-i' 
 
 j50FT,;;.^^^; 
 
 JAN 4 1917 
 
 ^^Mm ^ 
 
y 
 
 LIBRARY 
 OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS 
 
 Volumes Issued 
 
 The Church a Community Force. By Worth M. Tippy 
 The Church at the Center. By Warren H. Wilson 
 The Making of a Country Parish. By Harlow S. Mills 
 Working Women of Japan. By Sidney L. Gulick 
 Social Evangelism. By Harry F. Ward 
 Church Finance. By Frederick A. Agar 
 
 Cloth^ 50 Ctnt%^ Prepaid 
 
 ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED 
 
r\ 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 A STUDY OF WRONG METH- 
 ODS AND THE REMEDY 
 
 BY 
 
 v^ 
 
 FREDERICK A. AGAR ^f^\i. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 Missionary Education Movement of the 
 
 United States and Canada 
 
 1916 
 
Copyright, 1915, by 
 MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
 OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTKB TAGZ 
 
 Preface . . . . . vii 
 
 1 A True Picture ... i 
 
 II A Real Result .... 5 
 
 III The Relation of Cost to Value 9 
 
 IV The New Ministry . . .21 
 V The Function of Giving . . 31 
 
 VI Prevalent Financial Methods . 41 
 VII Proper Methods of Church 
 
 Finance .... 79 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book is sent forth with the expecta- 
 tion and hope that it will help to make 
 successful the work of Christ^s Church in 
 these days of tremendous need and splendid 
 opportunity. 
 
 The conditions described or the methods 
 advocated will not all fit any one case, but 
 every church will doubtless find some 
 material applicable to its problems and 
 needs. 
 
 Many friends have assisted in its com- 
 pilation. I thank them all, and in par- 
 ticular the Rev. Frank W. Padelf ord, whose 
 generous help contributed largely to what- 
 ever value there may be in this presenta- 
 tion of "the giving life" and the adminis- 
 tration of the resultant money within the 
 Church of Jesus Christ. 
 
 New York City FREDERICK A. AGAR. 
 
 October 13, 191 5. 
 
 vii 
 
I 
 
 A TRUE PICTURE 
 
 IN far-away Central Africa, on the banks 
 of the Kongo River, a young mission- 
 ary went to live and work. After months of 
 happy, energetic, never-ending but much 
 loved work, a terrible fear one day lodged 
 itself in the mind of the man. The fear was 
 but the beginning of great trouble. 
 
 Crossing his office in a hurry to procure a 
 medical case, he fell against the rocker of a 
 chair. It ought to have hurt, for it hit the 
 right spot a hard blow, but as it did not hurt 
 there arose an immediate query in his mind, 
 to be followed by an examination. Sitting 
 down on the floor he bared the limb, and 
 with a surgical needle pricked the surface 
 until above the ankle he discovered a spot 
 as large as the palm of his hand in which 
 there was no sense of feeling. Young and in- 
 
 [I] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 experienced as he was, and knowing just a 
 little about medicine, the man knew but one 
 disease that had the preliminary symptoms 
 he possessed. "You have leprosy without a 
 doubt," he said to himself, "but don't say 
 anything about it yet. Keep it still for a 
 while." But the trouble would not keep 
 still. The spot grew in size each day till it 
 covered the leg from ankle to knee. Then 
 the same condition appeared on the other 
 limb and rapidly spread, till one day while 
 standing on the porch of the house talking 
 to a native, the man's eyes became suddenly 
 dim and he fell unconscious to the ground. 
 He was picked up and carried in. When 
 he revived he exclaimed, "Well, thank 
 God, I haven't leprosy, for this is not a 
 symptom of that disease." But what did he 
 have? He did not know, nor could any one 
 in all that section tell him. 
 
 It was evident what was going on, but to 
 find a cause or cure seemed impossible. 
 
 [2] 
 
A TRUE PICTURE 
 
 Some germ or poison was attacking the 
 nerve centers and putting them out of com- 
 mission, just as the fuse in the building can 
 blow out, thereby putting out all the elec- 
 tric lights. In the body, however, when a 
 nerve center is attacked, just before it ceases 
 operation it telegraphs to the next nerve 
 center, "I'm going to stop business ; will you 
 quit also?" And unless a cure is found, that 
 nerve center repeats the operation, and so 
 the process goes on until all have been at- 
 tacked and cease to operate. When the 
 nerve centers have ceased to act the func- 
 tions of the body are interfered with and it 
 is soon helpless and paralyzed. So, after 
 about two months the inert, paralyzed body 
 of the missionary lay on a couch while he 
 waited for death. In his agony he cried out, 
 "O God! let me die; let me die!" For he 
 was not only helpless and dependent, useless 
 in the midst of great needs, but the time and 
 strength of other missionaries had to be 
 
 [3] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 spent in caring for him day and night. So 
 it went on till unconsciousness eased the 
 weary, helpless, though living body. But 
 death did not come. Long afterward he 
 learned the cause of all his trouble. He had 
 been afflicted with African dry beriberi. 
 
 But why this story? It is not alone the 
 recital of a personal experience; it also re- 
 lates the spiritual experience of many mem- 
 bers of the Christian Church. They have 
 been afflicted with a fearful disease. They 
 are helpless and dependent. They have be- 
 come paralyzed because the great nerve 
 centers have been diseased by some poison, 
 and their souls have lost their spiritual 
 functions. Truly they have a name to live 
 on the roll of a church, but they have no 
 life. What a loss this involves to the mem- 
 bers themselves and what a drain it makes 
 upon the resources of the Church, so much 
 of whose strength must be spent in caring 
 for its diseased members! 
 
 [4] 
 
II 
 
 A REAL RESULT 
 
 FIVE weeks before the steamship Anne 
 Boleyn had reached the harbor of 
 Las Palmas, a sick and apparently dying 
 man in an unconscious condition had been 
 put aboard at a West African port. Later 
 consciousness returned, and when the ship 
 anchored close to the beautiful shore of the 
 Canary Islands, a message to far-away Lon- 
 don was dictated — "Am very sick; reach 
 Antwerp, — meet me." When the ship 
 docked at Antwerp the helpless, paralyzed 
 man lay on a wicker cot, to which he had 
 been strapped, so that the rolling of the ves- 
 sel would not toss him off. Lying there, 
 unable to move, he could watch one spot in 
 the ceiling above him. People were coming 
 and going and he could hear all the noise. 
 Suddenly as by an electric shock he became 
 
 [5] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 conscious that there was a step he knew. 
 Even in the midst of many others he knew 
 that one. There are steps we have known 
 once, but lost awhile, but which we have 
 not forgotten nor ever will forget. So he 
 followed the step as it crossed the deck 
 above. He heard it on the cabin stairs. A 
 man entered the little room and stood by his 
 side. He could not look, but he knew. A 
 voice said, ^Why, brother!" and then the 
 big fellow bent over and kissed him. Soon 
 after, the elder brother took the helpless, 
 emaciated man in his arms, and put him on 
 another steamer and they crossed to Lon- 
 don. Then, carrying him as a mother 
 might carry her child, the brother lifted 
 him into the family carriage, which set off 
 down the street. 
 
