Money paces vision. So, how should we respond when a financial crisis impacts vision?

I don’t like it, but money is a necessary fuel for moving vision forward. With no people and no money, it was not only tough to get our new church started, it felt impossible. In fact, the first Sunday I preached on giving, our offering total was zero. Talk about discouraging!

From the beginning, we struggled through financial challenges and crises, and we discovered that churches face financial barriers at similar stages to attendance barriers — breaking over levels of $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 in weekly giving and expenditures. These seasons force us to grow as pastors, as well as financial leaders.

Finances are not unspiritual; they are a vital part of the health of the church. Financial challenges teach, grow and stretch us spiritually more than most other issues in the church.

Here are a few steps I’ve learned to take when our church faced financial hardship:

Model

The first step in any financial challenge has been to examine my heart, attitude, leadership decisions and personal financial stewardship. As leaders, we must consider whether our hearts are right with God and whether personal sin is sabotaging God’s provision for the church. Then, we must examine our attitude toward finances. Am I being greedy or overindulgent? As the leader goes, so goes the church.

We must evaluate our personal obedience to God’s Word as it relates to our finances. Am I being faithful in sacrificial generosity? Am I caring for the poor? Am I a good steward? Here’s the key: We must become financially healthy before we can lead in financial health. We must live within our means, then live on less to give more.

Finally, we can invite others to follow our example, starting with our governing board, staff and leaders. It’s essential to make sure church leaders (staff, board, etc.) are giving sacrificially. If you are giving but your board and staff are not, how can you reasonably expect the rest of the church to follow? This goes for any campaign or giving effort.

Ask leaders to give and sacrifice first. Their generosity will set the tone for the rest of the church. During challenging times, evaluate the giving of your key leaders, motivate them toward giving, and ask them to give above and beyond.

Message

We must evaluate how regularly and effectively we are communicating the why, what and how of giving to God in and through the local church.

Evaluate how often you’re speaking about giving with the church during weekend services, as well as through digital communication, including social media. Make the offering explanation a teaching and celebration moment to encourage people in the “why” of their giving.

Preach on the principles and pattern of giving and stewardship at least a few times each year, especially when there is not a financial crisis in the church.

If we aren’t handling the finances of the church well, how can we expect God to entrust us with more?

If we are not teaching clearly and unapologetically about giving, how can we reasonably expect people to respond through giving?

Methods

If the first three steps haven’t resolved the crisis, we examine our financial systems and methodology. If we aren’t handling the finances of the church well, how can we expect God to entrust us with more?

We must check to ensure that our financial systems have the necessary layers of accountability and safeguards. Trust is not an internal control. The primary principle in establishing safeguards is to be sure no one person is responsible for or has access to two simultaneous steps in any process (e.g., counting and depositing the money, writing and signing checks, or using a credit card and reviewing the credit card statements).

Evaluate your financial systems, and put safeguards in place for each one, including offering counting and processing, credit accounts, benevolence giving, decision making on disbursements, and accounting procedures.

We evaluate our budgeting and spending processes to ensure they are supporting the vision rather than wasting or misusing Kingdom-directed funds. Here are three budgeting principles to remember:

1. You must lead with vision. Decide in advance how you will use your resources to support the vision. Is your vision larger than your resources? If not, money is driving vision.

2. Budgeting is prophesying with numbers. You are projecting with money what you expect to happen in the next fiscal year. Don’t eat your seed. Farmers have three ways they must use their harvest: sell it to live (ministry, office, discipleship expenses); eat it (salaries); save it for next year’s planting season (marketing, outreach, missions, life groups, and anything that will produce fruit later). So, don’t eat all your seed. The more you invest, the greater the return will be next year.

3. Methods matter. Take the time to evaluate each area of financial use within the church. What is the process for financial decision making? Is it effective and empowering in moving the vision of the church forward? Where is there waste or a lack of impact within the budget?

Our rule is to fund what’s fruitful. Then, we graciously cut waste and fruitless expenditures. Evaluate operational and other expenses to determine where you need to make cuts.

Mission

Be careful when it comes to outreach and missions giving. Even when our church went through great financial crises, we never cut our missions giving or missed a payment to missions. In fact, we often increased our giving or sent a large gift during those times. Our obedience to missions and outreach has led the way in us climbing out of financial challenges.

In financial need, cast vision and tell people how they can give to the cause of Christ through the local church. As much as possible, avoid asking people to give to need driven by emotion. Invite them to give to vision, which is driven by true obedience and spiritual growth.

If the first four steps haven’t resolved the financial crisis, I will finally bring the situation to the church as a whole. We candidly and humbly explain the situation — what caused the crisis and what we are doing to get out of it as best we can, but also why we are asking the church to respond. As long as this is a rare occurrence, people have been generous and supportive in giving above and beyond to help the church climb out of a difficult financial season.

The local church is a great place to invest hard-earned dollars, not just as an act of obedience, but because it is a powerful conduit for the gospel of Jesus Christ to expand the kingdom of God.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2018 edition of Influence magazine.