QUESTION
Does a building program threaten our giving to missions? That’s the reason some in our church are giving for preventing construction of a new children’s building.
ANSWER
If the need is genuine and space is a real issue, what will hurt your missions giving as well as your budgetary giving will be limiting the space needed to grow.
Many churches discover that as they trust God for the expansion or addition of building space, new members are drawn to the facility and missions giving actually increases.
Let the church know the cost of the construction, the weekly budget requirements, and your missions percentage, and tell them you are committed by their faithfulness to meet all three.
QUESTION
The church leaders want to cut our business meetings from monthly to quarterly. They say that churches that reduce the amount of stuff the congregation votes on actually get more done. A few people are objecting. Would you support this change?
ANSWER
Quarterly business meetings should be able to cover all the business the church is going to conduct over a 3-month period. A monthly financial report can be printed and made available if that is a matter of concern. And, of course, a church can call a special business meeting if an issue of major importance arises.
My advice is to give quarterly business meetings a one-year trial and decide if the schedule works well for your church. If not, go back to your previous practice. But if after a year the church is in agreement about the new schedule, keep it going.
Pat Pajak is IBSA’s associate executive director for evangelism. Send questions for Pat to Illinois Baptist@IBSA.org.