Principle of Good financial management

Firstly, Happy new year to all. I thought after a nice holiday season we should start afresh and discuss something new. Hopefully we can get some contribution from different people

It has always been my belief that as a christian, we have to handle God's finance with utmost integrity and respect. Good financial practice is a sign of maturity in a christian and the key to greater blessing from God

Most parables Jesus dealt with in the bible often relates to the stewardship of money, because Jesus knew that Money though is neither good nor bad has a powerful effect on people and that everything in this world revolves around the use of money from buying a house, tithing, building a church, having enough food to eat and clothes to wear. Nothing in this world is free, thus money is the key medium in this world.

Because money can be such a powerful "drug" when not properly used. It is imperative that as Christian we need to recognise the importance of proper accountability.

Here are some important tips that we must never forget

1. Ensure a good balance in your church board and allow a good mix of people. Hope Singapore have a very good website which have a varied board to ensure impartiality

2. Keep a good budget and try to stay close to it. If expenses deviates too much, ensure that the board is well informed.

3. Have clear Salary package and guideline. This area have been the biggest headache even in the corporate place. We need to ensure that clear salary package is written in the contract to avoid misunderstanding and especially grey areas

4. All churches should have an agreed guideline for reimbursements, so that all staff will know what can and cannot be reimbursed. Providing ambiguous guideline often causes confusion.

Eg. Can we reimbursed food when Church staff meet up the sheep ? Can Church staff claim reimbursement for Church camp ? What about mobile phone, cars and petrol, which is very much a part of church ministry ?

There is no hard and fast rules, but we do need to make it clear to the people. Hope BKK failed in this area that is why Hope Church was split because of how PN and Dr J used Church money.

5. Try and keep personal cost and church cost as separate as possible. The more we mix it up the more dangerous it becomes to cross the line. If unsure, I believe it is always the responsiblity of the church staff or Pastor to ask the board and account before the money is reimbursed.

6. Have annual audit and ensure transparency in all church accounts, this way members will feel that leaders have nothing to hide. When leaders refuse or fail to be forthcoming when approach about church finance usually more often then not, there is something not quite right.

Finally, dont't be afraid to ask, the leaders owe it to the members to be open and accountable in the church finance. Good financial practice are hard to do, even the corporate failed so many times, as a church we need to set and example and be the light to the the way.

If you think that there is something i miss out feel free to add in the comments. Or if you got something to share or a testimony. That would be good too.

How should christian respond to leaders who commit adultery

What do everyone think if a leader commits adultery, what do you think the church should respond.

-If the pastor admits his mistake should he continue to serve in a leadership capacity without proper restoration ?

- Does everyone think then in PN's case and what he said that He is divinely appointed is reasonable ?

- So how should we help the person involved ? His wife and the third party ?

Biblical Leadership Functions with Accountability

Biblical Leadership Functions with Accountability

Last week, we covered the Need for Biblical Accountability. In this post, we bring you Part 2 of 3 on this subject written by James Loke.

Who Do Leaders Account To?

Leadership accountability involves three spheres:

To Senior Leadership

Leaders have to account to those over them, other more senior leaders or if no one else, God Himself. The concept of accountability in this sphere is straightforward, like that of every believer who accounts to the Lord after this life (1 Th 5:12-13). There is a major difference in operation as the Lord knows everything about our stewardship but the senior leader may not. Accountability would require the leader to tell his senior leader relevant information in his life and ministry that would help the senior leader to oversee him effectively (Heb 13:17). Even a leader may have blind spots and a senior leader, who is more matured and experienced in life and ministry, would help the former do the work of the ministry more fruitfully. An important example of top leadership accountability is seen in the life of Moses who was publicly rebuked and judged by God in Num 20:11-12.

To Peers

In the New Testament, leadership is always plural. This is demonstrated by elders operating in plurality in the New Testament churches, with other elders in the same local church or with elders in other churches. No leader was exempt from having to account to his peers. At the highest level of apostleship, Peter was still accountable to Paul. Paul had no qualms to rebuke him regarding segregating himself away from the Gentiles in the presence of Jews (Gal 2:11-14). Gal 6:1-2 holds us responsible to be our brother’s keeper.

