Don't Use Hitting Your Budget as a Sign of Health at Your Church

Could counting dollars in the offering plate be leading us astray from true church vitality? Join me, Todd Rhoades, as we dive into the deceptive comfort of financial contributions and why they may not be the church health panacea we once believed. This episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast peels back the layers of traditional metrics to reveal the critical, yet often overlooked, signs of a thriving church community. We'll explore how the pandemic has shifted our understanding of attendance and giving, and the new indicators that are emerging as key signs of health and growth within our churches.

With insights from thinkers like Sam Rayner, we confront the uncomfortable truth that robust giving can sometimes mask an inward-focused ministry at odds with genuine expansion and outreach. We examine the danger of complacency that can arise when the offering seems to overflow, even as pews stand increasingly empty. This conversation is essential listening for church leaders seeking to proactively address the subtle signals before they manifest into financial decline. As we analyze both the leading and lagging indicators of church health, we lay the groundwork for a more nuanced approach to assessing and nurturing your church's vitality in the face of change.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hey there, my name is Todd Rhodes. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I am one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and today we're going to be looking at getting your budget as a sign of church health and I think that pre-pandemic. We often talked about butts and budgets, butts and bucks right, how many people are sitting in the seats on Sunday mornings and how many dollars were given in the offering, and I think that by many measures, the butts and the bucks kind of measurements have the butts and the bucks kind of measurements have changed and I think that's a good thing. But what I want to talk about today and I think we've seen this a little bit coming out of the last four years and maybe some lessons have been learned that kind of exposed some of the cracks in the butts of the buck system. And here's what I want to talk about today If you're using hitting your budget as a sign of health at your church, that could very well backfire on you, particularly these days. Many times, and here's why many times your budget is the last thing to fall. In fact, many unhealthy churches have a very robust and a balanced budget. Many churches, attendance is still the leading indicator and decreasing giving is a lagging indicator. Okay, so let me say that again Attendance is a leading indicator and decreasing giving is a lagging indicator. Now this has been disrupted a little bit by the pandemic and a lot of churches are still not back up to where they were attendance-wise, but they're still where they were budget-wise. So if you're looking at things and you're like, well, it used to be a church of a thousand and now we're a church of a hundred, but our budget is still the same and giving is still good, that could be a great thing, but that could also be a lagging indicator. Your budget is a lagging indicator, which means that eventually it's going to come back and get more in line. So, in other words, by the time your budget takes a hit, you very well could be on the road to decline. In fact, if your church turns its focus more inward, many times per capita giving actually goes up. You've seen this.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Sam Rayner recently wrote a blog post and this is what he says. He says strong giving is masking the underlying issue of an inward focus. Obviously, this trend comes from many other dangers, like how a church can become complacent, since the money is there even when the people are not. I'll have to explore these dangers in a future blog post. He says but realize that a lot of churches would love to have a year in which giving goes up, but it's not always the sign of a healthy church. So inward focus is not a growth engine, at least as far as attendance is concerned. So you just need to beware, because just because things are up and to the right when it comes to budget, that's not a primary indicator of overall health and growth, and we all know that. We all know that.

Speaker 1: 3:17

But giving is one of those things that we look to when other indicators are trending south. You, before your budget, suffers that things just aren't right and that changes need to be made. At least giving isn't affected. It should be turned into. At least giving isn't affected yet. Okay. So let me say that again. If you find yourself saying, hey, at least giving isn't affected, you should add a yet on the end of it. At least giving isn't affected, yet should add a yet on the end of it. At least giving isn't affected yet.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Giving numbers are a lagging indicator and that's something to think about. So, as you continue to lead your church, look at both the leading indicators attendance, participation, discipleship. There's a lot of different factors that you can look as leading indicators, but also look at the lagging indicators and just know that if the leading indicators start to suffer, it may take some time and churches are now starting to see that attendance is still down and budgets are down at some churches Because of the last four years. It's just now attendance has taken a hit, but right now giving is starting to take a hit. So again, it's just a very lagging indicator in many times, many churches. So if you are here's my admonition for you today if you're using hitting your budget as a sign of health at your church, I would suggest you look at other indicators to determine the health of your church moving forward.

Speaker 1: 4:44

I'd love to hear your input. Maybe this is controversial, maybe you want to push back on me. That's fine, you can do that. Just send me an email at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to hear from you. Give me an idea of something you would like to hear on the podcast. I would love to be able to record a podcast specifically around something that you'd like to hear. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much for joining us on the Healthy Church Step Podcast.