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3. Does this program advance one of the purposes of the church, or it is merely for entertainment or to
attract people to the church?
4. Is this program essential?
5. Do we need to hire professionals in every area of ministry, or can our lay ministries meet our needs?
6. Our number one calling is to spread the Gospel to the nations. How much of our spending is going
toward that?
After reviewing the activities of the church and how money has been spent in the past, perhaps you may
want to make some revisions. But to complete the budget, you need to take the available projected
resources and divide them among your necessary or planned expenses. This may be done on a spread
sheet via computer.
Once the budget is completed the final step in preparing a budget is to present it to the leadership or
congregation who must agree to this binding document to control spending. Once the accounting year
has begun, appointed officers from the church should record every donation received and have a receipt
for every expense documented. Again, this can be accomplished on a spreadsheet or a computerized
accounting system or by keeping a financial log manually. Monthly a report should be created to
validate that the church income and expenses are within the approved budget, and if not, adjustments
to spending must be made. Normally this report would summarize all sources of income and expenses
in various categories with totals listed within the income and expense sections.
Depending on your country laws, you may have to give a statement to each contributor to the church of
the total contributions made in a calendar year. You must be meticulous in keeping exact records for
each donor known contribution to be able to produce this statement.
Let’s Practice…
1. What kind of manager is Christ looking for among the churches?
2-3. Please define what a budget is for the church and why it is important.
4. What is the first order of business a church must do to begin to create a budget?
5. After determining its income, what three ways can the church use this income to glorify God?
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