Before You Go - Understanding the Church’s Financial Health

Understanding financial health is essential for pastors considering a move to a new church. We discuss how to assess the church's financial stability, transparency, staff compensation, and the overall culture towards generosity. 

• Assessing overall financial stability of a church 
• Understanding and managing church debt 
• Evaluating staff compensation structures 
• Importance of financial transparency in interactions 
• Congregation's attitude towards giving and generosity 
• Key takeaways on financial discussions for potential hires 
• Open forum for listener questions and coaching 
• Closing remarks and a call to action to email for a free book copy

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:00

Well, hey there, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes, I'm the co-founder over at chemistrystaffingcom and today I'm really glad you're here, because today we are tackling and diving into a topic that sometimes can feel really awkward, but it's absolutely essential, and we're talking about transitioning from one church to another. We're talking about things that you need to do before you go, before you even accept that next role at the next church, and today we're talking about how do you understand the financial health of the church that you're considering. And we are in the middle of a series that's based on Wade Hodges' book. It's called Before you Go Questions. Every Pastor Must Ask Before Moving on to a New Church, and today we're going to talk about financial things and what you need to a new church. And today we're going to talk about financial things and what you need to ask the church. Now, money isn't everything okay, we know that, at least we say that right but it plays a significant role in the health and sustainability of any church and also the health and sustainability of your family, and what Wade emphasizes in his book is that understanding a church's financial health it's not just practical, but it's actually a critical step to ensuring that you're stepping into a role that has a really solid foundation. So here are some keys to explore as you start to talk and have a conversation about possibly going on staff at a church and how they're doing financially, and the first is just look at their overall financial stability. Ask the church about their budget, ask them about their giving trends and any reserves that they have. Here's why A financially stable church is really better positioned to support you and its staff and its ministry goals.

Speaker 0: 1:45

Does the church carry a significant debt? If so, how much is it and how is it being managed? High debt can really limit ministry opportunities and create stress for leadership. How are they doing with their staff? How's their staff compensation? Are salaries competitive? Are they sustainable? Can you continue to do this? Are they all out of whack? Make sure that the church has a clear and fair compensation structure that aligns with your needs.

Speaker 0: 2:12

Now I know that some of these you're digging in a little deeper Maybe. This is maybe more for a senior pastor role, but you're digging in a little deeper than sometimes you do. What you don't want is to be at a church for the first day or the first 90 days and all of a sudden and I've heard this story from people in ministry they get to a church in the first 90 days they find out they've got 90 days of finances left in the church and they had no idea there was any kind of financial crisis. So another thing to ask is how transparent are they? If they're withholding or it feels like they're withholding information financial information from you during the interview, that could be a red flag. Does the leadership openly share financial records with staff, with congregation? Is there transparency there? Because that transparency can a lot of times build trust and confidence. What's the attitude, congregation's attitude towards generosity, a healthy giving culture? Kenry does reflect actually spiritual maturity and a shared commitment to the church's mission. Understanding, just unpacking some of these, digging in a little bit some of these aspects will give you a little bit clearer picture of the church's financial health and how the church is doing, but how that might also impact you. Here's your bottom line for today Understanding a church's finances is about ensuring that a healthy and sustainable ministry environment exists first of all and that it's going to bleed down to the compensation that you're able to get ultimately.

Speaker 0: 3:42

But don't shy away from these conversations. During your interview, you can ask about the church's giving trends, ask about any financial challenges that they're facing and then, as you review the compensation package, make sure that the offer aligns with your financial needs and make sure that it's competitive with what churches similar churches would be paying Could be that you would, if possible, maybe meet with a member of the finance team or maybe the whole finance team and have a conversation, kind of a wider conversation. A lot of times these conversations don't happen until after you're hired. But if possible and if they're open, absolutely I would see, if they're open, to allow you to have some of those conversations before, because it's really important. And I realize, guys and gals, this is tricky Whenever you talk finances, and particularly salary, but even church finances, it can get a little sticky and people might get a little defensive.

Speaker 0: 4:38

What are you really looking for here? So if you're in this boat and you're navigating some financial conversations with a potential church, you've got some questions for me or just want to ask for some advice or need a coaching session, I'd love to hear your questions. You can email me anytime about anything. Really All of your emails are private and confidential. You can reach me at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Okay, and one final thing, if you would like a free copy of this book that we're going through it's called Before you Go Questions Every Pastor Should Ask Before Moving on to a New Church. It's written by Wade Hodges, and if you would like an absolutely free copy of this book, just send me that email at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'll send you the PDF file out right away. All right, I hope you'll join us again tomorrow. We're going to continue our series.