How would you like to have more financial resources available for your church's outreach and missions? If you are like most pastors, you would love to spend more on the ministries of your church that are meeting the needs of people. Even though the ministries of a church are why it exists, a surprisingly low percentage of most church budgets goes to this end.
According to the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, only 11% of the average church budget goes to spreading the church's message, and just 10% goes to doing the work of ministry through a church's programs. These stats beg the question: where does the rest of the money go?
The typical U.S. church devotes 72% of its budget to salaries and building. In a recent study, 49% of U.S. church spending went to wages, and 23% went to expenses related to facilities. With three-quarters of your budget tied up before you even begin to minister to people, little remains for outreach, missions, and church programs.
Knowing this, how can you free up your budget so you can spend more on taking care of the people in your church?
One of the greatest needs churches currently have is an online presence through social media. Each year the amount of time people spend using social media goes up. In less than a decade, that number increased from 90 minutes a day to 145 minutes a day. Some churches have approached this situation by adding a staff person to manage their church's digital marketing efforts. However, there is another way that will free up more money to spend on ministry instead of increasing the already surprisingly high percentage of church giving that is going to salaries.
Outsource specialized work instead of hiring for it. We are in a freelance revolution. Services like Fiverr have seen their businesses skyrocket as organizations flock to freelancers to reduce their costs and increase efficiency and effectiveness. Economics 101 shows us that specialization — not mastering a broad range of skills — is how individuals and economies thrive. You can apply the same financial benefits to your church by outsourcing key areas, like social media marketing and graphic design, while at the same time focusing on what you are called to do and best at doing: taking care of people.
After all, churches need key staff people, but wouldn't you like the available positions in your church to cover areas of pastoral care that directly impact people as a first priority?
Freeing up even a few percentage points of your budget from overhead means thousands of dollars a year redirected to outreach, missions, and ministry to people. That is a trend worth beating.
For more free resources to help you steward your church's finances, visit buildthe.church — and download the free Year-End Giving Playbook.
