With few exceptions, one of the challenging tasks of the finance committee after all of the pledges are in is to trim the budget so it is within range of the income. Of course there are alternatives.
We could handle the church budget like some of our Wall Street friends. We could take what money we have, invest it in wild Ponzi schemes, and if we win, we look like geniuses. If we lose, we claim we are too important (big) to fail and ask the government to bail us out.
Or we could approach it like the government does. We could argue endlessly about a budget, promise everyone that we can balance the budget without them having to pledge anymore, and charge everything to a giant credit card that we pay the interest on by borrowing from the special fund set up to care for the poor and needy.
Or we could develop some brilliant money making schemes. One sure fire fundraiser that I’ve thought of is this. We can invent an expandable needle that any camel can pass through and offer it for sale to the rich in the community. I’ll bet a lot of them would pay big money for it.
Sometimes church budgets do say a lot about how we practice our faith.
