The concept of a media budget is relatively new (aside from broadcast oriented churches), and the dollar amounts jump dramatically from church to church. So how much should you set aside for your annual church media budget? The best way to answer that is to look at what drives the budget.

Budgets for churches are driven by three main components:

1) Vision from church leadership (value — how important is media)

2) Content and frequency (application — what is required of media)

3) Personnel - the ability and quantity of media personnel (expertise — who can provide media)

These three factors have more importance on the budget total than do attendance, membership, denomination, operating budgets or location.

There need to be at least five budget line items for media:

1) Hardware upgrades/new hardware

2) Software upgrades/new software

3) Preventative and ongoing maintenance

4) Personnel training (conferences and tradeshows) and education

5) Peopleware — outsourcing of contract labor for projects and special events

New construction budget

Another useful bit of data that can help give context to the question of 'how much' are the budgets for A/V/L (Audio, Video, Lighting) technical systems in new construction projects.

It's not uncommon to see 8 percent of the total budget allotted to provide a rudimentary A/V/L system. Some 12 percent to 15 percent of the total new construction budget will provide a solid intermediate system and 20-22 percent of the total budget will build a technically-savvy venue.

So for a $1 million new building campaign, anywhere from $80,000 (rudimentary) to $220,000 (technically savvy) can be budgeted for the technical systems alone.

Annual operating budget

Even though media budgets vary greatly from church to church, it's safe to apply 5-10 percent of the A/V/L system cost (if budgeted correctly using the above three averages) as a yearly operations and maintenance amount.

So if you spent $150,000 on your A/V/L system, then anywhere from $7,500-$15,000 a year can easily be spent making sure your systems remain in perfect operational order and that you're getting the software and hardware updates, as well as replacement parts, that are necessary to keep your technology from becoming obsolete or failing due to inadequate preventive maintenance.

Once a church hires part- or full-time personnel, the costs change yet again, not only for the salary, but also for the increased content and education expenses associated with any employee. This is especially true when dealing with high-technology personnel, where the technology changes so rapidly that a learning curve is always in effect.

A "rule of thumb"?

Even though there's not hard scientific data on the "average church media budget," I will point out one bit of scientific data from a report that I co-authored about an initial budget for projection systems. Three more reports are underway (audio, lighting and systems integration), though none will ask about yearly media operating budgets.

The main bit of data shows that of the 650 churches that participated in the survey, 45 percent of them spent more than $11,000 on their projection system. This data is striking considering the average size of the congregation in the survey was fewer than 300.

While that dollar amount points to a decent initial projection budget, it doesn't give us any hard data about operating budgets. Again, I have tertiary data that can help define the question.

Also, the size or age of the church isn't always a good indicator. An example of this is a church upstart that uses my consulting services and has a very aggressive media ministry. Since the first church meeting in a family's home three years ago, the group has used media as a support tool. They're still in temporary facilities, but have invested in a full-time media minister, creative director and a complete non-linear editing system, video switcher and projection system!

So what's the budget number?

At the end of this article I've still not given you an absolute answer for 'how much media budget' is necessary. That's because the vision of the church leadership will drive this amount based on the perceived and felt needs of creating and implementing dynamic content and quality technical performance. The best advice is to get with your pastor and learn how media fits into the overall vision of the church and then develop a budget that helps to accomplish that vision through the application of technology.

Anthony Coppedge provides consulting to Churches for developing and growing a Media Ministry, building teams, casting vision and even choosing the right equipment. He lives in Bedford, Texas with his wife and two daughters and can be reached at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com

Copyright 2004. Reprinted with permission from Church Media Hotlist