 At the turn of the road he saw the old 
 
 home, where he had been born, and about 
 
 which as a boy he had played through the 
 
 happy, care-free boyhood days, and from 
 
 [6] 
 
A REAL RESULT 
 
 which place he had gone out to wander 
 about the world. Now, sick and weary, he 
 was returning to the old home again. Even 
 before the carriage drew up in front of the 
 house the door flew open, and when the 
 vehicle stopped a big man waited at the 
 edge of the walk and from the open car- 
 riage door took the older brother's bur- 
 den. Hugging him close while he bent 
 down to kiss him, the father said, "It's all 
 right now, son. You're home again and we 
 will soon have you well." So into the house 
 he carried him. Before the warm, open fire 
 he put his burden on a couch, and with the 
 mother on one side and the father on the 
 other and the older brother behind, they 
 began the ministry of love that fought for 
 the life and health of the lost member of 
 the household. They loved him and minis- 
 tered to him with unceasing care, and after 
 many weary months and years the sick man 
 was quite well again. 
 
 [7] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 That is my story. Now the only sign of 
 those days is that above the face of a man of 
 middle life there is gray hair; otherwise 
 only memory would tell the story of those 
 fearful days. This man, helpless, useless, 
 sick unto death, was restored to fulness of 
 life by the personal ministry of those who 
 loved him. 
 
 In the Christian Church there are many 
 sick, helpless, useless members, afflicted 
 with disease quite as serious as African beri- 
 beri, who can be restored to health only by a 
 ministry of love in their Father's house. It 
 has been done. It is being done. These 
 pages tell the story. 
 
 [8] 
 
Ill 
 
 THE RELATION OF COST TO 
 VALUE 
 
 THE average church is less than fifty 
 per cent, efficient This assertion re- 
 quires but little proof to any man familiar 
 with Church life in America. The visitor 
 to the ordinary church will seldom find half 
 the members attending with any regularity 
 the Sunday morning service, and as for the 
 evening service a very small per cent, man- 
 ifest any interest or sense of responsibility. 
 There are few churches that secure the at- 
 tendance of fifteen per cent, of their mem- 
 bers at the mid-week services. The matter 
 of attendance at divine worship would seem 
 to be fundamental to those who have dedi- 
 cated their lives to Christ, but the modern 
 church has not succeeded in arousing much 
 loyalty in this respect. Our national 
 [9] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 women's societies are telling their constit- 
 uency that after all their intensive work 
 they are reaching about twenty-five per 
 cent, of the women in the churches. If a 
 church has half of its membership support- 
 ing its worship and work in any regular or 
 systematic way, it is quite unusual. There 
 are many churches where fifty per cent, of 
 the members are carrying all the financial 
 burden. Christ's great commission to his 
 Church was to evangelize the world, yet 
 less than one third of its members have been 
 giving to the world enterprise of the 
 Church. Many other lines of proof can 
 easily be produced to show the fearful lack 
 of efficiency. There are many things the 
 Church has done and is doing with great 
 and effective power. It is a mighty force 
 in the world and in the local parish, but it 
 falls far short of its ultimate goal because it 
 has secured the efficient cooperation of less 
 than half its members. About half have a 
 
 [lO] 
 
COST AND VALUE 
 
 name to live on the Church roll, but no real 
 life with normal functions. 
 
 The Church has long been in the habit of 
 seeking and receiving new members and 
 then has failed to instruct and train these 
 members in the great responsibilities which 
 they have assumed. It is not strange there- 
 fore that the Church has lost its authority. 
 The average church has not enforced a 
 standard of living or action. Almost every 
 communion has a covenant, articles of faith 
 or discipline, but in great measure that 
 standard is a dead letter in the life of the 
 body. In a far-away African church, 
 where several years before cannibalism was 
 common, but where the gospel had come 
 with its cleansing power and God's new- 
 found children had been gathered into a 
 church, one day at the communion service I 
 saw four people get up and go aside. They 
 did it in such a way as to make me ask the 
 missionary why they sat on one side. He 
 
 [II] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 answered, "They are under discipline for 
 not bringing a gift when they came to wor- 
 ship." They had a rule in that church that 
 every worshiper must bring a gift. The 
 rule was enforced. We have standards 
 of conduct, requirements confronting our 
 membership, and if the Church is ever to be 
 what it ought to be in the world we must 
 live up to the standard we have adopted. At 
 the very threshold of all our Church life we 
 are confronted with a distinct failure which 
 reveals moral and spiritual dishonesty. The 
 Church is the body of Christ, and a body 
 has authority over all its members if the 
 conditions are normal. It is a loving, mu- 
 tually entrusted authority. It is not pri- 
 marily disciplinary. If conditions are not 
 normal the body may lose control of its 
 members, but that condition presages dis- 
 aster if long continued and not remedied. 
 If our present standard is so high that it is 
 absurd to expect compliance with it, we 
 
 [12] 
 
COST AND VALUE 
 
 need to reconstruct it. But a standard, en- 
 forced and lived up to, we must have. 
 
 It may be asserted that the Christian 
 Church cannot use its authority to enforce a 
 standard of living or action upon its mem- 
 bers. There are many other organizations, 
 however, that have definite requirements, 
 and those requirements are enforced upon 
 the membership. In the average lodge 
 there is a real measure of loyalty as to finan- 
 cial support, even when it has no insurance 
 features. The average social club finds its 
 membership loyal. It is the exception and 
 not the rule in such organizations to have 
 discipline dispensed with, because the re- 
 quirements are plain and are understood 
 when membership is sought. The lodge or 
 social club and the church are upon differ- 
 ent planes, it is true, and the comparison is 
 of value only to show that in dealing with 
 human beings certain definite requirements 
 can be laid down and conformity to them 
 
 [13] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 can be secured. There are churches where 
 the roll is called at every service and it fre- 
 quently happens that every member is pres- 
 ent, but unfortunately the number of such 
 churches is not large. These churches are 
 among our new Americans, with small but 
 intensely devoted membership. In the mem- 
 bership of most churches we have about 
 fifty per cent, who show real allegiance, and 
 another fifty per cent, who do not seem to 
 care what happens. The Church unfortu- 
 nately is judged by the latter class, and not 
 by the former. 
 
