Category: Finances

  • How to Review a Church Plant Budget

    How to Review a Church Plant Budget

    4 Keys to Decoding Financial Plans & Projections You’ve been there – someone has handed you a departmental or church budget and your eyes glaze over. Reading financial charts and spreadsheets is not why you got in to ministry. But now you’re overseeing a church plant and you need help with how to review a […]

  • How to Create a Church Plant Budget – part 2

    How to Create a Church Plant Budget – part 2

    Last week we looked at first things to consider when you create a church plant budget. Here’s a few more: Startup vs. Recurring Expenses For a lot of expense categories, it makes sense to think of the budget on an regular monthly basis: if your worship department budget is $2,400 for the year, you have $200/month […]

  • How to Create a Church Plant Budget – part 1

    How to Create a Church Plant Budget – part 1

    One of the most important things you will do as you plant your church is create a church plant budget. Here are some things to keep in mind as you do: It’s About Vision Your budget document is less about money than it is about vision. When you create a church plant budget, you are forced […]

  • Church Copyright Licenses

    Church Copyright Licenses

    Artists and composers put food on their table by creating music. Violating copyrights is stealing from your brothers & sisters in Christ; pretty much not cool. Unless you’re going to get written permission for each piece of music you reproduce or perform*, you should use these licensing agencies that provide blanket church copyright licenses for […]

  • Contextualize Your Church

    Part 2 in the 7-part series, Open a Church Checking Account Why Contextualize Your Church? Believe it or not, the effort to contextualize your church is part of the critical path to open a church checking account. And you should do it anyway because the Church should always be renewing itself and adapting to the […]

  • Church Plant Freebie Friday: Amazon Smile

    Amazon is donating money to non-profit organizations when shoppers register through Amazon Smile. Once the regulars at your church plant register, ½% of all their (qualified) purchases automatically come to your church. Or better yet, get all of your regulars to register for the nonprofit in town that your church partners with. Do it as […]

  • Shutting Down Church Plants

    It is always a sad day when you have to go about shutting down a church plant. While there are some paperwork and technical details involved, the primary role and responsibility of the leadership during this time is to care for the people in the congregation. As I’ve had to learn through this process, here […]

  • Church Plant Dissolution Clause

    If you want to set up your new church for official IRS 501c3 nonprofit recognition, know they’ll be looking for your church plant dissolution clause. What’s the Problem? Anything donated to a church is to be used for its nonprofit purposes. The IRS gets pretty picky about donations being ‘laundered’ through a nonprofit that is […]