ECCU Blog

The list of reasons for churches and other ministries to become members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) just got longer. While tithing is at a 40-year low in mainline churches, giving to ECFA member churches is up four percent from the 2009 level. And contributions to all members are up 5.8 percent.

ECFA presents a full account of members’ giving in its second Annual State of Giving report. To learn more about the benefits of ECFA membership, follow this link.

How does your ministry’s giving compare to the ECFA averages?

Question: What is one way to make it easier for someone to cover up fraudulent activity with your church’s finances?

Answer: Create too many church bank accounts.

According to a recent Managing Your Church blog by Matt Branaugh, this is one of five reasons church treasurers should keep accounts to a minimum. In Q&A: Limit the Number of Church Bank Accounts, Branaugh writes that “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 five reasons underscore the importance of accountability and internal controls.

Does your church limit the number of bank accounts? Why or why not?

Nearly every church has set up a fund for benevolence purposes, but often the program for disbursing those funds is not as effective as it could be at meeting people’s needs. By reviewing my church’s process and disbursements over the past many years, I’ve come up with this list of best practices for evaluating your benevolence program:

• Establish a benevolence policy that empowers or delegates authority, ensures accountability and confidentiality, and sets boundaries rather than rules.
• Use a separate budget to track benevolent donations and disbursements.
• Take a team approach to benevolence ministry without creating a burdensome process.
• Report success stories to your donors but maintain confidentiality.
• Identify resources in advance, such as local businesses or individuals who have agreed to assist with specific needs.
• Keep records of assistance provided and follow up with those you help.
• Learn from your mistakes.
• Allow room for God to guide.
• Identify real needs, not just temporary issues or symptoms, then look for ways to help recipients “learn to fish.”
• Help recipients be accountable with agreed-upon next steps.
• Integrate your existing ministry outreach programs as well as other local churches into your benevolence efforts.
• Set aside funds to be used in case of local community disasters.

Providing a helping hand to those in need is a critical part of what we are called to do as followers of Christ. However, as you have probably learned, providing money by itself rarely meets people’s real needs.

What have you found to be critical success factors for your benevolence ministry?

PS: You are only required to do any tax reporting when benevolence gifts are provided to a staff member. Those gifts should be reported on IRS Form W-2.

My son is learning to read. It is amazing—not just because I think he’s brilliant, but because he is standing on the brink of a whole new world. I can hardly wait for him to experience the wonder, the escape, the opportunity to learn, that books offer.

I’ve spent a lifetime reading anything I can get my hands on, and this year was no different. There is so much good stuff to read out there, and plenty that’s not, so I always love a good recommendation from a trusted source.

I compiled a list of my read-happy coworkers’ favorite books of the year and will gladly share a few recommendations if you’ll share yours. For your reading pleasure (okay, some of this stuff is pretty challenging as well), we recommend:  

Radical by David Platt

Want to be challenged to think beyond our consumer-driven society and pursuing the “American dream”? Get a hold of this book and buckle up for a thought-provoking and convicting look at what Jesus means when he calls us to follow Him and make disciples of all the nations. What does it really mean to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow him? Warning: If you’d rather stay comfortable, don’t read this one.

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

An inspiring, challenging, and paradigm-shifting book. Focuses on our relationship with the Holy Spirit and how we should look to live Spirit-filled lives in a deep and personal relationship with the triune God head. 

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

By now, you’re probably familiar with the concept of emotional intelligence (and its importance in just about every aspect of life). This book is the how-to for practicing and increasing your emotional intelligence.

Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Godin speaks of one of the scarcest resources in most organizations—the spark of initiative. This book just may be the kick in the pants you need to get off the starting line.  

Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation by Sally Hogshead 

A fascinating book on the study of, well, fascination. Hogshead argues that fascination influences our behaviors and decision-making more than marketing, advertising, or any other form of communication. Anyone who sells anything, or influences others (so basically everyone), should read this.                                                                                                                             

There you have it, a few of our favorites. Now, what are your best book recommendations from 2011? Can’t wait to get my hands on the next good read.

This Thanksgiving, 21 out of my 27 family members who came together to “celebrate” ended up with the stomach flu. My house turned into an infirmary and Thanksgiving weekend looked slightly different than we all anticipated. As I did my best to help out with the grandkids (while trying to avoid catching this nasty bug), I reflected on a few reasons for thankfulness we don’t often think about—perhaps the ultimate reason for thankfulness.

It comes down to this: We are included in God’s unshakable kingdom. If we can act on this truth, we can find thanksgiving in any circumstance. And Jesus gives us some specific commands to help us set our minds on the kingdom.

1. Ask for the kingdom. When Jesus gave his disciples the model for prayer, the first thing he instructed them to ask for was God’s will to be done, God’s kingdom to come, on earth as it is in heaven. That’s an amazing request. Before any other request—before food, forgiveness, or protection from evil and temptation—we are to ask for God’s kingdom to be firmly established on earth, exactly like it is in heaven now.

There is a present sense to that prayer—that God would work through his church to proclaim the gospel and serve others in the name of Christ. There is also a future sense of God’s kingdom. Someday Jesus will return to restore and recreate the earth and make it perfect. He will completely reverse the effects of sin. Believers are to long for the kingdom now…to make it so important in our lives that it’s the first thing we ask for. Because we know, according to Romans 8, that the sufferings of this present time are not even comparable to the glory that is to be revealed to us.

2.  Be thankful for God’s kingdom. There are infinitely good reasons to long for God’s kingdom, but perhaps the greatest is that it can’t be shaken. These are difficult times. Many are out of work; many are concerned about their jobs. God knows we have needs on this earth and can’t wait for heaven. That’s why Jesus’ model prayer starts with a call for God’s kingdom but moves immediately to our immediate need, daily bread.  That’s also why Jesus was so careful to emphasize that God knows our every need. He knows the needs of the sparrows and counts the very hairs of our heads. But our cry for daily care must be grounded in our hope and anticipation of the kingdom to come. And in our commitment to live out God’s kingdom now on this earth, as the church, lives in the likeness of Christ in all that we do as we await his coming. So choose to live there—now. Hebrews 12 tells us that someday God will remove the “things that have been made.” Everything material will be removed, the earth will burn, but God’s kingdom is eternal and perfect and indestructible. Nothing can even shake it: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28).

3.  Worship God for including us in his kingdom.  God bought us and brought us into his kingdom through the sacrifice of his Son. Thankfully, living in God’s kingdom results in deep, often spontaneous, worship. “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12: 28 -29)  

Acceptable worship is thankful worship. 

Jesus reminds us that while the world around us may be shaken, he has brought us into his unshakable kingdom. Because of this profound truth, we have every reason to rejoice and be glad even in the midst of our deepest valleys—and Thanksgiving-day flu bugs.