 Church-membership in America has in- 
 volved too little cost. We have thrown 
 wide the door and made entrance very easy. 
 In Korea, on the other hand, when a con- 
 vert presents himself for membership, he is 
 asked for proof that he has turned from 
 death unto life, and the required proof is 
 that he must introduce some one else whom 
 he has led to the Lord, There are other re- 
 
 [hJ 
 
COST AND VALUE 
 
 quirements of an equally expressive sort. It 
 costs so much that it is counted worth while 
 to belong to the Church in that land. 
 
 The followers of Jesus Christ in Russia 
 who have left the state body and are build- 
 ing up a Protestant Church have prospered 
 wonderfully in the face of tremendous 
 hardships and difficulties. The Church has 
 made this remarkable growth even though 
 membership involves hardship, suffering, 
 confiscation of property, imprisonment, 
 and, in some cases, even exile in Siberia. 
 Church-membership has a high cost, there- 
 fore it has a real value. 
 
 Church-membership with us, however, 
 does not of necessity involve anything more 
 than a mere profession of faith. One can 
 join the Church and not attend its public 
 worship. Some members do not come to a 
 single service in years. I recently met a 
 leading Church official who said he had not 
 been in the church building for three years, 
 
 [15] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 yet family influence kept him in office. In 
 another membership I found one hundred 
 and fifty people who confessed that they 
 had not attended a service for periods of 
 from one to ten years. Not more than half 
 our members give to support the services of 
 their ov^n church and yet they are seldom 
 disciplined for this failure. Their standard 
 of life may not differ perceptibly from that 
 of men who have never made a profession 
 of Christian faith, but the Church seldom 
 calls them to account. Assuredly church- 
 membership costing so little is of small 
 value. 
 
 Church-membership ought to have a real 
 value. But if we are to impart any value to 
 it, it must of necessity cost more than it has 
 been costing. It must have some actual re- 
 quirements as to life and conduct. The 
 church must receive at least what any lodge 
 or social club does from its membership. It 
 should receive a much higher form of alle- 
 [.6] 
 
COST AND VALUE 
 
 giance because as an organization it is on a 
 higher and a spiritual basis. 
 
 We can scarcely escape difficulty with 
 those members who are already in our ranks 
 to-day because we have let them come in 
 without any real requirements, but the 
 Church herself must bear that burden be- 
 cause the fault is largely her own. We 
 must raise a new standard, however, and 
 henceforth enforce it, and every member 
 should be received on a definite program of 
 obligation and responsibility which the 
 church will see that he lives up to. It will 
 do better than the lodge or social club, 
 which has but one standard of cost for all 
 people. The church will base its cost in 
 money, time, and energy upon the principle 
 ^^as he may prosper." We may for a 
 time receive fewer members, but those who 
 come will be real soldiers. In the long 
 run, however, we must receive even more, 
 because the power of attraction is great, and 
 
 [17] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 real heroism of living and doing is tremen- 
 dous in its influence. We need to sit down 
 and count the cost, remembering that ''if 
 any man would come after me, let him . . . 
 take up his cross, and follow me," and that 
 if any man would save his life he must lose 
 it for Christ's sake. Better half our present 
 membership and a real esprit de corps, a 
 living faith, a clean, healthy functioning 
 life, than a membership half of which has a 
 name to live on the church books, but no 
 real life of faith and works. 
 
 Let us have a new spirit of heroism in our 
 Church service. A pastor not long ago is- 
 sued a call to his people for some real 
 heroic living, and his interpretation of her- 
 oism was that the members should attend 
 the Sunday services and the prayer-meet- 
 ing. What nonsense! We might as well 
 call upon the citizens of the countries now 
 at war to show a spirit of patriotism by eat- 
 ing their meals regularly. 
 ['8] 
 
COST AND VALUE 
 
 Is our Christian profession worth noth- 
 ing? In Wall Street a curb broker by a 
 crook of his finger gives an order, and it is 
 said that practically never has a broker 
 been known to break his word in that trans- 
 action. Yet men will make vows to God 
 and his Church, never really intending to 
 keep them, and they seldom do. 
 
 But you cannot legislate a high standard 
 of living into the church. It is not a matter 
 of legislation, but of life. You cannot se- 
 cure the needed standard by discipline 
 alone. It will come only as a result of vision 
 and passion. A new vision must be given to 
 all our new members and a contagious pas- 
 sion must be imparted to each of them. We 
 must create in their hearts a real love for 
 Christ and his Church. Out of this love we 
 shall realize a devotion that must set the 
 Kingdom forward. We must plant this love 
 in our own hearts and then impart it to our 
 new members. Love never counts the cost. 
 
 [19] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 Think what love of home and country has 
 made men do and give, as they fight in the 
 war being waged across the waters. Suffer- 
 ings indescribable, hardships unexampled 
 — yea, life itself given up in order to serve. 
 We are soldiers of a King, fighting for a 
 home and country against as real an enemy 
 as any one ever fought. Shall we not have 
 a real and true heroism in our service? 
 Such heroism and such devotion are the 
 great needs of the Christian Church. 
 
 [20l 
 
IV 
 THE NEW MINISTRY 
 
 IN the early Christian Church there 
 were two phases of ministry, that 
 which was entrusted to the apostles and that 
 which was shared by all the members. The 
 apostles were set apart for the ministry of 
 the Word. They were ordained to be the 
 public proclaimers of the new faith. To 
 this work they apparently devoted all their 
 time. But the apostles were not the only 
 prophets of the Word. All those who em- 
 braced the new faith became heralds of the 
 gospel. ^They that were scattered abroad 
 went everywhere proclaiming the word." 
 This was a universal ministry, shared in by 
 all the members of the Church. Above and 
 beyond all their occupations they made it 
 the business of their lives to repeat the story 
 of grace by which they had been redeemed. 
 
 [21] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 It was because of this universal ministry 
 that ''the Lord added to them day by day 
 those that were saved." 
 
