I bet you don't hear about this on Sunday school, on Sunday mornings or even during your pastor sermon, but answer this question. Does the Bible talk about budget cuts? What are the biblical principles for making tough budget cuts or resource allocation decisions when resources are scarce? This is Lead in 10, and I'm Chris Moore. You know some of these questions that we should be looking for. What are the biblical principles behind the actions? Instead, we go to secular sources First. We look at what they say about how they say that life and business should work when we really should be looking at the word. Let's be honest, this is the kind of leadership decision that keeps you and I up at night. Yeah, maybe revenue isn't where you hoped it would be. Maybe giving is down. Maybe it's inflation, labor cost, or some other unexpected event that has suddenly put you in this situation. And now you've got to decide what gets cut, what stays, who might be affected. And the worst part you feel like no matter what you choose among the different options, someone's going to be disappointed or even hurt, maybe even lose their job. So how do we make resource decisions that are faithful, wise and still compassionate? The world says, well, you need to cut hard and you need to cut fast. Cut deep numbers don't lie, but biblical leadership gives us a much deeper framework to consider. Let's look at four key scriptures that give us wisdom for resource allocation when times are tight. Number one, let's start in Proverbs. Proverbs, chapter 11, verse 14, where no council is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. When you are faced with hard budget decisions, don't isolate yourself. We need to lean into godly counsel. You cannot carry this pressure alone. You need to bring in trusted advisors. You need those financial voices. But more importantly, you know, you need prayerful people who care more about the mission, about your vision, about your calling, than necessarily about personal comfort. Look, when emotions are high, money is tight. It's easy for us to go inward, to separate ourselves, to begin to make decisions in this vacuum because maybe we don't even wanna look people in the face. And honestly, that is dangerous. It's dangerous for us personally wise counsel doesn't just help you see options. It helps make sure that what you're seeing, what you believe about the situation is grounded in truth. There's another parable too. It's Luke 16 verses one through 13, the parable of the shrewd manager. It's an unusual story in the Bible. It's one of those hard things to deal with. So we have a manager who knows he's about to lose his job, so he acts quickly and strategically. He goes to the debtors of his master and cuts their bill more or less. He's making relationships. He's making friendships with people who can help him. Once he loses his job, really by, in a way, cheating his manager, his master of what he's owed. Jesus doesn't commend his dishonesty, but he does praise his shrewdness. I get that he does something that is really kind of bad. But on the other hand, he's planning for the future. And here's the principle. Stewardship isn't just about honesty. It's not about what you deserve. It's about wisdom, intentionality, and planning for the future. Jesus says in verse 10, he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much. So even in lean seasons, we're still called to be faithful. So maybe you need to maintain some of these relationships. Maybe you need to see if your debtors, uh, will, uh, will pay quicker if they get a discount. Maybe you need to say, Hey, I cannot pay. This much money, but I can pay this. Will you accept this for now while we're going through this lean season? Uh, some of this might mean that we need to cut programs that aren't necessarily aligned with, with what our vision, what is required for our business, for our lives, those nice to haves that we don't really need, redistributing time, energy, or staff towards what produces true fruit. Saying no to good things can help you protect the best things. Being strategic, making those strategic decisions isn't unspiritual, it's stewardship. Sometimes we have to give up some of those programs, some of those actions, some of the nice to have things or things that we think, well, this could turn into something because it's not at the core of what we need to do. And we need to maintain those relationships as best we can and plan ahead of time for those hard times. Now, let's talk about Matthew chapter six, verse 33, but seek E first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Budget cuts can tempt us to lead out of fear. We can start hoarding resources, micromanaging to the nth degree. We start scrambling to survive. We start protecting some of those sacred cows. Oh, we can't lose this. I don't talk about that, but Jesus gives us a different priority. Seek first the kingdom. That means asking what decision in this most reflects God's heart and what God wants us to do. What will serve the people and advance our mission, not just preserve our comfort or the things that we're used to having? Where have we let our budget drift away from our values and from the direction that God has called us to go? When we first seek God's agenda, he takes care of the rest, and it doesn't always look how we