{"id":2326,"date":"2025-10-23T21:51:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/?p=2326"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:42:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:42:25","slug":"prepare-now-for-2026-ministry-budgeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/prepare-now-for-2026-ministry-budgeting\/","title":{"rendered":"PREPARE NOW FOR 2026 MINISTRY BUDGETING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the ongoing responsibilities of ministry leadership is to plan wisely for the future. Financial preparation is not just a practical task, it is a form of stewardship. When we plan with clarity and prayer, we honor God and position our churches for health and impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we look ahead to 2026, it is important for pastors and ministry teams to begin budget planning early. Rising ministry costs, insurance increases, facility needs, outreach opportunities, staff care, and future ministry investment all require thoughtful consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To support you in this process, I have written a new article titled<a href=\"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/budget-to-advance-the-vision\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"2321\">&nbsp;<strong>\u201cBudget to Advance the Vision\u201d<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;which is now available on the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/resources\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"81\">Resources<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;page of my website. This guide is designed to help you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Approach budgeting as a discipleship and leadership responsibility<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Begin planning now to avoid end-of-year stress<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Build a budget that funds ministry priorities and mission<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prepare for expected economic realities in 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Communicate clearly with boards and leadership teams<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include margin and ministry expansion in your financial planning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>My prayer is that this resource will serve you as you lead your church in wisdom, faith, and stewardship. You will find it helpful for personal planning, staff discussion, finance committee preparation, or board meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can access the article here on my <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/resources\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"81\">Resources<\/a><\/strong> page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/budget-to-advance-the-vision\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"2321\">Budget to Advance the Vision \u2013 2026 Ministry Budget Guide<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this encourages you or you would like additional tools to strengthen your financial leadership, please feel free to reach out. I am here to serve and support you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-31f3f526cd2b13750c39560c181a0514\" style=\"color:#730e0e\"><strong>UPDATE: <\/strong><em>On Friday morning (October 24, 2025), the <strong>Social Security Administration <\/strong>announced that the <strong>COLA<\/strong> (Cost of Living Adjustment) for <strong>2026<\/strong> will be<strong> 2.8%<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the ongoing responsibilities of ministry leadership is to plan wisely for the future. Financial preparation is not just a practical task, it is &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,1],"tags":[187,2,191,9,182,192,190],"class_list":["post-2326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-daily-posts","category-uncategorized","tag-budget","tag-church","tag-cola","tag-ministry","tag-money","tag-planning","tag-raises"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2580,"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/2580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}