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TRIMMING THE CHURCH BUDGET

November 15, 2010 by Ken Blue

By Ken Blue

church budget“There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.” Proverbs 21:20.

Recently, a pastor friend asks if I would write something about trimming the church budget. He then laughed and said, “Maybe the answer is to just run it through the shredder.” That would be an easy way to get rid of the budget, but it will not eliminate the problem.

The first thing is to make a list of every known expense you have. Once you have done that, separate between the fixed expenses and the variable or non fixed expenses. Fixed expenses are easy to identify. However, it may be necessary to keep a diary of all other expenses so you will know where non-designated monies go. You will discover that these differ from day to day.

See where you spend your money, and decide what you could do without. Some expenses are one-time events. But there are also expenses that you’ll regularly see in the diary. Monitoring your spending this way helps alert you to the expenses that add up quickly and really don’t significantly improve your ministry. Eliminate as many of these as you can.

As you consider expenses, there may be ways to reduce the overhead. I will list a few things to consider.

1. You might be able to cut down on the number of phones you have, or the plan.

2. Turn the water heater down. Check to see that toilets are not running 24/7. You can work out a fixed yearly budget with the city or county concerning utilities.

3. Put lower wattage and fewer light bulbs in fixtures.

4. Install motion sensor switches in each room so lights will go off when there’s no activity.

5. Make sure the heat and air conditioner are off when the building is not in use.

6. See that windows are closed.

7. Set heat a couple of degrees lower.

8. Look for signs of waste and eliminate it.

9. If required, talk to the bank about refinancing to lower your payments.

10.  Do not add missionaries or building projects that you can’t pay for.

11. Cut back or eliminate special meetings and guest speakers; they do not build your church attendance or budget.

12. If necessary, have the midweek service in a smaller room and save on heat.

13. Double your outreach efforts. When Jesus wanted Peter to pay the taxes, He sent him to catch a fish!

14.  If none of these solve the problem, you may need to lay off some staff.

15. Take special offerings occasionally to meet a need.

16. In some cases, the pastor may be required to seek additional employment.

Pastor, there’s only so much you can do. However, I am convinced that there are some things you could do that might ease the financial burden a little.

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Ministry Tagged With: Church, Ministry, Organization

TRAINING MEN FOR THE MINISTRY

November 4, 2010 by Ken Blue

WHERE MEN FOR THE MINISTRY COME FROM

By Ken Blue
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2.

 God has blessed Open Door Baptist Church over the years by calling young men from the membership into the ministry. Most of the men in the above picture were saved, trained, and ordained at Open Door. God continues to do this under the leadership of Pastor Jason Murphy. In addition, some of these pastors are training and sending others out to serve the Lord in the ministry. God’s plan is that the process continues.

Brother Tim Shanks and Ken Stewart are also from Open Door. Pastor Shanks has trained and ordained three men who are now in the ministry. Brother Stewart has taken the leadership of God’s Word Baptist Church and Pastor Shanks has been called to replace Pastor Ken Bates in Corona, CA.

Our job as pastors is to reach the lost, train them for ministry, and help them get established in serving Christ. God’s grace had been poured out abundantly on Open Door, and we praise Him for these and many others who are serving Him.

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com

Filed Under: Ministry Tagged With: Christian Ministry, Ministry, TRAINING MEN FOR THE MINISTRY

“ROUND UP DAY” AT BIBLE BAPTIST CHURCH

October 4, 2010 by Ken Blue


By Pastor Al Hughes

Sunday, October 3, we held a “Round-Up Day” at our church. On this special day we all dress “western” style. The church facility is decorated in a cowboy theme. Our guest preacher was Dr. Gene Howard, nationally know “John Wayne” impersonator (www.GeneHoward.org).

We put a lot of effort into promoting this day. First, we send out several mailings alerting people of the Round-Up. Our G.R.O.W. ministry makes many contacts inviting people to come. Ads are placed in the local newspapers two weeks before the special day.

The day before Round-Up Day, we sent teams to one of the busiest intersections in our city to wave professionally made signs promoting our church and the special day. We have a team of “sign-wavers” on each corner of the intersection so no one can miss us. Dr. Gene Howard, all dressed up in his “John Wayne” attire, joined us as we waved signs to passerby’s. His presence really attracted people to notice our signs (see attached picture and www.GeneHoward.blogspot.com).