To Followers

Church members have willingly placed themselves under the leadership. Leaders owe it to followers to regularly communicate where and how they are leading them. There is clear evidence that the apostles practiced this. In Acts 6, the apostles were accountable to the believers for the running of the church and came up with a novel idea of administration by a new team of deacons when their time conflicted with other priorities of prayer and ministry of the Word. In Acts 11, Peter explained to the believers why he visited Cornelius, a Gentile. Paul and Barnabas gave an account of their missionary journey to the church at Antioch (Acts 14:26-27).

Accountability in this sphere should not be misunderstood that the leaders are subservient to the followers. The accountability of the leaders to the followers arises from a partnership in serving God together. However, the leaders and the followers have distinct roles in this partnership with leaders leading.

How Accountability Works

Many churches have built-in accountability structures. These structures do have some effectiveness but accountability works best when the leader himself has the right internal makeup.

Accountability works best with good relationships. When Adam was having his walks with God in the evenings, he probably discoursed with God all he needed to tell His maker regarding his stewardship of the Garden of Eden. There was no need to invite God, the shareholder, for an Annual General Meeting to report on the fruitfulness in the Garden. When we have close relationships with those around us, we will not fear being judged by them.

Accountability provides both needed discipline and support for the leader. The leader knows that whatever he does will affect others and he may have to give an answer, explicitly or implicitly. He may be evaluated by his superiors, challenged by his peers, or asked for an answer by his juniors. Accountability can be a support system because when accountability is functioning properly superiors can give better advice with better knowledge, peers can chip in to shoulder issues when needed, and juniors know how they can help support the leader for best results.

….. to be continued in the next post.

We thank Ian Foley, Prakich Treetasayudh and Wilson Lim who provided valuable comments to an earlier draft of this article.

Biblical Leadership Functions with Accountability

Below is a post by our leaders, i think this makes a fantastic read. What they mention exactly sums up my feelings about biblical leadership. Hope you enjoy this article as much as i do

Biblical Leadership Functions with Accountability

The last few decades have seen the rise of many gifted church leaders who have successfully grown large churches. Their successes have resulted in huge amounts of trust placed on them. They operate as senior leaders in local churches with sole authority in many instances. Unfortunately, some of them have fallen into sin. This has given rise to greater attention to the issue of accountability. In this post, we bring you Part 1 of 3 on this subject written by James Loke.

Biblical Accountability

Biblical accountability is universal. Every Christian, after his life on earth, will account to the Lord Jesus regarding his stewardship of the gifts, talents and all that was entrusted to him in his lifetime.

Accountability comes with the role of Christian leadership. Those who take up Christian leadership embrace a responsibility to serve the Lord together with those they are serving with. The leader, implicitly or explicitly, can expect his life and actions to become fair game for public scrutiny. It is also expected of him to explain his decisions and actions if called upon to do so. In other words, a Christian leader has to be accountable by embracing responsibility, being transparent and answerable.

In this context, accountability is more than responsibility. For example, a care group leader can be responsible and finish all the tasks assigned to him but he may not be too concerned about how the work is done nor how it is viewed by others. One can be responsible yet not accountable. Accountability is an individually held sense of duty to account to others for one’s assignments.

The Need for Accountability

Fallen man is self-centred
The sinful nature causes humans, including Christians, to possibly make selfish decisions. It is not natural for fallen man to decide for the collective good; he has to change his paradigm for decision-making to make good decisions as a leader. Accountability encourages the leader to make decisions that would benefit the overall community since he has to be responsible for them, and accountability ensures trust which fosters unity and confidence.

Fallen man needs checks and balances
Fallen man can be tempted to wander from righteous principles, resulting in an abuse of authority. Lord Acton once said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Leaders are likely to have their own biases and deficiencies. In addition to the Holy Spirit who guides spiritual leaders, checks and balances could take the form of organizational accountability structures, or godly mentors and peers.

God made men to work in teams
It is in God’s order that He invests different yet complementary gifts in leaders in the church so that they work best as a team. The Ephesians 4 ministry gifts are five-fold in nature, the Holy Spirit sovereignly dispenses nine spiritual gifts to different believers in 1 Corinthians 12, and various other gifts to different ones in Romans 12.

God’s idea is for plurality in leadership so that they can sharpen one another. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17) Even godly leaders do need some help. In a local church, a gifted teacher may emphasize too much on studying the Bible at the expense of winning lost souls. But when that teacher is partnered with an evangelist, the burden of winning lost souls is transmitted to the congregation as well.

….. to be continued in the next post.

We thank Ian Foley, Prakich Treetasayudh and Wilson Lim who provided valuable comments to an earlier draft of this article.