 This double ministry ought to obtain to- 
 day in every Christian church. Conditions 
 of life have greatly changed in this modern 
 world. It is a different world that we have 
 to win back to Christ from that in which the 
 early Church first proclaimed the gospel. 
 But the necessity for this double ministry 
 has never ceased. The Church still has need 
 of its prophets, called and ordained of God, 
 devoting all their time to the public minis- 
 try of the Word, and supported by the 
 funds of the Lord's treasury, provided by 
 the members of the Church for the purpose 
 of this ministry. Christ is their Master and 
 their orders must come from their Lord. 
 True, they are any man's servant for 
 Christ's sake, but they themselves have but 
 one Master. They are the under-shepherds 
 of a flock whose Shepherd is Christ. 
 
 [22] 
 
THE NEW MINISTRY 
 
 But every church needs the other minis- 
 try which obtained in the early Church. 
 This was foreshadowed in the commission 
 of the Master when he sent out many of his 
 disciples into the neighboring towns and 
 villages with his message. Paul indicated 
 that in each church there was a ministry for 
 each disciple. ^'And he gave some to be 
 apostles; and some, prophets; and some, 
 evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; 
 for the perfecting of the saints unto the 
 work of ministering, unto the building up 
 of the body of Christ." Every member of 
 the household of faith has a ministry to ren- 
 der, a ministry of fellowship. The recogni- 
 tion of this divine plan and the adoption of 
 this twofold ministry is the great outstand- 
 ing need of the Church to-day. 
 
 Our churches have lacked a complete 
 ministry, and lacking it they have grown 
 weak. We have had too much feeding and 
 not enough exercise for the food taken. It 
 
 [23] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 is an accepted principle in spiritual, scien- 
 tific, biological, and pedagogical realms 
 that every impression must have expression 
 or danger and even damage results. The 
 Church has had a plethora of impressions, 
 but a serious lack of expression. The re- 
 adoption of the New Testament ministry 
 v^ill change this somewhat. We shall have 
 large opportunity for expression and then 
 impressions will sink deeper and will be 
 more lasting and fruitful. The body has 
 two arms and two hands. We can live if we 
 have only one arm and hand, but the body is 
 incomplete. So the Church has two minis- 
 tries as part of one body. It can exist with 
 but one, but the body is incomplete, its 
 powers and pleasures are limited, its com- 
 pleteness and beauty are marred. 
 
 The adoption of this New Testament 
 plan would rid our churches of the danger 
 of a hired ministry. A hired ministry! Con- 
 sider what that means to a Christian church. 
 
 [24] 
 
THE NEW MINISTRY 
 
 The people that hire have a right to control 
 the one they pay. They have a right to dic- 
 tate the line of his procedure and activities. 
 They may say come, and he must come ; and 
 if they say go, he must go. If the people 
 who hire are pleased, then all will be well ; 
 but if they are displeased, then why use 
 their money to sustain their own displeas- 
 ure? If their tastes are for soft and beauti- 
 ful palliatives, and they do not like the 
 strong and commanding truths, of course 
 their hired man must furnish them with 
 what they prefer. If a few give much of 
 the money to hire the minister, of course 
 they have the largest right to the hired man, 
 and a real boss or group of bosses may de- 
 velop. They will pull the strings and lead 
 him in the direction they desire. Those who 
 pay will develop a sense of ownership over 
 the one they pay, and the man paid will 
 soon feel that he is owned. 
 
 The result upon those who hire is not less 
 
 [25] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 unfortunate than upon him who is hired. 
 They are likely to sit back in their comfort- 
 able pews and in their ease listen to the 
 words of their servant, but his summons to 
 service has little effect upon them. 
 
 Are such ideas at all prevalent? They are 
 not universal, but they are altogether too 
 prevalent in individual minds, though less 
 prevalent perhaps in organized churches. 
 Not long ago the author was in a deacons' 
 meeting, and a need was presented for some 
 calls to be made upon people to whom the 
 pastor had constantly ministered and who 
 needed help from the lay ministry. It meant 
 an hour's time, some love, sympathy, and 
 prayer. All declined to undertake it on the 
 ground that they did not have time, and 
 then one added significantly, ^^That is your 
 job, pastor." They forgot that the office of 
 deacon involves a real task and was never 
 intended simply as an official position of 
 honor. 
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
THE NEW MINISTRY 
 
 A new enterprise was suggested to a 
 church. It received the formal approval of 
 members and pastor. Early next morning 
 the minister received a sweetly perfumed 
 note, and in gentle but forceful words, the 
 writer advised against the plan and added, 
 'Tt does not please me, so of course you will 
 see that it is not carried out in our church." 
 The writer of that note paid about half of 
 the money needed for the support of the 
 church, and the bitterness of it all was that 
 the hundreds of other members had let her 
 do it year after year till it seemed as if she 
 owned the church and the minister was her 
 hired servant, to do her bidding. Giving is 
 but one indication of interest. There are 
 other indications just as important, and we 
 must not let a sordid spirit control the 
 Church. We must protect the Church from 
 the sense of a hired ministry. 
 
 When Christ instituted the lay ministry 
 of grace, love, and fellowship, he sent out 
 
 [27] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 his ministers two by two, and when their 
 task was completed for the time being they 
 came back to him and together they ex- 
 changed experiences. To-day we need to 
 organize our lay ministry on this pattern of 
 Christ's. Every member should have part 
 in it. We need to send our members out 
 two by two for the purpose of spreading the 
 news of salvation and grace, and on many 
 other errands of service, and we must needs 
 continue "till we all attain unto the unity of 
 the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
 of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the 
 measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 Christ." This New Testament method of 
 the lay ministry of twos has of late been 
 adopted by many churches and with most 
 surprising results. We have been witness- 
 ing a new demonstration in many quarters 
 of the divine approval of this apostolic 
 method. Here are some of its uses to which 
 it has been put: '^ 
 
 [28] 
 
THE NEW MINISTRY 
 
 1. To secure new scholars for the Sun- 
 
 day-school. 
 
 2. To promote acquaintance and fel- 
 
 lowship within the congregation. 
 
 3. To acquaint members with those at- 
 
 tending some phase of church ac- 
 tivity, but who are not members of 
 the church itself. 
 
 4. To secure the reading of missionary 
 
 and church papers and books. 
 
 5. To talk up the good points of church 
 
 life and its ministry. 
 
 6. To secure men for a brotherhood 
 
 group. 
 
 7. To study the conditions in the neigh- 
 
 borhood surrounding the church. 
 
 8. To acquaint church-members with 
 
 the value of church and Christian 
 life. 
 
 9. To secure from every church-mem- 
 
 ber an adequate subscription for 
 local church support and King- 
 dom-wide missions. 
 
