The Church, The Minister, and The Credit Card

     I want to begin with a question: Is trust between a minister and a church earned or is trust assumed? Understand: I realize that, without specifics, the question could solicit ambiguous responses at best. So, allow me to pose a not uncommon scenario.

CrossPointe Church, Anytown, USA just called Billy Beams as the new Discipleship Pastor. They are a growing congregation and very demanding.  Nonetheless the position is admittedly a leap of faith for the congregation. Budgets are tight for all ministries, including the newly created one to which Billy now is committed.

As for Billy, he comes from a church where he was well-loved and highly respected. Nor was ministry monies ever a significant issue. Plus, the church issued Billy a credit card which was used for ministry purposes. The church’s CPA placed standard guidelines with proper accountability on the card’s use to prevent so much as the slightest appearance of abuse. All worked smoothly on the church’s behalf and kept any potential financial burdens for ministry costs where they rightly belong—on the ministry budget, not on Billy.

CrossPointe is an entirely different environment, however. The financial team brutally scrutinizes every ministry cost each month. In doing so, they many times take unusually long periods of time in making reimbursements to ministers who request them.

Making things even more difficult is the financial policy they have which prohibits the issuance of a church-owned credit card for ministry purposes. This is especially burdensome for Billy. Because the church from which he came was much smaller, there were minimal ministry expenses he had to actually purchase on the church’s behalf. Yet, even if he did, he had a credit card to use.

It seems that some years back, Crosspointe had an abusive situation where a minister abused the church’s card and ended up leaving without reimbursing the church for the monies he misspent. As a result, the church cancelled all credit cards and put a policy in place prohibiting their use in the future.

Billy sometimes now has to wait up to six weeks for reimbursement. In fact, he had to place a deposit of $2,200 on his personal credit card for an adult retreat for next year. And, no matter how much he attempts to explain the burden to his church, there is no sympathy toward his position.

Now let’s revisit the opening question: Is trust between a minister and a church earned or is trust assumed? Perhaps one’s first response is, trust between minister and church must always be earned. If that is the response, I record my profound disagreement. From my perspective, unless trust is assumed, the relationship between minister and church can never gain a sure footing. Why should a church call a minister they assumed they could not trust? A better strategy, it seems clear, is to only hire a person you believe to be trustworthy.

Now, before someone responds and asks “Yes, but everybody—including ministers—should be held accountable, shouldn’t they?” allow me to query this: Since when did trust exclude accountability? The two are decidedly not exclusive of one another. They are friends, not foes. A trusting environment—if it is a healthy environment—is always an accountable environment. Trust without accountability is not trust; it is moral stupidity, a type of blind ignorance that holds captive those who sincerely but wrongly insist they possess a loving, trusting relationship between one another. King David’s repugnant fling with Bathsheba stands as the quintessential model for arrogant action without appropriate accountability.

Back now to Billy, not to mention the many who read this tiny treatise who either face a CrossPointe-condition themselves or know of someone who does. If, as a minister, you abuse a church credit card, it should be taken from you, at minimum, until you get a grip on following proper protocol. 

More than once I pulled a card from a slothful staffer who thought they were the exception to turning in appropriate receipts. If the abuse is severe enough, not only should the credit card be yanked, but you need to be pitched out of your position on your ears.

If, as a church, you do not have the discernment to call a minister you assume is trustworthy, get out of the church business. Even more, if you do not have the expertise to set up standard guidelines for the use of church credit cards, call the state convention office. They will help you.

Finally, if you do not see that expecting a minister to pay, out of his own pocket, costs for which the church herself is responsible; costs which sometimes goes into hundreds and even thousands of dollars; costs which the overwhelming majority of ministers do not have adequate funds to cover without burden; costs which, for all practical purposes, becomes a short-term, interest-free loan to you; if you do not see this, my dear church, get down on your knees and repent. For now it is you who have become the very thing you despise--The Abuser.       

With that, I am...

Peter

Comments

[Chris]

Having served in both types of situations you described for Billy, let me make a suggestion that will help all ministers serving in churches that take forever to reimburse: PLAN AHEAD. If someone has to place a $2100 deposit on their personal credit card for an adult retreat, they have not planned far enough ahead. If you budget the retreat a year ahead of time, there should be no reason why the church could not issue a check for the deposit when it is needed. Most of these issues are created by pastors that lead by the seat of their pants.

