Church Finances: the stats and the state of things

This post is written by Justin Anderson, our past treasurer.

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Let me just say this straight up: this blog post is about money. Even more; it is about the Church’s money. I know, bad place to start, very bad place to start, but Jesus talked quite a lot about money, so why shouldn’t I?

However this isn’t another ‘why you should give’ blog post; we have those (see 3 Freedoms that financial giving brings and Why Give? 5 obvious reasons). This is about the state of play of Christ City Church’s income and expenditure, and some nice juicy facts and figures for you.

The last six months

You may remember that in February we had an AGM, in which I presented an income budget. We said that we were hoping for the monthly regular giving to increase from approx. €3,000 to just over €4,000 per month by the end of the year. The hope was that an increase in giving would enable us keep doing what we were doing, pay increased rent in our nice spacious new venue and to employ two apprentices (Eben and Chloe) from September for a year, who would grow the organisation, pastoral care and outreach of the Church.

Fast forward a few months to July, and you may remember also that there was an update on the giving and we shared that we were on still about the same amount of regular giving as we had been in February. We hoped that by sharing this, and specifically the impact it would have on employing Eben and Chloe for a year, people in the Church who weren’t giving would be encouraged to do so. We want the whole Church to be engaged and take ownership of what the Church is doing, and giving financially is part of that (however little or much someone is able to give).

The good news then is that in September 2016 the Church received approx. €3,800 in regular gifts, which is back up to our original plan for that time in the year. In addition, so far in October we have seen more new givers.

Belonging

I said above that giving is connected with engagement and ownership. When people give to the church they do so because they belong, they value it, they believe in where it is going and they want to be a part of that. Conversely, when they don’t feel these things the likelihood is that they won’t give. In everything we do we want people to belong to Christ City Church, value it, believe in it and want to be part of where it’s going. Giving is just one part of this. We believe that people give because they belong (but we don’t want people to feel they have to give to belong – it is the belonging that should come first). So, do our giving statistics reflect this sense of belonging?

In September, that €3,800 figure I gave you came from 15 different family units (a family unit represents an individual, couple, or family), with amounts ranging from €20 a month upwards. I hope and believe that each of these give from the motivation of belonging to the Church and an understanding of Jesus’ teaching on giving. We value each gift, whether a lot or a little. In Mark 12:41-44 Jesus talked about the relative value of money in commenting on the rich giving a little of their money and the widow giving everything she had – Jesus was looking at the sacrifice and the heart over the amount.

Now the great news is that 15 givers is a significant increase on the number of givers in previous months. In March this year, only six months prior, the giving came from 10 different family units. This is a 50% increase in the amount of people who give, and if my interpretations are right, a 50% increase of people feeling that they belong to Christ City Church. If we look further back to September 2015, there were 5 regular givers to the Church, so our 15 now is three times this (a 200% increase). The Church has increased in number over this time, so we would expect some kind of increase in givers, but still it is pretty positive. Now I am sure you have noticed that we have more that fifteen family units (individuals/couples/families) in the Church, so it is our prayer that those who currently are not giving will do so, however little or much this may be, to connect with the Church in the same way.

A year to belong?

From some analysis, I can see that for about half of our current givers, there was a year or more between them first regularly attending Church services to them regularly giving to the Church. Leaders from every church in the world ever will tell you it takes time for most people to give to a church. It is natural for there to be a bit of time for people to feel like they trust a church, feel committed to and – here’s that magic word again – belong, to the church. However, I pose a question to you: do you think that a year is a long time for this to happen?

My initial thought is that this is quite long. I would hope that people would trust, feel committed to and belong to the church quicker than this. We do, of course, have lots of people in the Church who are students or out of work, and getting money for food or rent is difficult as it is. However, I hope that anyone, however little they have, can consider if and what they can give to Christ City Church, their church, to help it grow, bless the city of Dublin and reach the least, the last and the lost with the good news of Jesus.

Our spending and the future

So what then about the state of the church’s expenditure? Generally, this has been as expected. From January to the end of September 2016 we spent approx. €24,000 and this was on budgeted things such as rent for Synge Street, employing Caroline, our kids’ work, the banquet, gifts to people in the church who are in need, and boring (but essential) stuff like taxes, bank fees and annual returns. We know we will have costs for Intro, a subsidy for the Weekend Away and staffing costs for our two apprentices before the end of the year.

When it comes to expenditure the main thing to consider is future spending. Do listen to Steve talking about the journey of the Church so far and where he sees us going over the coming years:

We have talked previously how we may want to employ someone to replace Caroline when she goes on maternity leave, or find an Assistant Pastor (or a mix of the two), in the not-too-distant future. We also hope that within the next 2-3 years we will have started another congregation/church and/or launched a mercy ministry in the city. Therefore we need to put money aside to enable one or both of these to happen.

We don’t know in too much detail what these would look like yet, or exactly what the next staff role should be, and we want the whole Church to shape what this is, but it’s fair to say that we do see expenditure increasing going into next year and beyond. To give you a feel for what this means, next year we’re going to increase the budget by €15,000-17,000 in order to plan for a new staff member, continuing contracts for our two apprentices (Eben and Chloe) and future ministries.

Conclusion and a question

What we are currently spending is on budget. What we are getting in, after a gentle nudge, is now on budget. Yet, for the future, as we plan to care for a growing community and continue to reach out to bless Dublin we will need an extra €1250-1400 a month in 2017.

So, a thoughtful question? If you currently give, thank you so much! Would you consider increasing your giving, and/or formalising it through a standing order if you haven’t already (this really helps us budget). If you are not giving, please consider whether you belong to Christ City Church, whether you are receiving from it and are committed to its vision and growth? And if the answer is yes, would you consider starting to give?

If you have any questions, do chat to myself (Justin) or Steve and Leanne.

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For more information do read the following:

Also please note that:

Steve and Leanne do not know who gives to Christ City Church. Only the finance team know.
Steve and Leanne do not receive any financial income from the Church