MANAGING
WEALTH
FOR THE
COMMON
GOOD

Drafting the Case Statement:
Parish Reserves

Both the Charity Commission and good practice in Christian stewardship require that churches make appropriate provision for holding reasonable reserves while also ensuring that reserves are used in pursuit of the aims of the church. Making a judgment on a reasonable level of reserves will vary from church to church. A historic listed building has different needs to a modern church in good condition. As a very broad guideline something around 4-6 months of expenditure would constitute a reasonable reserve. The key point is not the amount of reserves but appropriate stewardship of what has been entrusted to us:

• In some churches historic reserves are used year on year to subsidise a shortfall in between income and expenditure. Selling the family silver in this way is a short term solution that can create long term problems.
• Some parishes must beware of hoarding reserves. Anxious hoarding can create a defensive and fearful culture which can infect the decision making process to the detriment of ministry and mission. It can also be hard to persuade church members to give generously to a church perceived to be very wealthy.
• For some churches there are no reserves to worry about - and that is the worry! A reasonable level of reserves is good stewardship of both church building and parish ministry and if they are not in place the issue should be addressed.

The guidelines at Completing the Parish Reserves Analysis will assist planning groups to complete Section 2a of the case statement document which gathers the raw financial data. The sample Weekly Giving and Reserves Analysis illustrates how the completed reserves sheet might look and the sample case statement shows the completed document inserted in to the case statement. It is a good idea to customise the spreadsheet by inserting an image of the church.

Charity Bank offers creative possibilities for individuals and churches to use their money to benefit the charitable sector and the charities of their choice.