 Here are some results summed up from a 
 number of definite experiences in connec- 
 tion with this new-old ministry: 
 
 I. New currents of life have been pro- 
 
 [29] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 jected into the activities of the 
 church. 
 
 2. Souls are often saved during a can- 
 
 vass carried on by the church for 
 financial support or fellowship. 
 
 3. Cold and neglectful members are 
 
 won back. 
 
 4. A new vision of Kingdom and church 
 
 is seen. 
 
 5. The church and pastor are projected 
 
 as world powers rather than local 
 forces. 
 
 6. Educational processes are multiplied 
 
 throughout the life of the church. 
 
 7. Larger congregations hear the Word 
 
 preached. 
 
 8. New scholars are found in the Bible 
 
 school. 
 
 9. More men are at work in the church. 
 
 10. The minister has better support. 
 
 1 1. A sense of solidarity ensues. 
 
 12. The contagion of example is evident. 
 
 13. Fellowship has a larger meaning, be- 
 
 cause a knowledge of the homes, 
 the experiences, and the personali- 
 ties of others is acquired. 
 
 [30] 
 
V 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF GIVING 
 
 THE Church has seldom treated the 
 subject and the act of giving as neces- 
 sarily vital to the life of the individual or 
 the Church. Giving has been classed among 
 the business enterprises of the Church, and 
 has been relegated to the care of the legal 
 officers of the body — trustees — often men 
 who deal with the financial service of the 
 church from a commercial point of view. 
 Beneficence therefore has drifted away 
 from its proper spiritual environment until 
 serious conditions have forced a realization 
 of the mistake. Now we are beginning to 
 put this Christian grace of giving where it 
 belongs, as one of the vital functions of the 
 soul, and therefore necessary to a healthy, 
 abounding Christian life. 
 
 It is generally true that the people who 
 
 [31] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 give systematically are those who attend the 
 services of God's house with regularity. It 
 is further true that the people who give and 
 attend with regularity are those who can be 
 counted upon to do all that is being done 
 within the bounds of the local church activ- 
 ities. In the course of the past few months 
 thousands of church officers have been 
 asked if this is not true, and it has always 
 been acknowledged as true to experience. 
 Worship, giving, doing, seem therefore to 
 accompany each other. That is significant. 
 Of course, there are exceptions. It is also 
 true that in a church where the tide of 
 spiritual power is highest there is compara- 
 tive financial prosperity. People wonder 
 why Billy Sunday is able to raise so much 
 money to meet expenses, build Young Men's 
 Christian Association buildings, and so on. 
 In the meetings which he leads there de- 
 velops a tremendous spiritual wave. That 
 is all the explanation necessary, for when 
 
 [32] 
 
THE FUNCTION OF GIVING 
 
 there is spiritual enthusiasm, money flows 
 forth in ever-increasing measure. 
 
 We need to use the best business powers 
 possessed by the Church in connection with 
 the administration of Church finances, but 
 in connection with the givers we must re- 
 member that we are dealing with a vital 
 spiritual function. 
 
 There are two great functions of every 
 normal life, assimilation and expression. 
 The importance of the first function has 
 always held the attention of the Christian 
 Church. Its fundamental character was 
 emphasized by Jesus in his great address 
 upon the vine and the branches. The dis- 
 ciple who would maintain a normal, 
 healthy, spiritual life must abide in Christ, 
 as the branch is related to the vine, and con- 
 stantly assimilate in his own life the strength 
 and vitality of Christ. There can be no 
 health without this, and this fact the Church 
 has always emphasized. 
 
 [33] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 Some time ago the vacant seat beside me 
 on a train going west was taken by a woman 
 of foreign speech. In her arms she carried 
 a babe. On glancing at the face of the 
 little one, I was startled by its deathly ap- 
 pearance, and said, 'Tretty bad, pretty bad." 
 She answered, "He die soon, he die very 
 soon." "No eat food?" I asked, and then 
 she threw up her hands and said, "No takee 
 food, never! He die soon." When that 
 child was born, it was expected to develop 
 normally the function of assimilation, 
 whereby the body takes the food and trans- 
 forms it into blood, flesh, bone, and muscle. 
 If the child is to live and the life is to 
 prosper, assimilation must be natural, just 
 as the lungs must function properly. That 
 child had never functioned properly; it was 
 dying. The soul has the same vital func- 
 tions. Unless those functions develop in the 
 life when it is born again into God's king- 
 dom, the spiritual life will wither and die. 
 
 [34] 
 
THE FUNCTION OF GIVING 
 
 But the function of expression is equally 
 important, and where there is a normal, 
 healthy, spiritual life it will always be 
 found. It should begin with birth. Too 
 often we have been so greatly interested in 
 getting the life, that we have failed to give 
 it proper care when it came to us. We 
 have been more interested in gathering 
 members for our churches than in helping 
 those new members toward a strong, healthy 
 life after they came to us. When a little 
 babe comes into the world and it does not 
 develop normally the function of heart ac- 
 tion, does the surgeon look at the little one 
 lying there in its weakness and then go out 
 and leave it? He examines it carefully to 
 see what is wrong, and as soon as he dis- 
 covers the abnormal condition, he tries a 
 remedy. If that does not produce the de- 
 sired result, he has other methods to try. 
 But he gets the heart to function, if it is 
 possible. If it will not, death comes. 
 
 [35] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 The function of the soul life must be 
 started at once under the most skilful care. 
 No care is too great to give the soul in that 
 endeavor. Then the function must be 
 normally maintained, as laid down in our 
 spiritual law book in i Cor. xvi. 2 — ^'Upon 
 the first day of the week let each one of 
 you lay by him in store, as he may prosper." 
 The natural law in dealing with the bodily 
 functions is quite plain, and so is the spirit- 
 ual law in connection with the soul. 
 
 Many think, however, that these spiritual 
 functions are not vital, and are in fact only 
 relatively important. Have you noticed 
 that the great apostle speaks of giving as 
 a ''grace" (2 Cor. viii. 6, 7)? Then he 
 classes failure to give, or holding on to 
 what you have — covetousness — as belong- 
 ing with murder and adultery in the sight 
 of God. 
 
