4 Ways Your Church Can Reduce Expenses During the COVID-19 Crisis
With the economy crashing and millions of people out of work, the COVID-19 crisis has put churches, both large and small, into financial peril. Because of this, it is essential that we bring our expenses in line with the current realities.
1. Mothball Your Facilities
Your utility costs are some of your church’s largest expenses. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, you’re paying to heat an empty building. Simple actions that you can take today are:
Close the doors.
Turn out the lights.
Turn the hot water tanks down to a minimum.
Turn the thermostat down to a minimum.
2. Cut Program Costs
If you’re paying for unused subscriptions or services – cancel them. If you’re paying for printed materials or curriculum – cancel them. If you’re paying for any kind of ministry not relevant to the current Covid realities – cancel them.
3. Look for Outside Relief
Every day different levels of government and large financial institutions are announcing new aid programs for your church to take advantage of. Depending on where your church is located, these range from deferred mortgage and utility payments to income supplements for employees. Keep up to date on these programs.
4. Develop a Staff Contingency Plan
For the vast majority of churches, staffing is the largest expense. If you are unable to maintain your current levels of income you will be forced to make some hard choices. Having a contingency plan is the best way to handle these choices.
That plan will need to include action steps that correspond to different levels of income loss. For example, at point A) we will need to lay off janitorial and administrative support staff, at point B) we will have to reduce pastoral staff hours, and at point C) we will have to lay off pastoral staff.
I’ll save the details of how to do this for another article, but even if your church only has one staff member, developing a contingency plan will be essential.