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Monday Muse: How Have Budget Cuts Impacted You?
Posted on June 22nd, 2009 in Monday Muse by Fred McKinnon
Budget Cuts:
Most of us have seen them at work, at ministry, and at home.
One of the first things cut in our church budget this year was conferences and events for ongoing training and encouragement.
We’re really tightening up at home as well – I just made several cuts in my e-biz, including the removal of our landline, discontinuing merchant services on a slow-order website, discontinuing some livesupport services, and canceling some shipping subscriptions.
Have you been affected by budget cuts in your personal life or ministry? What have you done, and how are you compensating for the cuts?
Specifically for those in ministry, I’d love to hear how God has provided for you in the midst of the cuts.
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8 Responses to “Monday Muse: How Have Budget Cuts Impacted You?”
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Fred, I voluntarily took about a 20% pay cut in all of my budget areas this year but our spending has been almost frozen this entire year so it’s all meaningless. We are repeatedly told “spend only what you HAVE to”. It’s been very hard to feel like I’m doing a quality job using virtually no money. It’s hard to pursue dreams as well!
On a personal note, I’ve volunteered to take a pay cut as long as I could – in return – have a more flexible work schedule and cut back my hours a bit. It’s being “prayerfully considered”. To be honest, I felt very prompted by God to take that step, but the only thing we have left to cut is fixed expenses like salaries…….
We’re not doing well but people are still worshiping! So that’s led me to some other thoughts I’ll blog on later.
New blog post: Monday Muse: How Have Budget Cuts Impacted You? http://bit.ly/v452X
You know how those church budget cuts have affected Drew and I…
yes, unfortunately, I do … but I’m still praying!
Monday Muse – How have Budget Cuts Affected You? Do tell …. http://bit.ly/xsEiP
(sorry for the long post!)
Being a part of a church plant, I’m responsible to fundraise a part of my salary, which is not easy even in a great economy.
As a church: -Not paying for office space by working out of homes and coffee shops that offer free wi-fi.
-Minimizing travel costs and commute expenses by engaging primarily in local, neighborhood ministry.
-Partnering with community organizations to provide tangible service rather than creating our own separate services.
-Reducing our technological expenses by using simple sound and visual equipment.
-Using free programs such as blogs and google rather than paying for websites and computer software.
-Relying on volunteers to carry on church ministry.
-Reducing ink costs by communicating electronically or printing in black and white.
Janaki,
Seriously, these are some great savers … sounds like you’re doing all you can!
We’ve actually been fortunate in that we’re not seeing too much of the economic crunch in giving. Last year was actually a decent year, financially for our church. Of course, being a small church in a very expensive country means we are always in a budget crunch!
So we look for a lot of low-cost or no-cost resources where available. We create much of our own curricula for the children’s programs, and have switched providers for the adult program. We use open-source software where we can, for example in lyric projection, worship planning and video/sound production.
We rely completely on volunteers, having very little in the way of paid staff. But… we’ve been able to rely less on people providing for events and such this year than in years past.
We still are in need of some sound/media items, as some of our gear is getting a little long in the tooth. But, direct ministries are a priority now.