Smart Church Management

5 Ways to Demonstrate Church Stewardship

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God blesses churches with many resources – people, time and money – and He expects us to be good stewards with what He provides.

Members tithe on their income to support the operation of the ministry, making it even more important to be good stewards and manage financial resources responsibly.

So what is the definition of stewardship?  According to dictionary.com, Stewardship is, “the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving“.   Read the Full Article →

10 Practices that Safeguard Against Church Embezzlement

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I was saddened to read about a neighborhood church, where my kids used to attend youth events, being yet another victim of church embezzlement.

All you have to do is go to your search bar and type in ‘church embezzlement’ and you will find many headlines:

    • Woman pleads guilty to embezzling $300 from Church;
    • Manlius church treasurer’s husband arraigned on embezzlement charges;
    • Treasurer convicted and sentenced for embezzling over $110,000 from church bank accounts in California;
    • Church bookkeeper gets 3 years for embezzlement;
    • Largest South Korean church’s embezzlement scandal just got worse;

And the list goes on and on.   Read the Full Article →

11 Things Your Church Finance Committee Should be Doing

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Churches elect or assign members to serve on a Finance Committee of the church. This team of people is responsible for the management and stewardship of church funds.

This is an important committee because it can influence sustained financial health and growth of church assets.  When mismanaged, this group can negatively affect the long-term financial viability of a church.  Something no one wants to be responsible for. Read the Full Article →

Practical Guide For Using Guiding Councils in Your Church

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In Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, he talks about using councils to help guide the organization.  Councils should be made up of a group of the right people to discuss, debate, and make decisions about the administration and management of the church.

People selected to serve on councils should be those with knowledge, experience and a passion for the topic. Read the Full Article →

Aplos – An Affordable Accounting Software For Churches!

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Maintaining accurate financial records is essential for providing a clear picture of how much money comes in and how much money is spent running a church.

It is also difficult to create a church budget without having these records.

People who give to a church want to know that the money they donate is used for its intended purpose, making good record keeping an essential aspect of ensuring proper stewardship of church resources. Read the Full Article →

6 Church Financial Management Tips

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The unpredictable economic climate has created budgeting challenges for many organizations, and the church is no exception.  This creates the need for churches to find help figuring out the best way to manage their sometimes limited resources.

Church leaders are often challenged with ensuring there is continued funding to support current programs and fixed operational costs. This can be difficult because the financial needs of a church can be significant, and juggling limited resources can be stressful. Read the Full Article →

3 Common Errors Churches Make in Managing Finances

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Managing church finances requires having an understanding of tax laws that affect the day-to-day operation of the ministry. Because the laws can be complex, and not always easy to understand, churches occasionally do things inadvertently that can be problematic.

Staying compliant with the tax code is often directly related to how the church finances are managed.

As stated by Dan Busby in an article written by Church Law and Tax, there are three common errors that churches make when managing their finances – fair compensation, pastoral expense reporting and handling of restricted gifts. Read the Full Article →

Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing

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Outsourcing is a business strategy that moves some of an organization’s functions, processes, activities and decision responsibility from within an organization to outside providers.

This is done through negotiating contract agreements with a vendor who takes on the responsibility for the production process, people management, quality, customer service and key asset management of the function.

The process can greatly reduce fixed overhead costs of an organization. Read the Full Article →

Church Financial Accountability – 4 Reasons to Pursue ECFA Accreditation

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Managing a church has many of the same challenges as managing a business and requires a lot of the same business processes to be successful.

Church leaders pursue their call to lead a congregation and may have lots of training in theology and biblical principles but may not have basic business training that is required when you manage people, time and money. Read the Full Article →

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