Delegating Responsibility in the Church Office

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Pastor’s Handbook by John Bisagno (B&H, 2011):

Imagine trying to lead two million persons across a desert with no map, no food, and no water. Moses had an administrative nightmare not only in leading the Israelites and providing for their needs but also in judging them in matters of personal and national decisions. His was an impossible task.

You know the story. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, helped him get organized. The people were divided into groups, assistants were named, and the work efficiently done. Our Lord, of course, referred to Himself when He said, “On this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Yet he poured his life into developing twelve leaders who would be the human instruments through which he would do the building.

The pastor of a growing and vibrant church must learn that he cannot be a jack of all trades, make all the decisions, and do everything himself. He must have help. Staff, secretaries, deacons, teachers, and the church members comprise a large reservoir of talent and abilities. Right now there is probably someone in your congregation just waiting to help you do the job.

Your senior adults will visit shut-ins for you. A retired minister in your congregation can help visit the hospitals. Women can beautifully plan the churchwide Thanksgiving banquet and men who can build that new mission. People in your congregation know how to design ads, take surveys, handle legal work, and do a hundred other things that need to be done in a church.

But don’t delegate responsibility at random. The new member’s packet should contain, among other things, a talent survey card. Keep a master file of your people’s talents, hobbies, and occupations. When you need something done, go to that file.

A mechanic who cannot teach a lesson can repair the church bus. A carpenter who cannot give great sums of money can build bookshelves for the children’s department. A talented lady can help improve the quality of the church meals. A grocer can assist in ordering foods in quantity for weekly church meals.

When you have a job to be done—whether painting a room, following up with new members, or recruiting and training ushers—get laypeople to do it. Invite them to your office and have a heart-to-heart talk. Tell them you need them. Tell them how much you are counting on them and how important they are to the work of the kingdom.

Ask them to enlist others, oversee the job, carry it through, and give you a report when it is completed. And thank them publicly when the job is finished. Think! You’ll find an easier way and someone who can do the job. You can’t do it all, and a hundred good people are wanting and waiting to be used.

Larger churches, of course, have the luxury of being multistaffed. While some are called and paid to assist you in the work of the ministry, don’t forget the wealth of services available within the laity of the congregation.

One Sunday morning I preached on the importance of being available to God for His service. I will never forget a man who approached me.

“Pastor, I would never come forward on an invitation to be one of the crowd to say I am willing to serve,” he said, “but if you ever pick up the phone, and tell me there is something special you need me to do for the church, I will never turn you down.”

Even though you have a paid staff, give equal importance to the volunteer spirit of your people. Within the staff structure at Houston’s First were many levels of administration—directors of education, music, counseling, cleaning, school—each with a level of leaders under them who administered others within their area. One thing in common made each of these leaders effective: they were all good delegators.

Being a delegator, getting people to help and trusting them to do it, begins with a sense of personal security that rests in our security in Christ.

Insecure leaders feel the need to do everything themselves, check up on everybody, look over every shoulder, and trust no one else to get the job done.

The apostle Paul tells us our Lord is the head in heaven and we, various members of His body on earth (see 1 Cor. 12:12—20).

The beauty of the body is its diversity. As a functioning body has various organs and limbs, so the members of the body of Christ bring varying gifts and talents to the service of our Lord. So turn it loose. Let the church be the church. Let someone else do it, and trust them to get the job done. A few will disappoint you. Most will bless you.

This is particularly true within the church staff. Early in my ministry I greatly belabored the matter of checking up on my staff. Finally, I decided if I were to do my job and theirs, I might as well get paid my salary and theirs!

Make every effort to hire competent, committed, hardworking, talented people and turn them loose. Even the member of the smallest staff, whose commitment to our Lord is high, is probably capable of doing more than you imagine.

Excerpted from Pastor’s Handbook by John Bisagno (B&H, 2011). Used by permission. All rights to this material are reserved. Material is not to be reproduced, scanned, copied, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from B&H Publishing Group.

Cartoon: Pastor Hides Staff Turnover

If you need human resources materials for your church, see The 2012-2013 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, and the staff section of ChurchSafety.com cover a variety of topics specifically geared toward church staff.

