Here's How Churches ACTUALLY Spend Their Money

[@dgh5223]

My little country church don’t tell us members how much is in church funds or how much pastor even gets paid. The pastor told us other day how we need to give more money to get funds up to a amount he thinks it needs to be. The pastor has several properties and expensive truck. The pastor has been at my church only 1 1/2 years and I’ve been there 20 years. They totally remodeled the whole church. They say that more people will go to a updated church than a old church. 😧 oh really. It shouldn’t matter how a church looks. It should matter if Gods Word is preached right and members living right.

[@prochurchtools]

Seems like I may have missed the mark a bit with how that promo got slotted in at the end there. We weren’t trying to build up to that promo as the only solution to our churches taking a look at how we allocate our budgets. There are so many ways our churches could take 1% of their current budget to start making meaningful changes to how money is allocated - without materially affecting their current needs. Because we all know, big changes take much longer to implement, and we’re all about trying to find steps churches can take now, as well as long term. So our point was simply to take that idea of 1-3% in fees that most churches are losing needlessly, as a way to easily reclaim money into the budget, that you can use as a catalyst right away to have a conversation about where that money could be better put to use in meeting the church’s mission. That then can help lead and translate into perhaps larger changes to the budget over time. In the end, a donation percentage that is easily reclaimed, provides more flexibility in how money gets spent. It looks like I just did a poor job of integrating that idea with the promo as one of many ways churches can have a conversation around their budget and make small changes now, that have major Kingdom impact when many of our churches look at this prayerfully together. So just wanted to add a bit of extra context here because I think the promo felt off as we rewatched it and from some of the comments we got 🙂 Thanks y’all for being understanding 🙏

[@michaelcanela1246]

I had to take a moment and pause the video on how clean this background looks 😎 And it matches with the outfit!? Great job!

[@markrisley4446]

Wonderful content as always! Your hard work is much appreciated. And your products and services to assist with and even come ahead on these challenges is even better.

[@prochurchtools]

Appreciate the kind words, Mark 🙏

[@coincollectingfun]

Big like 54! Amazing video! Loved the breakdown into percentages to enable seeing the big picture of where the expenses are in churches, both large and small!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

[@prochurchtools]

Thanks for watching 👊

[@danielnwoke3694]

Just an important point to note is that this is a study from 1200 churches in an entire nation. So this does not represent the vast number of churches in the USA.

[@prochurchtools]

That’s how all research surveys work. They’re representative samples. So long as the survey is proportional they’re quite accurate and useful.

[@KaYungCalebLai]

I usually just put $25 every sunday, I think that's fair for going to a service, considering going to a theater would cost less than that. Also not to mention, a lot of churches hoarding cash in their reserve, just don't feel the need to contribute to that already massive fund.

[@prochurchtools]

I'm confident the churches you give to appreciate your gift! My only thought would be your description of giving to church sounds very transactional. It's about what you get out of the service and how much that is worth relative to other entertainment options you could have pursued. Donation to charity (and church specifically) isn't treated that way ideally.

[@user-jb1tr9uw3y]

How the issue of church giving needs to be addressed at every level No wonder people are dissalusioned with church and their part in it and what they can give to it ,time talents etc Regarding finances the western church is getting richer and richer, just like the culture around us. Meanwhile there are 100s of millions of Christians in non western countries that have very little matterially or of spiritual resources to function well. If we envisioned people to give to a world changing cause for the gospel at home and abroad, what a difference that would make. In my experience I can give with real joy and enthusiasm to such causes where there is real vision to further Gods kingdom. One should do there own research on church and Christian charities and give-for where your treasure is, their your heart will be also

[@JOEGAMESLAB]

Facilities initially aren't only for personal but for both personal and public. Don't know why you ignore that..

[@djazz0]

Interesting to learn how US churches budget themselves. My church here in Sweden has 144 members and a yearly budget of around $100000. 51% of the budget is for a full time employee (pastor), and 20% for the building. 6.6% goes out of church in that mission category and around 9% is spent on activites/events. That leaves 13% on other. Giving is done using Swish and bank transfers mostly, but also cash and members’ giving through their tax (1% of their yearly salary). The giving and other income from members is budgeted to $68000. We rent out our basement to a preschool, and their rent is $33000. I wish we didn’t depend on preschool rent. Swish takes $0.2 per transaction to companies/organizations. Currency converted from SEK to USD.

