Transcript Implementing Narrative Budgeting in your Parish

Implementing Narrative
Budgeting in your Parish
Stewardship and Financial Development Committee
Anglican Diocese of Niagara
The Reverend David M. Ponting
What is Narrative Budgeting?
•It is the sacred story of the ministry of the
parish
•One of the most important ways we can
effect on-going stewardship education
•Narrative Budgeting is an essential element
in educating your congregation about how
their money is being utilized to support the
ministry of the parish
An important insight is the
backbone of Narrative
Budgeting…
Donors don’t give their money TO the
church…
…they give THROUGH the church to touch
the lives of other people
Anglicans will give generously when they feel
their money is having an impact
Sacred story…
Much of Scripture is the sacred story of God’s care for the
people of God. ie. Exodus 16 and Manna from heaven.
Just as individuals have sacred stories of God’s providential
care for them…
…a narrative budget is the sacred story of your parish’s
ministry and how your parishioners are giving through their
parish to touch the lives of other people
We have a theological starting
point…
…and that starting point is that we are NOT a
secular institution.
Our faith calls us to view the deployment of
money much differently than secular
institutions
We must overcome years of
faulty theology
…and begin to view money from the
perspective of a faith community rather than
a secular perspective
This has a serious implication…
We need a whole new way of
thinking about the line item
budget in the local parish!!
A new way of thinking
Line item budgets are an accounting tool
Narrative budgets are an educational and
visioning tool
We need both but we must be more
intentional in how we use both
Line item budgets have
limitations
They do not show how money is being
invested in ministry
They do not show how volunteer time and
talent are impacting parish life
Worst of all – they do not inspire!
The Narrative Budget
Clearly shows how money is being invested in
the various components of parish life
Helps donors to re-frame what the parish is
all about
Inspires donors and helps them see their
donations are really making a difference
Is a proven tool for increasing financial
commitment to the ministry of the parish
The Narrative Budget
Recognizes that parishioners are not inspired
at the prospect of funding administrative
costs, postage, heat, hydro, cleaning supplies,
photocopying, etc.
And helps donors see their investment in the
ministry of the parish in a different light.
The Narrative Budget
So how does Narrative Budgeting
work?
Each parish has several key
components to their ministry…
Your parish’s ministry might easily be segmented
into these six components:
• Pastoral Care
•Christian Education
• Worship
•Evangelism and Hospitality
•Outreach
•In-reach and Fellowship
All Parish Expenditures can be
assigned to one of these six
areas!
•Pastoral Care
•Christian Education
• Worship
•Evangelism and Hospitality
•Outreach
•In-reach and Fellowship
Experience shows Six Categories
seems to be Optimum
This means you will have to make some decisions
about what categories are right for your parish.
•Some parishes like a youth ministry
category. I have found it easiest to fit
both Youth Ministry and Stewardship
Education into the ‘Christian Education’
segment
•However, you could put Youth Ministry in
the ‘Outreach’ or ‘Evangelism’ categories if
that makes more sense for your parish.
Notice what category is NOT
included in a Narrative Budget
•Pastoral Care
•Christian Education
• Worship
•Evangelism and Hospitality
•Outreach
•In-reach and Fellowship
Do you see the ADMINISTRATION
category on this list??
If you use ADMINISTRATION as
a category in your Narrative
Budget
•You will be defeating the entire purpose
of Narrative Budgeting!!!
•I BEG you. Don’t go there!
A small team can put together
your parish’s Narrative Budget
•Start by getting your staff to diarize how
they spend their time for a month. They
can also review their day planners for the
previous month
•Allocate their time amongst the six areas
of ministry
•Treat that as directional for how other
expenditures in the line item budget
should be allocated amongst the six areas
of ministry
•Some line items in your budget will be
easy to allocate (Sunday school supplies
to Christian education for example)
So after a month of diarizing by
your staff you will have an
allocation formula
• For example the rector might spend
15% of his/her time on Christian
Education; 10% on Outreach; 30% on
Worship and Worship preparation; 10% on
In-reach and Fellowship; and 15% on
Evangelism and Hospitality and the
remaining 20% on Pastoral Care
•We then take this formula and use it as a
blueprint for line items that are difficult to
allocate
Don’t get caught in a trap
• Many parishes implementing Narrative
Budgeting for the first time miss a big
point – they get too caught up on
delivering accuracy and don’t give
themselves permission to treat the
Narrative Budget as directional.
•Its not that we deliberately try to be
inaccurate. We try to be as accurate as
possible but we also recognize that, as an
educational tool, helping reframe minds
and getting donors to think about how
their donation is used is more important
than accuracy
Here’s what you will have when you
are done your first Narrative
Budget…
Sample line items in a parish
budget…
PROPERTY
PUC (Light, Heat & Water)
Telephone
Insurance
Maintenance & Supplies
$
$
$
$
Actual
7,983.00
821.00
1,620.00
6,854.00
…are allocated via the six
categories of ministry
Actual
PROPERTY
PUC (Light, Heat, & Water)
Telephone
Insurance
Maintenance & Supplies
Outreach Worship
$ 7,983 $ 2,794
$
821 $
164
$ 1,620 $
567
$ 6,854 $ 2,399
$
$
$
$
798
164
162
685
These calculations are fed into a software
spreadsheet to produce the following pie
chart:
St. Paul's Investment in Ministries in 2004
Outreach
Christian Educ.
