Giving Must be Supervised (Road Less Traveled)

I was leading a team that included our regional accounting staff member from Poland and the treasurer of the EGM board of directors.

We were going to visit the thriving work in a neighboring country that will remain unnamed for safety reasons.

When we got there and were reviewing some of the ministry’s books, we came across a transaction from three months earlier: $2,500 had been changed into the local currency, but there was no receipt. (That amount of money was a sizable percentage of the ministry’s $12,000 annual budget.)

We explained to the national ministry’s bookkeeper that a receipt was required for a transaction this large. Sitting next to me, the director explained that they had exchanged the money on the street because if they exchanged it in the banks, they would lose about one-third of the value due to the horrible government-controlled exchange rate.

Yes, it was a horrible rate, but we reiterated the need for proper documentation and receipts. 

The director, a real man of God and a friend of mine, nodded with understanding and asked his colleague to go to the bank and get a receipt. An hour later the worker returned to the office with a receipt from the national bank—yes, the national bank—confirming that $2,500 had been changed into the local currency.

It was in the amount of the “street” rate and matched the transaction in the books perfectly. It was even back dated. The receipt was stamped and very official looking—but it was a receipt for a transaction that hadn’t occurred at that bank.

Handing it to the treasurer of our board, the director asked if we needed any more receipts. The treasurer was so stunned he could hardly respond, and the director of our ministry had no idea that he had basically discredited every receipt he had or would ever have. If you could get a receipt from the national bank for a transaction that never occurred there, then all receipts were suspect.

These two godly men really wanted to meet our expectations, but our ideas were foreign, strange, and not at all relevant in their culture. We started to see that the way to develop proper stewardship and accountability is to teach biblical principles and then develop culturally relevant procedures that will ensure financial integrity.

One of those 1 Corinthians 8:19-24 principles is to handle money in a manner that pleases both God and the people who gave it. So, for instance, money will be exchanged on the street (doing so is good stewardship!), three people from the ministry team will go to the person who will do the exchange, and all four will sign a cash transaction form. (The presence of three godly representatives from the ministry also means little opportunity to misappropriate funds.)

This methodology might not fly with Price Waterhouse, but it enables individuals overseas to manage money with accountability and integrity in a way relevant to their culture. A focus on accountability to foreign donors who are unaware of cultural relevance has seriously slowed, if not prevented, the development of culturally relevant God-honoring stewardship practices.

Furthermore, since the American economy is no longer a cash economy, issues related to cash handling have lessened. However, cash was important in Paul’s time and remains so in most economies around the world today.

So, Paul’s advice is still solid: leaders should keep an arm’s length away from the cash.

Preserving the Church’s Integrity

The mishandling of funds has long plagued Christianity, and many of those incidents are rooted in the fundamental sins of greed, avarice, envy, and pride.

Like Paul, we should be concerned that money given to God is managed honestly and transparently because any lack of integrity can undermine the message of the gospel.

So—truly for Christ’s sake—what principles can we glean from this 2 Corinthians 8 passage? The principles I address below are, I believe, crucial to the preaching and living of the gospel in our communities.

• Careful with the Cash
• Stewardship by Teams
• Indigenous funding
• Arm’s Length for Leaders
• Accountability 

Careful with Cash

As any certified public accountant will tell you, cash is a problem. When our ministry books are audited, cash handling is always the primary concern.

When Dave Hamilton served as the treasurer of Every Generation Ministries, I asked him to help me develop some training for our ministry teams in the fifteen countries where we were serving. I was thinking about things like budgeting, financial reporting, financial management, etc.

In his characteristically straightforward way, Dave told me that those topics aren’t that important. “Accounting, budgeting, and reporting don’t matter,” he pointed out, “if you don’t know what transactions have occurred. Since most countries where we serve are cash economies, it is all about the cash-handling policies and procedures. That’s what your ministry teams need to know.” Case in point…

We’d stopped at a gas station on the way back to Amman. As we filled the car with gas, I asked if I could pay for it. My Jordanian colleague agreed. As I gave him cash, I mentioned that EGM needed a receipt. When my colleague translated my request into Arabic, the attendant replied in Arabic with a broad smile that translated “For how much?” He’d write me a receipt for whatever amount I asked for.

