The Cost of Running BiblicalTraining

BiblicalTraining is providing world-class educational resources for the training of the church, especially its leaders and it does so at virtually no cost to the user. Certificates have a minimal charge, and the seminary-level Institute classes are free. The site is one of the most efficient uses of financial resources to train the church, and it is making a sizable impact in the lives of many people.

Income

We have relied on free-will offerings by our users, and have been thankful for those that give. About 1.5% of our users give, and the vast majority give a one-time gift of approximately $10.

But even with our shoe-string budget, there has never been a time when our staff was fully paid. We generally receive $7000 a month, which is a little less than half of what we need. As a result, some of the staff has to work part-time elsewhere and BiblicalTraining's work does not get done.

Despite the challenges, we are deeply convinced that the Lord has called us to this task, and we have seen his hand move on frequent occasions. Our prayer is that God's heart will move you to become involved and help us carry the mission of BiblicalTraining forward to the next level.

Expenses

Monthly costs: $14,976.

The cost to create a class is approximately $5,000

Our goal is to tape teachers in a live class setting. In normal situations, this means that we cover the cost of recording and the professor donates the lectures. The cost of the actual recording averages $500 per class (shipping the recording equipment, buying supplies, paying a student to oversee the taping, etc.).

The lectures need to be edited and outlines created for each lecture. This takes roughly four times as long as the actual lecture. For example, a 30 hour lecture series takes 120 hours of editing and writing time, which amounts to approximately $2,500.

If the teacher agrees to create a set of summary lectures for our Institute curriculum, this amounts to another $2,000.

While we have found teachers to be more than willing to give us lectures, some schools have a policy that prohibits recorded classes to be used elsewhere. In these situations, and when we want a specific course created for Biblical Training, we pay the teacher the equivalent of a summer school class for taping the lectures. Often the teachers object, wanting to do the work for free, but the laborer is worthy of his hire, and often teachers need the extra income. This averages an additional $3,000 per class.

Current Financial Challenges

Here are our financial challenges

• The staff have been seriously underpaid, or not paid at all when donations have dropped.
• We do not have the resources to let more people and ministries know about our resources.
• We are hampered at every turn with inadequate programming resources.
• We desperately need help formulating and implementing a fund raising system.

To complement and improve on the content we already offer, we see a great need to offer classes focusing on Ministry Skills, specifically in the areas of interpersonal communication, elder training, and worship team participation. Other classes that would add an alternative perspective to classes we already offer would be a great resource for people as they study. We have quality professionals willing to do these and other classes for us, but we lack the resources to make it happen.

It is time to take a serious look at our business plan and to make some hard decisions about how to become sustainable.

More Information

For summaries of our past financials, please click here.

For additional organizational information and to view our Form 990s, see our page at GuideStar.