Could you explain a bit about narrative budgets CH?  It is a new term to me and I'm finding myself imagining a story list ranked accoding to the perceived moral value of each story!   Does the Goldilocks rank higher or lower than the Little Red Hen...

No, and I've never found it helpful.

Yes - and like DKS, I don't think I've ever found it helpful. My eyes tend to glaze over during that part of the AGM.

As I understand it, a narrative budget is supposed to show the financial costs of each program or department. 

The secretary's salary is xxxx dollars a year.  She spends 5% of her time for Sunday School support; 15% on outreach; 30% on worship (bulletin prep, etc); 25% on finance, etc. 

The part time minister's salary is yyyy$ a year.  He spends 90% of his time in Pastor al care.

The Sunday School meets once a week.  What percentage of heat, lights, water & sewerage expenses is allocated to Sunday School?   What percentage to Worship?  or other use (weddings, funerals, concerts)?  

Try to determine as well hour many volunteer hours goes into each program.

Balance expenses (and time allocations) against revenue (if any) they bring in. 

Try to determine costs vs benefits -- remembering always the purpose or mission of the congregation. 

I find it a lot of work, complicated, and of limited usefulness. 

It raises a lot of questions in my mind. 

The building has to be heated whether a particular room is used or not - so how do you allocate how much extra heat it takes to have the legal advice clinic use two rooms once a week?

Are all programs supposed to be self supporting or profitable?  Do you really expect to run a quality VBS program on donations and the children's offerings?

A narrative budget is simply a budget that is shared with a story.

Seeler, the information you are providing tries to show that there are items other than $$ which are resources for the church, such as volunteer hours.

In general, the narrative tries to lift the $$ off the charts and into a story of where the church is going, what are these dollars trying to do, how they may place the groundwork for new projects or may sustain existing.

Basically, they help you get into the mind of those who know why they chose to put money into something they may never have before...see the dreams those monies are funding.

Done well, they actually help the congregation see the dreams, plans and requirements.

Pinga, I bow to your superior knowledge of a narrative budget.  I was always a bit puzzled about how I understood it when it was explained at a Board meeting.  Whether the person presenting the idea had poor communication skills (or a poor grasp on it himself) or the fault was in my comprehension that day, I didn't grasp its purpose. 

Volunteer hours, dollars spent, planning and carrying out activities do need to be understood and valued. 

I just couldn't understand why in my church, as I understood it, they were putting so much effort into breaking down the expenses of heat and light and allocating percentages to each program.

I once asked my (previous) church for permission to use a large room that was usually vacant on a weekday morning to run a play group.  The room had large windows and, when not in use, was heated to about 18 C.   Not wanting to charge for participation, I my proposal was that we use it 'as is' without extra heat and light.    I provided the coffee, milk and sugar.  We did use the church's water and coffee pot.   Almost no charge to the church.   For the next five years or more I volunteered one morning a week, facilitating the group.  We brought in toys.  I yard saled.  Parents brought in snacks. 

If we had to figure this out on a cost benefit basis, I don't know how we would have done it.  I don't know if we brought anyone new into the church - most participants didn't attend Sunday services - some belonged to other churches.  But I think we benefited the children who had a big space to run around, other little kids to play and develop their social skills, an opportunity to learn concepts like sharing and taking turns.  Meanwhile the parents had a chance to 'get out of the house', exchange ideas, shop talk about child-rearing, and socialize.   That was years ago.  People still come up to me and say 'remember me.  I took my child to play group in your church.'  

How does a service like that fit into a narrative budget.  Budget refers to money.  This was as near to revenue neutral as I could make it.

When gong through a narrative your program should be included as a zero-cost item funded fully by volunteers (or near-zero).  

Spending a bit of money, giving you a budget to do a treat once in a while would have shown as well.

Sounds like it was a wonderful program, Seeler.

in my opinion, when we focus on dollars, we miss the point.  so much about the church is about volunteers, community, support, mission, service,, etc

We've always done something like that, but we've never called it a "narrative budget" -- UCCanada term?

Yes, it does help me to understand how the monetary budget fits into the mission of our church which is to worship, learn, serve, and tell.

Rich blessings.

to tell the story of the budget, we have many pictures and videos of what each dept. does, the person in leadership of that dept. then tells the congregation about the pics and how the money they donate is spent in each dept.  It results in many more questions and a lot more understanding of how the money is spent.  and yes, when it comes time, pictures of each staff person come up and  there is explanation as to their role and their cost to the organization.  total cost.  Sometimes we've done it while the person talks, so they change the slides, sometimes as a short video before the budget is presented.  Whats the old line, a picture tells a thousand words.  also kep the budget meeting to 15-20 minutes!  booyah.

Telling the story or how our church money is spent is a lot easier for me to understand than all of those lines and pages of numbers.  I want to know the bottom line but I like being able to see what % of the money goes to salaries, to maintenance, to christian education, to pastoral care, etc.  The numbers and balance sheets are great for the accountant brains but I much prefer the story.  Having both presentations would help meet everyones' needs.