Annual Review and the Annual Budget

Many churches do not prepare an annual budget. In others the budget baptises the status quo, adjusting last year's expenditure for inflation. The task often falls to the treasurer - working alone - to prepare, present and drive the budget. However, legally and spiritually the responsibility for the budget lies with all in leadership. The budget is the ministry of the church in numbers. Read through the document Why Budgets Matter for a reflection on the importance of preparing a church budget.

The ministry and giving focus of an Annual Review provides a creative and more collegiate framework for the preparation of a church budget. A budget will require more detail than the broad brush picture of ministry provided by the Annual Review Document and will need to be monitored over time. Planning groups will need to navigate the considerable demands of the Christmas period on church time. There are two possible models:

• An integrated model: The Annual Review Document is prepared in the autumn (assuming a 1st January start to the financial year). The Review Sunday then takes place early in the New Year, communicating the ministry aims of the church and challenging the people to review their giving. The Epiphany theme of proclamation to the gentiles and the inauguration of Jesus' public ministry, offers a rich theological context for an Annual Review. One large church annually uses the Epiphany season to inform the congregation of its ministry focus and the accompanying financial challenge. A smaller inner city church holds a Budget Sunday on the last Sunday of January each year.
  
• A "bi-polar" model: In this model the Annual Review Document forms the basis of budget preparations. The budget is presented early in the financial year using the brochure, letters and perhaps financial presentations. The Annual Review is then held later in the year with a more specific focus on giving, as a discipline within personal discipleship. This model permits an updating of ministry progress and a re-addressing of the financial needs of the church before its year end, if there is evidence of a pending shortfall.