 Notice that when Paul has climbed the 
 spiritual heights till he sees how death is 
 [36 I 
 
THE FUNCTION OF GIVING 
 
 swallowed up in victory (i Cor. xv), he 
 climbs still further on — ^'But thanks be to 
 God, who giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my 
 beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmov- 
 able, always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor 
 is not in vain in the Lord. Now, concern- 
 ing the collection for the saints, as I gave 
 order to the churches of Galatia, so also 
 do ye. Upon the first day of the week let 
 each one of you lay by him in store, as he 
 may prosper, that no collections be made 
 when I come." Remembering that our 
 chapter marks were not in the original 
 letter, does it seem an unworthy transition 
 of thought to pass from victory through 
 Christ to collections and giving? The 
 apostle makes such transitions of thought 
 very often, because to great spiritual heights 
 are linked the duties which we have called 
 common. Not common in reality, but vital 
 [37 1 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 as the victory itself because part of the 
 victory. In the ninth chapter of his second 
 letter to the Corinthians we see again how 
 to almsgiving he couples that wonderful 
 phrase, "Thanks be to God for his unspeak- 
 able gift." 
 
 You cannot separate a man's money or 
 possessions from the man himself. There 
 are some people who seem to think that 
 they can give themselves to God and to 
 Christ's Church, but that such an act has 
 no relation to their money. Such a separa- 
 tion cannot be made successfully. What 
 does the money which I have honestly 
 acquired really represent? Is it not an 
 equivalent of myself — my time, my energy, 
 and my strength? So it is really I myself. 
 
 Giving is therefore a vital function of 
 the soul life. It must be in every normal, 
 spiritual experience, and it must be regu- 
 larly maintained. Without this function 
 the soul will wither and die. There can be 
 
 [38] 
 
THE FUNCTION OF GIVING 
 
 no substitute for digestion in the physical 
 life. Predigested food will do for a short 
 while, but if used for a prolonged period, 
 it will bring the body to starvation and 
 death. Equally so the man who fails to 
 develop the grace of giving, the function 
 of expression, is doomed to death. 
 
 When we face the real facts in modern 
 Church life we are forced to recognize that 
 the reason why we have so many unde- 
 veloped, uninterested, useless members is 
 that at the very beginning of their spiritual 
 experience the Church itself failed to de- 
 velop in them the normal and necessary 
 function of expression, this Christian grace 
 of giving. We shall never have the right 
 kind of churches until we develop in our 
 people '^this grace also." The church needs 
 to face this serious fact to-day. 
 
 [39] 
 
VI 
 
 PREVALENT FINANCIAL 
 METHODS 
 
 IT is estimated that about half the 
 members of the Christian Church do 
 not give regularly for either Church sup- 
 port or beneficence. The half that do give 
 are bearing all the burden. They are meet- 
 ing the obligations that should be shared 
 by all members. In many cases this strains 
 resources, causes v^orry, pressure, and 
 trouble. The financial side of Church life 
 has become a most disagreeable and dan- 
 gerous phase. Resources are limited, and 
 all that should be done cannot be done. 
 The minister is usually underpaid and that 
 w^eakens the character of the w^ork and its 
 results. Many expressional activities that 
 should result from impressions made in the 
 service of worship are lacking because of 
 
 [41] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 financial limitations. God's people have in 
 their charge money enough to do all that 
 should be done if they would but function 
 normally. 
 
 The present financial administration 
 causes large loss to the Church. The lack 
 of sufficient funds to maintain the Church 
 has often created difficulties which have 
 become disastrous. Pressure is exerted 
 which involves pulpit and pews ; estrange- 
 ments arise, and members are lost. Mem- 
 bers receive the idea that the Church wants 
 their money more than it wants them. They 
 are not altogether to blame. They do not 
 object when the lodge or social club sends 
 them a dun. They expect it and pay at 
 once. They value their membership and 
 accepted it knowing that it would entail a 
 certain cost. In the church they are not 
 
 (started right. They are often allowed, 
 even urged, to come in without any definite 
 explanation of their obligations. Later on 
 
 [42] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 request is made for money. It comes as an 
 unpleasant surprise. They had never 
 stopped to consider that, if the church is to 
 be sustained, it must receive its support from 
 the members themselves. The gospel is 
 free, but true worship never is, for that in- 
 volves giving up of self to honor God. 
 
 But suppose a member escapes that diffi- 
 culty. Another often appears in the shape 
 of numerous appeals to support the Sunday- 
 school, the Ladies' Aid Society, the 
 Woman's Mission Circle, the Young Peo- 
 ple's Society, the church socials, and many 
 other things. Recently when going home 
 from Sunday morning service, a church- 
 member said to me that six requests for 
 money had come to her between the close 
 of the service and her departure from the 
 church building. That puts a regular 
 begging aspect on all the church activities. 
 Is it any wonder that a new member often 
 becomes disgusted with the church? He 
 
 [43] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 believes that when the giving function has 
 been properly exercised on behalf of the 
 church and its missionary enterprises, the 
 solicitations for money should practically 
 cease. Not so to-day, for there are many 
 organizations in the church, some of them 
 divisive, all eager for support. Often 
 each segment makes a separate appeal for 
 money and one phase is unrelated to any 
 other in the church life. Sometimes there 
 is rampant antagonism between the various 
 segments, and one cause is supported to the 
 exclusion of and at the expense of another. 
 If the workers, pushing a relatively un- 
 important segment, happen to be aggres- 
 sive, the resources of the givers are ex- 
 hausted by that one phase, and when the 
 really important things appeal for support 
 there is nothing left to give. Thus the unity 
 of the church is lost. The unity of the 
 world-wide Kingdom is shattered into 
 numerous fragments. Bad feeling, jealous- 
 
 [44] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 ies, and failure often result. The whole is 
 sacrificed for a part. The willing, generous 
 people give and give repeatedly. They 
 become bewildered by the multitude and 
 complexity of the calls. Those who decline 
 to give often do so in such a spirit that 
 henceforth they are left severely alone. So 
 the burden grows abnormally large in one 
 direction, and abnormally small in another. 
 Causes are not properly related to the whole 
 nor to the rest of the parts. Some have 
 overemphasis, others no emphasis at all. 
 
