I voted Not-at-all because we have actually seen a lot of growth numerically and financially this year. This is extremely rare and most of my friends in ministry have had to make drastic cuts.
We’ve had people who have lost jobs, people called to ministry, etc. Giving is down and we are looking at major budget cuts for 2011. We’re headed for a bare-bones budget which means I’ll be doing more “self-funding” of children & youth ministries in the coming year.
As a new launch, we were just on the brink of making it when the economy took its downturn. We’ve weathered the storm and have stabilized but we’ve lost our momentum and need to regain it without the financial resources we had when we started. Tough situation but God is able!
We actually haven’t seen a point where our financial giving has deterred. Actually, if anything, it has risen. This was encouraging as we know a lot of people who are hurting but are still being faithful to give.
It also reminds us that this is God’s church, not ours!
Our church had to ask the staff to stop accepting a salary, and we all now have outside jobs to support our families. This has cut the time available for study, visitation, lesson prep (building the cool stuff), and recruiting. Also, KidsMin costs… As peoples incomes go down, so does their tithes, and extra ministry support goes too, but much more quickly.
Our entire staff took a pay cut and our budgets wiped out almost entirely. I am self-funding my ministry and cutting back to bare bones. I don’t mind the challenge, but it is truly hard to see awesome trainings and seminars that I would like to attend but can’t even dream of attending. I wish the “big ones” would somehow scale back so us small fries could once again get some much needed training and encouragement.
Thank you all so much for voting and sharing your stories. Many of you are facing tough circumstances. I pray for God to supply for you and your ministries.
I voted Not-at-all because we have actually seen a lot of growth numerically and financially this year. This is extremely rare and most of my friends in ministry have had to make drastic cuts.
We’ve had people who have lost jobs, people called to ministry, etc. Giving is down and we are looking at major budget cuts for 2011. We’re headed for a bare-bones budget which means I’ll be doing more “self-funding” of children & youth ministries in the coming year.
As a new launch, we were just on the brink of making it when the economy took its downturn. We’ve weathered the storm and have stabilized but we’ve lost our momentum and need to regain it without the financial resources we had when we started. Tough situation but God is able!
We actually haven’t seen a point where our financial giving has deterred. Actually, if anything, it has risen. This was encouraging as we know a lot of people who are hurting but are still being faithful to give.
It also reminds us that this is God’s church, not ours!
Our church had to ask the staff to stop accepting a salary, and we all now have outside jobs to support our families. This has cut the time available for study, visitation, lesson prep (building the cool stuff), and recruiting. Also, KidsMin costs… As peoples incomes go down, so does their tithes, and extra ministry support goes too, but much more quickly.
Our entire staff took a pay cut and our budgets wiped out almost entirely. I am self-funding my ministry and cutting back to bare bones. I don’t mind the challenge, but it is truly hard to see awesome trainings and seminars that I would like to attend but can’t even dream of attending. I wish the “big ones” would somehow scale back so us small fries could once again get some much needed training and encouragement.
Thank you all so much for voting and sharing your stories. Many of you are facing tough circumstances. I pray for God to supply for you and your ministries.