“It is easy to think that developing a budget would be a dry and mechanical process, but my experience with Session in developing the budget has been very different. This has been a very prayerful and deliberate process for us, in which we have really been seeking God’s leading.
To begin with, I think we have all sensed for a while that, in keeping with how He is leading us in living a life of love, there was a next step God was leading us into that included growing in love that is generous and sacrificial. That has informed a lot of how we prayerfully approached the budgeting process.
Connected with that is the way we see a link between giving and spiritual growth. Obviously our budget supports the ministries God is calling us develop to help us grow as followers of Christ. But our budget itself, and the way we each give is support of it, is also a way God helps us grow as followers of Christ.
We see the teaching of living generously is an important part of discipleship both as a church and for each of us individually. Living a life of love means we willingly give in a costly and sacrificial way, that mirrors the heart of the Lord in us.
So the prayerful decisions we, as followers of Jesus, each make about how much we will give in support of the church’s ministry and mission, and how generous and even sacrificial that giving is, is part of how God deepens our relationship with Him, and part of how our allegiance to Jesus gets expressed.
About the budget itself: over the past six months or so, Session has met regularly to discuss God’s invitation and challenge to our church in terms of areas of maintenance and growth needed that would impact our budget.
Staff, volunteers, and the task force provided input that informed the directives and development of the budget plan. Session prayerfully and faithfully observed movements in the ministry and listened to the stirring of the Lord.
Here are some highlights of our discernment, some things that God has been putting on our heart as elders that are reflected in this budget.
· In the proposal, we affirm the need for an increase in our budget in order to continually and faithfully love and care for our ministry staff and to ensure equitable salaries due to the cost of living and fair adjustment.
· We also recognize the unique location and gifting of our church and the need for a new staff position to strengthen our ministry and missions’ connections with the Purdue campus, especially in servicing international and graduate students.
At the heart of the budget planning, we believe God is reminding and shepherding our church to see our budget plan as a statement of faith that reflects our identity and value in Christ. Jesus already knows what will happen next year. Our job is not about guessing the numbers right; rather, we feel the call to reflect Jesus’s heart and teaching in the budget plan so that we honor Him, and our plan touches His heart.
It was a privilege to be part of this process and a humbling experience to see the thoughtfulness, intentionality, and compassion displayed by everyone involved, with a clear and shared goal of seeking and honoring Him in the proposed budget.”
Lightly edited for clarity.
