One of the questions I've been getting a lot lately, is how do we manage the financial side of our multi sites. I've had the opportunity to get to know some great leaders in the MS world, and many have told me that what we are doing here is a little unique, so I'll share it.
In the beginning we just blended our first campus into the overall budget. What we began to see was how much extra work it was putting on an already overworked administrative team. Then in 08 we added two more campuses and we could see it just wasn't possible for that team to take on all the extra work those sites would create. Instead of adding extra admin staff to cover the campuses, we decided to set up individual campuses with their own bank accounts, and let the Campus Pastors, or someone they have trained and trust, oversee the day to day financials of that campus.
While each campus manages their own finances, they are still a part of the over all budget. Copies of all receipts are sent to the home campus and are plugged into that budget so it doesn't look like campuses don't have expenditures.
Here's how it works:
1. At each campus offerings are collected, packaged, and sealed, always by at least two people who sign the sealed packages, and then taken to the home office.
2. Those offerings are counted by the home office admin team, and then deposited in the individual campus accounts. All the MS guys are cringing at my use of the term "home campus" but there's no other way to explain this so for this explanation I'm using it.
3. While the church in general is not on Quick Books, the campuses do use it to manage their own finances. This allows us to track expenditures and hold campuses accountable. We will probably look at merging the systems in the future.
4. Each campus has debit/credit cards on their accounts, but they do not have the password necessary to use them as a debit card because that would allow someone access to cash. You might ask why not just have credit cards then? We did it this way because a debit card can be used exactly like a credit card, but the money comes directly out of the account as it is spent, unlike a credit card which requires the monthly payment of a bill. We did it this way to keep a campus from ever running up a big credit card debt because they're not paying their bill each month. I don't for a second believe one of our CP's would do this, but it's just another level of protection we've put in place as we grow the ministry.
5. Each campus is responsible for the payment of the following out of their weekly offerings: Building leases & insurance, electricity, water, phones, Internet, printing, advertising, maintenance, sound and lighting, cleaning expenses, weekly hospitality items, office equipment, part time salaries, and pretty much everything else. For now, they are not responsible for the campus pastors full time salary and benefits because we don't have the system to manage that yet. Many MS systems build that first year campus salary into the start up costs that are raised prior starting a new campus, as of now we have not done that. It's important to remember when reading this that there are no large towns anywhere close to Corpus Christi, so all of our campuses to this point are in small towns and average 250-300 in weekly attendance. If we ever decide to start a campus in a large city designed to reach thousands of people like other churches have, this system of management will obviously need to be changed!
One of the questions that often comes up when discussing this system is, what do we do if a campus can't pay all their bills. Each week every campus tithes 10% into a separate account called the Multi Site Account. That fund is the discretionary funds we use to help out an existing campus if one was to get into financial trouble, as well as helping fund future campus start ups. All of the weekly offerings, except for the tithe, are deposited into the individual accounts of each campus. Campus Pastor openly discuss the fact that each campus is tithing towards future campuses.
For now this is the system we are using, but it's subject to change at any time because we know we'll find flaws in it as we continue adding campuses. In the beginning I was skeptical, but since then I have grown to like this system a lot because I've see how it has changed the campuses. It has raised the level of ownership at the campuses because they now have the option to set aside their own money for a project they want to do at their campus. It has raised the sense of empowerment at every level and the benefits from that have outweighed any struggles we've experienced.
Before you pick this apart like I did, think about it with an open mind, because this change has been a very positive move for us and has taken a huge financial and work burden off the admin team at the home campus. We do know it's important to have checks and balances though, and that's part of my job as the Multi Site Pastor. For checks and balance reasons I have access to all of the accounts so I can check to make sure things are all on track, I also have the authority to determine where and how funds are being spent at the campuses, and for my part, I'm accountable to our Senior and Executive Pastor for everything that goes on in the Multi Site Ministry. Because I have such an amazing group of campus pastors, I pretty much let them manage their own budgets as they see fit because they know what's expected, and they're on board with the vision and direction of the church. If I wasn't confident that they are thinking about that vision and direction when spending, they wouldn't be campus pastors. Day to day stuff they just do, but if they are wanting to do something that is going to cost a significant amount of money, we discuss it first, and they're all great at knowing when that discussion is needed.
So that's the basic system we're using for now. It's not perfect, and it's certainly not the only one out there, but it's our system, at least for now! Hope this helps and if you have questions leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
John
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