Tips for church leaders who are crunching the numbers

Tips for church leaders who are crunching the numbers

Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, called it “a war of sorts” as the nation and its churches navigate through the current COVID-19 issue.

“We’ve always had the need for prayer, but even more so in these days of challenge,” he said in greeting participants in a video seminar on April 30 titled “Financial Issues in Changing Times” featuring Greg Love, director of retirement solutions for GuideStone Financial Services.

‘Unprecedented faith’

“Unprecedented times require unprecedented faith,” Love said. “Though many are struggling we trust in the power of God. A frequent phrase used in Scripture is ‘it came to pass,’ and this pandemic will come to pass too.”

Financially, Love suggested churches should implement three important strategies:

  1. Aggressively manage costs. “Churches must focus on essentials at this time,” he said. “What has to be done now? Can we renegotiate with some vendors or contractors and do what we need to do later? Perhaps churches should revise their 2020 budgets and call them the ‘corona budget’ representing the short-term.”
  2. Communicate needs and trust God to motivate giving. “We also should let [the congregation] know how we’re managing budgets and that we’re being good managers,” he said.
  3. Make giving easy. “If [members] can mail offerings, let them know this is so,” he said. “If you have an online system, let them know this.”

Love also addressed staffing and retirement considerations.

“These decisions are difficult and tough,” he said. “We’ve heard from struggling congregations, and we know leaders are facing many of these kinds of hard decisions.”

Love said many churches are maintaining the “status quo” by retaining staff at full salary, but others have had to reduce pay and benefits for either exempt or nonexempt employees.

“Churches should consult legal counsel on this matter,” he said.

Lee Wright, coordinator of church compensation services for the SBOM, said he has fielded questions about church employees, including day-care workers and their eligibility for unemployment compensation.

“Ordinarily the answer is ‘no,’ according to Alabama law,” he said. “However, church employees laid off are eligible to receive unemployment compensation for this emergency. As an alternative, some churches have used the new federal PPP loan program to fund salaries.”

Love said another option is for churches to implement leave of absence or furlough policies for staff.

“Lay-offs or terminations are the least desirable option, and we certainly don’t recommend this,” Love said. “It’s an option that should be last in our thoughts.”

When it comes to managing retirement funds, Love said ministers are anxious about market volatility but “permanent decisions shouldn’t be based on temporary circumstances. … This is not a time to be unwise.”

‘Reevaluate risks’

Love suggested Southern Baptist staffers should “reevaluate risks” by looking at their personal spending, especially recurring costs such as cable or streaming services, paying off debt and working on their emergency funds of six months of income.

And it’s a good time to increase retirement contributions through employer-sponsored programs, Love said.

Further information is available at alsbom.org/ministries/church-compensation and at tabonline.org/guidestone-resources. Wright can be reached at 334-549-1383.