Staff Vs. Stuff
November 12, 2008
Let the budgeting begin. Ugly. Every man for himself. At least that is often the case at our ministry.
It is that time of year again and I am married to the money guy. Wow, how did I get here? I supervise all the tech, creative arts and worship of the church. Talk about opposites. The good news is my husband is being moved to the Membership position at church, (his true giftedness), so thank goodness this is his last year of budget oversight.
I say all that to say, how do you decide what gets first priority? My thinking goes something like this: If I just had another full time Video Editor oh the glorious things I could produce for God’s kingdom. If I just had an administrative assistant, man what I could accomplish. If I could hire a full time sound guy, my life would be worry free. The staff possibilities are endless.
On the other hand, if I could buy the latest MAC Book Pro for my tech guys. They could take them home with them and be creative 24/7! If I could just replace all the cameras in the auditorium at one time – the quality of projection would mystify the audience! If I could send my volunteers and staff to the best conferences the quality of their worship leading and creativeness would go through the roof.
Reality check: We live in a very economically challenged area of central Ohio. We have an amazing facility that God blessed us with. We have it full of great technology, a used video switcher from an old CNN studio; we run 5 cameras per service – quite a hodge-podge of old equipment, a sound board so fabulous we can barely run it correctly. Our equipment keeps getting us through another year. That is indeed a praise, because we couldn’t afford to replace most of it!
We live on the edge, we survive day to day. We have always just assumed this is how God wants us to run - lean. He brings over 2,000 people a week to us from this depressed community. So I feel this is truly God’s ministry. But, how can we be forward thinking when we barely get by?
That is exactly where we find ourselves. How do you continue to be creative, update equipment, hire new staff? If I had the choice would I hire more or buy more? It actually would be a toss up. More staff, lighter load, more stuff more efficient operation.
So my question is to each of you…Do you have the finances that require these hard decisions? If you do which do you choose?
Staff or Stuff?
Lori Biddle
Director of Magnification
Crossroads Community Church
Mansfield, Ohio 44906
www.loribiddle.com
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Well, good question… I guess it depends. This budget go around I have been told ahead of time how to plan ahead: no new staff, less new stuff. It is the nature of the beast this “season.” The economy is tough and we have a hefty building payment that demands attention.
In general, I try to evaluate the overall benefit. Normally, you can get a lot of STUFF for the same money as one STAFF person. At some point though you reach a peak for what you can accomplish as a group and then more STUFF begins to make the existing STAFF less efficient and more scattered. I’d say as you approach that critical mass you have to shift from wanting STUFF to STAFF. Also, you really should factor in your current staff’s skill sets. At some point you may realize an additional person could potentially do more with less stuff.
Just thinking out loud here.