Church budgets always seem to be tight no matter what the state of the economy. However, if you can prove to those in your church that you are budget-minded and tenacious at being frugal with church resources, they may just crown you as the King or Queen of Savings! Here are a few tips across the various areas of your ministry that can save you money:

Events

• Get several quotes from equipment providers (buses, inflatables, t-shirts, entertainment). Getting a few quotes takes a couple of extra minutes and you can often save hundreds of dollars. When I came to Grey Stone, I did this and cut the VBS t-shirt budget in half!
• Partner with other ministry areas to slice the costs in half. We did this for a volunteer banquet. The education ministry and children’s ministry did a somewhat joint thank you banquet for our volunteers. We got a better deal on the food (b/c of volume) and we split the entertainer fee.
• For camps or events that require parents to pay for their kids, many of us build a portion of this into our budget to subsidize the one’s who can’t afford it. I have found that a simple announcement in the bulletin explaining the need for scholarships draws a good bit of money. I explain exactly what it would cost to send one kid to that event so they have a concrete figure. I also have several “givers” in my contact list who have been very gracious in the past that I can call on for assistance. Try this one for extra camp spending money for needy children too!

Large Projects

• Sit down for 20 minutes and brainstorm about volunteers who can help you get the project done. We did a $10,000+ renovation project for our elementary worship room for around $5000 b/c of volunteers in our church who did things for free or at cost.
• Do the work yourself. Plan on spending 60-70 hours a week at church over those 2-3 weeks and show the church some hard work ethic!
• Schedule volunteer “work days” to help get the grunt work of large projects done. Schedule them at key times in the project plan and on days and times which working people are easily available.

Curriculum

• Use free curriculum, especially for short run programs, like Wednesday nights in the summer, or for Christmas/Easter lessons. Go here to find out about links to many of these free curriculum resources. Another great resource for this is Open from LifeChurch.
• Partner with a local sister church to alternate the sharing of curriculum. This would cut your budget in half. Even with dated curriculum, a few tweaks would make this very doable.
• Have teachers meet weekly to discuss their resource needs. They may find that someone else has what they were going to ask you to buy the next day!

Consumable Resources

• Three times a year, make a wish list known of items needed for your nursery or resource room. Put this list in your bulletin or newsletter. Want to make it even more successful, have some adult Sunday school classes adopt a particular area of “resource needs” and do a two week drive toward the end of the summer to get ready for the new school year.
• Steal them. Just kidding…I wanted to see if you read this far!
• Cut out the amount you feed children at church and have a rotation of families provide that snack or breakfast.
• Buy wholesale. Get a Costco, BJ’s, or Sam’s membership. You really do save a ton on things like cookies, cups, napkins, and plates there.
• Lock the snacks up so the youth don’t eat them!

I not only like to provide free resources on this blog, but also free “nuggets” that you can use to make your ministry more healthy. This month, I’d like to share with you some awards that I give to volunteers each year at our volunteer banquet. I have the volunteers nominate people for these various awards. When I present them, I speak a few words about the individual, and present them with a nice certificate (which you can find here). The awards are:

• Cardiac Award: The volunteer with the biggest heart for kids.
• Legacy Award: A volunteer who has committed a great deal of years, time, emotion, and energy to your ministry.
• Rubber Band Award: The volunteer who shows an attitude of flexibility each and every week.
• Boy Scout Award: The volunteer who shows themselves to be the most prepared every week.
• Lexus Award: The volunteer who shows a commitment to excellence in all that they do.
• Up and Coming Award: Goes to a new volunteer who shows unique promise in doing great things in Children’s Ministry.
• Spirit Award: Awarded to the volunteer who is a wonderful example of godliness to the kids and other volunteers
• Out There Award: Goes to the volunteer with an extra measure of goofiness and ability to relate to children on their level.

You may also be interested in:

1. No Other Ministry Promotion Poster
2. Volunteer Performance Evaluation

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I’m starting a new monthly series called the “Leadership Nugget.” The purpose of this is to offer my readers an article or thought provoking “nugget” that they can place on walls in their ministry area, in newsletters, as encouragements to volunteers, or as recruiting material. I hope these tools will help your church better understand the priority of children’s ministry!

This month, I’m offering a resource I wrote called “No Other Ministry.” I hope you could post it on a wall outside your office or include it in a newsletter. If you do copy it in a publication, please be sure to credit my name and web address. Thanks and please pray for me. On Thursday and Friday I will embark on a journey of doctoral exams lasting a total of 8 hours. Yes, I have to write for 8 hours (at least I get two days to do it!). Should God grace me with a passing grade, I will be a doctoral candidate and will finish up the rest of my dissertation so that I may graduate (for the last time ever!) in May! You can read more about the Doctor of Education program I am in here.

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I guess I’ve been on an audio kick. I promise that the next several posts will not deal with audio! If you would like some Christ-centered audio regarding church leadership, leadership within the home, and a whole host of other leadership topics, you can find them at Leader Source.

Go here to find more info regarding teachings covering a wide variety of topcis. Leader Source is an interesting organization. Check them out.

Well, I’m at camp again this week! Aside from my own camp with Grey Stone Baptist Church, I’ll be doing 3 other church camps this summer. I’m in the second of three right now. Needless to say, I’ll be brief in the next few posts. But that reminds me…if you are looking for a retreat/camp speaker or worship leader, feel free to get in touch!

Here’s a blog similar to Free CM Stuff. It’s called Children’s Minister Blog. He has some ideas and reflections, but also links to free or low cost resources.

Children’s Ministry University Online is a partnership with Valley Forge Christian College. It is an “online, 30-credit degree program in children’s ministries” that is fully accredited through the College.

They also offer several free training resources on their website. To be honest, every training will not be beneficial to the Children’s Ministry veteran, however, I do see them as being a fruitful part of equipping newbies and potential leaders in your ministry. The professionals out there may find one or two that is helpful. The topics you can choose from are:

Beyond Babysitting

Creative Storytelling

Cultivating a Cutting-edge Children’s Church

Help is on the Way! Recruiting and Keeping Substitute Staff

Learning Disabilities & ADD/ADHD

What is a Children’s Sermon?

I can see these being productive to a variety of people. You may want to send your newly appointed Children’s Church leader to watch the one on Children’s Church and Children’s Sermons. If God has put on your heart to minister to special needs children, be sure to check out the disabilities training.

These trainings come in an online presentation format including the speaker and slides. Some are more “training-oriented” and some are more “classroom-oriented” in their presentation. Hope they can be a tool for you!