TN29 What's your real church income?

First published on this website in March 2006 and last updated in May 2024

Synopsis

Thinking correctly means that your church's income should be seen as the sum of all its members' total incomes and so may well be into seven figures. Yet we usually take this phrase to mean the amount given by church members to the general fund.

So a church with general fund income of, say, £70,000 pa. might well have the total income of all its members at something more like £2,000,000 pa.

Here is a simple method of estimating what the 'true' figure might roughly be for your church. An exercise like this gives two potential benefits.  

First you can then assess what overall proportion is coming into your general fund each year. This then tells you whether there might be scope for increasing the general fund income to cover additional expenditure.

But secondly this way of viewing church income teaches your congregation something about God's ownership of everything Christians have.

These notes have been updated in May 2024 with minor alterations to both the text and layout.