By the way, any pastor that abuses his credit card should be disciplined significantly. Dishonesty has no place in the ministry of the Word.

[peter]

Chris,

Thanks. Of course, the adult retreat was an example off the cuff. Thus your point may be well taken that planning could be an issue. Nor do I dispute that planning may not be the strong suit of many pastor/staffers.

Nonetheless, to suggest the issue is mostly resolved through simple a)foresight and proper planning and b) writing hard-copy checks does little to solve the issue I posed.

While scheduling an adult retreat a year in advance may bleed off some of the potential hazard, purchasing airline tickets for a mission trip cannot so easily pass under the radar. A church with which I am familiar was penalized several hundred dollars by insisting on using a hard check to "lock in" the tickets. Didn't work. By the time the check arrived, ticket prices changed.

In addition, it is virtually impossible to take advantage of internet purchases without a credit card.

That said, we obviously agree on whether either outright dishonesty or incompetent managing of credit card purchases is morally tolerable. Neither is as my post, I trust, made clear.

With that, I am...

Peter

[Chris]

Peter,

The scenario present boils down to trust. I agree if the relationship is started under suspicion, in all likelihood it remains there. If there were previous problem, correct them, but don't place the blame on the new staffer by foolish policy.

Chris

[Jim Champion]

Peter,

I am stewardship chairman of our church. Let me lay out for you our basic guidelines.

1. It takes trust on both sides of the equation - staff and stewardship committee. As chair of our stewardship committee I expect our staff to be cognizant of where the church finances are.

2. Our staff can use thier credit cards for ministry purposes ONLY (and yes we had a situation once upon a time when a minister bought some furniture on the church credit card - not pretty)

3. They must turn in receipts for purchases promptly. No receipt means a nice donation from the staff member to the church!

4. Larger items require previous submission of a purchase order.

5. We cut reimbursement checks once per week - it is not fair for us to put them ministers credit rating in peril (they can do that themselves easily enough :) )

[Keith Schooley]

I like the concept of a trust "bank account." (I mean by this a metaphor, not an actual account.) When a pastor takes a new position, he should be accorded a level of trust simply based on the position and the church's decision to call that individual to that position. What a pastor does in the conduct of his office will naturally add to or deplete that account. A pastor who acts in a trustworthy manner will be accorded more trust. A pastor who acts in a manner that could call his integrity into question will deplete that account and be trusted less. A pastor that clearly violates trust, as Chris said, should be disciplined significantly.

The upshot is, early on in a pastoral ministry, trust is essentially accorded. Eventually, the level of trust a pastor has will largely be earned.

[Byron]

Very good article, Peter. I agree 100%. I hope others will too.

[peter]

All,

I think some good points have been made here, none of which could not work, it seems, or, most importantly, hinder the flow of ministry.

Jim brings up a good balance asserting that trust is a double-edged blade, slicing from both sides. I could not agree more. Admittedly, I'm not sure trust on the minister's behalf means, in the present scenario, that, if the stewardship team deems it's in the best interest of the church to not issue credit cards, then, if "trust" is operating properly on the minister's behalf toward the team, he will without hesitation accept such as the best protocol to pursue. If this is what trust looks like from the minister's side of the street, I must plead disagreement.

The good thing about the thread so far is the obvious absence of a positive case for the non-issuance of credit cards to staffers for church related expenses. My bottom line point is that, from my perspective, I do not think a case which argues such policy can be successful.

Good night all. With that, I am...

Peter

[Morris Brooks]

If the staff member/pastor is abusing a credit card I can assure you that it is the tip of the iceberg. You better start checking them out in every area.

Morris

[peter]

Morris,

I think you make a good observation. The key, however, is a scenario of *continued* abuse. In a healthy scenario, there is little opportunity for *continued* abuse available. Checks & balances prohibit such.

With that, I am...

Peter

[Bob Cleveland]

Good article, one which all churches should read.

As a retired career insurance broker, I had a principle I always shared with clients, which churches need to realize: only honest, trustworthy people ever steal. Simply put, you nobody would ever entrust money or property to folks who weren't.

The plain fact is that EVERYBODY needs to be accountable. The only way to guarantee accountability is to check.