Church Business Practices are a Witness—Good or Bad

Editor’s Note: Christianity Today recently reported that a church refuses to pay mortgage payments for expansion and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, even though it has the money to make its monthly payments. The president of the Association of Christian Economists thinks churches need to remember the way their actions affect others. Rich Kirkpatrick shares how church staff should remember this on a day-to-day level too, especially with how it relates to how others view the body of Christ:

After serving in ministry leadership as a paid staff member for over 20 years of my life, I have observed some very disturbing practices that go on in many church offices. These are the kind of things that we dare not whisper, because they actually are quite embarrassing. Many who work in ministry, including myself, are culpable to some degree.

Sometimes, it seems our workplace ethics stink in the local church.

The average churchgoer thinks of church as what happens each Sunday morning when the songs are raised and sermons preached. But often, the overlooked business the church conducts during the week is far from ideal.

Continue reading "Bad Business, Bad Witness" on our sister site, BuildingChurchLeaders.com.

Have you heard or experienced some of these same situations?

Wandering Church Assets

Asset tracking is part of church stewardship. Planning ministry events and activities is easier when there’s a clear list of the availability and location of church equipment. Insurance companies ask for an asset list when there’s an emergency. Audit and financial statement preparation requires this list, too.

But some assets are hard to track due to constantly being in the pockets, cars, and houses of church staff. Laptops and power adapters are often moving like this, pointed out Nick Dusenbury while participating in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability webinar “5 Hot Topics for Church Business Administrators” on November 10. Dusenbury is currently the director of finance for Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, N.C.

After using them extensively for a long time, church staff may inadvertently think small, movable pieces of church property are their own. If a power adapter is $100, and this happens ten times, that’s $1,000 of cost to the church, Dusenbury said in the webinar.

A good way to keep track of assets like this is to centralize church purchasing, receiving, and deployment. Then one consistent list can be made, instead of many lists from multiple people to be put together later.

The list can be in a spreadsheet, database, web-based tool, or on paper. If you like hand-written lists, the 2012 Church Office Planner includes a “borrowed church property list.”

Tracking assets can also help when an item breaks. The list can include information on how long the warranty lasts.

In addition to this, assets can be tagged by stickers bought at a store or by a barcode and scanner system, depending on church needs and church budget.

Keep a copy of the inventory list off-site in case the on-site inventory list is damaged in an emergency.

Q&A: Limit the Number of Church Bank Accounts

Question: Our church changes deacons and session members every three years and this question seems to come up every time there is a change in elders. About nine years ago, we had five or six checking accounts throughout the church; the church's name was attached to the accounts for these various groups. Our finance team decided to close all of these checking accounts and instead run all funds through the treasurer's office. As a result, we are constantly asked by deacons, choir leaders, and multiple groups within the church to give them their checkbooks back. What are the pros and cons of allowing groups to open up checking accounts with the church's name attached to them?

Answer: It's not surprising to hear you're getting these types of requests. At first glance, it seems the most convenient to let each group have an account so that they can tap into their budgeted money when needed. But such an approach isn't advisable. The conventional wisdom in the church finance world is for churches to limit the number of bank accounts the church uses. Ideally, a church should use only one or two. The logic is generally based upon the following five tips:

• The more accounts created, the easier it is for someone to disguise and/or mask fraudulent activity;
• The more accounts created, the more administrative work required to monitor, oversee, and reconcile accounts on an ongoing basis;
• The more accounts created, the greater the likelihood of having funds erroneously deposited or withdrawn from the wrong accounts;
• The more accounts created, the more chances created for outsiders to steal account numbers that can be used for electronic fraud;
• The more accounts created, the more checkbooks created, and the harder it will be to track and to secure blank checks.

Vonna Laue, an editorial advisor for Christianity Today International's Church Management Team and co-author of the Essential Guide to Church Finances, also advises churches to regularly check with their banking institutions to make sure groups haven't quietly opened accounts on their own. "Oftentimes, a missions committee or ministry group has obtained the tax identification number for the church and opened an account. The church is ultimately responsible for those funds and ought to make sure that none exist—or if they do, to make sure that controls are in place to oversee the activity," Laue says.

Rewriting Paterno's Playbook

On November 6, 2011, Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State defensive coordinator, was charged with molesting eight young boys between 1994 and 2009. Although he retired from Penn State’s football staff in 1999, he continued to use the school’s facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a nonprofit he founded in 1977 to assist at-risk kids.

Allegations against Sandusky range from sexual advances to touching to oral and anal sex. And even though there were some eye witness accounts of these actions that were brought to university and football staff’s attention in the course of the 15 years in question, Sandusky was never held accountable or reported to the proper authorities for suspicion of child sexual abuse.

