| SJA Finances Chicken Little - Or Chicken In Every Pot? |
On September 8, 2002 a brief announcement appeared in the St. Joan of Arc Sunday Bulletin saying that in July and August the collections had dropped 17%. That is a lot of chicken feed. The rest of this article is a layman’s look-see at parish finances, and if you read this to the end, you will know if the sky is falling, or if there is money to keep meeting at the old parish homestead! If you are a trained accountant or have a good understanding of budget reports, you can draw your own conclusions.
So who is in charge of Parish finances? Well, St. Joan of Arc has a very strong and talented Parish Finance Committee. Six parishioners, including two lawyers and a couple of certified public accountants as part of the talent pool. Parishioner Ruth Shriver has served as chair for several years. They have to come up with a budget plan every year that takes into account the parish goals, staff needs, and operation costs. And just like home, there are those ongoing upkeep costs such as the need for a new roof on the school building and a replacement for a boiler that is reaching retirement age. They present their budget recommendations to the Parish Council, the Parish Administrator and the Pastor, and it is all put to a vote. The point is that monitoring parish finances is something a lot of parishioners formally participate in.
Mike Dooley and Brad Hinker spent some time with me over coffee this summer discussing and responding to questions on parish finances. Both men have a background as financial accountants and they are dealing with an organization that is different than a business or family structure. A parish is made up of volunteering individuals who do not have to pay dues to belong. There are about 4000 families enrolled on the parish books. They are free to come to church or to participate in any of the many activities and services with no direct billing. Attempting to use good financial management principles when your primary source of income is a collection basket once around each Sunday, falls into the Act of Faith category. I used the term ‘once around’ with purpose because some of us can recall that in some churches, there is more than one collection per service!
So Where Does the Money Come From? Whatever happens at St. Joan’s financially comes from free will donations, and 92% of what is donated comes in the Saturday/Sunday collection. Budgets have to be set based on projected collections. Where does the other 8% of revenue come from? The Christian School pays a rental fee for use of our classrooms. There is the one big fundraiser, the Cabaret, and individual donations or bequests help defray some of the operational costs.
| Growing up Catholic, most people have a story about the church and money. Some of the stories are very funny, and many of them are scary. “My grandfather stormed out of the church when they published the donors names in the bulletin.” or “I can remember pew rent.” In spite of the fact that historically the poor and the laboring classes built the churches and schools of times past, we Catholics as a group are not up for any awards when it comes to church support. The real headline grabber at St. Joan of Arc is, one in three people are the primary support for most of the parish’s operating budget. |
So How Are We Doing? The problem St. Joan of Arc as a parish has, is that it operates on a very tight budget, a small staff to oversee a growing number of services, and very limited cash reserves. When you say it this way, it sounds grim, but when you think of how far staff talent stretch the funds, and what gets done directly or indirectly at St. Joan of Arc, it is amazing. Folks this is not a parish with much gold leaf and marble and we have enough money on had to cover one month’s expenses. If we run out of money, we would have to go to the bank for an additional loan.
The parish is carrying a mortgage debt of about $400,000. That debt is from building a very much needed parish center and office space. There is some disagreement about how to go about paying off the $400,000 debt. It is just like a family discussing money. Some do not like any debt and others feel that a certain amount of debt is part of operating a multi-faceted organization like St. Joan. It would be nice not to have to pay the interest on the loan and that money could be used for more of the ministry costs. One thing everyone agrees on, is the need to increase revenues. Operating with only enough cash reserves to cover bills for one extra month, might be called ‘Faith in the Lord’ financing.
| In Times past in America’s pioneer churches, ministers and priests got paid with chickens, eggs, and produce. Now we are all doing plastic. During the Depression, people gave more to their churches, than we as Americans do now. |
In the early church there were disagreements about how things should be done and how widows and orphans should be fed. Well two thousand years later we are still having our disagreements about how to get our bills paid, the roof fixed and put some aside for that aging boiler. One group wants energy put into getting more parishioners to increase their giving, which is logical. Another group wants to unleash more of the parish talent into clever, and not so clever, but legal, money raising events. Their argument is that it would help bring in additional cash and it is a very good way to build community. There is merit in both approaches. The old folks tell you there is nothing like a barn raising to help build better community! We may stick our noses up about church dinners and parish bazaars, but in times past, it did keep the church and schools open. There are a number of parishioners who are not quite ready for that faith stretch that talks about putting their Sunday donation on their VISA cards but a number of moderns have decided to move to automatic withdrawal from their checking account.
We do not say it right when we talk about money. We speak in terms of budget and goals. People say we really should speak to asking for resources in order to minister and help people. To quote a parishioner, “I think people would give if they felt some part of it would go to help someone in need.” One of the goals that might be thought about, is finding a way to show parish members just how many ministries spring out of this parish community. We live in a time where we research almost everything. Well research has been done on church giving and in looking for the link to what triggers giving, they discovered that those who studied scripture and thought about it’s true message, they did change their giving practices. Why? Well in truth Jesus never said much about sex but he did talk a lot about giving and sharing.
| So what is this about Martin Luther and Billy Graham? Well both men said something that needs to be thought about. Luther whom we have gotten to like more this century, said we all go through three conversions. The first conversion is in our head, the second is our heart, and the third is our pocketbook. Billy Graham, whom we have some differences of opinion about matters theologically, said that each person’s checkbook is a theological document. |
Several months back, a series of focus groups were held to discuss finances. Guess what happened, the groups profiled like good Minnesotans seem to be doing these days. They were evenly divided on how we as parishioners might manage our finances. The Stewardship Committee looked at the results of the focus groups and decided that they would recommend one more run at whittling down the $400,000 debt. They would ask the 40% of the parishioners who had pledged to kick in a bit more, and they would ask the 60% who did not pledge to give a onetime donation. Debt is debt and if it can be lowered, there would be more funding for other needs.
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