expect it to matter of fact, it usually doesn't look how we expect it to, but God's provision follows alignment with God. Provision follows alignment. Finally, there's Exodus chapter 18, verses 13 through 26. It gives us this picture of delegation. We can't do it all ourselves. And in this set of verses, Moses is exhausted. He's handling everything, every dispute, he's answering every question, and it's just unsustainable. Jethro, his father-in-law finally comes to him seeing what is happening to Moses. He's physically falling apart, mentally falling apart. Because of that, everything around him is falling apart. And Jethro comes to him and says This, the thing that thou do is what you were doing is not good. You will surely waste away. And so Moses. He listens to Jethro and he restructures. He raises up other leaders. He delegates decisions to them, organizes resources to better serve the people. Sometimes items just need to be better managed. We need to look for those opportunities in the business world. Once I worked with this, uh, one business owner who had continually hired more staff and each member of his crew, needed a company cell phone. Right. And an iPad in order to use the software that they used to do their estimating and invoicing and billing, scheduling, all that was done electronically. And so he wanted to control the numbers so he could easily contact and know where each one of his crew members were. They could call customers, receive calls easily. And he had just constantly added and added, and added and added. And so in one afternoon, his office manager sat down as we were looking at, what are you spending this amount of money on? And he told me, and I'm like. That's too much. What are you doing? Not realizing that he had gone to the local consumer store instead of talking with the business divisions of, of this, uh, mobility company. So we got the number for the business mobility section and in about an hour and a half. He cut his billing by $3,500 a month in his mobile service and an hour and a half of calling and got all new phones and all new iPads as part of the moving, uh, his system, uh, to there into the business unit of the same mobility company that he was using just with a phone call. But what did it take? It took him, instead of him making the decisions to assign his office manager to figure out why is this costing so much and what can we do about it? Those leaders that we raise up and delegate may be the very reason why we're suffering the budget issues that we're having, why we didn't see them coming, and why we don't already have plans and how to adjust it. You know, our decision sometimes, uh. We shouldn't just think about cutting for the sake of cutting, because sometimes we need to think about sustainability, sustainability of our business, but also sustainability of our team, of those members that we need to pour ourselves into the same way that God pours into us and give them opportunities the same way that God has given us opportunities. Sometimes the most faithful decision isn't to do less with less. It's to restructure how you do things so that everyone can move forward together. So let's put this into four practical steps. Number one, anchor every decision in the vision that God has given to you, not your emotion. Budget pressure makes us emotional. It always does. You feel responsible. I. You feel that weight and you don't wanna hurt anybody. But decisions based on emotion often lead to us compromising. It may be compromising our values, it may be compromising our beliefs, or it may just be compromising on the plan that God has for us. Instead, we need to go back to the source and ask, what are we called to do? What has God clearly asked of us in this season, and where is the fruit? And where is it that we may have drifted away? Now we have to realize cutting isn't failure. Sometimes we have to do that. Sometimes we need to do that. Sometimes it's pruning so that we can have greater focus on the things that we should be focused on. Step number two, seek counsel before you slash your budget. Don't make hard decisions in isolation. Bring in financial advisors who understand the numbers. Spiritual leaders who can understand your heart and the heart behind these decision team members who understand the ground level impact. The further you are away from that frontline customer facing management decisions, the less you understand. Even if you worked there last year, two years, 10 years ago, and you understand it all, you don't always see what that impact is gonna be and ask what are we doing Just because we've always done it. What's draining resources, but producing very little fruit. How can we be faithful and efficient, not just busy because busy is not a KPI. Proverbs remind us there is safety in a multitude of counselors, but we have to bring them in and we have to listen. Step number three, prioritize kingdom value over comfort. Don't protect what makes people comfortable. Protect what fulfills the mission. Yes, it is hard to say no to good things, but good things. They can take our bandwidth. Yes, someone might be upset about it, but if something is draining resources without advancing the vision, it's time to let it go and look, if you would rather have that benefit that. Helps you as the individual then protect someone else's