A few people have come up to me and asked a question that I was prepared for. What I was not prepared for was how they asked the question, however. Many of you are keenly interested in the charts we place in the bulletin on a weekly basis, illustrating the Offertory levels and our Catholic Faith Appeal Goal. The part that I was bracing for was the most recent change to the weekly budget, which sits next to the Offertory in the charts. In January, I had explained that we were placing new financial programs in place to increase the transparency and accountability for St. John. Those efforts have included developing and deploying a full month-by-month budget that is now being evaluated quarterly by the leadership and Finance Council of the church. So what was the question I was expecting to get:
Why did the Budget go from $28,000 a week to $45,000?
The simple answer is that it is the first time that we are provide the actual budget for the week. Previously, it was a calculation of the total budget of St. John for the year, divided by 52. And that number had not changed more than a thousand dollars since 2011 (the earliest bulletin I could find with those details in it).
This church is a very different place since 2011 and now the budget numbers you see will reflect the actual budget for the month and week. And that will mean this number will fluctuate from week to week. For example, in April, we had budgeted to pay for the flat roof replacement that was completed on time and on budget, so that significantly increased the weekly budget to compensate for that expense. As you can see this week, that number has gone down significantly to $36,000. You will now know exactly how much we are doing for the programs of Saint John and for the community around us.