Like anything else in life, there are costs to doing ministry. People costs, time costs and good, old-fashioned financial costs. I’ve talked before about my feeling that “you get what you pay for” is a far superior rule to live by than “cheaper is better.” Costs – including the costs of worship services – are part of the reality of making things happen.
Oftentimes church leaders these days come out of the business world, rather than seminary (that was true of me, to a certain extent). There are some real benefits. A church is an organization, and has structures (including financial structures) that need to function well for it to be effective. You don’t usually learn budgeting and organizational leadership skills in seminary.
However, the desire to reduce costs to “maximize profits” is sometimes so ingrained in these leaders that they can’t help thinking or functioning in this way. They are relentless about cutting costs, so that they can do…something?
Ask yourself if this makes sense:
“We need to cut costs.” Budgets are slashed, reducing ministry effectiveness.
“We’ve saved money.” To do…?
“Now we have more money to increase ministry effectiveness!” Which leads back to #1 in an endless circle – except for the wear and tear on the ministries (and the people) involved…
The goal of a church is not to turn a short-term profit. The goal is to impact people’s lives. Steward cash well, but remember, money is a tool to get you where you want to go – not an end in itself. More on costs tomorrow…
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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