You have projected an income decline of about 10 percent for next year. Why don't you step out on faith and budget for an increase of 10 percent instead?
Your question really asks how we project income, and why we project it as we do.
First, let me state that our projection of income, whether up or down, is always 100 percent in an attitude of faith.
Some think that unless you plan to spend more money than you will probably take in, you are not stepping out on faith.
To the contrary, we have faith that God provides every single penny of our income, not faith that he would provide money to pay for a plan to overspend.
Whatever we get is from God's grace through his people as freewill offerings and gifts. Except for the products PTM sells, our income is through donations, and therefore, the projection of any donations requires faith.
Having said this, let me describe how we project income. First, we look at past income trends and plot them on a graph. Then, we project a hypothetical line into the future that tends to fall within the general trend.
Next, we consider other factors such as the economy, church attendance and other subjective factors that are hard to weight with precision.
Taking into consideration all the data we can collect, we then develop a range of expected income. Finally, we discuss the range among ourselves and pick a target within the range we feel we can with reasonable certainty expect to achieve.
After the projection process is complete, we begin the budgeting process.
The budgeting process, which I have explained here before, is basically making sure expenses will not exceed income (at least not by much and not without some plan to pay for them if they do).
It is nothing short of slow suicide to every year spend more than you take in, so we take great pains to cut expenses to match income, no matter how painful this might be.
The highest priority, and last items cut, are ministerial and church expenses. But, since yearly income is only about one quarter what it used to be, significant cuts had to be made over the years in all areas, including ministry and church expenses.
Thanks to everyone who has helped us create a more stable financial floor for the church and its mission. Your generosity is appreciated.
Jan. 27, 1998, WN, page 29
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