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.

In this, there must be a working margin whereby there are details of church revenue and expenditures on the financial plan that are reasonable. Also, depending solely on offerings made on Sundays is not very reason and therefore the management may consider looking more ways to generate income for more development and a smooth running of this place of worship.

There are churches that fear asking money from their congregation due to the various speculations that have been running around of churches that are only running for financial benefits. As much as this might be true, this should not deter one from requesting the congregation to contribute in realizing the vision of these institutions as it is for their own good and benefit.

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.

In addition to this, asking too much can be nagging and should be avoided as running all these project might lead to breaching of trust. As imperative as these developments may be, this should first be a place of worship and the rest should follow otherwise this may be perceived as a business which is an image that churches should not portray.

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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