Ministry opportunities are unlimited, but we all need help stretching our limited budget for ministry. Here are 4 children’s ministry leaders who share from their experience on how to get the most out of their budget. You’ll see common themes of sharing and wise shopping, so here we go!
- Buy in bulk and save for the next year…this helps on budget needs for the next fiscal year. – Lisa, Preschool/Children’s Ministry Director from Georgia.
- I always try to find out what other churches are doing the same VBS and schedule around other dates is possible, so that we can share decorations and leftover supplies. Also, we have a couple of big churches close by who own lots of inflatables. I ask to “rent” from them at discount instead of paying top dollar from rental companies. – Tammy, a Children’s Minister from South Carolina.
- We share and borrow props/specialty items with local churches in our area. We shop AMAZON and EBAY to save cost on production events. We also involve our congregation in our ministry events, for example, we served over 2000 people last year in our “Back to school Bash”, handing out school supplies and giving free haircuts. – Kathy, Director of Children’s Ministry from Tennessee.
- I am a huge fan of networking, and thankfully our local Baptist association provides many opportunities for local children’s ministers to regularly meet together. During those times, we all talk about our ministries and discuss ways we can help each other, and share resources. For example, last week one of the local children’s ministers found some decorations in her church that she didn’t need, but matched my VBS theme perfectly, so she called to see if I wanted them. If you don’t already have a network of ministry friends, start calling local children’s ministers and try to get something going. It will take time for something to get started, but it is well worth the effort. I have literally saved thousands of dollars over the years, through sharing resources with local children’s ministers and gained invaluable amounts of great advice and encouragement from them. – Peter – a children’s minister from Georgia, and former CentriKid staffer.
Special Thanks to each of these guys for sharing their insights with us! What else would you share from your experience? How do you stretch your limited ministry budget dollars? Share in the comments section below and we can continue to add to create a great collection of ideas!