Budget Categories
1. General Authorities and Administration — Overall pastoral leadership and management of the Universal Church of the Restoration. This includes producing our weekly online services, leading and/or overseeing small groups and prayer team, outreach/networking, responding to correspondence, promoting the church and its teachings through blogging and social media, and essential corporate and administrative tasks. Initially, all of these functions will be performed by founding Pastor Eric Stetson. As more resources become available, general staff of the UCR will be expanded.
2. Evangelism — The main focus of this category will be targeted online advertising to promote the church’s website, online services, articles, etc. Advertising may take the form of keyword search ads on Google, boosted posts on Facebook, and promoted tweets on Twitter. Target audiences/demographics for ads will be carefully selected and refined based on performance. As the church grows and sufficient funds become available, this category will likely expand into professional-quality content creation (teaching booklets, videos, etc.), translation of existing content into foreign languages, and missionary work.
3. Congregational Development — Church planting in local areas, including for ministry team, music, meeting space, etc. The first congregation will be located in the Washington D.C. area and led by Pastor Eric Stetson. Other congregations will be planted based on membership growth and identification/training of suitable leaders in other locations. Specific funds or fundraising campaigns may also be initiated locally to supplement funding provided by the UCR. As they mature, congregations will become distinct legal entities under the umbrella of the UCR, which will maintain oversight authority according to an episcopal polity with Pastor Stetson as presiding Bishop of the church.
4. Investment for Charitable Programs — The Universal Church of the Restoration will maintain an investment portfolio, the profits of which will be used to provide educational scholarships, rental assistance, health care subsidies and debt forgiveness, and meaningful employment to church members in need. Such programs will be developed based on working models of successful churches and charities, as well as creative new approaches to poverty alleviation.
Allocation of Resources
All four categories described above will be funded no matter the total budget of the church, even in early years when income will likely be small. However, the percentage allocation to each category will depend on how much income in total is being received. Category 1 will be prioritized over Category 2, which will be prioritized over Category 3, and so on. The long-term goal is that Category 4 should ultimately be the largest portion of the UCR’s overall budget. Initially, it will be the smallest, so that essential personnel, growth and development can be sufficiently funded.
Salaries of ministers and staff will be kept low, so that the church’s charitable impact can be maximized. Work will be fairly rewarded, if possible — our church is committed to the principle of paying a living wage.
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