Financial accountability in Christian ministry

"We're all Christians, right? We trust each other with [name of ministry]'s money, so we don't need to worry that one of our leaders will misuse the money."

That sentiment can definitely be found in many Christian ministries today. However, this is not a good practice, as it is not good stewardship of the resources that God has given to us. I have not been in Christian ministry long enough to tell horror stories, or to give a complete argument of why this is the case. However, with this blog I hope to give three compelling reasons why financial accountability is necessary in Christian ministry.

1. Being above reproach.

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. (1 Timothy 3:1-7 NIV)

What does it mean to be above reproach? Thesaurus.com gives me the following synonyms: blameless, guiltless, having clean hands, inculpable, irreproachable, scrupulous, sinless.

Generally, I have taken it to mean avoiding any connection with evil, so that you cannot be honestly accused of any wrongdoing. Such accusations can destroy your reputation, as well as that of Upper Room, and hurts God’s reputation as well. One recent example is the presidential campaign of Herman Cain, who was accused of sexual misconduct. I do not know if the accusations are true or not; that is irrelevant to this discussion. The accusations caused people to wonder about his personal integrity, and caused his approval ratings to drop. He was forced to end his presidential campaign, even though he denied that the rumors were true.

But if we are truly above reproach, then the accusations will not stick at all. We can easily defend ourselves, and move on. (Excerpted from the Upper Room PR handbook)

Keeping clear financial records and performing simple measures that keep everyone financially accountable help to keep a ministry financially above reproach. That way, everyone who gives voluntarily to a ministry knows that their money is being used for the Lord's work, not for personal financial gain (with the obvious exception of honest and fair compensation for paid ministry employees).

2. Because we are human.

It happens all the time: people make mistakes. People miscount, or do arithmetic errors, or forget to allocate money somewhere, etc. Sometimes the most careful people catch the error, but sometimes it takes another person to find the error. It is difficult to do something like this without detailed financial records.

3. Because anyone can pretend to be a Christian.

Unfortunately, these people exist. They say the right things, are in the right places at the right times, and thus get promoted into high-caliber leadership positions, even though their hearts are not in the right place.

One example is Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' original twelve disciples. While we can be sure that Jesus knew Judas' real motives (John 6:70), the other disciples were quite fooled, all the way to the Last Supper (Luke 22). People were giving money to Jesus' ministry (Luke 8:3), and yet Judas was stealing some of it:

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. (John 12:4-6 NIV)

Unfortunately, these people existed then (also see Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5) and exist now. If you are not careful, this could happen in your organization; even if you are careful, people can be led astray: 

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV)

Because financial matters are a source of temptation in ministry, we need to treat them like we do in other dangerous areas of ministry, taking the appropriate safeguards to protect what others have given so that God's kingdom can be established on earth.

The devotional at http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/judas-was-the-treasurer was helpful for finding some of the verses mentioned above.