Another thing we did to encourage people to invite visitors was award free gift cards to Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Q to the ones who brought in the most “strays” (visitors). A couple of people brought in five “strays” each!

God saw fit to bless our efforts with a full auditorium of people, over 20 visitors, and five people coming to trust Christ as Savior. Four of these visitors came as a result of seeing us sign waving the day before, and one of them also got saved! (Sign waving really works if it is done right.)

I want to highly recommend Dr. Gene Howard to any church or pastor who would like to have a special patriotic or “Round-Up Day.” His visual message on “Freedom and Sacrifice” is an excellent sermon that ties the sacrifice of our forefathers to secure our freedom in America to the sacrifice of Christ to provide freedom from sin. I’ve never heard a better Gospel presentation (preached with a “John Wayne” flare, of course). His sermons on “The Alamo” and the “The Big Ring Rifle” are also great sermons with Biblical applications.

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com

Filed Under: Soul Winning / Witnessing

DOES GOD CARE ABOUT NUMBERS

September 9, 2010 by Ken Blue

 

By Ken Blue

Often we hear preachers, in their pious zeal, state that God does not care about numbers; He only cares about our spiritual condition. That is, God is more concerned about quality than He is quantity. Now, I agree that the last part of that statement is correct. God is more concerned about the spiritual condition of a church than He is about its attendance. However, I have observed that many pastors justify their lack of numerical growth by assuming their little group is ultra-spiritual.

If conditions are conducive in your location for growth, I doubt the health or spirituality of your church if you are not reaching the lost. A church is not spiritual because it is large or small. However, a small church that has no goals, plans, or desire to reach the lost is not spiritual. It is lazy. The way pastors justify their stagnation is by finding fault with those churches that are reaching the numbers. They suggest that these churches are not doing things God’s way; that is the reasons for the growth. The reasons given for their own lack of growth is; “we are doing things God’s way.”

God does care about numbers. John 3:16 says He loved the world enough to die for people. There is a book in the Bible called Numbers! God had the people numbered. The commission is to go to all the world and to every creature. In the parable of the great supper, God was upset that his house was not full. He re-commissioned His servant to get anyone who would come that His house might be filled. Also, He counted the sheep and noticed that one was missing. So, those pastors who are excusing their lack of outreach by pretending they would rather have a spiritual church, while criticizing growing churches, are hiding behind a spider web of hypocrisy.   

A wise pastor realizes that you don’t have to sacrifice spiritual maturity for outreach, nor do you sacrifice outreach for spiritual maturity. A healthy church will work to balance all that is required of the church. The church is commanded to reach the lost and get them into the church. It is commanded to mature the believers through sound doctrine and unity. Then, each believer is to be trained how to serve the Lord. This involves more than soul winning and tithing. Finally, the church should producing pastors and missionaries. You don’t drop or ignore any of these. Like the juggler, all four of these ministries must be in the air at all times.

A danger for all churches is that they turn inward and focus only on their little family. This may look good and feel good, but it is not good, nor a sign that your church is healthy or godly. God does care about numbers; numbers are people, and God wants your church to reach them and bring them into your church.

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com

Filed Under: Soul Winning / Witnessing

OPEN DOOR BAPTIST, PASTOR MURPHY, AND THE GRACE OF GOD DID IT AGAIN!

September 7, 2010 by Ken Blue

 

By Ken Blue

Hey Pastor! Sunday, August 29th, Open Door Baptist had 2 professions of faith, 21 people joined the church, 14 baptisms, 27 visitors, 540 in attendance and 51 people to take the 101-401 disciple class! God continues to bless in an unusual way under the leadership of Pastor Murphy. This growth continued right through the summer months.

If you are tired of the same old negative hash, the axe grinding, the hobbyhorses, and the hairsplitting, you need to contact Pastor Murphy for some practical help on what they are doing to reach people and get them enrolled in their discipleship ministry.

Your church can grow if you have a vision, desire, and proper information on how to reach people. Someone has said, “Where there is no vision, the people perish, and where there are no people, the vision perishes.”

Pastor Murphy can be reached at: http://www.opendoorbaptist.com/index.asp.

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com

Filed Under: Leadership, Soul Winning / Witnessing

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