Often times when a church plant gets started, the Pastor is stuck doing a thousand jobs outside his gifting. Church finances can often be one of these things. And the handling of these funds from an offering standpoint is very important.

First off, it is very important to protect the Pastor from anything that would misrepresent him in regards to church finances. Therefore, establishing a Financial Committee from the start, is imperative. This committee will be the vehicle to carry out the financial controls.

Reasons why a church would have no offering procedure:

1. Pastor doesn't realize he is a liability by taking offering home to count it, or the appearance this gives. What would you do if you lost the money after you took it home and word got out to the community?
2. Pastor doesn't trust others to handle offering. This is understandable. Therefore, a financial committee must be established to assure the offering is guaranteed to make it into the church account.
3. Pastor is concerned that others will be in danger making a night drop to the bank. Again, understood! Therefore, coverage for your offering must be added to your insurance policy.

Below is an example of a successful offering procedure that you could modify for your own church.

Step by step cash handling procedure:

1. Elect a Financial Committee to collect, count and deposit your offering. These can be separate from the ushers.
2. Count offering in a secure room with two or more appointed Financial Committee members.
3. Separate cash from checks, calculate with adding machine, print receipt and have all parties sign and record.
4. Make a copy of all checks on a copy machine.
5. Fill out deposit slip and make a copy.
6. Place in the bank deposit bag.
7. Call Pastor with the total.
8. Have a committee member take it to the night drop at your bank.

The more controls you have in place, the fewer holes you have in your armor when fighting the enemy.