Ministerial ethics

NOTE: At Indiana Wesleyan University I teach Church Leadership, a senior course preparing ministers for the local church. In that course we use the following sheet to intentionally think about ministerial ethics regarding money and finances. While some of these situations are “no-brainers” others are far more complicated and require policies and common agreements to arrive at the clear ethical answer. Old-timers used to say “There are two exits from ministry: sex or money.” If that is so, there is certainly a lot more written to ministers about sex than money. Thus this handout helps ministers think about ethical decisions they will often face on the spur of the moment. Most of my students can’t decide many of these things—some are more “generous” (or “loose”) than others. They usually conclude that they’ll need help—usually in the form of local church policies to help them make some of these decisions. If you have additional items for me to include please send them to keith@TuesdayColumn.com

Financial Ethical Decision-making in the Ministry

1. When visiting the widow Mrs. Kramer, a shut-in who can no longer get out to church, she slips a $20 bill into your hand and says, “You are so wonderful to think of coming and praying for me.”

2. You have 15 pages of stuff about your new mortgage you need to photocopy and have no photocopier at home—but there is one at the church office.

3. Your church has an “entertainment account” so you can take guest speakers out to a restaurant when they come. Dr. B. F. Skinner is here today preaching and you just got the dinner check including the cost of his meal, yours, and your husband’s and both children’s meals on it.

4. You are working for a missions organization that has a policy that permits you to charge the air ticket of your spouse when traveling overseas. The idea was that in international travel their representatives shouldn’t travel alone and the spouse would have opportunities to minister too. Your spouse can’t go with you this time—but your 17 year old senior wants to go.

5. You are sent to a February church conference in Florida by your church with all travel and meal expenses paid and you rented a car for the four-day conference—you are thinking of adding three days on to your trip as a family vacation—just you and your spouse. You want to use the rental car for those additional three days.

6. You are sent to a church conference by your church with all travel and meal expenses paid. The conference ended Saturday night and you discovered if you stayed over and came back Sunday your church would save $40 on the air ticket. Then one of your college buddies invites you to speak at his local church before you leave in the afternoon. The church gives you a $150 honorarium for speaking that morning.

7. You recently purchased for your church office (with the church credit card) a small color printer for your computer that cost the church $179. You sent in the rebate coupon they gave you at Staples® and just received a rebate check made out to you for $70.

8. You are in charge of buying office supplies for your large church—pens, paper for the photocopier, and other supplies. Your primary supplier is a salesman who is a Christian man from a neighboring church and he is always friendly and prays for you before leaving. After today’s order of $240 for the church’s supplies, he thanks you for the business, prays for you, then hands you a watch that is probably worth $15.

9. You are in charge of arranging for a new photocopier for the church. After getting bids, you selected the lowest priced model at $3200. The salesperson that called on you and wrote up the bid thanks you for the business, and tells you he’ll be sending you a “thank you gift.” One week later you are at the church office when a beautiful Sony® DVD player arrives by UPS addressed to you.

10. You are in charge of arranging for a new photocopier for the church. After getting bids you selected the lowest price model at $3200. The salesperson thanks you for the business, and tells you he’ll be sending you a “thank you gift.” One week later when you get home from the church on your front porch is UPS box addressed to your teen daughter. In it is a beautiful Sony® DVD player and a note from the Photocopier salesman saying, “Your mom told me about you—and I thought you’d like this—it is my gift to you.”

11. The board has asked you to “get someone to cut the church’s grass every week and pay whatever is the going rate.” Your 14 year old son cuts grass for several neighbors and asks if he can do it.

12. You often use your home computer for “church stuff”—probably about half of your paper is actually about the church, not personal. But you have never charged the church for the printer cartridge. A fellow staff person just told you, “I just take a ream of paper from the church office home with me—I figure my printer cartridge’s use balances out with the church’s paper.

1. You don’t have a color printer at home and your best friend in college just sent you attached to an email a picture of their new baby—you want to print it off in color to show your spouse. The only color printer you have is at the church office.

2. You are at a church planting conference in Atlanta sponsored by your church with all expenses paid and you have a church credit card to which you are supposed to charge your expenses. Last night after the evening session three old friends from college and you decide to watch a recent movie in your room. The charge for that movie on this morning’s check out bill is $8.95. You are checking out now.

3. You are at a church planting conference in Atlanta sponsored by your church with all expenses paid and you have a church credit card to which you are supposed to charge your expenses. You already ate breakfast, lunch and dinner but several friends says, “Lets go out for a snack tonight.”

4. You are at a church planting conference in Atlanta sponsored by your church with all expenses paid and you have a church credit card to which you are supposed to charge your expenses. Between sessions you really want some coffee—you see a Starbucks® across the street and buy your favorite drink for $2.25.

5. You just added up your ministerial housing expenses and discovered that the church had designated $10,000 of your salary as “housing allowance” ahead of time, but you only actually spent $9200 during the past year.

6. You are at the church office, you just returned from a meeting and sitting on your chair is a pink slip message form your daughter at college: “Mom: call me this morning, OK?”

7. Your church announces today that they are going to be supporting their own youth if they will go to a Christian college –so they have established a new scholarship fund. They have no money in the tax-deductible fund yet but want some so they can give a scholarship of $500 to any student qualified. This year your daughter is the only student going to a Christian college from this church who will thus be qualified for this scholarship.

8. Max and Ruby Seiler, co-owners of “Seiler’s manufacturing” have just retired and built their dream house on the lake as their retirement home. They have donated all their furniture from their present house to the youth center “because Ruby wants to start fresh” in their new house. They estimate the value of the furniture is $2100 and ask if the church will give them a receipt for $2100 they can use for tax purposes.

9. You need more office space for your church. The office building next door to the church is up for sale for only $100,000 but it needs about $25,000 of work to bring it up to standard. No matter—you can’t afford it anyway. J. I. Powers owns the local Honda® dealership, and he is on your board. Powers suggests the following: “How about if I buy the house, the church fixes it up, then, I’ll lease it to you for five years at $800 per month. At the end of those five years I will give the building to the church and you’ll own it free and clear—the only money you’ll have in it will be the improvements and the lease for the first five years.

10. J. I. Powers is about to retire and “downsize” his house. His present “mansion” has recently been appraised at 1.1 million dollars. Your church is in a building program and needs the final $300,000 to make your goal. Powers suggests the following to your church board: “How about if I donate my 1.1 million dollar house to the church. All I ask is that you sell it to my Daughter Christie for $700,000 and the church can keep that money to apply toward the building fund.”

11. You are at Home Depot and you remember you needed to purchase a ladder for your own personal use at home—but all you have with you is the church credit card.

12. You have received an invitation to be the guest “motivational speaker” at a banquet to raise funds for a new church building in a large church near Chicago. You are a high powered speaker and you know they will get far more money in commitments if they have you rather than anyone else. Their “Miracle goal” for the banquet is 2 million dollars but their low-end goal is $700,000. They suggest to you that, rather than a speaking honorarium, they’d like to pay you one half of 1% of the amount pledged that night.

13. The church office has two computers no longer used and they are taking up space. Your son would like a computer for his own room at home.

14. Your church pays you mileage, especially because the hospital where you call is 26 miles from your small town. Tonight your spouse is going with you because you intend to have a “date night” after the hospital call.

15. Your church allows you to purchase up to $200 worth of books each year form the “reference account.” You are now moving to the next church and packing up your library.

To suggest additional items for this list send to keith@TuesdayColumn.com

REL468 Church Leadership

Keith Drury

Indiana Wesleyan University