Comments on: Monday Muse: How Have Budget Cuts Impacted You?

By: Fred McKinnon

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:57:01 +0000

Janaki,
Seriously, these are some great savers … sounds like you’re doing all you can!

By: Fred McKinnon

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:55:38 +0000

yes, unfortunately, I do … but I’m still praying!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:47:55 +0000

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.

By: Janaki

Janaki — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:32:51 +0000

(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.

By: fmckinnon

fmckinnon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:22:22 +0000

Monday Muse – How have Budget Cuts Affected You? Do tell …. http://bit.ly/xsEiP

By: mandythompson

mandythompson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:11:27 +0000

You know how those church budget cuts have affected Drew and I…

By: fmckinnon

fmckinnon — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:45:36 +0000

New blog post: Monday Muse: How Have Budget Cuts Impacted You? http://bit.ly/v452X

By: Jan Owen

Jan Owen — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:59:20 +0000

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.