In this episode of The Pastor’s Wallet, Amy Artiga welcomes A.Z. Suarez, consultant and managing partner of Ascend Business Management, to discuss common budget mistakes and how pastors and church leaders can create budgets that align with the vision and mission God has given their church. A.Z. offers practical steps pastors can take this week to strengthen stewardship and ensure church resources support ministry priorities.
Transcript
Amy: A church budget tells a story before a single dollar is spent. It reveals what the church is preparing for, what it is protecting, and whether its resources are aligned with the vision.
Have you ever looked at your church budget and wondered, “Does this actually reflect where we believe God is taking us?” Today, we’re going to talk about how to make your budget a practical tool that helps move the mission forward.
Hi, I’m Amy Artiga with The Pastor’s Wallet, and today I’m excited to welcome A.Z. Suarez. A.Z. is a seasoned church administration and operations leader with more than 18 years of experience serving churches and nonprofit ministries. His background includes leadership roles in Alaska and Oregon, as well as more than a decade helping lead the business and administrative operations of a large, multisite church.
Today, A.Z. serves as a consultant and managing partner of Ascend Business Management, where he helps churches strengthen the financial, payroll, human resources, reporting, and operational systems that support their mission.
What I appreciate about A.Z. is that he understands both the heart of ministry and the practical systems required to sustain it. He is passionate about helping pastors and leadership teams move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and healthy stewardship.
A.Z., welcome to The Pastor’s Wallet.
A.Z.: Amy, thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here with The Pastor’s Wallet. I know I’ve personally been very blessed by the articles you’ve written over the years, so thank you so much for having me here today.
Amy: Well, we’re thrilled to have you, because I work on the personal side of finances, not the organizational side. So I’m glad you can step in and help cover my weaknesses here.
Today, we’re talking about budgets. Why do so many church budgets feel disconnected from the vision that pastors are preaching?
A.Z.: That’s a great question. I feel like a lot of times, we start off right. We launch a church based on the vision and mission that have been put in place, and then we create budgets to support them. Over time, though, we kind of lose touch with that. Oftentimes, the budget just becomes a repetition of the prior year’s information rather than staying aligned with the vision and mission set in place by the pastor, the elders, and the church.
Sometimes, what creates a disconnect is that we put a lot of focus on our Sunday services and ministries—youth ministry, children’s ministry, and so on—which are, of course, so important to the life of the church. But sometimes there’s a disconnect when it comes to the financial side of things. The budgeting and planning don’t mirror the vision and mission of the church for the next season.
Amy: Okay, so you’re saying that a budget should answer the questions, “What has God called us to do, and what will it require?” Right?
A.Z.: Absolutely.
Amy: So then, what makes a budget spiritually and operationally healthy?
A.Z.: Well, like I was just sharing, it starts with vision alignment and realistic revenue projections, as well as understanding the true costs of running the ministry. Does the church have reserves? Who has ownership of different areas? And what is the rhythm of your financial year?
It’s about reviewing and understanding those rhythms and how they go hand in hand with the vision that has been set. That’s what makes a budget operationally healthy. It’s not just reviewing a spreadsheet; it’s actually seeing how the financials tell the story of the vision you’ve put in place for your church.
Amy: One thing I’ve found is that a lot of individuals struggle with budgeting. I can only imagine churches have the same struggles, because churches are just a bunch of individuals together trying to figure things out. So where do churches most often get stuck?
Another is creating overly optimistic giving projections instead of looking at what has actually been happening month to month. We tend to ignore real expenses, like payroll taxes and benefits, or the cost of utilities, which seems to go up every year. And sometimes there’s no cash plan.
A.Z.: That’s a great question. There are a number of different factors. One is rolling over the prior year’s budget. They’re just copying and pasting what happened last year: “Let’s move it over again and run with it.”
There’s also no departmental or ministry ownership. Children’s ministry, youth ministry, and other departments need ownership of their budgets.
One common problem is when a department spends its annual allocation early. For example, the youth department has an annual budget of X, and all of a sudden, it spends it all in the first month or two. Well, that’ll be a big problem! And I hate to bash on the youth department—but it’s classic! I’m just kidding.
But if that happens, you need to be able to identify it and put good parameters in place. That’s often where churches get stuck: they don’t understand the rhythm or pay attention to those different aspects.
Amy: So, if pastors and church leaders are watching this and feeling convicted—thinking, “Okay, my budget really needs help. I need to do something”—where should a pastor and team begin?
A.Z.: Well, it starts with identifying the vision and mission you have in front of you. If you don’t have them, I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord, your elders, and your key leaders to put them in place. Then figure out what those ministry outcomes are going to be.
Ask what you’ll do if revenue goes up and what you’ll do if it goes down. For example, maybe revenue decreases because a couple of major donors move to another state. That affects your income. So, where can you make adjustments while still accomplishing the vision and mission in front of you?
