At What Cost?

When we’re in crisis mode, it can be easy to let our priorities go off course. Some time ago, we started to talk about the fact that too much of our parish income was coming from rentals and fundraising, and not enough from free-will offering. I was astounded to hear how many people’s first reaction to the problem of over-reliance on fundraising was to plan another fundraiser! In the face of a crisis, we often resort to knee-jerk reactions, often without reflecting on whether those reactions will help the problem, or only make it worse.

In 2018, the Diocesan Commission on Parish Renewal and Sustainability in the Eastern diocese published a report entitled ‘Surviving or Thriving’. One of that document’s recommendations was that a sustainable, single-point parish should be allocating 10% of its budget to Mission, which is an excellent starting point. But that recommendation is part of a broader budget that allocates 31% of spending to buildings and assessment, and 46% to clergy and other staff.

Watch what happens when parishes face a financial crisis...

This post originally appeared in the February 2021 issue of Anglican Life.

Click here to read the whole article.