If you’re like most pastors, you’ve not been trained to manage the church’s money. You’ve been taught, in fact, to be suspicious of Mammon. So how do you respond when a spreadsheet (usually in the red) is thrust before you and eager trustees look to you for financial leadership?
Having to be concerned about financial matters may well be a disturbing reality for you. You want, rightly so, to be heavenly minded. You need to be concerned first with the things of the Spirit. But you also soon learn that much of the spiritual good you want to see your congregation accomplish hinges on the effective raising and wise spending of money.
In Mastering Church Finances, Richard L. Bergstrom, Gary Fenton, and Wayne A. Pohl explore how you can keep money from getting in the way and use finances instead to further the kingdom. They discuss such matters as how to keep the finance committee ministry-minded, how and when to delegate financial affairs, how to handle designated gifts, how to deal with financial mismanagement, and how to determine staff salaries.
It is true, as Paul said, that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” but this book shows another truth: well-managed money can become the root of much good.
