Rainbows aren’t typically the first thing to spring to mind when one thinks about balancing a budget. Budgets are generally about getting out of the Red and into the Black, and it doesn’t really matter how you get there. But the options are generally pretty simple: increase revenues, cut expenses, differenciate between the things you merely want and the things you really need, and get rid of the former while preserving as many of the latter as you can. And when revenues match expenses, the budget is balanced and we can all sleep easier at night.
None of this has really changed. But it’s also important to remind ourselves that “balancing the budget” is not the primary mission of a church. Obviously, we need to learn how to live within our means, and to do so in a sustainable way that also reflects the values and principles of our faith community.
But not all Red Ink is Created Equal. It’s been my experience that churches never have enough money to do all the things they dream of doing, but they always seem to come up with the resources to do the things they know they NEED to do.
My hope for First Parish is that we will use this Opportunity to have a serious conversation about the importance of the on-going ministry of our congregation to this community in the 21st century, what our actual priorities are, and how we can best fulfill this mission given the resources available to us.
When I say that not all Red Ink is Created Equal, I mean to suggest that our expenditures can actually be divided into several different categories depending upon our level of control over them and their relative importance to the success of our overall mission.
DARK RED expenditures are for things that might be thought of as Necessaries. These are often “fixed” expenses (like electricity and heating oil) which are provided by outside venders, are required (or necessary) for our on-going operations, and over which we have very little direct control other than to use less.
BRIGHT RED expenses represent our Obligations -- responsibilities which we have voluntarily chosen to take on, but are now obligated in good faith to pay. Most Personnel expenses tend to fall into this catagory.
PINK represents our Commitments. These might be thought of as expenses which we would like to take on (such as adequate health insurance benefits and regular Cost of Living Adjustments for our staff) because they reflect our values, but which we just aren’t certain we can really afford.
If all this Red Ink isn’t complicated enough, there are also VARIOUS SHADES OF GREEN. These respresent expenditures to fund the Healthy Practices that will help us better fulfill our mission, grow the church, and either save money or generate additional revenues in the long run. We all know “it isn’t easy being green.” But most of our program and committee expenses tend to fall into this catagory, as do expenses like the storm windows and
And then finally, there are our SKY BLUE DREAMS-- our vision of what First Parish might look like when we lift our eyes skyward and look to the horizon, and see our church as if money were no object, and at its best and highest potential. This is our “Castle in the Air” -- the church we WISH we could create if only we felt we could afford to build the foundations under it.
The point of this whole exersize is not to spend a lot of time arguing over whether a particular catagory of expense is Blue or Green or Red, or to try to identify and eliminate all of the “superfluous” Green and Red expenses in order to concetrate our limited resources on meeting our essential Red obligations. Rather, the goal is to give us a common language with which to talk about our historical expenditures (and how we might better manage and control them), as well as our future aspirations and priorities going forward.
We don’t often talk about our current financial situation in these terms, but First Parish actually has a balanced budget right now. It’s just not a budget that is balanced in a sustainable way, or one that adequately reflects our mission, values and priorities as a faith community. It requires us to defer important on-going maintenence to the Meeting House by drawing upon money that would otherwise be set aside for that purpuse, and is also dangerously vulnerable to inflation and the dangers of a recession. Likewise it fails to fund adequately the kinds of new inititives we might undertake in order to better serve the larger Portland community, and (in the words of Bob Greenlaw) “become the kind of church people think we are.”
In order for us to live up to our reputation as Portland’s Original Faith Community, and fulfill our mission of being “A Warm and Welcoming Place in the Heart of the City,” we need to continue to offer excellent services in the traditional areas of ministry like Worship, Education, Fellowship, Hospitality, Pastoral Care, Community Outreach and Social Justice Advocacy that First Parish has historically provided to the Portland Community for over three centuries now. And we also need to be exploring new avenues of ministry, and new revenue sources that will allow us to better serve the community as it changes and evolves in response to changes in the large culture.
