budget

Finally, after years of encouragement by many of our church leaders, we have arrived at changing our entire budget system in the Church of the Nazarene to current income base.

Having had time to study and analyze the new plan, we will go ahead with the new plan using 13.5% as the total Fair Share Fund amount for all 2010/2011 funds. Using the ASD Budget Calculator spreadsheet that has been developed for our district, this will be a much easier transition. We will be unable to show the Fair Share Fund breakdown until we have finished the District Finance Committee meeting on April 10, with the assumption that the District Assembly vote will be favorable.

The new budget base is basically money raised for all purposes minus WEF offerings and 10% giving offerings. The WEF is 5.5% of the new budget base. There are some exclusions but they are, for the most part, minor. A full explanation is available at www.fundingthemission.org/. We encourage you to go there and spend time analyzing all information available to you. On this website under "Track Giving/Reporting Application" there is a pick for going to a calculator that will do the calculations for you. Simply insert your total income and 10% giving and it will calculate your WEF.

Since the WEF is a part of the deduction for arriving at the budget base, you cannot simply assume that 5.5% of the total raised will be your WEF. If you do this, you will overpay WEF. If you choose to do a manual calculation, the attached PDF file titled "Easy Does It" thoroughly explains it. The easiest is the Factor method.

Since the new system removes deductions for capital improvements, debt payments, housing allowance and health insurance, some of you will experience increases in your obligations. The following is an excerpt from the website:

Is there a phase-in accommodation for churches whose giving goals will increase?

Yes. The plan will offer a phase-in opportunity to any church that would experience a 25% or more increase based on the 2009 Annual Pastor's Report. Across the USA, about 75 of 100 Nazarene churches will notice a decrease in their total giving goals. Of the remaining 25 percent, many will experience only small increases. The churches that will experience larger increases tend to have unusual situations, such as extremely large debt.

Please begin using the new calculations of 13.5% for the District Fair Share and 5.5% for WEF for all budgets for 2010/2011 statistical year. If you have any questions, please contact Jimmy Horton at 256-245-3594 or jlhorton@pcairlink.com.

Training Opportunities to Understand the New System

VIEW THE TRAINING VIDEOS from the March 13, 2010 Training Session (to view the videos right click on the underlined video links below and save the link to your hard drive - then click to view. If your computer is able, you may be able to click on the link and be directed to the video automatically)
- Budget Seminar - Team Day - Mr. Jimmy Horton - 10 mb. wmv file
- Budgets - Mr. Jimmy Horton - 18.5 mb. wmv file
  
  Budgets Presentation Handout - Word Format
- Pastor's Reports - Dr. Dave Shirer - 9.5 mb. wmv file

Links