Three difference articles caught my eye today and got me to thinking about financial transparency.
- First was this announcement from Executive Pastor Tim Stevens that Granger Community Church had to lay off 8 staff members and cut hours for another 15 staffers.
- Second, was this article from Reggie McNeal about a conversation he was part of today with his server from Cracker Barrel, who openly wondered how her church could be spending so much money on a new building when so many people are hurting financially.
- And finally there is this article from Aaron Linne at LifeWay Digital Media Publishing. Aaron makes that point that the digital way of embracing community is transparency and that perhaps churches could be more transparent with their members online about their church finances. He asks:
Would your church benefit from being transparent? Would your community
see the struggle of planning a church budget, and realize how important
their contributions are? Or would the community rebel against the
budget, and decide that the pastor doesn't need an assistant or such an
extensive book collection?
Moving forward I will do all that I can to be as financially transparent with our new congregation as I can be. With the advances in web technology we should be able to inform our parishioners exactly where we stand on a month to month basis. My guess is that I'm not the only one thinking this. When we all come out of this economic malaise, I'm guessing that financial decisions will be more open to church members than ever before. What do you think? Would you want to put your church finances out to church members on a regular basis?