Finally, if we look First Parish specifically in fiduciary terms, we might think of the church as a legacy which we have received from our ancestors and hold in trust as a bequest to our descendants. It is likewise a gift which we give to the wider Portland community, and in particular a gift we give to one another. Our individual levels of participation may vary from time to time as the circumstances of our own lives change, but the shared desire that First Parish will always be here for those who need it is at the heart of the Covenental responsibilities that hold us all together as both “people of faith” and “a community of memory and hope.”
GOING FORWARD
I. The First Step might be to bring together a “Financial Summit” this Spring in order to better define the problem and identify the tasks ahead of us, as well as fleshing out the details of the plan and the direction outlined below. The specific objectives of this/these Spring meeting(s) are:
• to bring together the people in the church who have both the institutional memory and the financial expertise to accomplish these objectives. (ad hoc Finance Council)
• to get a good handle on our actual historical expenditures, as well as our current revenue sources.
• to draft a preliminary “spending plan” (in multiple colors) which reflects both our historical actuals, and also our future aspirations, while:
a) cutting as much of the “Dark Red” as possible.
b) honoring our “Bright Red” obligations.
c) identifiying our “Pink” commitments as future goals.
d) prioritizing the various “Green” inititives we would like to begin.
e) lifting up the “Blue” aspirations we’re working for.
• to identify honestly and accurately our present and potential future revenue sources, and to begin to explore ways of improving, increasing, and expanding them.
II. “The Patch in the Ceiling”
• Following up the work of the Spring summit, we need to develop a more permanent Finance Council that includes the Treasurer, the Stewardship Team, the Planned Giving Team, a representative of the Trustees, etc. We all need to do what everyone else is trying to do, and we to do it together!
• The Campaign Begins Today to promote the vision of what we hope to accomplish, and what we will need to do in order to pay for it. We need to share the dream and recruit more partners!
• ºLiving Within Our Means” means paying as we go. Once we have identified our fixed expenses and our reliable revenue sources, we need to manage our cash flow in such a way as to pay our essential bills on time while deferring as many of our discretionary expenses for as long as we can. “Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without.”
III. “The On-Going Appeal”
• Use the enthusiasm of the start of a new church year to publicize the Rainbow Spending Plan, and how it reflects the mission and ministry of the church.
• Create some sort of Autumn “signature” outreach/fun(d)raising event in order to raise visibility and good feeling as well as additional money.
• Send sincere, year-end “Thank Yous” to ALL of our current contributors, along with annual statements reflecting their total contributions for the previous tax year. Let them know how much we appreciate their generosity and partnership.
• Make a general year-end appeal for individuals to remember the church at the holidays.
• Make personal, one-on-one Stewardship Visits to our “Annual Givers” -- individuals who prefer to contribute to the church in one lump sum at the end of the tax year.
• Spring 2009: Every Member Stewardship Campaign to kick-off fiscal 2009-10 and “Rainbow 2.0.”
IV. Next Steps
First Parish has utilized a lot of different methods for paying the bills in its 335 year history, and it may well be that we are in a period where the paradigm is once again changing. It may well be, for example, that we DO want to be in the Real Estate business right now, simply because it provides us both with additional revenue and a tangible asset that helps us fulfill our core mission. The “four pillars” of our revenue stream will no doubt continue to be income from invested funds, member giving, fundraising activities, and building rentals for quite some time. But we can and should continue to explore alternative means of generating revenue, while at the same time attempting to enhance the sources we currently rely on.
Likewise, our Budget (Spending Plan) equals our Mission equals our Ministry. Wealth = Worth = Value(s). It’s what we do (and try to do as well as we can) in order to be who we say we are, and to become what we dream of being. The goal is NOT simply to reduce our expenses to the bare minimum. The goal is to be as responsible about ALL our expenditures as we can be, while getting as far into the Blue as we can afford to.
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