 We all believe heartily in our women's 
 societies and in the great work they are 
 doing. They have often led in the march 
 of progress. But sometimes we find a con- 
 dition like this : In a certain church the 
 Woman's Missionary Society gathers from 
 men and women in the parish about $1,400 
 a year, all of which goes to women's mis- 
 sion work, while the contribution from the 
 church for general missions is less than 
 
 [45] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 $400. Of course the church is blame- 
 worthy, decidedly so, but some responsi- 
 bility must rest upon the women who have 
 lost sight of the whole in their zeal to serve 
 a part. A woman is first of all a Christian, 
 then a church-member, and because of those 
 two relations she is, or should be, interested 
 in women's work. All of the women in that 
 church ought speedily to see that their 
 church adequately faces its responsibility 
 in larger things before a part of the work 
 absorbs all the available resources. Not 
 long ago a woman said to me, "If I have 
 only a dollar to give, am I not right in 
 giving it all to woman's mission work?" 
 When I replied that she was decidedly 
 wrong, she at once proclaimed me an enemy 
 to woman's mission work. I believe in it 
 firmly. I contribute toward it as a phase 
 of Kingdom activities. Every church- 
 member should share in its work because 
 it is an important and essential phase of 
 [46! 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 Kingdom activity. On the other hand, the 
 attitude of churches toward the women's 
 societies has not always been just or gener- 
 ous. Often they have been forced to gather 
 their support under conditions that made it 
 most trying, but they have succeeded in 
 spite of everything. The Church must give 
 the women's societies proper recognition, 
 and the women's societies must realize that 
 they are but one of the many activities that 
 make the life of the whole Church. 
 
 The divisive element has done its harm- 
 ful work by detaching the part from the 
 whole, so that the part has become in the 
 eyes of many greater even than all the rest 
 put together. In visiting a church not long 
 ago a young people's meeting was found 
 with eighty-four in attendance. They had 
 a splendid meeting. When it was over, 
 seventy-eight of those young people went 
 out of the church building, and only six of 
 them found their places in the church 
 
 [47] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 service that followed immediately. Many 
 of these young men and women were not 
 contributing a cent to the church of which 
 they were members. Their contributions 
 all went to the work done under the auspices 
 of their society. No one segment of the 
 church deserves all the blame, all must 
 share it. 
 
 When we consider the methods used to 
 obtain support for Church enterprises, 
 what a disorganized, unbusinesslike con- 
 fusion is found! The wear and tear of pro- 
 viding for the needs of the church distracts 
 us from our greater task, and then that is 
 done in a poor and inefficient way. Schemes 
 that are not Christian, all sorts of tactics 
 that will produce results, and almost any- 
 thing that will avoid the necessity of direct 
 giving are employed. In consequence the 
 church is humiliated in the eyes of the busi- 
 ness world for her poverty and her miser- 
 able financial system. 
 
 [48] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 The following methods are all in use to- 
 day to obtain money for Church work. In 
 some places one method obtains, in others 
 you may find several, sometimes nearly all 
 of them combined. 
 
 I. The Pew Rent System. This is an 
 old system, adopted originally in the New 
 England churches when every citizen was 
 expected, as a part of his citizenship, to 
 rent a pew in the parish church. From New 
 England this system spread throughout the 
 whole country and for more than a genera- 
 tion was the customary system in a great 
 majority of American churches. The plan 
 still exists among many churches in all sec- 
 tions of the land. Under this system each 
 member is expected to pay some amount for 
 the yearly rental of a sitting. If a member 
 has much money, he can buy the seat he 
 desires, but if he has only a little, he must 
 take what is left over after the rich have 
 had their choice. We forget that it is God's 
 
 [49] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 house. We do not go there to buy, but to 
 give. 
 
 2. Donations. This system is also a sur- 
 vival of the ancient custom which prevailed 
 very v^idely in country districts and still 
 prevails in some sections to-day. Donations 
 for the support of the minister are solicited 
 occasionally or annually throughout the 
 parish. But the church is not a charity, 
 nor is the minister an object of charity. 
 Therefore this system has no merit to com- 
 mend it in any church. 
 
 3. Subscription Papers. Once a year 
 papers are passed around the parish and 
 people are asked to sign w^hat they expect 
 to give. They may pay when they please. 
 Usually great care is exercised to induce 
 the largest subscribers to sign first. This 
 system still obtains very largely in rural 
 communities and possesses little more to 
 commend it than the older plan of dona- 
 tions. 
 
 [50] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 4. Begging Bees. At a public gathering 
 the pastor or some leading member tells 
 some funny or heartrending story, then ap- 
 peals for money and takes all he can secure 
 under the excitement of the moment. Many 
 people give under stress or pressure or ex- 
 citement and not seriously and deliberately. 
 I have known cases where the church doors 
 were locked and no one was permitted to 
 leave until the necessary sum was sub- 
 scribed. This plan gives small recognition 
 to the New Testament principle of giving. 
 
 5. The Individual Collector. Under 
 this system one person is appointed by the 
 church or society to make the round of the 
 parish and secure such subscriptions as are 
 possible. An old man arose recently in a 
 conference and said, "I have been collector 
 for my church for twenty years. I get the 
 money any old way, so long as I get it, and 
 I don't care who gives it either." His pastor 
 remarked that the old man drove more 
 
 \5i] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 people out of the church than all the rest 
 of them could add to it Unfortunately 
 this plan is still in vogue in a great many 
 churches. It is fortunate if the collector is 
 a man who is in general favor in the parish. 
 But the unpleasant task is likely to make 
 any man unacceptable in any community. 
 
 6. Hit or Miss Plan. Loose collections 
 are taken at the morning and evening serv- 
 ices. A small group of influential people 
 guarantee and make up any deficit. These 
 guarantors naturally have a large voice in 
 the control of the organization. Those who 
 make only occasional contributions are 
 scarcely in a position to question the 
 dominance of others. 
 
 7. Free Will Offerings. Churches which 
 follow this system take no collections at any 
 service. Boxes are placed at convenient 
 points around the church building and 
 people give what they please, when they 
 please. There are not many churches of 
 
 [52] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 this character and pastorates within them 
 are usually short. 
 
 8. Assessments. Assessments are made 
 upon various members by the finance com- 
 mittee as in a lodge or social club. In one 
 church which follows this system, the men 
 pay $i8 a year and the women $12. The 
 children are not expected to pay anything. 
 The voluntary principle in religion is so 
 strong that this system fortunately does not 
 obtain in many churches. 
 
 9. Tithing. Under this system members 
 are expected to set apart one tenth of their 
 income to the Lord's work. In some 
 churches this is a condition of membership. 
 This was part of the ancient Jewish system 
 of beneficence and is strongly urged by 
 many as the ideal system for Christians. 
 While it has the sanction of Judaism and 
 when adopted usually greatly increases the 
 income of the church, there are some who 
 question whether it is Christian in spirit or 
 
 [53] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 is productive of the largest results. As a 
 voluntary practise, it is orderly, helpful, 
 and to be commended. 
 
