Term 3 is budgeting season here at church. It’s a process we take seriously as it’s our way of faithfully honouring what God has given us in the way we spend and save.

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.” (Luke 14:28-30)

The budget process here at Living Church
So our budgeting process is this: firstly I take all the data from last year and this year (budget, actuals, forecast) and I send it to the Ministry Area Leaders. They talk to their teams about plans for next year and then we sit down to look at what that might mean financially. I then put this into a first draft that goes to the Committee of Management. From there, ministry priorities are set, questions are asked and any changes are made. We then work on a second draft which CoM endorse before bringing it to the congregation at Term 4 Church Life.

But what about you?
Do you have a budget? No doubt it wouldn’t be as complicated as the church budget, but it can be just as important. Chances are you know to the dollar what money you have coming in, but do you track where your money is going? Do you have a good sense of how much you spend on certain things – food, car, mortgage, rent, entertainment etc? There are some resources on our website that might help get you started – https://livingchurch.org.au/financial-resources/

As always, if you have any questions about budgeting or any other finance things here at church, please contact our Finance Manager, Janet Sutton, on accounts@livingchurch.org.au or 3398 4333.