The church's first squabble was over finances, and ever since, pastors have wrestled with what role to take in church money matters. They are trained and called, as those early church leaders put it, for "prayer and the ministry of the word" (Acts 6), yet ensuring wise management and distribution of church funds is also essential to a church's health.

What is the pastor's role in the financial process? How close to the money should the pastor be?

To find out, LEADERSHIP editors Kevin Miller and Marshall Shelley went to Hartford, Connecticut, a center of insurance and finance, and talked with four experienced pastors:

-Stanley Allaby, who has ministered for thirty years at Black Rock Congregational Church in Fairfield, Connecticut, and serves on the boards of the National Association of Evangelicals and Sudan Interior Mission.

-Ed Hales, pastor of First Baptist Church, Portland, Maine, who served as stewardship director for the Baptist General Conference ...