Budget

Budget

Everyone needs all your money for right now, Lord. Help us invest in our future.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 Corinthians 9:6, NIV

The budget declares the operative values and priorities of the organization. It also declares our investment in future directions. The budget is a leadership plan, and budgeting is a leadership process.

WE ARE your money managers, Lord. We are stewards, doing our best to make a budget that feeds and clothes your servants and that plants the money where you can use it best. We try to bring in as much money as we can and use it as shrewdly as we can. We never get it exactly right, but help us come close enough for an orderly operation and a good harvest.

The budget affects every person and every program, so getting it right is extremely important. Every budget line is someone’s sincere request, wrapped in our mission and tied with their hopes. I love these people and pray for them. How I wish we could do it all for them! How many wonderful benefits have we needlessly killed because of our budgeting errors? I claim your forgiveness, Father. Teach me how to do it better this time.

God, somehow this budget has to give us both a present and a future. If I don’t budget a strong present, I will have no platform to reach the future. If I don’t manage well, I won’t have anything to lead with. It is so hard to choose between what to do now and what to try later.

What powerful tyranny the urgencies of the present have! We must put the money where we say our true values are, but what is the right balance? After we care for all the current requirements, how will we pay for our future?

If we make a stingy investment in our future, we can expect a stingy harvest. Yet if the budget puts too much into preparing for our future, we will starve our chances for excellence now. Everything we plant for the future is something we cannot eat to be healthy right now. It is so hard to save for the future when we feel so poor. Somehow, by your grace, we must. Oh, Lord, give us wisdom and courage!

I know you have a bright future for us, but we will miss some of it if this budget does not help take us where you want us. Help me shape this budget into a wise leadership plan for an exciting future.

Everyone needs all your money for right now, Lord. Help us invest in our future.

Reflections

At the weddings of my two children, it was with great vested interest that I witnessed the solemn promises the young lovers made to each other. For people who are newly in love, such promises feel like they will be easy to keep, but every marriage eventually faces challenges to those commitments.

The core values of an organization are the promises its members make to each other. The budget is the most comprehensive and detailed description of what the organization has promised to do in expressing those values. What makes budgeting so difficult for a future-oriented leader is that the budget is mostly about history, about keeping promises that have already been made. If the promises were made wisely, they will have created a good set of present opportunities, attracted great people, secured a strong position in the market with a positive image, and allowed for increasing net revenues.

The need for growth is a product of the fundamental paradox in each budget. Driven mostly by the promises of history, the budget must also make promises to secure a future. The most brilliant plans for the most glowing future mean nothing until the budget lets them happen. The budget—mundane and arcane—is the ultimate leadership forum. It deserves whatever leadership attention is required to make it serve all its purposes well, and it deserves continuous prayer.