A Volley from the Canon, Number 115: Narrative Budget

A VOLLEY FROM THE CANON, NUMBER 115: NARRATIVE BUDGET Who wants to read a budget, church or otherwise? Most of us can hardly make heads or tails of all those parentheses and “year-to-dates.” They make us go all squinty-eyed. We also get bogged down in petty details, about how many dollars go here and how many go to whom. A way to express budgetary realities meaningfully and usefully is to translate them into a narrative budget. It is one thing to know that a staffer is paid X dollars, or that the electricity bill for the church was Y dollars, but what does that mean in terms of ministry? What are we paying staff FOR, and what are we heating and cooling and lighting the buildings FOR? Narrative budgets give us that information. We need only a few categories. How much staff time, and how much energy use, is used for EVANGELISM? How much for SERVANT MINISTRY? CHRISTIAN EDUCATION? WORSHIP? ADMINISTRATION? PASTORAL CARE? These areas are graspable and graphable. They also show, visually, what is really happening with our church budget. And they inspire people to support them, rather than quibble over nickel and dime details. We need to report dollar amounts in the interest of full and open disclosure. More helpfully, though, a narrative budget expresses real ministry. It should be part of all our budget reporting.