Psalm 50:10-12 “for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.”

Does God need our money? I grew up in a home where there was sometimes barely enough to cover the household expenses. Dad was a mechanic, and he and Mum served as full-time pastors in a poor church. Mum could stretch the finances so we had enough. Dad was a visionary man of faith who would make things work, without money. They were generous, even when they had little to give.

In lean times, Dad would quote Psalm 50 and remind us that God is never short of resources. My parents trusted that the God who owns the world would provide what was needed. He has, time and again. That has left me with a deep conviction: the limit on God’s work is not ultimately our finances, but our faithfulness.

That conviction makes church budgeting hard for me. A budget is practical and necessary. It helps us steward income and expenses wisely. A church budget is never just a spreadsheet. As Brandon Ryan argues in Pastor, Your Church Budget Is a Discipleship Tool, a budget communicates what we value and helps shape a congregation’s priorities. It can model wisdom, faith, generosity and trust.

So what is a faithful budget? We still have to work with what we know. We still need to make careful decisions. But budgets should not set our vision; they should serve it. That means budgeting prayerfully, with discernment, asking not only, “What can we afford?” but more importantly, “What is God calling us to do”? This means a good church budget will usually hold two things together. It will be sober enough to reflect reality, and hopeful enough to reflect faith. It will take stewardship seriously without pretending that money is the source of ministry.

Our Church Members’ will vote on our FY2Y budget papers on Sunday 21 June 2026. I want to invite us all to consider the budget prayerfully, expectantly. Please read the figures carefully. But more than that, let us ask God for wisdom, unity and faith. God does not need our money. Yet he does invite us to use it generously, faithfully, humbly, and to align our resources with what he is doing among us.

In Him,

Jason

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash