Who Should Be Able to See Individual Church Giving Records?

It’s a difficult question.

Indeed it is such a difficult question that I will not attempt to give a concrete answer. I will let you know what I’ve done in the past, but that’s it.

It’s really a difficult question. Who should be able to see what each person gives to the church? Let’s look at six perspectives.

  1. The lead pastor and one layperson. This perspective argues that financial stewardship is a spiritual discipline, and the pastor should have access to individual giving to be able to see how the members are doing in this regard. The layperson, of course, is the person who actually keeps the records.
  2. One layperson who guides the pastor. The layperson again is the member keeping financial records. He or she is the only one who has access to giving records. But that person is able to share information with the pastor or other leaders as needed. For example, the financial secretary can inform the pastor or elders about potential future elders according to their giving patterns. I took this approach as a pastor. I did not have access to individual giving patterns, but our financial secretary would let me and other leaders know if a person should be eligible for a leadership role according to their stewardship in the church.
  3. One layperson only. In this example, only the financial secretary (or equivalent) has access to individual giving records. He or she does not provide any input that would reflect this information.
  4. A key group in the church. In some churches, this group is the elders. In some other churches, it is the nominating committee.
  5. A staff person other than the pastor and a layperson. The pastor is specifically precluded from individual giving visibility. Instead, another staff person, such as an associate or executive pastor, has access to the records along with the financial secretary.
  6. No church members. No church member can see the records. Instead, a non-member is recruited or hired to keep the records, but that person does not share the information with any church members.

There are certainly different options and different variations of these options. I can see some rationale in each of them. These are really difficult questions.

What is your church’s practice? What do you think of these six options? What do you think is the ideal option?

Posted on April 13, 2016


With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
More from Thom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

159 Comments

  • Dean Sheets says on

    The amount isn’t the key as the woman who gave her last pennies showed.
    Pastors often push tithing without looking at the biblical evidence of grace based
    giving that the Apostle Paul gave. If you care, look at John MacArthur’s biblical evidence for it. Giving is to be done joyfuly and regularly as the Lord blesses.

    I have read and discussed the evidence that the tithe is for now because it was observed before the law was given. That seems to limit grace, which we all know is ridiculous.

    For many Americas, 10% may not be enough, for others, its likely too much if they aren’t giving joyfully.

    my two cents

    Dean

  • We were always known as being some of the faithful givers at our church. Well at one point my husbands income went down, our Tithe went down and an elder contacted us and asked if we could go out to eat with them and explained that they noticed our tithe went down. Now I personally was astounded, even though I grew up in a traditional church that used to publish tithing categories and names. At that time we made them aware our income went down and all was quiet. When our income went up our tithe went up. All was well. Over the last few years I’ve felt more convinced than ever that we should be giving quietly even if it means not getting the tax deduction. I run a ministry within the church that costs thousands. No one ever asked where the money came from to run that budget a year ago. I just quietly funded it. I put on a big women’s ministry event that costs thousands and only reimbursed for part still covering a couple grand. Then we
    Get a reminder from the pastor about our commitment to tithe. I am. He just doesn’t know where. Again an elder just took my husband out to dinner to remind him we are behind. He works where my husband worked, a large global company, so he surmised his salary I’m sure. No one knows I spend thousands in gas running many ministries every year. We live far and I manage multiple ministries. No one knows when we hand another teen outside our family their mission trip money. No one knows what I don’t turn in for receipts. I hate to be frustrated but the right hand should not know what the left hand is giving, you should give out of a joyful heart not compulsion. I have done that by funding God honoring ministries within our church. I don’t feel the need to justify this to people who don’t seem to know my heart but yet don’t mind me doing the work. It’s taking my joy out of the giving I do. Soon I will just quit supporting the ministries, let them do it, and tithe my generic tithe without my heart being attached and joyful. I truly believe this is one of the reasons you give your sermons on tithing, you train people to have a relationship with Jesus who convicts all on his own, and then run your church on what is provided. God manages that money and his ability to stretch it goes beyond our own pressing is others, checking out the right or left hand in the process.

