Читать книгу Removing the Mysteries about Church Finance - Jerry L. Johnson - Страница 11

1. How to frame an organizational problem

2. What happens when accounting loses track

3. All systems in an organization must work in harmony, constantly

4. Features of a dying enterprise

5. The role of money

BACKGROUND: Once upon a time, the church was fully operational, built about twenty years prior. It was a complete campus containing the following:

a. Church building with a 1000 seat worship center, classrooms and offices.

b. Church school with grades 1-12

c. Lunchroom, serving hot meals for all students

d. Gymnasium for all type indoor sports

e. Maintenance building for bus and campus maintenance

f. Parsonage on a thirty-acre campus with athletic fields and other outdoor activities

g. Staff consisted of senior pastor, associate pastor, administrative personnel, and a full slate of school staff

h. An additional fully furnished house gifted to the church

The situation of the church as described by the senior pastor was:

Behind on bills

Giving had declined

Attendance had declined

Cash in advance basis with suppliers

A growing malaise in the membership

Committees and workshops were lackluster

Maintenance and appearances have been ignored

Needed maintenance was lacking on buildings, grounds, and buses

Problems and Symptoms

The problems of a church are man-made, they have their origin in the actions, thoughts and plans of people. It may be that people misunderstand God’s guidance and go off on their own; that happens. What we will explore in this book are problems that did not need to be. In looking at this objectively, before attempting to identify problems, one must review the decision-making processes that were used to get to this point.

Problems can have multiple dimensions. The “presenting” problem, especially if the situation is systemic, is usually not the root of the main issue. What is identified at first is symptoms even though often they must be dealt with before going on. There were several obvious problems but in order to do anything about them, the specifics had to be established.

1. Money was mishandled:

a. Entered in or taken out of whatever account needed it or had it.

b. People had contributed designated money to a fund to support missionaries. That money was quietly redirected to church operating expenses.

c. Missionaries had not been given the promised support for several years;

d. Nor had it been explained to the people contributing to missionary support.

e. Numerous overdraft charges from the bank.

2. The church hosted an annual multi-church jamboree early in the year with hundreds of people coming. There were many guest preachers, speakers and music groups.

a. The expense of this was scattered throughout various bookkeeping accounts. Income from this event was also scattered through various accounts.

b. Some expense was recorded as income and some income as expense. No way to determine the financial outcome without major research (which was accomplished with a colleague).

3. People, both staff and church members, were making commitments and expecting the church to pay for them. The bills would come in and often there was no indication of who made the commitment.

4. There was a steady pattern of guest speakers who were promised a specific honorarium plus offering. Some were hugely inspirational speakers, but even they were falling well short of paying for themselves. These were enjoyable events, even uplifting for many, but not affordable or even scheduled well. If it is so inspirational, people will support it!

5. Offerings were at an all-time low. Attendance was averaging well under 200, consistently much lower than the average of the past few years. This church was designed for attendance five times larger.

6. The infrastructure of the entire campus had deteriorated with no plan in place for extensive repairs.

The first step in the critical journey that commenced that day was seeking God’s will that my understanding would be clear, and decisions would be proven. Big order for any undertaking, and this would be no different. As we go through this financial problem with this church, I will show the steps applied. I described the steps to the church leaders and the results were measurable. Results that are not measurable are not necessarily repeatable. Achieving levels of excellence requires both repeatable results, and clearly understanding that you are getting the right results. As the saying goes, you must do the right things, right.

Negotiating Bills

1This index lists over 5900 incidences of negotiations throughout the Bible covering more than a dozen categories. Keep in mind that negotiations have been a part of life throughout scripture and churches often need to avail themselves rather than docilely accepting what is presented to them. I will show how negotiation benefitted this church. The following scripture illustrates the power of negotiation.

In Joshua 2:14, we see negotiations with lives at stake. “And the men answered her, "Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee."

I called the electric power company.

“You are 60 days overdue on your electric bill,” straight to the punch line.

“Your current overdue balance is $6800.“

“Can I put you on our prayer list?” I asked.

“Of course, but we still need payment,” the lady said.

“Can I pay part of it now and the remainder next week?”

“How much can you pay now?”

“Maybe 500.” Only $6300 shy.

“Let me check.” A few minutes later, she came back with “OK but I have to have a bank account, routing number and check number right now.” This indicates a level of trust that has to be changed.

We committed to the five-hundred-dollar payment in order to keep the lights on. Then we had to find out how much money was available in the bank, how many checks were still out, before paying any more bills. There were bills automatically withdrawn directly from the bank. We learned which vendors didn’t trust the church to mail their payment; think about how that would make you feel. However, that is better than being on a cash-in-advance arrangement, which was the case with some vendors who had their payment unreasonably delayed.

