BY THE GRACE OF GOD, BECOMING TRANSFORMED INTO THE LIKENESS OF CHRIST
- Make Ready a People Prepared For the Lord - (Luke 1)
HOUSE CHURCHES
PARAMETERS TO CONSIDER TO HELP PREVENT POTENTIALLY EXPLOSIVE
MISUNDERSTANDINGS REGARDING JOINT FINANCES IN HOUSE / SIMPLE CHURCHES
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(Editor's Note) It is well known that financial issues can tend to easily become a major issue in marriages, families, churches, ministries, etc. This can also easily become a potential cause of relational explosions in house / simple churches - especially since many (most?) house / simple churches begin with a desire to believe the best about the others and often can begin with a sense of idealism about the group which may not be totally realistic.
Because of this sense of idealism, some of the realities of talking through expectations and 'getting onto the same page' regarding how to deal with finances in a particular house / simple church may be avoided or may not be considered until the damage is done, potentially resulting in some major misunderstandings and possible group break-up.
Just as it helps to avoid potential misunderstandings and hurt feelings to discuss expectations about finances in a marriage, family or other situations, here are some parameters that we are hoping to begin to implement soon in our house church - which has been in existence for a few years already. We feel that even discussing these matters has helped us to get onto the same page and will hopefully help to prevent potential unnecessary misunderstandings regarding how we deal with our joint finances/offerings, etc. as a group.
We want to avoid unnecessary structures as much as possible, but the Holy Spirit has also given the Body gifts of administration in order to effectively carry out His desire. So we seek to follow Him in how to find those balances. This is not 'set in stone'…something that we are going to try and see how it needs to be re-adjusted along the way
We thought there might be others that may benefit from this as well, and we would also welcome input from others on how their house / simple churches deal with finances in their situations. We can then include other related input from others in future editions of the newsletter, as well. Thank you! CHCRN@DiscipleTheNations.org.
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Parameters for Handling Finances in a House Church
- J. Inouye - summer 2005
Earlier in the year our house church agreed that monies could be contributed
as an individual wills to a common fund to be used to assist others with a
specific need as directed by the Lord. While this is in keeping with the spirit
of the New Testament church where money was collected on an ongoing basis
from the believers and distributed to those in need (Act 2:45; Acts 4:34-35),
it is obvious from the account in Acts 6:1-6 that a need was first defined
and then men of known reputation and spiritual character were chosen by the
body of believers to perform the necessary activities to meet this need. They
were recognized by all the disciples and, therefore, accountable both to the
body and to each other. And, it goes without saying that, in order to perform
the allotted task and meet the need, procedures and parameters would have
been set in place so that everyone was aware of how things operated.
In today's house church, while it is recognized that trust among the members
in all areas of life is an important component within the group, it is also
acknowledged that wisdom (Col. 3:16) and stewardship (1 Cor. 4:2) are also
essential elements in the establishment and operation of such a fund, in order
to ensure the protection of both the group as a whole and the individual(s)
involved in the administration of these finances. Therefore, it is advisable
that safety features need to be built into the procedures for the collection,
administration and distribution of monies, and/or goods purchased with these
monies.
The following has, therefore, been agreed upon by our house church to handle
the administration of this fund. But the main purpose in all aspects of this
process is to glorify the Lord, to seek His will in all that is done and to
be one in the decisions made.
1. All decisions on the administration and distribution of the monies are
to be made following prayer.
2. All members must be in agreement before any action is taken on the administration
of this fund.
3. Three signators are required on the account; two signators must authorize
every withdrawal from the account and one of the signators must be the Treasurer.
(No one individual should have access to the account. In the event of one
signator not being available to sign a cheque, there are two others on hand
to do so.)
4. A signator should demonstrate the following:
1. be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3);
2. have a reputation for honesty, integrity and trustworthiness;
3. be known as a faithful and dependable member of the Body of Christ;
4. have been involved in the house church for at least six months (or for
a length of time specified by the house church concerned) in order that group
has a chance to get to know him/her first, and,
5. be willing, if deemed necessary, to have his/her present house church check
with a previous house church(es) on the above criteria before being considered
as a signator.
5. One of the signators should be chosen as Treasurer based on the criteria
listed above for a signator, and after having been a member of a house church
for at least two years.
6. The Treasurer should be the principal signator on the account and his/her
signature should appear on every cheque (unless special circumstances prevail
and/or as agreed by the group as a whole).
7. The duties of the Treasurer include:
1. maintaining up-to-date financial records, either manually or using a computerized
accounting package;
2. opening either a savings or a chequing account at a bank and in a location
agreed upon by all members of the group. (The group should consider that the
amount of money in the account at any one time will probably not be very large
or held in the account for any great length of time. As good stewards, a house
church does not want to hand monies over to the bank that are not absolutely
necessary for the operation of the account. Therefore, relevant bank charges
and costs for printing cheques should be fully investigated and discussed
before an account is opened, and, if possible, ways around paying charges
sought (e.g. using counter checks).
3. entering a manual record in pen. Any corrections should be crossed out
and brought to the attention of the group. The Treasurer and one of the signator
must initial every correction once it has been explained to the group what
has occurred;
4. making deposits into the account;
5. being one of the two signators on all cheques;
6. collecting the financial contribution at every meeting;
7. counting the financial contribution, together with the group, at the end
of the meeting;
8. informing the group of the donated amount as well as the revised total
this money brings to the account, and recording these sums straight into a
manual record in pen to be entered into the computer record later if one is
being kept;
9. having members record the donated amount and the new account total in their
own record at the same time;
10. having available at every meeting for viewing by the members all the paperwork
generated by the account. (A concertina file could be used, with sections
marked: "Bank Statements", "Withdrawals", "Deposits",
"Weekly Printouts", etc. with the relevant paperwork filed in the
appropriate section)
11. making available to any member at any time whatever financial record he/she
wishes to review;
12. consulting with the group on any changes to the account either by the
bank (e.g. bank charges) or withdrawals; and,
13. obtaining group concensus on any decisions relating to the administration
and disbursement of the monies.
8. The position of Treasurer and the other two signators on the account should
be reviewed every year (a specific month of the year can be assigned for this
purpose) and a full accounting given at that time by the Treasurer. The members
would then pray to know the Lord's choice for other people to take on these
responsibilities.
9. In order to prevent members seeing what other members are putting into
the fund, a child's money box can be purchased and placed in another room
(e.g. the kitchen) so that a contribution can be made in private.
The following is suggested concerning the disbursement of the monies/goods
to someone in need:
1. The members prayerfully consider each application for assistance;
2. the recipient can be a Christian, non-Christian, or even someone within
the group itself. Ideally, the recipient would be someone known to the person
making the request on his/her behalf in order to confirm his/her integrity
but it should not be ruled out that on occasion the Holy Spirit may led the
group to assist an individual or organization not known personally to anyone
in the group (a case in point would be assistance given to a disaster relief
agency in the event of an earthquake, tsunami, etc.);
4. further checking on the proposed recipient can be carried out through the
recipient's pastor, a friend, another house church, or by whatever means is
required to accomplish this task; and
5. the best safeguard is to give goods; but, if for some well-defined reason
finances are given, then either a group member should go with the person receiving
the monies to ensure that it is spent as intended, or proof of this should
be required.
A house church must also prayerfully consider how they would handle an abuse
of the system and lay down some consequences before embarking on the establishment
of such a fund, e.g. removal of the Treasurer if he/she has used money to
be paid into the account for his/her own purposes with a view to repaying
it later, etc. The consequences to some abuses would need to be prayerfully
considered if and when they occurred.