

7.     It makes us think more strategically, broadens financial burden, and helps us to work on sustainability in-country.   

8.     I feel it has been a gift to the Church and to the country to re-look at how we steward God’s resources.  It has helped us pause and think more strategically and creatively.

9.     These decisions have made us focus on what is important to our vision.

10. It is difficult.  Cutting events and administration means less opportunity for congregational education and involvement.

11. It is unfortunate but I welcome the chance to reevaluate.  It has helped us define what is really important and to refocus.  I hope we will not slide back into old habits but continue to think strategically.

 

Some Coping Mechanisms

  1. We did a comprehensive evaluation of all of our missionaries and the missions program.
  2. We also made a 10% cut for all salaried church personnel and 5% for hourly employees.
  3. We took some special projects out of the budget and covered their costs by special offerings or fund raisers.
  4. Our senior staff all voluntarily took a 5% pay decrease for 3 months.
  5. Because some of our missionaries were coming off the field we were able to add on-going support to some new people.
  6. Teaching financial stewardship is a big deal at our church.
  7. As we are cutting missionary support, we are also doing an across the board cut of our own staff salaries, 10% cut for all salaried personnel and 5% for hourly employees.
  8. We will have to be creative.  The biggest challenge is supporting our homegrown partners up to 70%.  We are intentionally developing candidates that have independent funding or can earn income.
  9. Our pastoral staff, beginning with the senior pastor, committed to take a salary cut before we cut missionary support.
  10. We cut back our spending in the fall to meet the 2008 budget.

 

Other Comments

  1. We increased our budget substantially but it had been flat the past two years.
  2. We increased the budget slightly because we have 13 new missionaries going out from our church and we had to increase it.
  3. Missions is so much more than money.  A danger is for churches to see missions merely as financial support.  Missions should be an extension of the ministry of the local church. What role is God asking your church to play in global kingdom advancement?

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