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Leadership Scenarios:
3. The last several years at Manna Reformed Church have resulted in financial difficulty. The congregation has been borrowing from their $1.5 million endowment to the tune of 25,000 per year. The building is older and needing repair. Over the last two years the congregation is enjoying revitalization, especially with single persons and families with younger children. At the end of the fiscal year, your finance leader states that the congregation exceeded its budgeted giving by $55,000. The finance leader suggests that this surplus is enough to pay back the endowment for two years of borrowing. There are other opinions on the leadership team, including giving it away, hiring more staff for growth or considering expansion and renovation of facilities. How do you proceed with the finance chair, church leadership, and the congregation in discussing and deciding what to do with these funds?
Biblical Theological Connections:
This is not just a money issue. The key issue, as I see it, is our identity as Christians. In the Great Commission we are called to baptize and make disciples from people of all nations. Jesus, just as he sent out the disciples, sends us out to spread his good news to the rest of the world. He has not left us alone to our own power to do this. As believers in Christ we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill our calling as Christians.
God has gifted us with many wonderful things; money is one of those things. The issue of money is one that can cause tension and anxiety to rise in any setting. This is especially true in our modern setting with the economic positions most churches find themselves in. Even though we have taken $25,000 out for several years, our endowment is still sitting above one million dollars. I believe this puts us in a better position than some other churches in our area.
- The Bible does speak to the issue of money.
o Story of the rich young ruler
o We cannot serve two masters, God and money
o Sharing of good as found in Acts 2
o Storing up your goods on earth, storing treasures in heaven
The key question becomes, how do we faithfully use the gifts God has given us? I think the process by which we figure this out will set a precedent for the church in the years to come. As God blesses us with people, talents, and money, how do we use those gifts to live into the calling God has put before us?
Course of Action
My first step would be to have one-on-one conversations with the leadership team. I would do this to get a sense of where each person was at in relation to what our church should do with the money. As well as discussing the position we find ourselves in as a congregation. I would do this in order to get a generally feeling of why particular people suggested certain things.
Personally, I would begin to look through old consistory notes. I would look for critical financial moments throughout the history of Manna’s ministry. This would help me to “get on the balcony” to view my own congregation.
After that we would gather for a special meeting to discuss our options. (food provided of course) We would first dwell in the word, I think the Great Commission would be a good passage for this.
Our options are as follows:
1) Put excess money back into endowment
2) Giving the money away
3) Hiring more staff, due to growth
4) Expansion and renovation of facilities
As a group we would need to determine how “ripe” each of these options are within the congregation. One question that pops for me is, how has the church dealt with money issues in the past? Through church narratives we would be able paint a picture of what Manna’s view of money and stewardship is. The best way to do this would be to send out our leadership to collect some data on this issue Our leaders would go out in pairs to meet with people from the congregation as well as people outside of the congregation. Through this process some valuable information would be collected, such as:
- Manna’s feeling toward stewardship
- Is Manna ready to expand?
- What are the needs in the community and can Manna help?
- What are Manna’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunites, and threats?
A future vision retreat would be planned in which this data would then be shared with the entire group. This planning retreat would not just be for the leadership team, we would invite other members of the congregation. This would be done in order to get a more robust view of the congregation’s views as well as creating a sense of trust between the leadership and the congregation. The leadership doesn’t want to come off as this secret society. If the congregation cannot trust the leadership then where does that put our church?
The vision retreat would finally come. At this meeting we would start with dwelling in the word again, using the Great Commission passage. The agenda would then go as follows: (detailed notes would be taken by a pre-selected secretary)
- Leaders report what they found as they interviewed congregants and community members
- All of the attendees would then be broken up into small groups to discuss what they heard from the reports.
o Small groups would come up with major themes that they noticed in the reports. Both from Manna’s own community and the outside community.
o Groups would be provided with sticky notes of two different colors. The green notes would be themes from Manna and the yellow notes would be themes from the outside community.
o The groups would then put the sticky notes on the corresponding boards for Manna and the outside community.
o The small groups would then form two larger groups that would arrange the sticky notes into groups in order to get a sense of the major themes.
o The two larger groups would switch sides to see what work the other group did.
o We would then discuss these major themes as a large group.
- Lunch break
- In small groups again, people would discuss what they heard and how it relates to the current money situation.
- Small groups would report highlights of their conversation to the larger group
- The question would then be asked, “If money was not an issue, what would we do as a church?”
o Small groups discuss and then report back to the larger group
- Meeting would be ended in a time of worship and prayer
The leadership would meet again to discuss what happened at the vision retreat. We would come up with action steps for the immediate future, 9 months down the road, one year down the road, and three years down the road.
Those action steps would then be implemented.
Personal Reflections
As I stated before, money can cause great anxiety amongst people. People can get mighty passionate about what to do with their money. Possession of money would be major issue as we went through this process. In our American society, we have a sense of entitlement as it pertains to money. It would be one of the cultural identifiers I would need to be aware of. With that said, I will have to be able to orchestrate conflict well in this situation. Heifetz’ chapter on orchestrating conflict will be a key resource for me.
Another issue for me will be remaining steady in the times of disequilibrium. I know I will be tempted to pull away from the planned course of action if people start to get angry with me. I think it will important to have a group that “has my back.” Although, if the process is done well, it will be a group decision and the group will have my back. The collaborative element of leadership will be one that I continue to work on.
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