  • Nathan walker says on

    So I’m the youth pastor at a church. The pastor does pretty much all the money handling. He’s the only one with online banking access, he does the deposits, he does his own reimbursements, he does all the payroll, and he’s a signer for checks. And it doesn’t require two signatures just his. Is this illegal? He also knows all the giving and pretty much has it memorized. At least for the top 20

  • John Page says on

    If a Pastor should know what members give to make sure they are spiritually healthy, shouldn’t someone know what the Pastors give to make sure they are leading by example?

  • Ronnie Vaughan says on

    I personaly don’t believe anyone really needs to know who gives what. That being said somebody has to for several reasons. Firstly because so many use checks and they have to be gone through. Secondly for tax purposes, but this is a legal issue not a Biblical issue. I don’t personaly write off my giving, but rather give cash anonymously to keep my giving between me and God. I have been told (as one involved in every level of local ministry) that we should know who gives what for spiritual reasons…like in choosing leadership in the church. My response is “why”? The pastoral epistles say nothing about how much a person gives in the requirements of an elder or a deacon. Paul tells us we are to give as we have determined in our own mind. Paul also tells us not to give under cumpulson (to the law that is) but rather to give “cheerfully “. So why must those of us who are/have-been involved in ministry be privy to things that the NT so clearly leaves between the individual and God? I say we/they don’t need to know anymore than is necessarily needed to give an accurate accounting of that which is given and to record for those who would like to use their offerings as deductions for tax purposes. There was a time in my life that my reason for tithing was simply because I didn’t believe in tithing and wanted the freedom to teach what I believed about tithing freely without being accused of having dishonorable and/or selfish motives. To require church members to tithe is spiritual abuse and I believe a stumbling block that babes in Christ need not be burdened with….their hearts will catch up with their wallets if we simply teach that giving needs to be systematic (or regularly), sacrificial, and cheerful.

  • I did not read all the comments but it seems there are many that back the “pay to play” scenario of selecting elders.

    How does this affect the financially struggling member who goes above and beyond using his non-financial talents in serving the church, his God, his family, and his community? This member who goes “above and beyond” in his beliefs as a Christian, is a faithful servant on committee after committee, who is a prime example of a good parent and teacher of youth?

    How does the process of financial giving assist those with talents beyond financial assets? Are they not leaders of the faith as well?

    Some faithful members are stuck in Volkswagens, not Mercedes.

  • I dont believe that churches, pastors or any other person at a church should be privy to records that identify individuals and their financial contributions (or lack there of).

    Ive been at churches that have managed funds well and churches where the management of funds has left a lot to be desired in terms of being a faithful steward. The same can be said for the budgets they have set. I tend to sway towards the verses in Matthew 6 that say “dont let your right hand know what your left is doing”. While specifically these verses are a warning of hypocrisy, I also think they demonstrate a valuable lesson of anonymity that is particularly important in matters of financial contributions to your church. For starters, if a church is unable to identify individuals they (the church) cannot be accused of giving preferential treatment to people that give a lot of money. But also if a church is only able to see the balance of an account and cannot identify individual creditors to that account, they cannot falsely accuse the congregation of complacency or greed. This is an easy position to default to, especially when the going gets tough and giving is seemingly lacking.

    Ill give two very good examples that I have experienced in my times in churches that demonstrate why I think the way I do (there are some similarities between the two).

    1. Church leadership were struggling with their budget falling behind on successive years. The church leadership had established a system where rather than passing the plate, they preferred direct contributions to a bank account. Church leadership examined the list of credits to the account and determined there was an issue of “greed” within the church. Seemingly it was determined that people were either not giving enough on individual transactions or that not enough of the total church goers were giving at all. Leadership then collated the list of transactions (minus the $ amounts) and asked individuals within the church to identify if any of transaction descriptions were theirs (this was a yes/no basis, not identify specific transactions). This way church leadership not only had a record of how many, but who specifically were and were not giving on a regular basis. Potentially they also had an ability to track individuals total contributions too. I must add here that many people refused to participate in this practice, so Im unsure how successful the whole process was.

    2. Again a church with a direct deposit system had fallen behind budget on successive years. This time the church had a record of the number of “unique church attenders” (that is individuals or families within the church deemed as should be giving) and a number of transactions that they were able to divide up into “unique payments” (payments likely to have come from the same source). Church leadership then created a percentage of the “unique attenders” that were giving regularly and determined an insufficient percentage of the total church attenders were financially supporting the church.

    I feel that both examples demonstrate the simple matter of how having access to information can lead to its misuse. In the first example it was the opinion of the leadership team that the congregation was at fault for the state of the budget. They then set out to not only prove this on a percentage basis but individually identify who they actually were – and I believe this is clearly beyond the bounds of faithful ministry. In the second example, again, a percentage was used to show how the budget was lacking due to the congregation. There surely is nothing like a good dose of guilt to top up the coffers. The only problem is that guilt is short lived and a month later you are back were you started. The second point Id like to make here is that even church leadership teams are susceptible to sin. And this is where, while trying to do the right thing, they have gone about it in completely the wrong way by being deceptive and abusing the confidentiality that one should be extended when giving to a church. But its for the right reason, so that makes it ok…right? Surely hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral (or spiritual) principle.

    Putting the ethical issues aside, I also believe both of these examples demonstrate a common lack of understanding of numbers and statistics. I guess this is the inner scientist coming out in me (my profession). Both of the examples above showed how a bad understanding of numbers made them rely on a percentage as their measure. However, percentages are not always a good measure and can even be misleading. Firstly, use of percentages makes a fairly dark (if unvoiced) assumption that giving or not giving equates to right or wrong. Im not sure life is this simplistic. Secondly, if you use a percentage as your measure, then giving needs to be reasonably equal across all individuals. I think anyone that has ever attended church knows that a small number of people contribute a very large amount of the total budget. When giving is skewed you can actually add a large percentage of people giving regularly and achieve very little (add 50 students to regular givers and youll see what I mean). And thirdly, Im sure we’ve all heard the statement “numbers dont lie”. Well these two examples demonstrate exactly how numbers (or percentages) can be used – probably accidently – to incorrectly highlight where the problem lies and how it should or can be fixed. I would seriously doubt the abilities of your treasurer and pastoral team to properly manage the churches money if this is the way they go about things. And id be asking a lot of questions of them.

    I think one other thing that must be said is this. Often in churches when the budget has gone bad Ive heard the statement “please go home and prayerfully consider your giving”. This is church codex for “please go home and see if you can give us a little more”. While there is definitely a place of reminding your congregation to be “faithful” or regular in their giving (as its easy to forget a few weeks), there is often a tendency of churches to fix a budget and then expect the congregation will support it (no matter how ambitious the original budget was). However, its not always the job of the congregation to give more to fix the problems. Church leaders must also be good stewards of their finances and ensure their finances are not excessively stretched and that the budgets they set are both realistic and manageable. Every church must walk the fine line of income vs expenditure, but all too often church leadership seem to resist making mid year cuts when the budget is not being met and instead put pressure on the congregation to make up the shortfall. While I have no issue with this in principle, there does exist a tendency in the churches ive attended to resist changes until the time for action is well past. Either that, or setting another unrealistic budget the very next year. Ive even been at a church that requested its members approve a budget for next year that increased spending – this was at the end of a year when the current budget experienced a significant shortfall. We also knew that the new year would be begun with less formal members than the last (due to a few families moving away). To my surprise members voted “yes” to this proposal. To date I still cannot understand the logic used by the pastoral team to justify this move or even the logic of the church members that voted yes to it. I can only assume they operated on a “well pastor knows how to lead us” basis. Unsurprisingly the same issues occurred with the following budget too! Crazy and needless pain in my opinion!

