Over the years, I have kept coming back to the words of Edwin Friedman: "Stress comes less from overwork than from taking responsibility for the problems of others." We can adapt these words for church finance: "Stress comes less from money challenges than from taking responsibility for the money problems of others." So often pastors end up carrying the anxiety for church finances. Who is staying awake at night? It's often the pastor, although I talked recently with a church treasurer who was losing sleep over whether there would be enough money in the account to pay the bills. In fact, the potential shortfall does not belong to the treasurer but to the church, but the treasurer is the one who was carrying all the anxiety.

Family systems theory includes the idea of overfunctioning and underfunctioning, where some take too much responsibility, and others do not take enough responsibility. There's something of a dance between the two, a balance that gets created. In church finance, perhaps ...