The Church Answers Podcast
#162 How the Work-from-Anywhere Movement Has Impacted Churches: Part 3, Opportunities for Significant Cost Saving
Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here's the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. My first podcast continues today. It's been around for a long time. I think maybe 15, 16 years, Rayner on Leadership. Maybe even longer than that, I need to go back and find out when the worst first, yeah, maybe the worst, was that the first Rayner on Leadership which released. And oh my goodness, I think we're doing two or three podcasts a week. Well, now I'm still doing four week, three for Church Answers podcast and one for Rayner on Leadership. And there's just been so much information, just so much information. But you know, for the most part, I've enjoyed it. I was about to say I've enjoyed every minute of it. There were sometimes I've struggled through podcasts. There's sometimes that I just really had a great time. But when Jonathan Howe and I, we were the first two that started the Rayner on Leadership podcast. Then eventually, Sam Rayner came along to be my co-host and he's been with me ever since. Sam Rayner, my son. Well, Jonathan and Howe and I said, let's try a new song for him. He said, oh no. He's about to give a '60s music. I don't think it's '60s, but it sounded like a '60s song. And it was called Hold on Tight. And it was about, hold on tight, do your dream. And I just love that. And I would actually get to hear the music before I went on now. I don't get to hear. I don't even get to hear the nice lady who introduces this podcast and closes it. But I was just thinking about that. Hold on tight to your dream. I mean, I like that because we have all kinds of opportunities today. We can lament the technological changes that are taking place, some of them we should, and we can rejoice at some of them that are taking place. And we've been talking about the work from anywhere movement. And we've been talking about what you can do to engender accountability and how in the future, we're going to be trying to measure effectiveness of remote employees, remote workers, not just the hours of them, but are they really the most effective? That's the next movement that's going to come along and it will affect the church. But let's just talk about the work from anywhere movement and how churches can save money. I mean, it can be an issue of stewardship. And the reality of it is, many people, once they are not on site with constant interruptions of church life, they can do other work more effective. You say, well, shouldn't constant interruptions of church life be a part of it, maybe, but maybe not. You know, some people just talk too much. But this new movement has given us a great opportunity for cost savings. Let me just share some of the ways that we can save costs in this. One way that we can save it is for our building and grounds when I'm not the most technologically advanced person, but I have a new app and I'm trying to find it right now. And my new app is called Lawn Starter. And see, I have different services that I can have. I have my bushes trimmed, I can have leaf removed, I can have a flower bed, we did. I can have mulching, I can have tree care, landscaping, cleanups, and I have my weekly most scheduled on there. And all I got to do is push a button and somebody comes to me. And you know what? I'm actually saving money because it's all under one umbrella, I'm not having to call this person and this person. And they have this one consistent price. I absolutely love it. So, you know, this new technology has us good. I don't know why I showed you my long carry out, but I just did. I guess I'm too excited about little things. But how about the church? Where can it save money? One of the places obviously is an assistant. Assistance were among the first to go virtual. They were more virtual assistance before the pandemic than any other line of work. An assistant is a broad title. It can have all kinds of implications to it, all kinds of meaning to it. But assistance and what many organizations found is that the cost of a 20 or 30 hour assistant. Provided by usually a contractor or some type of organization that provides them is actually less than you would have if you had someone on site. Usually those people, those contractors do not include benefits. And if you had someone on site that may be expected that there would be. So, an assistant is one of those positions where many churches have saved money. Another area is financial and bookkeeping. This has been a big one. One of the reasons that I invited Chaney and Associates to be our partners because they're their accounting firm for so many churches. Do their bookkeeping, do their payroll, do their taxes. It's not just a bookkeeper. I mean, they have a package where they put it all together and to have someone do all of them. Whereas in the past, you may have to have someone be a financial assistant. You may have someone be a bookkeeper and you may have a accountant to do your CPA. Chaney and Associates CPA firm though does it all. And so they put it into a package and the cost of all of them is usually less than what you would pay for the different parts of them together. So, you have the assistant where you can save money. You have the financial co-vocational movement. I love the co-vocational movement. What's co-vocational? Bi-vocational means that someone is not full-time minister because the church cannot afford to pay them full-time. Co-vocational means that that minister, yes, works part-time like a bio, though, but that minister has chosen to be co-vocational. It could be a co-vocational pastor who is also, say, a pharmacist. In fact, no one who does that or the co-vocational pastor may be a farmer. The co-vocational pastor, we could go down the list. It could be anybody. And the co-vocational pastor is kind of the new movement that has taken place in many churches today. The co-vocational pastor means that someone has one foot in the market and one foot in the vocational church. And they can be some of the most effective people totally. And they're able to keep up with their responsibilities in the church. They're sure they're there on campus some of the time through technology. One of my sons, I have all three of my sons are in vocational ministry, two are pastors or churches. And one of my pastor's sons said, Dad, you know, I remember when you were a pastor and I used to watch you and you had to go so many places. And yet now with technology, we're able to call, we're able to text, we're able to do it with our cell phones. You didn't even have a cell phone back then. It was crazy. We had one for our family and we used to sparingly for emergencies and their mother and my wife, and Elie Jo was the only one that could have it. And it's a new world now. He said he can contact people. He can do ministry anytime, anywhere. That's the case with the co-vocational movement. They have all the technology where they do not, many of them do not have to be full time at the church. And therefore, you can save funds. So you can save funds with an assistant. You can save funds with someone in the financial area like a bookkeeper or a payroll person or a CPA, a tax preparation. You can save funds with co-vocational ministries as well. All this to say is the work from anywhere movement does have its downside. And we've looked at the accountability issue. We've looked at how do we not only create accountability for the hours work, for the effectiveness of those hours. Again, something we'll be addressing on this podcast in the future. But the work from anywhere movement has been a great blessing for many churches. Because now you can have people and your staff that you could not have had in the past just because they could not be two places at one time. But now with the virtual world in which we are, it is an opportunity for them to do so. An assistant can work from anywhere. A financial bookkeeper can work from anywhere. The list can go on and on. I think that this has been a great opportunity for churches to demonstrate greater stewardship. I think it's been a blessing for many churches when they do it right. It's going to continue to evolve. I'd love to hear from you about what's happening at your church and any challenges you may have or opportunities you can share with us. So just let us know. Go to info@churchanser.com and shoot us a line and let us know some of the things that are happening at your church. So we've taken three episodes to look at the work from anywhere movement, how it's affecting churches. I think the net is positive. The challenges are still there. But when it's all said and done, we will be glad this new era came into our churches. Thank you for being a part of the church answers. Podcast is always thank chain and associates for being our sponsor. Hey, you tubers, please subscribe to us and give us a thumbs up and you who are listening on your podcast out. When you give us a rating and review, you get the word out. If it's a good rating and review, you get the word out so that we can get this ministry to others that chain and associates is paying the bills. Thank you again for being part of the church answers podcast tune in every week where we have three new episodes. Brief to the point, but hopefully helpful. I'll be with you next episode. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the church answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)