1. Evaluative Questions
2. Background — Congregational economics
3. Part 1:  Study/Reflect — Your congregation's narrative spending plan
4. Part 2:  Your congregation's volunteer allotment

All too often, however, this proves to be a paper exercise with little meaning. "We talked about it and wrote it down so the work is done!" It doesn't work that way. Only when a sense of purpose is deeply embedded in a congregation's activities does it have any real life. Personnel, time and money must be allocated to the purpose for it to be real. Far too often, this work lies dormant — published in a church constitution in some way or maybe even placed each week on the masthead of the bulletin — but that is all. It fails to be a measuring stick of past, current or future decisions and activities.

Better guides for what the congregation truly cares about are the annual budget and annual reports. They detail key activities of a congregation and how much money is allocated to them.

With a little math, an observer can even calculate the quantity of volunteer hours given to these activities.

Few congregations make any connection between their sense of purpose (mission or vision statement) and their financial activities. As a result, when financial activities are reported, congregations more often report on income and financial management than on how the spent money helped the congregation be faithful to God's call. This is where narrative spending plans come in. Narrative spending is exactly what the name implies — a narration or story of the congregation's financial activity and its ministry result.

Let's listen in on a narrative spending plan workshop for congregational leaders.³ Pay the most attention to point three of the workshop (the linkage between distribution percentages [money pools] and a congregation's mission). If your reading time is limited, you might want to skip ahead to that section now. Otherwise, the workshop is presented in its entirety so that you can benefit from the context.

Continued