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Financial Reports
As a pastor, I'm curious as to what other pastors do in terms of providing financial reports to the congregation. Most of the people in our church are fine to simply let our board handle all of that, but a few of the people are from church backgrounds where detailed reports are given to the congregation. How much information do most churches give out, and how/when is that information disseminated?
Responses:
Pastor Jeff Jones – Kalamazoo, MI
We publish our financials in our annual report which is typically distributed to our membership at the end of January each year. We do our best to simplify the records to make it easily understood by most people who read it.
Pastor Dennis Cummins – Puyallup, WA
About four years ago we switched from handing out the basic CPA statement to a pie chart showing monies in and out. We did this since most people can’t interpret a year- end financial statement produced by a CPA. It has been very successful. I believe in the four years of doing pie charts we haven’t had any questions or negative feed-back regarding the matter.
Reverend Mark Williams – Rockford, IL
Our church administrator prepares a detailed report on the past year's financial income and expenditures each year. This report is presented in a public meeting on the first evening in February. This meeting is both for reporting and comments/questions from the church members. This is also a time for the pastor to share vision and goals for the new year. This has always been a time for new members to get acquainted with the manner in which finances are handled in the context of the local church family. Many have commented that this meeting gives them a sense of security within their local church and its leadership.
Pastor Diego Mesa – Rancho Cucamonga, CA
As a Pastor, I believe that financial integrity and responsibility to the congregation is of utmost importance. For the past 15 years of our ministry we have always presented a financial report to our congregation in January. It's done through a Power Point presentation at our Sunday morning services and takes approximately five to ten minutes. I've never been concerned about sharing the information with both visitors and members. I share with the congregation that this information is for the family of our church and can be discussed within our family but should never be taken outside of our church and discussed with people who may not understand or as a means of telling another church or pastor how to run their financial stewardship.
The categories that I use are broken into four parts with sub-topics underneath which gives a breakdown of expense costs. By the way, this is the same format I use in the day-to-day financial operations of our ministry: category one - building or mortgage expenses; category two - operations or equipment expenses; category three - personnel expenses, and category four - savings and missions expenses.
I don't get into too much detail. It's more of an overview. For example, category two - operations and equipment would list the total amount for utilities. I would not breakdown separate costs for gas, water, or electricity. Another example would be personnel expenses. I put all personnel salaries, benefits, and perks together and give the total amount not individual amounts. Each one of the main categories might have around five to eight sub-topics. For the savings and missions category I will share the total amounts that were saved that year. For missions, I will identify the mission and missionary and the amount given.
Lastly, I remind the congregation that all this information in detail is reviewed annually at our Church Board Meeting. I have also had Board Members who are present during this presentation, stand to be acknowledged.
This procedure has always served me well with minimum to no repercussions. It creates an atmosphere of trust, gratitude and celebration by the membership of our pastoral stewardship that we are a ministry of integrity.
Pastor Sam Smucker – Lancaster, PA
We have an annual business meeting where we share the financial report. We keep it short and uncomplicated - we share the income for the year and how it was spent. We give out a written report. I believe it is important to communicate these things to the congregation openly and honestly. This brings a confidence toward leadership and a sense of security in the congregation. It is important for a congregation to have a high level of trust in its leaders concerning financial matters.
We have done it in various settings. (1) A meeting where the members are invited and we supply a meal. (2) The last few years we have taken 15-20 minutes at the end of the weekend services - where we finish the service and then dismiss visitors and invite the members to stay for a 15-20 minute meeting to share our annual financial report. We hand out a response card where the people can turn in a question they may have concerning the report and then we respond to them either by a phone call or email. (3) This year we are sharing our report electronically where we will have a link from our website that members can go to to hear a short 15-20 minute podcast where the financial report will be shared and then there will be a way for them to respond with questions. We will also have hardcopies of the financial report available to members who do not have electronic capability. Financial openness is important to the health of a congregation.
Pastor Bill Anzevino – Industry, PA
We have found that it is helpful if people are kept informed. At the end of each year we provide a report showing the totals of all income and expenses for the year. We don't break down salaries for each employee, we only show the total of all expenses. This report is mailed to all members along with their annual giving statement. Then if any one has questions, they are free to contact the office where we would be happy to sit down with them and discuss their questions. We believe that in doing this it helps eliminate questions about if we are being wise stewards of God's finances.
Pastor Timothy Kutz – Bartlesville, OK
There are three things that a pastor should think of when disseminating financial information for church consumption.
1) Provide all things as open honest before all men. (Rom 12:17)
2) People have a right to know of the financial health of the church.
3) The devil will absolutely, continually try to use this against you to destroy both you and your church.
It is never right to keep the church in the dark about the financial dealings of the pastor, staff and board. However, bringing every detail of the church’s financial dealings before the congregation is generally not wise either. The biggest example would be staff salaries. Staff salaries should be set by an independent group of people qualified to make staff compensation decisions. If those guidelines are followed, any desire or need for that information to become known by a congregant beside the pastor, salary committee and the board of trustees is misguided and should not be granted. It is not the pastor’s business what any given individual in the congregation earns as a salary; neither is it any business of any given individual in the congregation to know the pastors salary; or any other staff member for that matter.
Posting staff salaries in so very many cases has been a point of contention and strife and never leads to good. If you are going to post anything about salaries, lump all of the staff and any church employee salaries as well as all of their benefits into one figure and call that “Employee Compensation and Benefits.” With rare cases, this is the right way to approach this. You are not trying to hide anything; you are just protecting private information that is known by trusted, faithful leaders in the church as a matter of checks and balances.
Don't provide specifics, but rather general categories and what you spent. If you want to post anything, think hard about posting income and (some) expenses (you'll understand this better the first time someone comes to you and tells you that they think you are spending too much money on toilet paper and paper towels). Whether you or any other pastor likes it or not, there are people in your church that think they have a right to express themselves on how church money is being spent. These are things that should be addressed in membership class, but there will still be people that think they have the right. You will even find some who believe that God set them in your church by divine call to help keep you walking in what they think integrity is where church finances are concerned.
If you post your income and a limited number of expenses every week, that would be good enough for most everyone, and it would also serve to help you when you vision-cast. But anyone who is digging for more and is not a member of the board of trustees is not motivated by the right spirit and should not be obliged. If so, you are headed toward strife, division and trouble.
You can and should have a congregational financial meeting at the first of the year that includes a more detailed report, but still only shows the aforementioned salaries and benefits in one lump sum. But use this meeting to cast vision and talk about your stewardship campaign for the year.
