Common Mistakes Made In Church Financing

By Della Monroe


The church has always been known as place of worship; however, this place of worship does not run on its own but rather requires money to keep it going. Due to poor management, there have been various incidences where churches finances have been mismanaged which consequently raise doubts on the reliability of these institutions. In order to avoid such mistakes in church financing, there are some things one ought to keep in mind for a smooth running of this institution.

Lacking vision is one common mistake leaders make as one can go nowhere without a vision; there ought to be a vision to have a mission. In this aspect, churches should be managed as a business whereby there are financial plans and a laid out plan that is agreed by the congregation in order to have the support from every member in pushing these goals forward and realizing them.

Churches also make the mistake of working without a margin. The margin between the revenue and the expenditure must be reasonable enough. It is impossible to have a successful management if the developments envisioned by these churches depends solely in the Sunday offerings. They must make an extra effort to get other sources of income.

Previously, there have been cases where churches fail to ask for financial boost from the congregation for the fear of misinterpretation that may put off some members. This is because of the many instances where churches have been accused for using religion as a cover up to steal and fleece its congregation. Even so, true believers are reasonable and therefore would want what is good for the church which is why they will not have a problem contributing as long as it serves for the good of everyone.

Churches fail to show their congregation the benefits they are getting from their contributions. In most churches, people only give money but they do not get to benefit so with time they lose the morale to contribute. The leaders are therefore asked to come up with ways in which they can show the main financial contributors that their efforts are not in vain.

Moreover, even with people being willing to give, it is unfair to keep them contributing every time; instead, they should contribute in buying things that are needed and in making necessary developments. Otherwise, there might be a breach of trust and as a result people will slowly lose their motivation to the initial visions they made and agreed upon.

Just like in running other businesses, churches tend to also make the mistake of getting themselves deep in debt in the name of wanting to make development in order to keep up with the ever advancing world especially technology-wise. With this, all contributions made only end up in settling these debts which stagnants developments.

The best way to go about handling churches finances is handling them like one would do for a business; for this, the people chosen in the committee to handle finances should be qualified in this field in order to ensure they are competent enough to account every single expenditure and can make decisive decisions in handling these finances.




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