Financial Support Church Plant Budget Narrative September 2004 – August 2005 [01/28/2003] * You may click here for the FY’04-05 Church Plant Budget. * Please email us if you have any questions about the church plant budget. BUDGET NARRATIVE At first glance, you may find the FY’04-05 Budget of $160K a rather high figure for a “start-up” church. But when you consider the salaries and benefits of three (3) full-time staff (see my postings on “Strategic Planning”), then it may not seem too unreasonable. In fact, salaries and benefits alone account for $130K (or 80.9%) of the total budget! The principles I employed in determining the salary levels of the staff are: (1) it should be sufficient to cover general living expenses, (2) it should be somewhat comparable to his/her current income level. For the case of Qiu Jie (candidate for Pastoral Intern), I stayed with his current income level ($22.8K). As for the Activity Coordinator position (of which I have an unnamed candidate), the proposed salary ($40K) is close but does NOT match up to his/her income level. In other words, he/she would have to take a pay-cut. Given the high demand of the job (plus additional roles of Office Manager, Volunteers Coordinator etc.), the proposed salary of $40K seemed justified. Medical benefits are also budgeted based on their individual circumstances. Unfortunately, the biggest chunk of expenditure comes from my own salary, $45K to be exact. I would have wanted to lower the figure if not because of our current situation as a SITCOM (Single-Income, Two Children, Oppressing Mortgage). [Minusing tithing and taxes, we would have a bit more than $30K for a family of four.] Our medical benefits are also the most expensive because of our two kids. Such is the reality of health care in America today. Monthly rentals to Emmanuel Chapel consist of 7.5% of the total budget, or $12K for the year. Other expenditures include Mission Giving (estimated as 10% of the Launch Team and Staff’s giving), Sunday Worship Services, Administrative Expenses and Others, totaling $15K or 11.6%. MEETING THE FY’04-05 BUDGET To make the fundraising efforts more manageable and achievable, the fundraising efforts are broken down into two time periods: (1) prior to September 2004, called “YEAR 0” and (2) from September 2004 to August 2005, designated as “YEAR 1”. Thus we are essentially using 1.5 years’ time to raise 1 year’s budget. The fundraising schedule and targets are as follow: YEAR 0 (Target: $50K) 1. Tithe and Offering from Launch Team ($20K) 2. Financial Support from Network Churches ($10K) 3. Love Gifts from Other Christian Friends ($20K) YEAR 1 (Target: $110K) 1. Tithe and Offering from Staff ($10K) 2. Tithe and Offering from Launch Team ($50K) 3. Financial Support from Network Churches ($20K) 4. Love Gifts from Other Christian Friends ($20K) 5. Tithe and Offering from New Church Members ($10K) No matter how you look at it, these are not easy targets to achieve. I urge you therefore to: 1. Pray earnestly for the timely collection of necessary funding, so that we can focus on the work of the kingdom; 2. Prayerfully consider giving generously and consistently to the work (we are already greatly encouraged by those who have contributed sacrificially); 3. Share the project with your churches and Christian friends to see if they would like to become partners in ministry. Once again, our website is: “alum.mit.edu/www/kin”. Let’s turn to the Lord to trust in His faithful providence! [Home]