Annual Review Document:
The Parish Plan

Section One of the Annual Review Document outlines some specific plans for ministry and mission under seven areas of ministry. As long as no cost is allocated to these plans they will remain wishful thinking, more mirage than 'vision of the future'. The plans need to be drawn up into a parish plan in Section Four of the Annual Review Document.

Core costs and ministry plan costs

A spreadsheet template can be used for the preparation of the parish plan. A feature to note is the distinction between what are termed core costs and the ministry plan costs. The distinction is commonplace in the charitable sector and it is important.

• Core costs include basic items such as insurance, utilities, fabric and the parish share. Core costs will always dominate expenditure because they represent the infrastructure of the church as the agent for ministry and mission. The difficulty is that core costs are notoriously hard to cover. They do not have the glamour of specific projects, they seem routine and unimaginative yet they are the essential base for effective ministry. They are the costs of maintaining a consecrated building and a stipendiary priesthood. Without them the pattern of parish ministry would look very different. 
• Ministry plan costs are those specific items or projects that are identified as areas of ministry to be addressed by the church in the coming year. Churches already know how relatively easy it is to raise money for immediate local projects, compared to the general fund of the church.They have a clarity about them that is attractive, yet without core costs being covered these specific items or projects simply will not happen.