[@prochurchtools]

Really appreciate all this granular info! Helpful to see an actual church's budget alongside the aggregate numbers from the video.

[@citizendc9]

1. What is the church's goal(s)? 2. Is spending 75% of the money collected on personnel and facilities really the best way to achieve that goal?

[@ianpatrick23]

Such a great look into the cost of giving

[@JavierMaciasSoG]

Wow!! This is so good, thank you for sharing it with us.

[@prochurchtools]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@NewHopeUrbandale]

Excellent breakdown. Keep equipping the saints for ministry!

[@jasonturner3103]

This was great! Thanks for sharing!!

[@johnjeremih]

I Never thought about that. Great points

[@SHZA804]

I agree with some that this video seemed like a long sales pitch/ad. Of course, there is nothing wrong with sales pitches, people just like to KNOW when we are being sold to. An introductory statement like, "Here's how churches actually spend their money and how Nucleus Giving can possibly benefit your church" would have helped. Other than that, the presentation was clean and thanks for the link to the study.

[@climatescientist]

the record shows that many of the tithes go to paying off the victims of child sex abuse, which is universally rampant. this is in lieu of sending the perpetrators off to prison where they obviously belong.

[@frankseydel9428]

I think it's a shame that a mere 11% of the church budget is spent on missions. And missions here doesn't mean the spreading of the Gospel which is the tiniest part of what the church calls mission. I lived as an evangelist in Honduras for about 4 consecutive years. I have watched groups of Christians coming in and going out almost every day at the airport. These groups most of the time don't do anything when it comes to spreading the Gospel. They help build houses, they volunteer to help in orphanages for a week or two to then disappear again on the children and they do all kinds of benevolent stuff and all of these activities are somewhat being counted as missionary outreach included in the church budget. Yet next to nothing has got anything to do with meeting with the Great Commission (or should I spell, Great ComMission) to go and preach the Gospel to every creature and making disciples of all nations. We could optimistically say that only 1 out of 11% goes to God's No. 1 purpose, His prime directive for the church. And I don't think that's acceptable. To put it this way: If one is donating, let's say, 100$, only 1$ from this goes to soul winning efforts (again, God's top priority assignment for the church) where 99$ go to everything else. Could we dare to call this a well balanced church budgeting in the eyes of the one who gave his blood and life for all the world to know the truth about him and be saved? We may not dare to ask the Lord of the Harvest about this for we may not like the answer...

[@samanthag.6251]

I totally agree. While it's good to be charitable and all that, none of those will save us. It's more important go share the good news about Jesus Christ.

[@carlosjordan1452]

Great video! Reminded me of the tones of your podcast. Any new podcast content coming soon?

[@prochurchtools]

That’s the plan! Our team is back in the office so we’re reassembling the podcast studio.

[@bethechurchdigital]

Well said!

[@lognemot1377]

The looped music is annoying

[@mackenziemorgan7054]

I’m guessing there were no unprogrammed Quakers because in a 1200 sample size, we are representative of 0. Here’s our numbers. My meeting is *very* large for the tradition: average Sunday attendance pre-pandemic around 90. Our budget is usually about $150,000/year. The only staff is the childcare worker who comes in for 2 hours on Sunday and the cleaner who comes by on Friday. Our building is paid off. So, those two biggest things haven’t been major parts of our budget. The largest things in our budget are the flat 25% apportionment we owe to our regional body (our yearly meeting) and the money we give to other nonprofits, scholarships, etc. That was running around 40% of the budget a few years ago. However, that’s about to change. We want to expand our building & deal with mold issues. We can’t all fit in the social hall for potluck, the building isn’t ADA compliant, we aren’t currently suitable to be a warm nights shelter, and the local neighborhood sees us as a walkable community center for them, so they want the expansion too. If we can get approved for a mortgage, that’ll make the building a big chunk of the annual budget.

[@prochurchtools]

Appreciate you sharing those numbers!

[@Tre9online]

Yes I agree!

[@tenpin2387]

Continue rent out flats at reduce price to church members , married couples, to enable members to save,

[@tenpin2387]

How about Not purchasing a Church but instead Church Ministers pastors put their personal monies together purchase flats

[@samanthatruong8390]

Give your money to the food bank instead of the church.

