A Treasurer's Duties
Good Morning LTCC Family!
At our Elder/Deacon council meeting last week, we decided it would be a good idea to get more people from our leadership team involved in writing these weekly updates. This takes some of the pressure off of our two Elders and also has the added benefit of allowing the Deacons to spotlight what is going on in our specific ministry areas. As the Treasurer at LTCC, my primary ministry is managing the church’s finances, so in this update, I wanted to provide you a glimpse into how your offerings are processed and directed.
Tithes and offerings come in through one of three channels. The first is the black boxes that we have placed at the back of the sanctuary where people can put cash or checks. The second is checks that come in through the mail. And the third is online offerings made through our website. Over the last few years, we’ve seen more and more of our offerings come in online. In 2022, about 47% of our offerings were made online. As our online offerings grew, so did the cost of processing them, so in the middle of last year, we finalized a switch to a more affordable option. This change reduced our payment processing costs from an average of $660 per month to only about $177 per month. Another change in procedure that we have implemented in 2023 is that the Treasurer is no longer the one primarily responsible for counting the offerings that come in through the black boxes. Instead, we have a rotation of Deacons and Ushers counting the offerings each Sunday after service for greater transparency and accountability. This is actually the continuation of a policy that we had in place before COVID, but which was suspended when we were not meeting in-person due to the pandemic.
As Treasurer, I come in to the church office about once a week (usually on Wednesdays). Since all of the in-person offerings are now counted in advance, I do not have to do the count, but simply review the count for accuracy, enter it into Quickbooks, and then make the deposit at the bank. I also count and enter any checks that came in through the mail and record the online offerings. I also use the time that I am in the office to pay any bills that may have come in that week. Most of our regular expenses are set up to draw from the church’s bank account or credit cards automatically, but some are paid manually using Bank of America’s online bill pay feature. I also write paper checks to anyone in the congregation who incurred expenses that need to be reimbursed and leave those checks in the office for them to come and pick up. In total, I am usually in the church office for 1-2 hours each week.
God has blessed our church with many wonderful blessings, and our finances are no exception. It is important that we not take these blessings for granted, but take seriously our responsibility to steward our resources well. Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 12, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Over the last several years, God has blessed LTCC with over half a million dollars in offerings each year! God has given us much, so he demands much.
The Elders and Deacons of our church have always tried to be careful how we use the resources God has blessed us, because we are accountable not only to the congregation, but to God himself. And yet at the same time, we also recognize that our stewardship of money is not really about money. Ultimately, God can accomplish his purposes without our money. In the Old Testament, when tithes and offerings were often presented in the form of sacrificial livestock, God tells Israel through Asaph “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” (Psalm 50:9-12). No, God does not need our wealth. He has plenty of his own. But how we manage our worldly treasure has implications for our spiritual treasure.
In one of Jesus’ parables, he says “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” (Luke 16:10-11). By being good stewards of our worldly wealth, we are proving ourselves trustworthy of the eternal riches that we find in Christ. I am both honored and humbled that the congregation has affirmed me to be Treasurer for another year. I pray that with God's help I and my fellow Deacons and Elders will live up to the trust you have placed in us as we seek to steward the church’s resources well.
Daniel Geske
Treasurer, on behalf of the Elders and Deacons
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