I was part of an interesting Facebook discussion yesterday about church treasurers. A question was raised about how a church can have accountability with its treasurer. Several people suggested having a regular audit of the books, and others pointed out that often leads to treasurers being offended by their perception of people not trusting them. One pastor told how their small church lost three primary families when an audit was suggested for the books. In my pastorate we lost two families partly because I made a suggestion that would have eliminated a financial officer whose work was redundant. They perceived my suggestion as a statement of my distrust of the individual, and no matter how much I tried to explain my position they were not satisfied.
The vast majority of church treasurers are honest people who often protect the church's money more closely than their own. However, anyone can make a mistake. Who hasn't overdrawn a checking account because of a mistake? The most honest treasurer may be inept. One church learned their treasurer had not balanced the checkbook in years, and when that individual stepped down it cost the church a lot of money and time to go back and bring the accounting current. No one would accept the position until that was done, and I don't blame them. And, unfortunately, there are a few who are dishonest.
We need to remember that we are dealing with God's money. People have given their tithes and offerings to the church in the belief that they will be used for the ministry of the church. It is an act of stewardship on the part of the church to ensure those funds are properly accounted for and used for the purposes for which they were given. It is also an integrity issue. I speak to numerous pastors who have not seen their church's financial statement in years and claim they cannot get the treasurer to produce one. That is unacceptable. In a situation like that I would either have a copy of the statement or a new treasurer regardless of how many families the church lost. In the small, bivocational church which I pastored we had a treasurer and a financial secretary who produced a four page financial statement for every business meeting. I have never seen such a detailed statement in any church I have visited, and when one read the statement there was no question that every dollar given and spent had been accounted for. We left copies of the statement on a table in our entrance so anyone attending our church could pick up a copy and see how we handled our finances. We wanted complete transparency. For our church it was a stewardship and an integrity issue. There were no trust issues with either our treasurer or financial secretary; they were some of the most honest people I have ever known, but we wanted to be completely open with our finances and they were not afraid of being transparent with their records.
However, I also know that asking for the financial records of a smaller church can sometimes lead to hurt feelings and loss of members. What I suggested in yesterday's discussion is that between treasurers is a good time for a church to develop a policy that would require an annual audit of the books and an additional audit any time a treasurer resigns. This does several things. It establishes the audit as part of the expectations of the position. Anyone accepting that responsibility knows ahead of time that an annual audit by an outside firm will be done. In case of problems, it protects the outgoing treasurer from any allegations of misconduct, and it assures the incoming treasurer that everything is correct before he or she assumes responsibility. Finally, it assures the church and anyone interested in the workings of the congregation that everything is being done openly and with integrity.
Good systems in place with documented policies can protect a church in so many ways. If your church does not have such a policy in place, talk to your treasurer and ask his or her feelings about an audit policy. Explain how it will protect him or her from allegations of wrong-doing. If you are not comfortable with such a discussion, at least implement such a policy in between treasurers. If the treasurer opposes such a policy, you may want to keep a closer eye on the books. A good rule of thumb might be that the more angry the treasurer gets over your suggestion the more apt it is he or she is hiding something. It may be that the loss of a family over such a policy might be a small price to pay to assure financial integrity.
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