I wish this were a one-off experience, but I’m sad to say that I cannot count how many times this has happened. Again, accounting, reporting, and financial management simply don’t matter if the transactions are not valid.

Whether we’re leading a church or a ministry, we would be wise to follow Paul’s example. Our bookkeeping and financial management is all about the cash. Identify where cash is handled in your church and ministry because those steps in the process are the most likely places for a problem to develop. Institute careful and wise cash-handling procedures.

Doing so will protect the staff member as well as the church/ministry. Most important, you’ll be safeguarding the good name of Jesus Christ.

Stewardship by Teams

Several qualified Christian leaders should be involved in overseeing God’s resources—and qualified doesn’t mean only accounting, finance, and bookkeeping qualified. 

Those skills are essential, but equally important are the godliness, character, and spiritual maturity of the team members. As a practical rule—and in light of our discussion about handling cash—more than one person should be involved whenever cash changes hands.

The next principle is not as obvious and one that is not particularly germane to a local church. However, I believe it to be one of the most significant issues in cross-culture ministry. 

Indigenous Funding

Paul stated that he and the team bearing the gift were taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men (v. 21), specifically, the Macedonian, Corinthian, and Galatian givers.

I’ve learned from my experience, however, that what is right in people’s eyes varies from culture to culture. 

And when funds are sent from one culture into another, the cultural expectations cross the boundary with the money, a reality that can lead to significant tension in cross-cultural ministry work.

Arm’s Length for Leaders

When we read Paul’s teaching about handling and overseeing the offering, we sense Paul’s desire to keep away from any direct contact with the cash.

I believe this desire is evident in Paul’s earlier instructions to the Galatians regarding this same offering:

"Now about the collection for the Lord's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me." (1 Corinthians 16:1-4 NIV)

It is clear that Paul would like the offering collected in Corinth before he arrived. It’s also clear that he wasn’t eager to travel with the cash to Jerusalem and would do so only upon request.

Paul also believed that forming a team of leaders was wise. Moreover, he had instructed the Corinthians to appoint their own representatives to accompany the collection, thereby exempting himself from any criticism regarding who was transporting the funds (1 Corinthians 16:3). Leaders are wise to avoid the cash.

Accountability

Whether we are giving or receiving money, we are primarily accountable to God. When we give, we do so as an act of worship—and it’s good to follow that act of worship by confirming that the church or ministry administers the funds in a way that is right in the eyes of the Lord and the eyes of men.

Proper governance and financial oversight, membership in groups like the ECFA, regular audits, integrity of those people handling the money—all these issues merit our careful attention when we worship with our financial gifts.

When pastors and ministry leaders receive gifts, we ask God to direct us. We want to use the funds we receive exactly as He desires (they’re His to begin with), and we are accountable to Him for what we do with those funds.

Auditors can be misled (think “Enron”) and funds can be mishandled, but God cannot be deceived. He always knows exactly what is happening with His resources.

Closing Thoughts

On the road well-traveled, accountability to God is a given, so the primary concern is accountability to the donors. We want the ministry or church supporters to be confident that we are being good stewards of their resources.

Clean audits, financial oversight from well-known financial experts, charity navigator ratings, and ECFA membership need to be in place.

It is my contention that the lack of teaching on ultimate accountability to God and the overemphasis on donor satisfaction and accounting systems is part of the reason we have had so many financial moral failures in the US church and Christian ministry world.

On the road less traveled, the primary concern is accountability to God. We want godly, qualified leaders in positions of oversight. Audits, ratings, and oversight are essential because if we can’t take care of money, why would God entrust us with something really important?

That said, we all know of broken and fallen ministries that had all the financial accountability pieces in place. The character of the leaders matters too.

Gifts are to God and received from God. He cannot be “spun” or deceived and does not need an audit to know what’s happening. On the road less traveled, this truth is front and center. In this way, Jesus Christ is glorified in our handling of monies with integrity and honesty.