Expenses or Investments?

We're currently entering the season of budget preparation for our upcoming year. Being a compulsive goal-setter, I love this time of year even if it does force me to do a little math (I majored in music specifically to avoid math classes). Budgets help you set priorities and goals for the upcoming year.

Whether you're thinking in terms of a personal budget or a ministry budget, perspective is everything. And the most important perspective to have straight is your reason for having a budget to begin with.

Does your budget exist to track expenses or investments? Your answer to that question tells a lot about your perspective going into the budgeting process.

If you budget for expenses, you set the expectations awfully low. Expenses allow you to tread water, but never move forward. Investments expect a return.

In our ministry budget (and my personal budget), I am always on the lookout for expenses - the things that simply cost us money. I'm on the lookout for them because I want to cut them or eliminate them altogether. My stewardship over resources is far too important to set the bar low.

Our staff, programs, resources, and building are investments. We're expecting a return and want to position our financial portfolio in such a way that we're set up for long-term dividends, never short-term expenses.