How church's finances should work

KJV 1 Corinthians 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? 10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

In other words, the ox plows seeing the good grain, and he partakes of the same. The minister should not be restricted and starved economically.

We should do everything in an open and honest way, setting an example of honesty in all things

Romans 12:17b Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

This principal should be simple to understand and implement for Christians, but in reality, it is seldom practiced in most churches. The most clearest outworking of this biblical principle is the following:

(1) All income is publicly disclosed.
(2) All expenses is publicly disclosed, included details of any and all transactions that are major expenses.
(3) All recompense is disclosed, especially for the pastoral staff, and those who handle the money.

(1) All income is publicly disclosed.

Basically the limits that guide us here are that we do not want to "do our alms before men" Matthew 6:1, therefore, the income should be disclosed, and the basic source (tithes and offerings, income from sales of anything, or anything charged for, income from the sale of property, etc.). The actual donor probably should not be revealed if we follow this principle of Matthew 6:1, although as a church seeking honesty before all, ALL income should be disclosed in general terms, i.e. where they got the money from, such as tithes and offerings, etc. We should also very thoroughly think through the modern United States system of charitable receipts. On the one hand it may help many Christians with their taxes, but that is not necessarily a biblical thing, less a biblical mandate. In order to give charitable receipts, the church must record the actual income of individuals, and this would seem to go directly in the face of Matthew 6:1.

Another point of difficulty with offering envelopes that disclose the source of income is that all too often, the pastor has access to these records either directly or by conversation with the person who maintains these records. This is very often a point of abuse by the pastor. He gives preferential treatment to big tithers, treats them so as not to offend them, and those who are not big tithers, he treats in a lesser way. I have personally been privy to situations where the pastor has disclosed to members his knowledge of their tithing records.

We should offset all of this with a concluding point on this matter. If we consider Hebrews 13:7,17 as giving the pastor the right and burden of individual care of his flock, then the pastor should correct what is wrong in his people. This includes giving problems. The only way he would know this in a particular person's situation is if he IS LET PRIVY to this information, or if he asks directly the person, which most likely will not usually yield a good perspective of their situation.

Having dealt with all kinds of pastors, literally 1,000's of them over the years, I have to warn people that there are some in the ministry who very clearly would get income for the church from sources and divert it to their own personal benefit without anyone else in the church knowing of their sly dealings. For example, I know from first hand information that a certain pastor passed a vote in his church to give $500 a month to the Moral Majority (in his own state) from their missions giving, and this money was deposited into a special bank account he and another pastor controlled. I asked him about it (how it was spent), and he openly told me that they both deposit $500 a month from their missions funds, and once a year both of their families go off to an expensive resort hotel on an island "to discuss the politics of their state". That is how it is spent 100%. Each of them gets half, and that is how it is spent. Nothing else "political" was done with the money.

In another situation, I arrived at a church to present my ministry in Mexico. Our arrangement with the pastor was that they are a struggling church, and they had great financial problems, and that he would let me come, but I was to get whatever comes in the special offering at the end of the service they would take up for me. Nothing more. The last missionary got only $20. I presented my ministry, and the pastor told me to greet the people with him at the rear door, standing in front of the usher with the plate. He placed me there, and it made me very uncomfortable. But I saw with my own eyes several $20's and some $10's in the plate in front of me. There were 2 other ushers with plates at other doors. The pastor went with the ushers to count my offering. He returned, and while standing there waiting for me to finish packing my slide projector, an elderly woman came up and said that she was in the nursery and couldn't get up to put her check in the offering, but she had heard my presentation and sermon over the P.A. system. She handed me a check for $50, and asked how to make it out. The pastor took the check, looked at it, and said to write it out to the church. She did, gave it to the pastor, turned and left. The pastor looked at the check again and put it in his pocket. He then gave me a check for $30. I looked puzzled and he said that her check was included in the church's check to me. Why a pastor would want to rob money from a missionary, I do not know. But I do understand why they had financial problems with a pastor that was up to those kinds of dealings.

Very simply put, churches should have a system in place and functioning whereby income is clearly channeled into the church's general fund and then distributed, or else directly given to outside organizations or individuals. This system should be clear and announced and explained to the people so that they will have confidence when they give.

(2) All expenses is publicly disclosed, including details of any and all transactions that are major expenses.

There is no reason why the expenses of the church should not be open and public knowledge, at least to all members of that church, and especially to every man who is in the leadership and service of that church (assistant pastors, elders, and deacons). This principle of Romans 12:17 is clear. Anything that is not clear and "above board", breaks this principle of God.

More tricks and treats I have seen

One of the tricks that many pastors and ministers do is to give themselves income "on the sly". In other words, the church votes on their salary, or the deacons, or whatever, and then they arrange income outside of what they are publicly supposed to have. (See the example above of the Moral Majority as a mission's cause.) Often the church sees one figure (the lowest possible) as the pastor's income, and the pastor gets other income and benefits that are hidden from the church.

For example, pastors regularly have a book fund to purchase religious books, a gas expense account and possibly a vehicle fund. They have their home telephone and light bills paid for by the church. They have their medical insurance, retirement fund, and even their city, state, and federal taxes paid for by the church. All of these are income to them (a benefit), and should be considered together with his salary. In most cases (medical insurance excluded), any of these things would probably need to be considered as income in the pastor's yearly tax statement to the IRS also.

I have even seen and heard of (from pastors themselves) of situations where a large church ingresses $10,000 dollars per Sunday, and I ask how they decide on how the money is spent. The answer was that the pastor alone decides. No church vote on what the money is to be spent on. I suggested to a member of that church that that kind of situation lends itself to abuse, and the answer I got was that they teach them that God will chastise the pastor if he does anything wrong, and apart from that, the people, deacons, assistant pastors, elders, nobody has the right to challenge, question, or check up on the pastor.

2 Corinthians 8:21 Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

This verse clearly commands us to do things in a right, correct, and open (honest) way, not only before the Lord, but before men. We cannot excuse secret financial dealings in the realm of the church on any basis. Our honesty and openness must be public, not just before the Lord.

In one case of a Baptist church with a Christian school the pastor took money out of the church funds and bought one of his school teachers a new suit, and another a used vehicle, all with church funds, and without the church's knowledge. Word got out anyway, and a scandal mounted. Afterwards, a deacon wanted to see the books and how the pastor justified this expense of church money. The pastor refused him access to the church's books. The deacon took things to a civil court, and the pastor removed him from membership and from being a deacon, and on that basis denied him right to the church's books. Other members of the church pressured the pastor publicly to reveal all things (honesty before man and God), and they were refused also, even though they were members in good standing. The all too common situation of pastors getting rid of people who call in question their dealings, especially their financial under the table dealings is a tragedy in Christianity. Businesses do this all the time, but God's children should have nothing to do with it.

1 Peter 2:12 states that we are to have "our conversation honest among the Gentiles". This would seem to open things enough that even if the pastor was to discipline the member and excommunicate him from the church family as a "Gentile", he should still have provided information to show the propriety of the pastor's actions. See Philippians 2:15 we are to be "irreproachable".

(3) All recompense is disclosed, especially for the pastoral staff, and those who handle the money.

Very simply put, the ministers who get income should get their income on merit of their labors, and this should be open and public.

Should church ministers be paid?

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