1 of 4

Despite a booming economy that shows little or no signs of a slowdown, American churches are suffering from the lowest giving base in the nation's history since 1956.

Financial experts cite various reasons for why people are giving less to churches, including poor giving habits and lack of teaching on stewardship. Others say people are giving less because they've lost confidence in how the church handles money. Sloppy bookkeeping, unwise investments, overborrowing, and other evidences of poor money management are taking their toll.

Churches can win back the confidence of givers by becoming better money managers. Here are suggestions from various professionals on how to become a money-wise church.

Each year, J. Lyndon Johnson, president of Johnson Mortgage Services in Cincinnati, Ohio, reviews approximately $150 to $200 million in church loans. "With all of the churches I have helped with conventional loans or refinancing, one thing is common," he says. "Pastors are some of the worst financial managers I have ever dealt with. If I were to ask most pastors for church records, the chances are good they would hand me their checkbook."

That inadequacy usually affects how the church handles finances. Johnson says he receives calls from six to nine churches a day looking for financing, but few can provide reliable records. "In some cases, church bookkeeping hasn't changed in 40 years," he says.

One reason pastors lack financial acumen is that they were never educated in such matters. "Pastors are not trained to think financially," says Bob Welch, associate professor of administration at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Texas. Pastors aren't pleased with the inadequacy, however. According to Welch, the results of a recent poll among Southwestern alumni showed that 80 percent of the respondents expressed a desire to take church administration courses.

To be truly effective with its finances, a church should have a business core group that makes its key financial decisions, says Tom Bethel, vice president of the not-for-profit business group of the Atlanta-based Bank of America.

"A successful business has a core group working with the owner or owners," says Bethel. "That group usually includes a lawyer, an accountant, and a banker. Why should a church be any different? In a very real sense, the pastor of a church is the CEO of his company."

What makes this CEO's job difficult is that volunteers often take care of the church's financial records, Bethel says. Frequently those volunteers are not trained in giving financial advice. In addition, committees that handle church finances are comprised of people who serve only a few years. When their term is up, new people must learn the system. "If churches are going to operate this way, they should build systems so that new people coming in won't let things fall through the cracks," Bethel says.

Bethel's biggest challenge with churches is getting them to take a professional approach to finances. "If you don't have bankers and CPAs in a congregation, hire them," he says. "Get your books audited."

next page... |  1 of 4

share this page