Part 2 in a 4-part series on How to Count Church Offerings
The members of your Church Counting Team are unsung heroes of your church. Unfortunately, they also stand directly in the line of enemy fire.
Building the right team and in the right way will safeguard your church. But it also safeguards the people that serve on the team.
The Right People
The Church Counting Team should be an invite-only team. Don’t make an ‘is anyone interested’ announcement to drum up more people. People on your Church Counting Team will not only be handling cash, but they’ll also be privy to sensitive account numbers and donor information.
When you think about who among your Launch Team would be a good fit, consider:
- Dependability – do they have track record of showing up or flaking out?
- Trustworthiness – do they have a track record of keeping a confidence or gossiping?
- Stability – do they seemingly have their own finances in order or are they in crisis?
- Connections – no one should be related to anyone else on the team through blood or marriage; also avoid putting anyone related to the Lead Pastor on the team
Since you’re already setting up a background check system for your children’s ministry (right?), you should consider making this a second team that requires a background check to serve. In this 2011 study by Marquet International, “the alleged perpetrator had a prior criminal history” in 20% of the church embezzlement cases reviewed. It would have cost each church about $20 in a background check to prevent all that damage.
Serve in Rotation
There should be 2 team members counting the offering on site each Sunday. Having 2 creates mutual accountability and makes the job go faster.
But more than that, you should have at least 3 people on your Church Counting Team and have them serve in rotation. Having the same 2 people every week creates significantly more opportunity for a scheme to get cooked up.
In my prior banking days I was spared because of a rotation like that: a merchant accused our branch of stealing their night deposits over several weeks, but in large part because it was never the same 2 employees processing the bags, we were ultimately exonerated.
Provide Training
Just because someone has a background in accounting, banking, or cash handling doesn’t automatically guarantee they have any experience in handling church offerings. And chances are good that no one on your Launch Team has experience here either, so training them will fall on you.
You need to write down how to count & process the offerings (check out my next post for some super-practical tips!). You’ll use that to train your initial team and anyone that joins the team down the road. And you’ll include it with the ‘counting kit’ that is on site every week to answer any questions for the team as they count & process.
Given the right financial pressure at home combined with opportunity and access, any one of us could make the wrong choice. The forces of darkness are gunning for that to happen. All of these precautions above make that kind of exposure more difficult, which can move your team members out of the line of fire.
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