How Good News Church Handles its Finances

February 15, 2018 Mario Villella Finance


We are right the middle of a sermon series called, "Stewardship & Generosity," and it seems like an especially appropriate time to let you all know how we, as a church, handle our finances.

It might interest you to know that Good News Church functions on 79% (or less) of all the money that is donated to us. For years now we have committed to the practice of giving away 11% of all the money that is given to us (to causes of mercy and missions… more on that later in this article). We have also committed to saving at least 10% of our income, meaning that we don't use it for typical operating expenses but set it aside for later use. For instance, much of the money we saved during our first four years as a church helped us to be able to put a large down payment on the building that we eventually built and use now.

So, after you take out 11% and at least 10% (note: there have been times when we've saved more than 10%) that leaves 79% or less of our income for operating expenses. We think this is a wise practice and is even wise for you to consider when handling your own personal finances. Your numbers might be different than ours (ie: you may give away more or less than 11%, and you may save more or less than 10%) but the practice of bumping down your lifestyle to be only a portion of what you take in is a very good habit to get into if you haven't already.

One last thing I wanted to explain is who we give our money away to.

As a church, we believe that two of the best causes to give money away to are:

  1. Compassion for the poor
  2. Funding the teaching of the Bible/gospel.

So, we try to split up our "giving money" toward those two kinds of causes. We often use the term "mercy" for the first kind of giving, and "missions" for the second kind. And, of course, some causes we support might do both at the same time (ex: Share the Love Ocala).

Here is a list of the organizations that we supported in 2017 (this includes places that we supported monthly and one-time gifts):

Author
The person who wrote this article. Find out more information about them below.
Mario Villella

Lead Pastor / Elder

Topics
A list of topics covered in this article.