S3E4: Financial Stress

Well, hey there, pastor and leaders. We're excited to be able to jump into our next session here. And it's all about financial stress. And I don't know, ⁓ but my feeling is that most of us kind of understand this topic and feel ⁓ this tension, not only in our personal lives, but perhaps even in our ministry lives as well. And so today what I want to dive into is we're gonna look at what I think is a challenge that many pastors face. And sometimes the financial stress ⁓ related to church life comes from limited compensation. It could come from maybe some church budget constraints, or even just some personal finance ⁓ pressures that you may be facing. And these challenges kind of all trickle down if we're going to be honest with ourselves and we think about ministry, because it comes down to these challenges where we have to learn to balance ministry commitments. ⁓ especially ⁓ with the need for financial stability. So when we're thinking about ministry, there needs to be some financial stability, but there also needs to be some ministry commitments, the things that we do. Some of us may also face some challenges where we feel hesitant to even address financial struggles with the church leadership, perhaps with your team, maybe with your board or your elders or trustees, whatever that model looks like for you. But sometimes the challenge is that we don't know how to adequately address it with them. And then another challenge I think sometimes we have when it comes to the financial side of things could be just managing the church finances responsibly when you're also dealing with limited resources. So how do you how do you move the needle on things when you have limited resources? And so we're gonna be talking about these things. And I know once we kind of do our breakout groups, you're gonna be able to kind of dive in a little bit more because I know there's a lot of wisdom, ⁓ especially for some of us who kind of walk through some very difficult season. But I want to kind of start everything with this very simple reminder is that we've been called to do this. We've been called to be ministers, right? We've been called to be pastors and leaders in this context. And also with that call, we've also been called to steward what the Lord has given us and what he's been bringing in and how he's been faithfully providing. So those are all good things. That's the good bucket. And what I want to do today is I want to dive into a few things That I think are going to help us. Number one, we need to recognize some of those challenges. And one of the challenges, again, I think is seeing that there's a balancing knack that happens between ministry and the financial needs. Meaning there's obviously ministry that you're doing as a leader, but then there's a cost associated with it. So if you're going to do outreach, you're going to do some of these things, there's going to be a cost associated with it. Matthew 633 says. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And in fact, we look at Philippians 4, we see ⁓ in verses 11 through 13 that Paul even demonstrates a contentment in all circumstances, right? So we we know these things as leaders, but when it comes to our own ministry life and what we're doing, we often find that there is a tension and balancing. The ministry of what we're doing and what God's called us to do and the financial needs and what's kind of coming in the door. But I want to remind us again that God has called us to this. And if he's calling us to this, then he's going to provide in a way that is fit for what he's calling us to do. And one of the things I want to kind of pose to us is simply this. And I ask this self in my I ask this question of myself a lot as well. But how can I, how can we pursue both faithfulness and ministry? And wise financial planning. Both are needed, right? We can't compromise one or the other. They both go hand in hand. Yes, it takes money or resources to do things, to be able to reach people. And so there's always going to be that healthy tension of trying to figure out how you pursue both a faithfulness in ministry of what God's called you to do, and then being wise. With the financial planning without compromising either one, without overspending or underdoing what God has called you to do. Another tension I think that we we live with in this area is dealing with finances together. And I think sometimes as ⁓ one of the the greatest things that I've enjoyed as a as a lead pastor has been day one. Our very first hire for the church was our bookkeeper. Now, the bookkeeper doesn't Not in charge of the finances per se, but actually handles the books and all that. And so I've kind of gotten my hands out of the nitty-gritty, and it's allowed me to kind of focus on the finances in as a larger picture. And I like being there. I like kind of seeing the bigger picture, if you will. But I also like doing that with other people, other wise people who can speak into what we're doing and what God's doing. It says in Proverbs 15, 22, most of you know this. But it says plans fail for the lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. And so I look to this group, I look to our group of trustees in our context who help steward the finances of the church. I am a non-voting member of that trustee board, but I'm on the board. And what I love about that is that you know we can speak openly, we can kind of beat things up. And at the end of the day, it's what God's calling us to do. And sometimes the finances are there and sometimes they aren't. But as a group, we get to work through that together. And so Dealing with finances together can be a good thing. And I would