    • Fred Sarrow says on

      At the risk of this feed becoming off topic, I must say that what Oshish has written here does resonate with me deeply. Thank you for your comments, they were thoughtful and meaningful. I sense and understand the frustration of your words…

      Ive been involved in churches for the past 40 years and it would be a fair comment to say that on almost every one of those years a rather nervous looking minister or treasurer has had to talk to the church about finances falling behind. On almost every one of those occasions the emphasis has been that the church body, rather than the church leadership (that sets the budget) was largely to blame.

      I fully support the act of giving and fully believe in placing ones hand deeply into our financial resources for the good of our church. I am, however, a realist and I know the pressure needing to use our finances for non-church related purposes and understand that only so much can be given. I too have been part of a church that has had a budget fail on successive years, only be confronted with the ministry team pushing for an increase in spending or even employing additional staff in the year to come – even when current finances seemingly cant support such moves. Sadly I have also been a member of two churches that are now no longer in existence due to poor management of funds.

      I agree wholeheartedly with Oshish and his comments that ministry and financial teams within churches hold probably the most important role and responsibility when it comes to the act of tithing and church budgets. A church can have the most generous givers and still go backwards financially if the budget is irresponsible.

  • Steven Short says on

    The Pastor does not need to know WHO gave ,

    only how much as a whole.

    I have personally seen this be used against people and it wasn’t pretty.

    Instead hire an accountant or a team of a couple capable financial record keepers.

  • Hank Ross says on

    Good Morning!
    We are a small church of about 50. I am the Treasurer and Elder on the Board.
    Every Sunday after church another individual and myself count the offering (cash and checks) and record only the total amount in a ledger. We also have a tally board in the sanctuary where the number in attendance and the offering amounts are shown. These numbers are changed every Sunday after the offering count.
    During Board meetings I provide a current assessment of our accounts and also, with discretion, advise the board on whether there are any changes in giving which may impact the church’s operation. No names are ever mentioned, only dollars. As previously stated only myself and one other ever see who gives what.
    I guess this is a No. 5 with an extra.

  • Brent Weldon says on

    There is only one couple in our church who works with our financial records, and team of 4 who count the money each week, including this couple, with the other 2 people rotating from week to week, but they do not see the envelopes. As the pastor, i have a clear right to review the records of members, but i have never been convicted to do it. There was a situation developing with an divisive deacon after i had been with the church for a year and i came close to reviewing his record as part of the process of church discipline with him, but we never had to go to the “before the church” stage with his gossip and phone-calling.
    i trust completely the integrity of our financial couple and the rest of the church does as well. There have been a few times in which i asked them if a particular member had a good giving record as part of a process for seeking filling of leadership positions.

  • Craig Giddens says on

    OT giving was specifically instructed under the Law for the Jews and included material and financial giving. These instructions were not passed on to the church. Jesus knew the percentage of giving , but He does not pass along any commands or instructions to his disciples about monitoring giving. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that Paul knew what individuals gave. The bottom line is there are no instructions to the church about monitoring individual giving so each church will have to decide that for themselves.

  • Mark Underkofler says on

    10-20 years ago the rural church I now pastor used to publish the family giving of all the members. Thankfully we don’t do that anymore, but I think it did keep giving high!

    I think the treasurer should know and be able to relay on occasion some important information to a board member or pastor. My last church they built onto the church with a big loan and set the church budget year to year. However, it wasn’t shared that 1 family gave 35% of the church budget in a church of 200. When that family left the church after many years, there was huge financial hardship trying to pay back the loan. For this reason and minimal accountability for leaders and future leaders, information should occasionally be shared to at least one leader that a leader does giving regularly and if there are any unusual giving patterns that might impact budget and other decisions.

1 3 4 5 6