Budgets are often an issue that cause a team leader the most trouble. Some things cannot get done without a budget. Often, church staff are restricted in what they can safely allocate and therefore have to make tough decisions. Those decisions don’t always benefit a church ministry that is trying to get stuff done.

If you want to obtain a budget for your team, you should consider investing some time understanding your church and how the budget works. Each church manages their budget differently: some manage it on a yearly basis, some quarterly; each church manages their budgets differently. Understanding how your church manages its budget is essential to learning how to gain a budget for your team.

There are often two kinds of church budgeting systems: zero-based budgets and line-item budgets. Zero-based budgets mean that every year each team must justify their intended expenses.  Line item budgets mean that each team has a base spending amount and may request an increase (or given a decrease) based on the church goals for the next time period. Learn which syst