livelihood or the business itself. Is that person committed to your vision, to your mission? Do they share your culture and your values? Sometimes in these situations, we see what's truly at the heart of a person, what's truly in our heart, but we need to trust that God will honor. Our obedience in doing what he would have us do and making the choices that he would have us make. Step four, we need to communicate clearly and compassionately. Once the decision is made, don't disappear and definitely don't just send an email. You need to lead through it. You need to be honest, you need to be hopeful, and you definitely need to be present. Let people know why is this change happening? How was this decision made? What the plan is moving forward, and how you are caring for people in the process. Don't leave that out. People can handle hard news if they believe your heart is sincere and the mission is clear. Look. Those decisions and those conversations when you have to make a decision that ends up changing or removing someone's job, their livelihood, those are never easy. Don't let it hang around. Be honest, be upfront, be compassionate, but give people time to feel. Give people time to grieve. I. Let's be real. We have some common mistakes. Um, one, we may try to do everything with less, and this just burns our team out. It leads to mediocrity everywhere. Um, if you are trying to accomplish all the same things with five people that you did with 10. You're doing it wrong. We need to cut and cutting. Well also means focusing deeply. There's another common mistake that happens and that is holding onto our sacred cows, the things that are untouchable. Just because it's always been in the budget doesn't mean that it should be. Let your vision not tradition drive your decisions. The older the business is, the more entrenched it is, the harder this is. But you need to realize where God wants us to go is more important than the things that we've done before. So here's a question for you. What's one area of your budget or calendar that's no longer aligned with your current mission with the vision of your company? And here's your action step. I want you to schedule a one hour deep dive with your leadership team and ask those tough questions. Look at every major area and ask, is this fruitful? Is this faithful? And then start pruning. You know, early in my career, I worked for a company in, in myself, and a team of roughly 30 people did a weekly report that cost about $30,000 in man hours. And as email changed, we were able to track who was opening, who was reading, who was actually using, this email. And for one month we decided to stop actually sending the document that we were creating. That costs $30,000 each week to do$30,000 in man hours Every week is what it costs to put this document up. And in the email it simply said, if you receive this email and this. Report is valuable to you. Just reply to this email and we will send you the report, and for an entire month, nobody replied. We got to a meeting and it came time to go over that report to give our little five minute segment of a summary of what that report had been for each week during the last month. We said, oh, by the way, we didn't send this to anybody for the last month, and nobody responded. Does anybody see value in this report? And literally one of the, well, we've done this for years, we've always received this report. And I said, is it worth$30,000 a week to you? And the people around the room are looking at each other. It had no value. And yet we were spending $30,000 every week to create a report that nobody uses. Now, I'm not gonna say in your business that you're gonna find that level of something that needs to be pruned, but you will find something that needs to be pruned. And when you do. You need to start pruning. Look, budget cuts are painful resource decisions. They're tough, but they don't have to be panic driven with prayer. With the right counsel and with clarity around the mission and vision that God has called you to do, you can lead through lean times with peace. And with purpose. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Lead 10. If you are ready to unlock your leadership potential, I've got two resources just for you. First, I want you to take the LION LAMB Leadership assessment. It's a quick, powerful self-assessment. 20 questions to help you discover how you lead your dominant leadership style. How to balance that courage. With compassion to lead the way that Jesus did, it's totally free. It takes just a few minutes. Head to lionlambleader.com. Take that assessment and see how well what you're doing and the decisions that you're making match with the way that Jesus taught us to lead. And if you're hungry for more depth. I'd love for you to grab your copy of Lead Like The Line, serve like the Lamb. It's packed with real world insights, practical tools to help you lead boldly and serve faithfully. Look, whether you're leading a team, a company, or just your family. You know, just, just this week someone told me this is really a couple's book, not a business book to them, that's what it is. But I know it. It can provide great value for you and your family and those that you lead. Until next time, keep leading with heart, with conviction and with great purpose, and I'll see you next time.