Penn State’s scandal bears many of the same traits as clergy abuse scandals—and many similar repercussions. For instance, there are at least eight young men today who are living with the emotional scars of being sexually abused by an adult they trusted. If statistics bear out, there may well be others who were also victimized but are suffering in silence. Penn State will surely be facing years of litigation to find some way to compensate the victims and their families.

So far four Penn State employees have lost their job, and more could follow as details surface. A school’s whose reputation sparkled is now faced with the daunting task of rebuilding its reputation, and The Second Mile faces a similar task.

Given the scope of damage that’s done in a child sexual abuse case, churches would do well to learn from Penn State’s mistakes.

Abusing trust

First, like a pastor whom everyone adored, Sandusky was respected and trusted. As a coach and an advocate for children, he had earned a position of trust on and off the football field—a trust that afforded him great latitude to operate without question. In reality, he was abusing this position of trust within the school and community to prey on young boys. Who would ever suspect a college football coach of abusing a child? Especially one who devoted his time and energy to helping kids? People assumed he was above reproach.

Sex abusers know that if they can ingratiate themselves to their victims and everyone around them, they will not be suspected of wrongdoing. Earning trust is Job One for a predator. They earn trust by singling out vulnerable children and becoming their “friends.” Often, they will give a child gifts and go above and beyond by spending time with him or her to build a relationship. Through their loving actions toward the child, they will earn the respect and trust of other adults in the child’s life. Predators often will target kids who only have one parent in the home.

In Reducing the Risk: Keeping Your Ministry Safe from Child Sexual Abuse, a training curriculum for churches, author and church attorney Richard Hammar writes, “Ministries have unique features that can make them vulnerable to incidents of child molestation. They tend to be trusting and unsuspecting institutions. Even when questions are raised about a worker’s conduct, leaders may ignore the evidence rather than question the worker’s character and motives.”

This was certainly the case at Penn State. From the janitor who witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy to the allegations by a grad student who told head coach Joe Paterno that he saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy of about 10 years old in the school’s showers, Penn State coaching staff and officials had been given information that required them by law to report Sandusky to the police. And yet no one made the extra effort for the victims’ sake. Instead, they kept the secrets in-house. Accusing Sandusky of being a child molester would no doubt disrupt the whole family and create a rift on all sides. And Penn State, like a lot of churches, is one big, loyal family.

When it’s right to tell secrets
Churches, like football teams, are close-knit units that tend to operate like families, which keep secrets, often in an effort to keep the peace. Many churches mistakenly attempt to deal with sensitive matters like this internally rather than expose individuals publicly. But Penn State is a prime example of the harm that is done when we fail to give up secrets. As of the writing of this article, Paterno, school president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley, and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz all have been fired for failing to report what they knew to the proper authorities. Schultz and Curley are also being charged with perjury. Others may follow.

Pennsylvania, like every state in America, has child abuse reporting laws. These laws mandate that certain persons in positions of authority must report even a suspicion of child abuse. Depending on the state, this can include coaches, college officials, teachers, pastors, and others who work closely with children. In Penn State’s case, the individuals who had information either didn’t know of their legal obligation to report, or they knew and chose to disregard the law, In either case, their failure to report put more boys in harms’ way.

It is imperative that ministers know what the definition of reportable "child abuse" is under their state’s child abuse reporting law, whether or not they are a mandatory reporter of child abuse, and what to do if they learn of child abuse in the course of a conversation that is protected by the clergy-penitent privilege. Also, church leaders, as well as football coaches, need to know how to report child abuse. The biannual 50-state Child Abuse Reporting Laws for Churches answers all of these questions and provides a comprehensive list of each state’s laws that relates to church leaders’ reporting obligation.

Building a strong defensive line
Churches, like all organizations that run programs for kids, need to establish screening and selection procedures that ferret out potential predators and create a firewall of protection around the kids through proper supervision practices. For example, Sandusky was allowed easy access to young boys because of his longstanding reputation as a successful defensive coordinator. Nobody questioned him spending time alone with boys, or even bringing a young boy on an overnight stay. It’s doubtful that anyone ever ran a background check on him, especially since he established the foundation for at-risk youth himself.

