WHAT STRESSES ME THE MOST SOMETIME EVERY YEAR
The picture above recently was posted by several pastors, ranging from mega-church pastors to small church pastors. Only a pastor can truly understand! I want to share with you what stresses me about this time every year. Since I founded Back To The Basics Ministries in July 2009 and we started airing A Fresh Start TV Program the first week of November 2009, to keep the program on air, we needed at least $187.50 per week to keep it on air on WVLR Knoxville. When the program began airing on WTWV Memphis in February 2012, that’s another $200.00 per week, so it costs $387.50 a week to air A Fresh Start each week. That amounts to $20,150.00 per year. If I had the money to air the program without help from others I would do it. But, I don’t have an additional $20,150.00 a year to do so nor the additional $1000.00 needed for taping, editing, and producing 4 new programs of A Fresh Start. Our goal is to produce at least 24 new programs per year but we have been receiving enough funds to do 12-16 per year. That is why we repeat every program at least two times or more in a year’s time.
This time of the year, the summer months, are the lowest point of the year for non-profit organizations as far as donations. But, expenses do not lessen during the summer but are what they are the rest of the year. That is what stresses me the most every year around this time. Since the ministry formation in July 2009, we have never been late on paying a bill, and we have been able to have enough funds in hand at all times to know that we can pay for the next month’s expenses. But, sometimes we make it “by the hair of our chinny, chin, chin!”
Usually around this time every year, I have to consider the possibility of canceling A Fresh Start on one of the two stations on which we air the program. On WTWV we pay for two airings per week, but the station manager airs the program another 3 or 4 times a week for free. That is almost unheard of today! But, the donations from the Memphis area amount to about 70% of what is needed to air the program on WTWV. Donations in the Knoxville area cover the amount needed to pay the air costs plus help to tape 8 or more new programs of A Fresh Star each year. Even with the “unheard of” free airings on WTWV Memphis, that is where I would need to cancel the program for awhile (we had to do it for a few months one other time before) since donations locally are less than needed for air time.
The positive side of this is that the Lord has used friends and supporters of Back To The Basics Ministries like you to get us through. I am amazed how, through you, the needed financial gift at just the right time comes through. THANK YOU, for allowing the Lord to use you to be a blessing to me, BTTBM, and the ones who are reached for Christ through A Fresh Start.
You can send a tax-deductible donation to: Back To The Basics Ministries; P.O. Box 32486; Knoxville, TN 37930 or donate online by going to www.drbobbymullins.com, click on the Donate link, and follow the instructions.
Blessings To You,
Bobby Mullins
Executive Director, Back To The Basics Ministries, Knoxville, Tennessee
Pastor, Fellowship Baptist Church, Hernando, Mississippi
“Keep in the Word, on your knees, loving God, loving each other, building godly homes, worshiping together, sharing the faith, supporting the Lord’s work financially, living life abundantly”