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Written by reviewed by D. Cameron Murchison
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Friday, 24 December 2010 04:14 |
This is a book that needed to be written, and these writers are up to the task. As spouses they share teaching vocations, one as a professor of accounting, the other as a professor of pastoral theology. As a team they bring combined expertise that results in a fine contribution to understanding some of the important ways that money matters in ministry.
The first, briefer section of the book undertakes to develop a framework for a theology of money. This section succeeds not so much as a folded and finished theology of money, as a path through Biblical, historical and theological reflections on money in the life of communities of faith that puts readers in touch with the richly textured nature of that conversation over and through time. One leaves the section with a reading list (provided in careful footnotes) and a set of categories to frame an ongoing exploration of how best to understand money theologically — as integral to Christian life, witness, and mission.
Having provided the beginning of such a framework, the authors undertake to employ it in the second, larger section of the book, “Applying a Theology of Money.” Starting with the basics, two chapters are devoted to the elements of church accounting and to the understanding church financial reports. While these chapters do not deal with subject matter that typically keeps pastors or theological students on the edge of their seats, they deal with knowledge that can help pastors find their proper leadership role even in the midst of lay leaders more expert in the details. The potential tedium of the subject is nicely relieved by the employment of concrete examples from church life.
The pace quickens when the focus turns to budgeting that is understood in terms of the missional purpose of the church. Quoting John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, the Jamiesons make the point that as a congregation approaches budgeting, it is called to be “a community of faith gathered around a common vision or purpose provided” by its theological charter, rather than “coalitions of special interest groups that have gathered out of mutual convenience around a single physical plant.”
Clear that missional discernment is the beginning point of budgeting, the chapter goes on to discuss the various ways in which such budgeting might be carried out. This leads directly into one of the book’s most important chapters, one dealing with the urgent need for financial transparency in the church. One does not have to search far for lurid tales of embezzlement and other misuse of funds in the life of the church in our time. Keenly aware of the problem, the authors show how transparency can be achieved through annual audits, sharing of audited information annually with the congregation, employing a comprehensive system of internal controls, actively preventing fraud, and fostering an internal culture of openness.
Most pastors and theological students will find the chapter dealing with “money in the personal life of the pastor” scratching where they itch as it deals with: the matter of clergy taxes, candid discussions of compensation, and setting one’s own limits for personal spending. This furnishes a platform from which pastoral leaders can engage the final two elements on the Jamieson’s agenda: encouraging giving in the life of the church, and undertaking ministries that talk about money as part and parcel of a Christian’s own discipleship, calling and mission. Here as elsewhere, the authors spark creative insights into both stewardship possibilities and ministries in which laypersons may see their financial lives as forms of ministry as well.
One might say that much of what this volume encompasses is dealt with in many other places. But its chief virtue is that it deals with all these many things, in one, accessible place. It is hard to think of any pastor — at any stage of ministry — who will not find help of a variety of types here. And I, for one, would say that no seminary student ought to head into congregational ministry without this volume in head and hand.
D. CAMERON MURCHISON is dean of faculty and executive vice president, and professor of ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga.
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