[@Lovingbeingbackinthailand]

do a story about the history about how much money has been left in wills to the church

[@royalbryant762]

Excuses my judgement on the chuch but think what christ would do if was here!

[@mackenziemorgan7054]

Dues are straight forward? What’s dues?

[@prochurchtools]

Basically, fees, penalties, stuff like that!

[@ManSublime]

@@prochurchtools Thanks for clarifying. I thought it was what a church pays their head organization. For instance, our parish pays 4% dues to the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).

[@Rose_pedals_enterprise]

But why do mega churches have million dollar manssions, that's what I am trying to get around.

[@natedog0900059]

This channel use to have some great helpful content but now it all just seems like a sneaky way to promote his own products by making you feel bad for using anything else. Not to mention that nucleus is very expensive.

[@prochurchtools]

Nathan, glad to talk about this with you. This video is 11:57 minutes long. The promo accounts for 3:23 of the video. About 28% of the overall runtime. I intentionally placed it at the end end as well to make sure the meat of the topic was up first. Most KZbin accounts use sponsorships to monetize their videos, instead, we plug our own products. I always aim to keep the promos within ~15-30% of the overall video. And about once in every five videos I omit any plugs altogether. So that's the rhythm I'm experimenting with right now. I'm open to changing this. How would you recommend we go about it? Cut promos altogether? Work with sponsors instead? Keep the promos shorter? Would love to hear from you.

[@gponak]

@@prochurchtools I also noticed you started combining content with sales efforts. I'm thankful you're open to feedback Brady. It does feel a little 'bait and switch-y', but at the same time I can appreciate your need to promote your products (I use Nucleus for video content right now). It seemed a little more forthcoming when you launched or advertised a product in a stand alone video, and kept your other videos free of promotion. There's a feeling now that the sole purpose of your content/help is to lead us to the place where we purchase your product - as opposed to genuinely caring for the church and helping her 'navigate the biggest communication shift in 500 years'. In the end I love you and what you're doing and will continue to be a Brady Shearer fan. Keep doing a great work to help us out!

[@prochurchtools]

@@gponak Thanks for taking the time to comment, Gordon. I will confess, it can sometimes feel like latitude for these kinds of things is almost non-existent. Like the line is razor thin between a helpful promo and manipulation. So when I miss the mark on stuff like that, it stings. Sadly, KZbin doesn’t allow for reuploads either so adding context in a pinned comment is about as good as it gets. Grateful for your thoughts and will certainly jot them down.

[@natedog0900059]

@@prochurchtools Hey, thanks for responding. Just to be clear I love what you are doing and all of the great videos you have. I personally have just started watching less because it felt as if the point of the videos were not to help churches as much as sell to them your product. I don't run a youtube channel but I'm sure it is very hard to find a balance and you will never make everyone happy. I don't mind you plugging your stuff as long as the video doesn't seem like it was just a 12 minute commercial to lead into the plug. That probably wasn't your point at all but that is how I took it. Anyways, keep up the good work. I know you have helped many churches, including my small one. God bless!

[@gponak]

@@prochurchtools you're listening to your viewers, and that's huge 👍🏼👍🏼

[@sceneryman6439]

Your information does not in any way include our Church. You need to clarify this because all churches are not from the study you are talking about. No one get's a salary at our Church. Every penny is needed and used appropriately. Please clarify because every Church is not the same.

[@prochurchtools]

A study like this almost certainly includes a church like yours. But because your budget is less common, the aggregate data reflects that.

[@thechristianmale129]

The fact that churches care so little for the poor is a major reason why I don't do church anymore. I'm looking for a church that reflects what Jesus cared about...the poor. They are very hard to find.

[@conner_productions]

Irresponsibly. That’s the short easier answer.

[@ryankmoon]

Your gotcha revelation about facilities costing so much of ministry budget ignores the fact that almost all ministry is staged at that facility. But I understand you need to say that to pander to young people who are completely ignorant of business practices that govern actual accomplishments besides fake accomplishments like likes and comments. would love to engage in a discussion but I'm guessing this talk was better as a monologue without challenge.

[@prochurchtools]

If you want to engage in a civil back-and-forth, I'd recommend not insulting a particular group in your opening paragraph.