Invoices were separated into stacks of pay now, put off a week, put off two weeks or longer. The ones that were designated pay now were essential services: electricity, water, and septic pumping. Here’s the financial situation when it was finally laid out:

Payables total – 151,360

Overdue payments (vendors) – 58,000

Amount overdue more than 60 days – 45,000

Amount overdue more than 90 days – 28,000

Associate Pastor back pay (prior year) – 23,000

Pastor back pay (prior year) – 3,000

Past due to electric company – 6,800

Past due to telephone company – 1,100

Consolidated credit card payment – 55,000 (1,800 ACH monthly)

Mortgage payment – 91,156 (950 ACH monthly)

Equipment (copier) payment – 800(monthly)

Special program debt – 4,900

Church Salaries

These consisted of five full-time employees, and several part-time. These were paid but usually late by a month, or more.

Insurance

The vehicle insurance for church owned vehicles was overdue. It was periodically cancelled, then reinstated after payment. The church offered health insurance to employees on a shared cost basis. The church paid half and the employee paid the other half plus coverage for other members of their family if they elected. This was overdue and at the cancellation point; had been regularly cancelled then reinstated.

Mortgage

There was a mortgage on a house deeded to the church free and clear several years earlier. The church took out a loan (rather, a series of loans that was converted to the mortgage) of $100,000 to pay salaries and current bills; $91,156 was currently owed. This payment, $950 a month, was one of the automatic direct payment; a payment arrangement required by the bank.

Direct Payment

The automatic direct payment caused its own problems. On the due date, the creditor would make a demand to the bank account, and when the full amount was not in the account, an “over-drawn” action was issued, with costly penalties (churches are not exempt on this).

Credit Cards

The church had about $55,000 in consolidated credit card bills. The credit cards were destroyed. The monthly payment for this was $1800 and it was another automatic direct payment.

Copier

A copier had been leased under contract a couple of years previously but then it was decided that specific copier was too expensive to operate. The copier was disposed of, but the contract still required payment. Balance owed was $9600. Payment was over two months behind. It had extensive features and capability.

Outreach Program

An outreach program had been started several years earlier with everyone involved being put on a salary. Volunteers ran it for a time then lost interest, but the program continued with paid staff. It still had outstanding obligations, several telephone lines, credit card balances of $4900, and continuing advertising bills. It occupied a suite of offices with extensive equipment, but the volunteers were not there. It was not clear whether the program was currently serving anyone or not, but it was still being paid for. It was unclear whether anyone benefited from the program. Records were vague. Section 18 shows how to evaluate a proposed new program, and how to close it out when it is no longer relevant.

Telephone

The telephone company intermittently cut off phone service. One department would send a runner to the church office when their direct line was disconnected. That usually meant all lines were off. A cell phone was used to call the telephone company to find out about the phones. The bill was indeed overdue, and the service had indeed been cut off.

“Would you like to pay your bill at this time?” A polite voice inquired. No, but there seemed to be no other feasible choice.

“Can I pay part of it now and the remainder in a few days?”

“How much can you pay now?”

Since the whole bill, including last month’s bill, was $1100, I asked about just paying only for the last month. They allowed that.

City Water

City water was cut off the day my volunteer mission began. I hand carried a check to the city water department to get the water back on.

Septic Tanks

One septic tank was backed up and another required weekly pumping. There was no humor to be found here. Pumped weekly at $200 each.

Air Conditioning

Out of a bank of seventeen air conditioning units cooling the main building, three worked. The sanctuary was close to insufferable on Sunday morning, but the response was always “we’re getting it fixed this week.” The fans worked but, there was hardly any cool air. It gave a new meaning to hot sermons. It was to be a long hot summer.

It would have been even longer, and hotter, if the electric company had really turned the power off, but they didn’t. The church was technically in default, unable to meet the obligations that it had incurred. Hour by hour each day I checked to see how much money was available to use. The financial issues were the obvious problems, but the real issue was much deeper.

To gauge how information was passed, I asked various people in the church, “What’s going on with the church finances?” Some of their responses were:

“What do you mean?”

“Is something going on?”

“Seems like repairs are not being done; gets awful hot sometimes.”

“I don’t know but I guess the deacons know.”

“I don’t know.”

“The pastor knows about it.”

“We leave that up to the deacons. They will handle it.”

The real answer seemed to be they did not know what was going on and were not trying hard enough to find out. I will come back to this throughout this book but here is a clue: withholding information does not work and neither does ignoring problems until they become almost beyond recovery. Ignoring a problem produces the same result as denying that there is a problem. The tipping point may be closer than you think. A condition that exists over time creates a trend, and trends can be measurable. But first, the problem must be identified, framed and a plan of action formed.

Too often though, symptoms are identified and “corrected” so that the illusion of effectiveness is maintained. This will lure the church into greater difficulty. It is much like attempting to cure measles one pimple at a time. This church was at the tipping point. Is the root of problems facing this church lack of resources, including shortage of money, or a Spiritual one?

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1 Dictionary of Bible Themes Scripture index copyright Martin H. Manser, 2009. As Editor, Martin Manser wishes to thank all those who compiled or edited the NIV Thematic Study Bible, on which this work is based.