encourage you that if you're kind of isolated in that world, I would encourage you to just open it up, be transparent with those trusted leaders, and foster that culture where financial discussions are healthy and biblical. Those are good things. Sometimes there's not enough money to do the outreach event that children's ministry wanted to do. Oftentimes there's not a lot of money to do what production wants. We all know that costs a lot of money, right? And so it's, but it's okay to have those conversations. Because it puts us all on the same page. And so if you've been holding that tight, I think a good step could be bringing some trusted advisors from your staff, elders, or whatever your context looks like to bring another voice into that to help really God use that team to help you plan to succeed where He's calling you to succeed. Another thing I want to talk through is, you know, I know we are church people, but I think sometimes we forget that there is a faith factor, right? And I'm saying this to myself that sometimes I even forget like there's a faith factor in what we do. And from coming down to planting a church and parachuting in, I know we've all got our stories. That obviously took an amount of faith. But even now, as we've been established, we're going on year 10 now, there's still faith and trusting the Lord for the day to day, the month to month, and the year to year. It says in Luke chapter 16. 10 ver ⁓ verses 10 and 11 it says whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Second Corinthians 9, 6 and 8 remind us God's provision, reminds us about God's provision when we give generously and manage resources faithfully. And so there is this emphasis for you and I as church leaders to never forget that there is a faith in us. We got to have that day one faith, like that day one faith when you open the doors, if you plan it, and you're like, the Lord's gonna bring someone, right? We got to have that day one faith that the Lord is still going to provide what He wants to provide for. And that we need to be a generous church with our time and our treasure and our talents. And we need to demonstrate that because I believe that God is going to bless that. And on the application side, when you kind of think about, you know, let's not forget about the faith factor, the question I have is how can we demonstrate a complete trust and faith-filled decision making matrix? What does that look like for you? Now, I'm not saying go out there this week and tell your church, hey, we're gonna be, we're gonna open a building in six months. I mean, that needs to be that's between you and the Lord. I think six months isn't enough time, especially if you're starting at square one, it's not gonna be enough time. But where's the faith and is there an element of faith? I think that's the greater question. And I think as a church, we get to model this in a wonderful way. We get to model generosity, we get to model good stewardship, even in times of scarcity. But we also get the man model incredible faith. And so I want encourage you to have and to keep that incredible faith that God has given you, even in the area of finances. The next thing I want to remind us about is to remember that there's always encouragement and hope. I know we talk a lot about the gospel, right? And and we probably have no issues sharing the greatest hope, Christ, with others. But what about us? Are we reminded of God's faithfulness even throughout all of Scripture? That there is encouragement and hope for God's people. And when we think about this, it reminds me that you know, oftentimes I can I can kind of get locked into a situation and get into the details, and I can feel a little desperate, hopeless, lack of encouragement. I can feel all those things. I think for some of us, we might feel that tension. And so one of the things I found that's helped for me is that it's good to have people around me in my life, mentors. Advisors, accountability people, maybe even in the financial world, who can jump in and say, Man, how's your heart doing, Billy? How's your how's things going? And ask me those kinds of questions because they're going to provide encouragement and hope. And if you don't have those people in your life, I would encourage you to bring those people in your life who are going to champion what God is doing in your life. If God gave us all the resources that we could ever need and we never had to worry, then we would probably rely less on him. And I know for me in my context, God has always provided. We've never gone one Sunday without coffee or one Sunday without donuts. There's been things we've had to say no to because it wasn't the right season. But again, having those people around you to provide that sort of encouragement and hope, I think, is a great thing. And then finally, I want to share this. And I know this is going to sound kind of funny, but remember these three words: enjoy the journey. Enjoy the journey. I think sometimes we get locked in as pastors and we get so fixated on what we're doing that sometimes we forget to even enjoy it. I mean, do you truly enjoy what God's called you to do? I hope that you do. I hope there's still this burning in your heart when you get up each morning knowing what you've been called to do. And so We should enjoy the journey. Sure, there's gonna be some potholes along the way, there's gonna be some difficulties, but we should enjoy that journey. Remind, and we're reminded in Philippians 4:19, and he says, My God will meet all of your needs. And it's a reminder that on this journey that God has you on, yeah, there's gonna be some resource limitations, there's gonna be some financial