[@ryankmoon]

@@prochurchtools true story, but you know what you did. nice dodge of the question though. way to obfuscate.

[@prochurchtools]

@@ryankmoon More than glad to have a conversation with anyone that is willing to be civil. Look through any of my KZbin videos and their comment sections. I’m very active. But when you come in guns blazing and putting folks down like that, you’ve lost that privilege. Same way I wouldn’t have a conversation with a person in real life that came up to me and started insulting me or a certain group of people. It’s just not tolerable behaviour. Nor is it conducive to an open discussion about a complex topic - because you’ve already resorted to name-calling.

[@ryankmoon]

@@prochurchtools I get that you will not discuss the facilities comment with me. . Not sure where you see name calling. this is a topic deserving nuanced discussion. I still believe your simplified statement implies that facilities expenditure is wasteful. And younger viewers are going to bite into that and infer impropriety. And I think you know that. I think you used that as guns blazing to drum viewership and stimulate debate. I also think you’re irresponsibly swaying less informed viewers under the guise of “informing” them. Many Non profit facilities are used to feed the homeless. Plan mission trips. Create engaging gospel content for social media. Counsel hurting families. To purchase your ministry subscriptions that you are selling in this video. If you want to specifically name wasteful 501c3’s please cite specific examples rather than painting them all with one brush.

[@AshleyWilbanks]

Okay, so that was great, until the sell at the end... I thought you were going somewhere legit and you almost had me... Then comes the ultimate ad promo... smh...

[@prochurchtools]

I’m interested to hear more. When I was writing, it felt like a normal plug for one of our products. Is your issue the promotion in general? Or the wording?

[@AshleyWilbanks]

@@prochurchtools I guess my issue was I didn't know you sold products. I was here for the information, and then felt like I was suckered in for a sell... My mistake for not realizing you sold something.

[@prochurchtools]

Many KZbin channels work with sponsors to keep them running, our approach has always been to build our own products. So we have a software platform called Nucleus - www.nucleus.church/. The first eight minutes of this video or so don't mention Nucleus at all and that information is hopefully useful for you separate from any promo.

[@AshleyWilbanks]

@@prochurchtools Totally understand. I just didn't realize what this channel was about from the beginning I guess. I watched the GenZ video and then saw this and watched, and was sort of caught off guard by the promo.

[@prochurchtools]

@@AshleyWilbanks Ah, well I appreciate you sharing that. Sorry to hear it wasn’t the best experience for you 🙏

[@bonafidemike]

This information makes so sad. Only 10% of what's received is spent outside of the church itself? We can definitely do better than this. :(

[@Alarcahu]

It's not the whole picture of Christian giving though!

[@bonafidemike]

@@Alarcahu Of course there's more to it than this study, and of course it doesn't represent Christian giving outside of the church. But looking at data like this, and seeing that a significant number of churches spend ~75% of the gifts they receive on the facilities and staff is sad. Just seems like it's a growing problem, churches spending more money inwardly than outwardly. Buying a $30,000 LED wall instead of pouring that money into connecting with and helping their community, etc.

[@Alarcahu]

@@bonafidemikeDepends on the church. Ours uses the facilities for outreach and likewise the staff. As well as discipleship.

[@bonafidemike]

@@Alarcahu I know it depends on the church, haha. I'm not arguing that every church spends their money poorly. It's awesome that churches like yours spend more on outreach, or use their facilities and staff for outreach and discipleship. I just wish their were more that do the same. There's a growing problem in larger churches where gifts received are being spent on making sure they've got the best screens and the best lights and the best sound, turning the worship experience into a performance concert, and tying up gifts from being used to benefit and connect with the community in which the church resides. I can't help but wonder what a single mom struggling to feed her kids would think attending a church and seeing an LED wall that cost enough to feed her entire family for a few years. I just think that we can do better.

[@prochurchtools]

It does depend on the church, but the point of a nationally representative study is to show that in the aggregate, this is how the American Church as a whole is spending their 1.25 billion dollars in yearly donations. Exceptions exist, but they're so few and far between that they don't move the needle on the overall numbers.

[@royalbryant762]

It sickens how churches spend money! I cant believe that most church building are not pay off ? And minster and asistance infemmenet Girls homosexual

[@Agent.Wadsworth]

How churches spend YOUR tax free money.