Similarly, even after 30-plus years of clergy abuse scandals coming to light in the church, churches are still notoriously slow to implement background searches on adults who work with kids. Research from our 2008 Child Abuse Prevention Study showed that many churches still suffer from the “it’ll never happen to us” syndrome. People want to believe the best about each other, and the thought of running a faithful volunteer through a criminal background check is distasteful and awkward.

But try picturing someone assaulting your 10-year-old son. Suddenly distasteful and awkward seem like a small price to pay for keeping a child safe. Wherever children are involved, whether in a program like The Second Mile or a church’s Sunday school, special measures need to be in place to protect children precisely because they are not able to defend themselves.

When students at Penn State heard that Paterno had been fired for his part in the scandal, they stormed the streets and rioted against college officials. No one wants to see an innocent man accused of wrongdoing. And watching a football legend’s career end in such a dismal manner is heartbreaking, to be sure. If any good can come out of the Penn State scandal, it’s that Paterno stands as an example to everyone—college officials, church leaders, teachers, citizens, everyone—that child abuse should be not be ignored. It must be reported to the proper authorities, and if the first report it doesn’t result in action, then additional effort must be made. We have a moral obligation to ensure that children are protected from abuse and fully defended when it does occur. Right now, I’ll bet Paterno, and the entire faculty at Penn State, would give anything—even forfeit this undefeated season— for a chance to re-play this one.

Marian V. Liautaud is editor of Christianity Today’s church management resources, including Reducing the Risk child sexual abuse training curriculum for churches. She also serves as managing editor of GiftedforLeadership.com.

Safely Depositing Weekly Collections

A church in Centralia, Washington, lost nearly $7,000 from its weekly collections recently when a staff member accidentally left the bag containing the collected funds on top of her car and headed to the bank.

Fortunately, a man driving in this small community located about an hour south of Tacoma spotted the bag and picked it up. The man told KomoNews.com, which reported on the incident, he contacted the church and returned the funds because an honest mother and son returned his lost wallet some 40 years earlier.

"I could have done a lot with it, but I couldn't bring myself to do that," he told the outlet.

Until electronic giving and mobile giving options become the dominant methods for transactions among members and visitors, churches of all sizes will handle varying amounts of cash and checks every week. Although the risk is small, the opportunity exists for these offerings to get lost or stolen. If a weekly trip to the bank is necessary, make certain to have two people (preferably unrelated) go together during daytime business hours (in 2009, a couple was robbed while making a night deposit on behalf of a South Carolina church).

Churches also should look into remote-deposit capture technology offered by many financial institutions. A device provided by a bank will scan checks and send the information electronically; churches usually pay for the scanner and a monthly service fee based on volume.

For more help on this topic, check out Safe Ways to Handle Your Church's Money from ChurchSafety.com.

Preventing Identity Theft at Church

A church that meets in the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women says its former administrative assistant, who is also a former inmate, used volunteers’ personal information to steal 40 identities to open credit cards, according to the Des Moines Register. Social Security numbers, birth dates, and other information are required from volunteers to gain entry into the facilities. The church’s leaders believed all documents with personal information were secured.

While few churches meet in correctional facilities like this one in Iowa, this news still serves as an important reminder of the precautions leaders can take to safeguard the sensitive information about their staff and members that churches possess. Identity theft is a major issue in the United States, topping the Federal Trade Commission’s list of consumer complaints in 2010. A nationwide survey by Javelin Strategy & Research reports that 8.1 million adults in the U.S. were victims of identity fraud in 2010. The mean consumer out-of-pocket cost was $631 per incident in 2010, according to Javelin.

For churches to help protect their members from this threat, they can follow these best practices written by Richard Hammar for Creating a Church Office You Can Trust, a downloadable training resource:

• Keep confidential information in a locked, fireproof file, and give the keys to a designated person, such as the treasurer or senior pastor, depending on the nature of the records involved.
• Confidential information is often stored as files on church computers, and steps must be taken to restrict access to this data by unauthorized persons.
• Confidential information should not be disclosed to persons without a legitimate need to know.
• The church board should consider adopting a covenant of confidentiality each year. This means that board members sign a covenant agreeing not to disclose any confidential information shared during board meetings without the unanimous consent of the board.
• Pastors often maintain counseling notes or other highly confidential records, and steps must be taken to ensure the proper disposition of this information in the event of the sudden death or incapacity of the pastor.

