Spencer Jordan asked the Facebook Community this question, “Just curious, what are your AVL teams budgeted per year?”. It sparked an interesting conversation about tech budgets and the financial strain everyone faces. [Source]
I asked the community if anyone would write a blog post on this subject. Allen Hendrix stepped up to the challenge and wrote this insightful piece.
We average right at 1,600 in Worship attendance and this year the Media & Communication budget sits at $298,000. However it has been as high as $400,000 within the last 8 years. (this does not include personnel) We are an 85 year old Southern Baptist church in the buckle of the Bible Belt. We have been broadcasting our services live at 11:00 AM on Sunday mornings for 55 years. We do NOT offer promotion items or ask for funding via our TV or streaming paths. We offer our content as a gift to our community and we make no mention of funding needs on the air. We set aside about $25,000 a year (outside of regular operation budget) that is designated towards AVL capital. Large cost items such as broadcast cameras, audio consoles, moving lights and projectors come from that account when needed.
We have been fortunate that we have not had to dip into that account often because we have recently built a new 1,200 seat worship center and we loaded the costs of the AVL into that project budget. We are also a debt free church. We don’t build any new buildings or buy a single piece of equipment unless the money is in the bank. Once the budget is set and approved by the church the Ministers that oversee the individual ministries are responsible for managing their own budgets. They are accountable for overages, however regular budgeted spending does not require the approval of a committee. The budget committee has the ability to make mid year corrections/reductions to the budget based on how giving is tracking. They can’t increase the budget without a church vote, but they can, and lately often do, reduce at mid year and then sometimes again three quarters of the way in. Our staff gets monthly updates on giving and we all receive accounting reports weekly. As my friend Scott Link mentioned in his post, it takes time to build up a budget like the one I operate under.
I have a full time staff of five and we have been doing high quality work for a long, long time. I was on staff at a church that ran 3,500 in worship and my budget there was the same as it is here. There are numerical and historical plateaus that exist in budgeting for Media and Communications. One other church I was on staff with ran between 800 and 1000 each weekend, but they could only spend $80,000 a year. Please note that all three of the churches I’ve worked for covered television broadcast. That being said, I know of a lot of other churches that don’t broadcast on TV, but that do extensive IMAG and live weekly AVL production that far out spend small to mid market broadcast ministries.
Budgeting for AVL has to be part of a church’s DNA. Most newer church plants get it and understand the need. They don’t often realize though is the expense… because heck, “My 12 year old son can make a video on his dang iPhone! Why do we have to spend $10,000 on a video switcher!?!). Or, “the sound system in my ’07 Honda Accord sounds better than our PA, what do mean it’s gonna cost $100,000 to make it sound good in this converted warehouse?
I think Churches with longer histories, max out at 300 to 500 worshippers on Easter and run 150 to 300 every other week have an even greater struggle. Let’s face it… Pastors and Worship Leaders don’t learn about budgeting for AVL in seminary. What they know they learned shopping for a TV or a computer at BestBuy or on Amazon. We all have to do a better job educating our leaders (and in some cases budget committees or trustees) about the REAL cost of doing REAL work with REAL tools.
This might be far fetched for some of you, but consider this as a goal: You should be able to factor between $100 and $200 per attendee per year for your budget. What a great deal for your people! A total of 52 worship services that include incredible teaching with wonderful life truths WITH fantastic music that inspires us and leads us to the throne of glory… all for only $150 a year! I know people who spend that much and more EACH MONTH to attend movies, concerts and even sporting events that offer less meaningful content. Consider using this path of wording and concepts when talking with your leadership. It might help them better understand the return on investment they are going to get when they commit to funding at a higher level.
