Budgetting for the Kingdom of God

With the economy in a state of chaos at the moment, we're all having to think carefully about money. But at this time of year, we also have to plan ahead for the church's finances. It's a task that the DCC will be tackling at it's next meeting.

I met with Diane, our treasurer, and Paul, our churchwarden, this morning. We worked through the figures and ploughed through the utilities bills that confirmed that our electricity costs have already risen by more than 35% and our gas bills by 75% in the last year. Yet our meeting was far from bleak. We had begun the day in prayer together, reading the prescription in Leviticus for sabbath rests for the land and a jubilee every fifty years. It was clear that all our resources are to be received as a gift rather than seen as potential for exploitation and maximum productivity. But the second reading from Paul's letter to Titus contained a surprise encouragement to fruitfulness and effectiveness. Here were two counter-balancing principles which we tried to apply directly to our budgetting task: to budget for enterprise but not exploitation.

After a couple of hours, some strong coffee and further prayer, we balanced the budget. It will be for the DCC to decide if and how to amend our proposals but we concluded with a heartfelt time of thanksgiving and praise. I'm looking forward to 2009!