How Can a Narrative Budget Help Us?

Rewritten from a website piece for the California-Nevada Conference of The United Methodist Church Budgets aren’t sexy, but they’re necessary. If you’re a church leader, you’re probably thinking about it these days, as you start putting together your programs for the year ahead. A line item budget is a financial form that reports income and…

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Ways to Share Your Narrative Budget++

Spread your good news! Plan the strategy for sharing your congregation’s narrative budget over the year. Consider any of the following ways of telling or sharing your good news: Use posters and bulletin inserts that proclaim the ministry. Highlight one ministry area a month, or feature a ministry area in weekly bulletins. Have first-hand testimonials…

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Creating a Narrative Spending Plan

How can we build a Narrative Spending Plan, or Narrative Budget? Church leaders and pastors are familiar with the process of establishing a line-item budget, but a Narrative Budget is done a different way. It starts by forming a small group of church leaders who are familiar with the church’s current ministries, including the pastor.…

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Narrative Budget Twin Towers

TWIN TOWERS [XXX] CHURCH: How Our Tithes and Offerings Are Used to Make a Difference  Twin Towers [XXX] Church budget for 2008 is $237,744.  That equals $4572 per week.  In addition, we give to other ministries not included in the budget.  We have identified four categories that briefly describe our church activities and ministries.  Expenses for…

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Narrative Budget, XXX Church

A Narrative Budget for First [XXX]Church The children in our midst,                              the mission at our doorstep,                                                 a place of hospitality and grace.          A Narrative Budget is a description of the actual ministries that are under way at a church. It is a Mission-Driven Budget that asks the question, “What is the shape…

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What is a Narrative Budget?

Every congregation has a Line Item Budget. This budget form reports income and expenses, line by line, so the church’s committees can monitor their activities internally, making sure that expenditures don’t exceed income by categories throughout the year. But a Line Item Budget is not a motivating tool! It is not inspiring (even to those…

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