![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Debate.jpeg\" "\\"bsr005\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Few issues in church leadership raise as much passionate dialogue as does this age-old question. In one corner is the perspective that, in order to effectively lead the church, the pastor should know \u201cwho is giving what\u201d. In the other corner is the view that such information could skew the pastor\u2019s relationship with his congregants.<\/p>\n
Where do I land?<\/p>\n
I believe firmly that the pastor must know the giving records. Specifically there are 6 compelling reasons the pastor must have this information.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Giving is a spiritual matter, not a financial matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The senior pastor should express gratitude for large gifts.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>A dramatic decline in giving could signal financial hardship.<\/strong><\/p>\n 4.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The pastor must know the commitment of his staff and board.<\/strong><\/p>\n 5.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>It is imperative to know whether those attempting to influence church finances have \u201cskin in the game\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n 6.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Financial giving information must be held at a higher level in the organization than a person on the administrative staff.<\/strong><\/p>\n Practically speaking, the senior pastor need not, and likely cannot, pour over the giving record each week.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how we managed this in the large church in Canada where I served as executive pastor.<\/p>\n I met with the director of finance every week, who would report to me any broad brush-stroke issues (eg, overall giving trends, giving as a percentage of budget, etc), as well as information pertinent for me to review with the senior pastor. Typically this would involve only extreme cases reflecting the 6 indicators listed above.<\/p>\n In my meeting with the senior pastor I would then flag any patterns I believed would enable him to best lead the church.<\/p>\n This never resulted in the pastor\u2019s relationship with the members getting \u201cweird\u201d. Rather, it allowed him to lead. And to lead well.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t yet follow this principle, let me urge you to re-open this discussion with your senior leaders.<\/p>\n When you view this as a matter of spiritual leadership, it could radically change your perspective.<\/p>\n Where do you land on the question, \u201cTo check, or not to check?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To check or not to check? Where do you land on the great \u201cShould the pastor know the congregation\u2019s giving records?\u201d debate? Few issues in church leadership raise as much passionate dialogue as does this age-old question. In one corner is the perspective that, in order to effectively lead the church, the pastor should…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,738,478,7,777,807,583,758,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-metrics-2","category-spiritual-life","category-staffing","category-stewardship","category-wisdom-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3028"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3033,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions\/3033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}