Yesterday the members of Restoration City Church approved a new budget for the fiscal year starting in September of 2015.  I’m grateful for the way Dan Iten led us all through this process and incredibly grateful for a church that’s willing to believe God for big things.  Most of all, I’m grateful for what this budget represents – it’s not just numbers on a page, it’s vision on a page.  It’s a statement of who we want to be as a church.  Two things in particular stand out for me and both are percentages:

51% Of The Budget For Personnel

Even with creating room for a possible 3rd staff position starting in January of 2016, we’re able to keep our staff percentage at 51%.  Many studies suggest that for a church to be considered healthy, that number should be under 60%.  Anything around 50% is strong and anything under 50% is territory few churches ever see. So, to be at 50% as a small, less than one year old church plant is fantastic.

It’s an embodiment of the Ephesians 4 culture we want to create at Restoration City.  Ephesians 4:11-12 teach us, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” In other words, it’s the pastoral team’s job to equip the saints for the work of ministry and the job of the saints to do the ministry of the church.  When a church operates that way, God does incredible things.  So, if you’re serving at Restoration City, you need to know all the hours you invest in the church make a huge difference – in lives transformed and in dollars that don’t need to be spent on staffing.  God is using your sacrificial service to advance the gospel.

16% Of The Budget For Outreach/Mission

By keeping staff expenses low, we’re able to free up more money for mission.  This is the part of the budget that gets me the most fired up!  As a member of Restoration City, I love knowing that 16% of every dollar I give to the church goes to support external ministry partners doing incredible work whether that’s here in DC, in East Africa or church plants in Brooklyn.  That’s the kind of church I want to be a part of – one that is leveraging it’s resources for the good of our city, country and world.  If we make our budget next year, we will have the privilege of giving $78,000 to mission next year.  Nothing makes me happier!

In order to reach these goals, we need every person who calls Restoration City their church home to lean in with us.  If you’re not serving, join our connect team.  If you’ve been serving for a while, maybe God is stretching you into greater responsibility or leading you to serve outside of the church with one of our ministry partners.  If you’re not giving regularly to the church, go to our website and set up a recurring donation.  Or maybe God’s leading you to give more generously.  Whether it’s with your time, your resources or your prayers, we need you to lean in with us like never before.

I love being a part of a church that’s fighting for something – to see restoration come to Washington DC through the gospel of Christ.  I love where God is leading us and I’m so grateful we get to go there together.

I truly believe we are going to see God do some amazing things in this coming year.  We will see yet again that He really is the God “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,” (Eph. 3:20)

Thank you, Jesus.  You died that we could live and have a role in what you’re doing in the world.  Help us walk worthy of the calling you’ve placed on our lives.