$23,412
Music & Worship
$11,869
Pastoral Care
$19,506
Evangelism
Parish Life
$21,078
$47,673
$18,415
The software also permits the budget to be
expressed in percentages:
St. Paul's Investment in Ministries in 2004
Outreach
Christian Educ.
Music & Worship
Pastoral Care
Evangelism
Parish Life
Parish Life
16%
Evangelism
8%
Pastoral Care
14%Music &
Outreach
34%
Christian Educ.
13%
Worship
15%
Or the software lets you look at
individual slices of the pie…
Our Investment in Outreach in 2004
Outreach
34%
Other
Ministries
66%
The net takeaway we want donors
to have is this:
• 14 cents of every dollar I give goes to
Pastoral Care
• 34 cents of every dollar I give goes to
Outreach
• etc.
And the good news is we have made
the whole process very simple to do:
• By accessing the Diocese of Niagara website you can download all the Excel
software already programmed so that all
you have to do is fill in your own figures
and pie charts will be generated for your
parish
• You can access it through the “Financial
Development” link at
www.niagara.anglican.ca
Time and Talent Worksheet
You can also find a template for calculating
and reporting volunteer hours against the
six categories of ministry at the same web
address and link www.niagara.anglican.ca
We tell the story of the individual
slices of the parish ministry pie
• There is a narrative for Outreach, a
narrative for Evangelism, a narrative for
Pastoral Care, etc.
•We funnel the story from the macro story
to the micro story
The Pastoral Care narrative might look
something like this:
The ministry of Pastoral Care at St. Paul’s
involves the following services:
•taking of home communion to three local
nursing homes each month
• on call at two local funeral homes and
follow up with the mourners from 30
funerals in 2003
•frequent visiting at three local hospitals
to care for parishioners recovering from
illness or surgery
More pastoral care ministries
•counselling services to couples and
individuals in marital crisis
•care of McMaster students in crisis due to
stress-related pressures of school
•self help group set up to care for
unemployed in the area
•bereaved families support group
•etc.
Then we get even more specific and
tell the ministry sacred stories
Kristen is a first year student in Biology at
McMaster. Its her first time away from
home and her family is in Lumsden,
Saskatchewan. She has been having a
difficult time with her classes and her
marks have slipped dramatically since high
school. Her mother was badly hurt in a
car accident last month and Kristen is not
coping well. She walked in off the street
last Wednesday morning and all her pain
came gushing out in the rector’s office.
She and the rector connected and she has
showed up in church the last few Sundays
feeling like she has found a “family” to
care for her
We tell the stories of the real
people touched by our ministry
•Tell a few stories for each category of
ministry
•Donors begin to get a better sense of the
impact the ministry of the parish is having
on peoples’ lives
•Experience shows they become inspired
and take a much greater ownership of the
many ministries of the parish
There are many ways we can use
to get the story out
•Vestry reports
•Parish newsletter
•Bulletin inserts
•Parish website
•Fall Stewardship mailings
•Narrative Budgeting booklets
•Personal contact
•Include in intercessory prayers
Use Sunday worship to tell the
sacred stories
•Put a bulletin insert out each week for six
weeks highlighting a different category of
ministry
•Pray for that ministry
•Tell a specific story of a person being
touched by that ministry
Adding Time and Talent
•You can do special charts that illustrate
volunteer hours against the six categories
of ministry
•Parishioners get a sense of how vital and
vibrant the local parish is when looked at
in the context of volunteer time
Let’s look at one aspect of
Volunteer time
Sunday Morning Worship
•Altar guild – two people X 2 hours= 4
hours
•Choir – ten member X 2 hours of worship
and two hours of practice time = 40 hours
•Readers, chalice bearers, server, crucifer,
counters, sides-people, litanist, 10 X 1.5
hours = 15 hours
•Almost 70 hours of volunteer time in one
week X 44 weeks =3,080 hours of
volunteer time in Sunday morning worship
alone
In an average size parish
When you factor in all ministries, we
estimate that 10,000 – 15,000 volunteer
hours per year are accumulated
That’s a significant impact on
any local community!!
Narrative Budgeting is an
Evolving Process
•Each year you will get better at it as you
add stories and volunteer time and talent
•It improves with each cycle
•People will begin to think of the funding
of the ministry of the parish in a new way
A Word about Vestry Meetings
We must change how we view money and
ministry
Long before vestry you will have begun a
job of education and awareness around
the Narrative Budget
The diocesan Stewardship office
strongly recommends…
…that you leave the line item budget in
the parish office at your annual vestry
meeting.
Take only the Narrative Budget to your
annual vestry meeting
You can still make the line item
budget available
…tell the left brain accountant types in the
parish that there are five copies of the
completed line item budget available in
the parish office to be signed out by
anyone interested. You are not
compromising transparency.
As a faith-based organization be
determined in your desire to talk about
money and ministry in a new way. Don’t
vacillate and fall back on the line item
budget for decision-making.
Make a leadership decision to leave the
line item budget out of your next Vestry
…Then have the parish council affirm the
leaders’ decision.
That way you can tell the vestry the parish
council voted in favour of talking only
about the Narrative Budget at vestry and
the leaders aren’t standing alone in
making this decision
Maybe in your parish…
…Vestry will no longer be viewed as the
annual BUSINESS meeting of the parish,
but will become
THE ANNUAL MISSION AND MINISTRY
MEETING
You may actually find…
…members get excited and start looking
forward to your annual Vestry meeting!!

As donors are engaged by the
efforts we make to show them…
…their money is having an impact on
the lives of people in need