limitations, there's gonna be some hiccups and maybe changes of venues. Some some people leave the church, other people come there. You're gonna you're gonna go. Through a lot of different seasons and even difficulties. But the point is to enjoy the journey. God is going to meet the needs that your church has. Maybe not the wants, but the needs. And what I like to think of here is that you know God really honors faith-filled obedience. And I am incredibly proud of many of you. I know your stories, but I'm so proud of men and women who have just stepped out in boldness. Faith-filled obedience. And I know God honors that. And I think about provision, even for your context or even mine, that oftentimes in the church world, provision often comes through these relationships and these partnerships and and the building of community. But ultimately the provision, if we want to be honest, comes from the Lord. The Lord is the only one that we need to be worried about and being obedient to. And so when you think about you stewarding this moment well and stewarding the season that God's called you in to enjoy the journey. Because this stewardship and how you handle the journey right now is going to paint and build going to build a foundation and paint a picture of future sustainability that your team is going to see, that your staff is going to see, your family and other people in the church. And so I would encourage you when we walk out there, even if we're going through financial storms to enjoy the journey. And so a couple things as we get ready to close out, I want to remind you of and kind of some bigger picture things and we'll get you off to groups to kind of discuss this a little bit more. But when we think about the gospel, and I think sometimes we can get so wrapped up in Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets or spreadsheets in general, anything that's adding up all those numbers, you're like, well, the numbers aren't adding up. We can get kind of, you know, upset and just kind of like, well, Lord, what are you doing? Well, let me just let me throw this out there and because I was reminded of this. But the gospel is recession proof. Isn't that amazing? Like it doesn't matter how the economy is doing. It doesn't know it doesn't matter how your retirement is doing if you even have a retirement plan. But the gospel is recession proof. So matter what happens in the next month, next year, or next five years in your ministry, the gospel's going to go forward. Why? Because that's God's will. And it's going to go forward until He says, Hey, we're done, right? The second thing I want to share is that. When it comes in terms of vision of what God has given you, it's easy for us to kind of move the needle on the vision, depending on how maybe people are supporting the church. And I want to encourage you with this is that the Holy Spirit will always dictate the vision of where you're going with the church. That's going to come from the Holy Spirit. It's never going to come from your biggest giver. I know when we were launching a church, we had an opportunity to take on a good chunk of money. It was $60,000. And that's a lot of money if you're a church planner. And but there were some strings attached. I'm not going to get into all the details, but it was minor doctrine related. And I was like, well, I can't, I can't agree to all of these minor doctrine things. And so I wasn't going to be beholden to. What the strings were to get the money. And I would say, even for us as pastors and leaders, that the Holy Spirit dictates the vision and the direction and the speed at which your church is growing and what you're doing in the ministry that you're doing. Your biggest givers and what's coming in on you know on the on the tithes and offerings, that's all great, but that doesn't dictate what we do. You're not going to stop doing what you're doing if the money stops coming in. No, because I know you're wired to reach people. And whether that's full-time by vocal or by vocational, it doesn't really matter. We need to understand that that the spirit is doing a work in us. And that spirit will give us fresh vision and direction. And that's not going to come from a giver. And then finally, the last thing I want to share is that while we can be short on resource, just remember you're doing what God has called you to do. Again, that's part of that enjoy the journey kind of flavor, if you will, attitude. We can be short on resources. We're always gonna be short on resources, right? ⁓ we're always gonna have some sort of tension. And in fact, the bigger that you get as a church, the more resources that you need. And not only that, but if you kind of go through all the studies, you can see from small church and medium sized church to bigger, big sized churches that the bigger that you get, the more prone to debt you can take on as well. And so you can be short on resources, and that's okay to be short on resources. But remember, you're doing what God has called you to do. And to me, we can look throughout scripture and be reminded that we don't need much. The only thing that we need is a faithful obedience to what God has called us to do. So while yes, there are some financial stressors, if you will, in the in the life of people who do ministry, we also have to realize we got enjoy the journey. This is all part of the faith building that God is doing in us. And if we can just work through that and see God move, we're going to see some amazing things. So know that I'm praying for you. Know that I believe that God is working through you in this season. And I'm going to be encouraging you to discuss this more in your breakout group.