As mentioned above, confidential information on church computers should be carefully secured. Not only should church leaders decide which church workers have access to certain computer files. They should also guard against outside individuals and groups trying to access files on church computers through the Internet. Protecting Electronic Data, another downloadable training resource for church leaders, explains:

Computers allow churches to collect and store vast amounts of personal information. Unsecured, this data is vulnerable to computer criminals—putting your ministry and church members at risk. … Thanks to the Internet, your computers are exposed to millions of people every time you’re online. This group includes hackers, identity thieves, and others intent on harm.

Updating virus and spyware protection and installing firewalls are some of the ways to stop outside groups from accessing a church’s computer system.

Eight Tips for Securing Church Property

Since June, two men in Texas have burglarized multiple churches in a bold way: They visit the churches during daytime hours to steal credit cards and employees’ wallets.

In one instance, they tricked a church employee by creating a distraction. Father Dean Lawrence, pastor of the targeted church, said one of the men walked through the front door inquiring about child care, while the other came through one of the side doors asking about work. Using the diversion, one of the men took the employee’s wallet out of her purse.
"We probably should be more diligent about making sure things are under lock and key," Lawrence told Click2Houston.com.

These burglaries serve as a good reminder for churches to secure their buildings. While it may prove difficult to stop someone with dishonest intentions from walking into your church building during the day, there are steps your church can take to protect the building and your employees throughout the week. Below are eight tips from ChurchSafety.com that can help you control access to your property and deter criminals.

1. Use vegetation. One way some churches protect their property is through vegetation. Is there visible, easy access to your roof? Plant a thorny plant or vines on that side of the building to keep people from wanting to climb up that way.
2. Lock all doors. Many churches have an open-door policy during the week. Besides the front door, make sure all other doors around the building are locked. This allows the office worker to see everyone who comes and goes through the doors.
3. Keep track of your keys. Many churches give out multiple keys. If this is the case, keep a record of everyone holding a key in your organization; place an identifying serial number on keys to track which person has which key; never hide a key outside your building; and change the locks periodically and issue new keys.
4. Use lighting. Lighting is one of the most inexpensive ways to boost security around your building. Criminals do not like being seen and sufficient lighting in the right places makes criminals feel uneasy. Install protective lighting around locations that someone might use to enter the facilities, such as doors, windows, or skylights. The parking lot and street entrances into the parking lot should also have good illumination.
5. Create a secure space for the administrative assistant. Create a physical barrier between the reception space used to greet visitors and the administrator. For example, the administrator may be in a locked office that has a sliding window that opens up to the reception area. Or the office may have a counter that separates the administrator from people in the office. Some churches install a “Dutch door” in the administrator’s office. The bottom half of the door remains locked while the top half is open. The administrator should be seated in a location that enables a natural surveillance of who is outside the office, or who is entering the office.
6. Consider a security guard. Is your church located in a high-crime area? Consider the value of adding a security guard. If you can’t afford a security guard, consider asking an active or retired police officer or other capable congregant who attends your church to volunteer time during high traffic hours at the church, like on Sunday mornings or special services throughout the week.
7. Install a surveillance system. Installing a security alarm and several surveillance cameras around your property can substantially reduce the likelihood of being burglarized.
8. Get the community involved. Start a Neighborhood Watch program. Contact your local law enforcement agency for more information.

Need more information on this topic? Use ChurchSafety.com’s downloadable resource Securing Church Property to learn more about how to prevent burglaries, vandalism, and even arson.

The Church Bulletin as a Tax Tool

To avoid jeopardizing the tax deductibility of charitable contributions, churches should advise donors at the end of 2011 not to file their 2011 income tax returns until they have received a written acknowledgement of their contributions from the church. This communication should be in writing. To illustrate, the following statement could be placed in the church bulletin or newsletter during the last few weeks of 2011, or included in a letter to all donors:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: To ensure the deductibility of your church contributions, do not file your 2011 income tax return until you have received a written acknowledgment of your contributions from the church. Some of your contributions may not be tax-deductible if you file your tax return before receiving a written acknowledgement of your contributions from the church.

Keep your congregation informed about the rules for substantiating charitable contributions by ordering the 2012 Charitable Contributions Bulletin Inserts by Richard Hammar. The insert is designed as a one-page summary explaining the rules of most importance to church members and can fit easily in church bulletins, newsletters, or contribution statements. The inserts are available in quantities of 100 or can be purchased for electronic download. Call 1-800-222-1840 or visit YourChurchResources.com to order.