We recently finished a 4-part blog series of practical advice for church and ministry leaders on how to deal with an economic downturn. "The big idea is how to keep morale up when money is down so that gospel momentum can be maintained. Just because money is down does not mean that our vision should be down. People need Jesus, and many need practical help from Jesus’ people."

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View Series: Money, Morale, and Momentum series page

Part 1: Some Scriptures to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 2: 3 Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 3: 5 More Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 4: 9 Ways to Keep Morale and Momentum Up During Tough Times

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Part 4 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 3.

1. Morale

The big dissatisfiers of staff are pay (including benefits) and policy, so the goal is to keep pay high and policy low, as is reasonable.

2. Conflict

Email should only be for positive things and neutral information. For something negative, pick up the phone or meet face to face.

3. Momentum

People do not support a world that they did not create, so momentum is maintained as people are called forward to building new initiatives, new campuses, new church plants, and new ministries. Momentum is either forward or backward but never stagnant, which means even when money is down vision must stay up.

4. Freedom

For most senior leaders, freedom is a high-value item. While they do not use their full freedom, stress and anxiety are inevitable if they do not have it. Too much policy can remove freedom, and in so doing hurt the morale of senior leaders and subsequently slow or stall momentum.

5. Budgeting

Eat what you kill and have a monthly and quarterly budget that you watch so you do not get too far behind. If you do, and you then lay people off, their severance will cost you for months, which will put you even further behind financially than if you had the financial data to make cuts earlier. The days of an annual budget are gone. Things are changing so quickly that ministry leaders need to carefully track income and spending weekly, comb over monthly reports, and not make budgets in anything other than pencil beyond a quarter in advance. Changes to the budget need to be made quickly; otherwise poor reporting and slow responding will sink the ministry financially.

6. Wants

Communicate what you want for your people and not just what you want from them. During this time we want them to work hard, budget well, live generously, share with one another, grow in faith, live within their means, learn contentment, and grow as stewards in all of life.

7. Opportunity

This is a good harvest time because the god of money has been killed and is not resurrecting, so people are searching for a new god and are open to the gospel, community, and service. This means it is a great time, for example, to have budgeting seminars and such to teach people biblical principles about wealth and stewardship. Guys like Dave Ramsey can be very helpful in this area.

8. Financial Planning

Have a financial planner meet with staff members annually at your expense to get them in order personally and ensure they are being wise stewards. If your staff members do not have wise budgeting and stewardship plans, they will not influence others in the ministry to do the same. It is wise to ensure that coaching and help are available for the staff members to be the first fruits of good stewardship.

9. Safety

Sometimes it is the overlooked small things that ruin everything. So, as budgets are cut, such things as human safety cannot be cut. One tragic example is a church that opened a new children’s wing, and somehow a small screw was left on the floor; a child swallowed it and died. Too few churches have good security, cleanliness, and safety, and there is no excuse for cutting these kinds of things.

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Part 3 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 2.

It is imperative that a ministry has guidelines that shape its financial decision-making. Simply, without sufficient overarching principles in place, making particular decisions about how monies should be spent and how budgets should be cut becomes very subjective and inconsistent. This becomes increasingly important in larger ministries where multiple people are making budget decisions. Therefore, the following principles are offered as examples that we are using to guide some of our financial decision-making at Mars Hill.

4. Fairness

When financial cuts need to be made, don’t subscribe to fairness and make cuts across the board and across all ministries and staff members.

Instead, fund your core ministries and key leaders first and best.

One of the great errors that ministries make in hard times is imposing cuts across the board. This is unwise because cutting core ministries will compromise the health and viability of the church. Some ministries are supplemental—not primary—ministries. Secondary and supplemental ministries need to be cut back or even eliminated before there are deep cuts to primary ministries.

5. Terminations

It is wiser, if needed, to fire a few people than to cut everyone a little bit, because that hurts and discourages the best performers and carries the worst performers. If terminations are necessary, it is important to do so sooner rather than later. This allows you to give generous severance to those who are losing their jobs in hopes of giving them time to find replacement work. If you wait too long to cut staff, you will not have the money to pay them decent severance, which is unkind and really hurts morale. Additionally, just because there are terminations does not make it wrong to also give some people strategic raises. If some people are doing an amazing job and carrying more responsibility than ever, they may still merit a raise, even in tough times.

6. Hiring

Financial downturns are a great time to hire strategic senior-level leaders because the market for them has shrunk and they are available.

Many ministries are overly concerned with keeping everyone they have on staff, and in so doing they can easily overlook the opportunity that is before them to hire world-class staff members that could increase the bar of excellence in the ministry.

7. Real Estate

This is the time for multi-campus churches to pursue real estate from dying and struggling churches that are facing an uncertain future and would benefit from a partnership that breathes life into them. This is also a good time for any church, if it is able, to pursue purchasing real estate because the market is down and prices are cheaper than they have been in many years.

8. Visibility

People judge the love and health of a church in large part by what they see and do not see.

Therefore, to not give the impression of greed, we need to watch the appearance of lavishness personally and organizationally.

