New Hope New Year's Resolution

I met on Friday with Vernon Buchanan, our Church Treasurer and Bill Batchelor, our Church Council Chairman. We looked at the proposed budget for 2010, which will be presented to the Church Council on December 17. The Church Council will finalize the budget and present it to the Church for a vote to adopt it on January 20, 2010.

As Vernon and Bill and I discussed plans and budget needs for next year, I asked Vernon if he, as Church Treasurer, had noticed any increase in giving during or since the three Sundays I preached on giving. I expected to get the answer he gave me. “No. There was no increase in giving.”

I asked Vernon, our Treasurer, what we could expect in income this year as compared to last year. He said, “Last year our giving exceeded our budget by more than $2,000. This year it looks like our giving is going to fall $25,000 short of our budget.” That $25,000 which did not come in through the offering plates came out of our savings.

Our budget is a way of setting our goals for 2010. Where we spend our money is simply a reflection of the things we intend to accomplish as a church. We will be emphasizing Sunday School, Small Groups, Children’s Ministry, and Youth Ministry. If we make it our goal to serve more people in the name of Jesus than we did in 2009, we will set higher spending goals. To put it another way, the ministry of New Hope Baptist Church will cost more in 2010 than it did in 2009.

I am going to recommend to the Church Council that, once we vote to adopt our budget on January 20, we ask each of our members to pledge an amount they will give to support the 2010 Church Budget. When we set spending goals we must give the money to meet those goals.

How about this for a New Hope New Year’s Resolution? With the help of God we will increase our giving to meet our ministry goals for 2010.