The vision and mission should be at the top of the process. The budget should align with them and help propel the church forward.
I’d recommend working with your team and having a vision retreat. Talk about your priorities, department plans, the next steps for the church, and how the budget aligns with all of that.
Then create a consolidated budget that reflects those priorities and includes income projections. You can even create a couple of models so you have a plan. If income goes down 5%, what do you do? What adjustments will you make? If income goes up, what do you do?
That way, you’re putting a plan in place. There’s still a faith aspect to creating a budget. It’s a plan that supports your vision and mission, and there’s a faith component that goes along with it.
Amy: I love that. So you come up with this vision and plan, and then, to stay on vision and stay on plan, what should leaders be looking at each month?
A.Z.: This is where I love what I do, because I love the information that comes from it. The numbers, funny enough, do tell a story.
You need to review your actual results against the budget you put in place. Know your cash position and your giving trends, whether they’re up or down, and keep an eye on payroll costs.
A church might have a small handful of employees, some salaried and some hourly. Payroll costs could get out of hand if hourly employees are working overtime, or if you hire someone for 30 hours but they’re actually working 40. Maybe you didn’t realize it, but your budget will reflect it.
If you review your budget versus actual activity every month, you can catch those anomalies more quickly than if you wait for an annual review and then wonder, Oh my goodness, where did it all go wrong?
I’d say to check your giving trends, payroll expenses, and ministry drivers. If your church has different programs, see how they’re operating. Maybe the worship team suddenly buys new equipment without approval—which hopefully doesn’t happen! But if it does, how do you make adjustments? You might realize you’ve overspent in one area and need to trim other areas to make up the difference.
That’s why the monthly review is so important. Honestly, for an executive pastor or senior pastor, a one-page dashboard is critical. It lets you see your whole ministry on one page. From there, you can ask questions, but at least you have that overview as part of your monthly cycle.
Amy: Okay, that’s great. What if someone’s motivated by this and thinks, Okay, I want to get started. I want to get my budget in place, because this is a stewardship issue, and I want to make sure things are aligned with where we’re going as a church and what God has called us to do?
What can a pastor do this week? As soon as this video ends, what can they sit down and do to actually apply this? Because wisdom and knowledge are useless if they’re not actually applied to life.
A.Z.: Absolutely. After watching this, pull out your calendar and block out a good chunk of time—maybe two or three hours—for you and the Lord to be together. Grab your favorite drink, whether it’s coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or whatever it is. Get a journal and ask yourself these questions:
Is my budget in line with the vision and mission of our church for the next season? Is the answer yes or no? If it’s no, why? If it’s yes, why? Be real with yourself about where your ministry’s finances stand, and write down your answers.
Is the budget in line with the vision and mission? Are we just repeating last year’s budget even though the vision is different? Are we funding that vision?
Number two: Identify one to three blind spots. These might be things you’re ignoring because you don’t want to know about them, or things you simply don’t understand well. What blind spots are preventing you from having a budget that works well for your ministry and for you as its leader?
Number three: Look at the last 12 months and identify what percentage of your revenue has gone toward personnel, facilities, operations, and reserves, if you have any. Are you putting money beyond the four walls of the church toward missions or other priorities?
Look at those percentages in relation to your tithe revenue—not designated giving or project giving, if you have that. Use your operating revenue as the basis, and consider whether the spending aligns with your vision and mission.
You may discover that you’re spending too much on payroll, or that too much of your revenue is going toward facility expenses. Could those expenses be reviewed? Does your spending fit where you are as a church and where you’re heading?
Amy: That’s good. So you’re saying to look at what you’re spending and the different categories, and see what percentage is going to payroll, what percentage is going to ministry, and how those percentages align with where you want to go as a church.
I’ll tell you, a lot of pastors are shy about talking about this, but a lot of churches should spend more on payroll, because I know many of you are underpaid, and that can be a problem. So, if you want me to tell someone in your church to pay you more, just email me and let me know! I’d be happy to tell them, because I agree that a lot of pastors are underpaid, and I feel for you.
Those are really good questions. If you’re in charge of your church budget, I encourage you to take some time this week, just like A.Z. said, to sit down and spend some quality time on it.
This isn’t just math homework where you’re answering questions. Invite God into it, because God cares about your church, and He cares about your budget. It’s not just the sermon; the Holy Spirit is just as involved in budgets and helping with these kinds of things.
I hope you found this helpful. I definitely have—I’ve learned a lot! Thank you again, A.Z., for the wealth of information you provided today. We’ll provide contact information in case you want to get in touch with A.Z., learn more about what his company can do for your church, and connect with him.
We’ll get you that information. Thank you for joining us today, and we’ll see you next time.
A.Z.: Thank you, Amy.