To not give the impression of ingratitude, we need to make sure the last things we cut are thank you gifts, volunteer appreciation, and bonuses. To not give the impression that we are poor stewards, we need to watch visible areas of waste. To not give the impression of being untrustworthy, we need to always spend money we receive on what we promised we would spend it on. Ministries that inappropriately spend designated funds are destroying their credibility with their donors and in so doing are sawing off the branch they are sitting on.

To be continued.

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Part 2 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 1.

It is imperative that a ministry has guidelines that shape its financial decision-making. Simply, without sufficient overarching principles in place, making particular decisions about how monies should be spent and how budgets should be cut becomes very subjective and inconsistent. This becomes increasingly important in larger ministries where multiple people are making budget decisions. Therefore, the following principles are offered as examples that we are using to guide some of our financial decision-making at Mars Hill.

1. Spending

Spend money on those things that grow the ministry and not simply on those things that make it easier on your staff.

One is investment and the other is expense. There is always pressure from the staff to spend money on such things as improved working conditions and new technology. But with times being lean, all money needs to go toward welcoming as many people into the church as possible.

As an example, we outgrew our very limited office space at the Ballard campus and rather than renting nice, new, well-lit office space that was built next door, we have chosen to make due with what we have, which is not great. For example, my office is on the complete opposite side of the building from any bathrooms, has no natural light or fresh air, and is about 10 feet by 7 feet. It’s not big or pretty, and I lack my own private bathroom, sitting area, and eating area, which are common in megachurch pastors’ offices, but it works. Others on staff are making due in similar ways.

If we spend money on facilities, it has to be for increasing seating capacity so that more people can meet Jesus.

2. Pruning

Financial crunches are good seasons in which to make the cuts you have desired but have not had permission or timing for. Some will hear this as cruel, but it is in fact true. All of life and ministry is about pruning and then harvesting and then pruning again.

Without pruning, a ministry is wasting energy, time, resources, and leaders on proverbial branches that are no longer bearing lots of good fruit.

Because times are lean, there is no waste to be tolerated. Any ministry or leader that is not bearing much fruit may need to be pruned so that the proverbial tree can survive and continue to reap a harvest. Having consulted with a great number of ministry leaders, I can assure you that most—if not all—leaders know what needs to be cut. But they fail to act with courage because they anticipate fallout, people leaving, and hurt feelings. Sometimes God uses hard times to compel his leaders to make the decisions they need to make, and this is one of those times.

3. Core

Don’t make cuts on your core essential ministries but rather on your secondary and auxiliary ministries.

Tough times call for tough decisions. One of the toughest decisions is actually listing what your core ministries are. Those ministries need to be funded first and cut last.

To be continued.

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Some months ago my friends at Leadership Network invited Larry Osborne, Greg Surratt, and myself to meet with young pastors of growing, larger churches over the course of a few days in one of LN’s numerous learning communities. It was a great time, and even though I was supposed to be a mentor pastor, the truth is I learned far more than I taught, as is usually the case in situations like these. Much of our formal and informal discussion time centered on the economy and the rough water facing churches economically.

Cut Budgets

At Mars Hill in Seattle we have pared our budget back and had a round of layoffs at the end of 2008. Still, we did finish the year above budget, beat the previous year’s giving by a healthy margin, and are floating by God’s grace and our people’s generosity. I heard amazing reports at the conference from parts of the country (such as Nevada and Arizona) that have been far more seriously hit.

I scratched out a few notes in my Moleskine along the way and shared them with our Executive Elders. I am now passing these practical points on in case they can be of help to other church and ministry leaders. The big idea is how to keep morale up when money is down so that gospel momentum can be maintained. Just because money is down does not mean that our vision should be down. People need Jesus, and many need practical help from Jesus’ people.

Some Scriptures to Guide Financial Decision-Making

The book of Proverbs, on two occasions, says, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Prov. 22:3; 27:12). Since there is no one of merit indicating that the financial mess we are in will be resolved anytime soon, it is foolish for ministry leaders to not see the dangers that are potentially lurking ahead and make adjustments as necessary. Simply, this is no time for foolish naivete and goofy “Trust the Lord” talk when wise stewardship is not in place.

In the New Testament, Paul says the following: “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:6–10).

Covetousness or Contentedness?

Indeed, much of the mess people are in with their personal finances is the result of covetousness instead of contentedness. Additionally, since the god of money has died and shows no sign of a sudden resurrection, it is a wonderful time to call people to live within their means and worship Jesus rather than trying to use him to give them their idols of status, possession, and security. Furthermore, it is a good time to warn our people against such things as foolish investing and even gambling, because when times are hard, rather than living within their means, some are prone to risk everything out of a sinful love for money.

What About the Rich?

Paul continues by saying that there are always people who are doing well financially, even when times are tough: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Tim. 6:17–19).

This fact is commonly overlooked, but indeed, not everyone is dying financially. There are people, albeit a few, who are flourishing. For example, those in certain medical and educational fields are still working in growing fields, and they may not be enduring the kind of financial strain that the majority are. Still other people are rich, with plenty of margin to spare. We should remind our own people who find themselves doing well financially of Paul’s timely words to the rich.

Continued here.

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