 10. The Simplex Plan. Subscriptions 
 are taken, payable weekly when possible. 
 The money when received is divided on a 
 percentage basis between church support 
 and beneficence upon a schedule adopted by 
 the church or the finance committee. The 
 single pocket envelope is often used in this 
 connection. This plan has been somewhat 
 widely adopted in recent years, but is open 
 to the objection that it removes from the 
 individual contributor his decision as to the 
 division of his contributions. It also in- 
 vites a misuse of missionary money for 
 church support. 
 
 11. The Duplex Plan. Subscriptions, 
 payable weekly, are solicited for church 
 support and missions. A bi-pocket envelope 
 or two envelopes are issued for weekly pay- 
 ments and are placed in the hands of each 
 
 [54] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 contributor at the beginning of the year. 
 This is often a most effective plan and has 
 been very generally adopted in many 
 modern churches. The committee usually 
 find, however, that many contributors re- 
 fuse to subscribe for more than the item 
 of church expenses. 
 
 12. The Spasm Plan. This was the 
 system very widely in vogue for the securing 
 of missionary offerings. A cause is pre- 
 sented in a more or less effective way and 
 an offering is taken immediately following 
 the presentation. The best presentation, 
 whether it is for the most worthy cause or 
 not, naturally receives the largest contribu- 
 tion. The success of this plan is dependent 
 upon the presence of a large congregation 
 on a Sunday and presentation by an effective 
 speaker. While large sums are often se- 
 cured under this method, the causes which 
 are presented under unfavorable conditions, 
 though often most worthy of generous sup- 
 
 [55] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 port, receive but little attention. Fortu- 
 nately for the interests of the kingdom of 
 God this plan, once very widely prevalent, 
 is rapidly passing out of existence. 
 
 13. Church Suppers, Fairs, and Enter- 
 tainments. Said a man in my hearing to a 
 local minister, ^'Your church must be dead; 
 you do not seem to have any suppers or 
 fairs." Many a man comes from a church 
 supper with the idea that he has given the 
 church a quarter. Most likely he has 
 robbed the church by eating what would 
 have cost him at home or in a restaurant 
 half a dollar. This method, very widely 
 in vogue throughout the whole country, is 
 wasteful of resources, wrong in conception, 
 a palliative that leaves in its wake many 
 hurts and ills. The time must soon come 
 when it will be a disgrace for any church 
 to report money secured in this way. Raffles 
 and grab-bags are sometimes found in 
 church fairs. The church certainly has no 
 [56] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 right to use its plant for such illegal affairs ; 
 and practises closely resembling gambling 
 where an element of chance enters in are 
 not infrequently found at church fairs. 
 This system is open to many objections. 
 The church is likely to forget that the 
 theater, the restaurant, and all commercial 
 houses must pay taxes for the privilege of 
 doing business, while the church is gener- 
 ally exempt. It is therefore manifestly un- 
 fair and unjust to compete with those who 
 are engaged in a regular line of business. 
 Men in commercial circles submit to it, but 
 in their heart of hearts they despise that 
 phase of church activity. Not long ago I 
 was in a large church in a great city, and 
 at the close of the morning service young 
 people energetically sold candy among the 
 congregation. These things are sometimes 
 done by churches in outside buildings, but 
 it is the church that seeks patronage, and it 
 is using unpaid labor to compete with paid 
 
 [57] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 help and is taking an illegal advantage of 
 doing business without paying the tax 
 which is imposed upon all others in that 
 line of activity. 
 
 A strong plea is made on behalf of 
 woman, whose sole chance to help in the 
 work of the church is in the use she can 
 make of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Her 
 husband often will not permit her to give 
 money to the church. If she is to use those 
 articles and her skill as a cook, why should 
 she not make her cake and as an individual 
 sell it to a neighbor? The money that then 
 comes to her is hers, to do with as she will, 
 and she can then give it to God as a free 
 will offering. 
 
 All these methods, none of them sufficient 
 nor satisfactory, and some of them positively 
 wrong, are in use to-day. Is there no better 
 method of finance for the Church of Christ? 
 With these unsatisfactory methods it is not 
 strange that less than fifty per cent, of the 
 
 [58] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 members of our churches are supporting the 
 local church. 
 
 Here are some samples of non-supporters. 
 
 I. The non-resident members. Their 
 numbers are legion in all our Protestant 
 churches. Nearly twenty per cent, of our 
 members belong to this class. They are one 
 of the greatest sources of weakness in our 
 churches. They have small share in the 
 work of the Kingdom, and they give little 
 to the Church of Christ. Not long ago, at 
 the close of a service in a prominent church, 
 a woman stepped up to the minister and 
 said, ^T want to say good-by. You know I 
 am going to move to — ," and mentioned a 
 city where there are a number of churches 
 of the same communion. The pastor ex- 
 pressed his regret and then added, ''But you 
 will leave your membership here with us, 
 won't you? You know we need all the help 
 you can give us." Such a plea debases a 
 high calling. He should have urged her 
 [59] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 for her own sake, for the sake of her church, 
 and for the sake of the church where she 
 was going, to remove her membership at 
 once. Our ministers as well as our lay 
 members need to think on these things. 
 
 A man was asked by the pastor of the 
 church where he was living if he would not 
 join them, adding, ^'I hear that your mem- 
 bership is still in the church you came from 
 when you moved here." ''No," said the 
 man, "I cannot join your church because 
 the little one I belong to needs all the help 
 I can give." Nor could he be persuaded to 
 change his mind. Some weeks later the 
 minister was passing the man's place of 
 business and was called in. At once the 
 man began to say, ''Well, Fm mad clear 
 through. Do you know that little church 
 I belong to has written me and demanded 
 that I send a contribution of at least ten 
 dollars. What do you think of that? Why, 
 I might just as well belong to your church." 
 [6ol 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 2. The man who says, ^T support the 
 church whenever I attend service. I always 
 drop something in the plate." One such 
 was asked, 'What do you mean by sup- 
 port?" ^'Oh," he said, "I drop in a dime or 
 a quarter." In general the loose collections 
 of a church will foot up less than ten per 
 cent, of the total money contributed for local 
 expenses. The church can count but little 
 upon such resources though they represent 
 the giving of dozens and often hundreds 
 of people. It is small giving. 
 
 3. The man who excuses himself from 
 giving on the ground that he is in debt. In 
 debt for what — a home, a doctor, land, 
 stocks, or his business? He forgets his debt 
 to God and takes the Lord's portion to buy 
 himself worldly easement from debt. As 
 soon as this debt is paid, he will have an- 
 other. Of course, as a creditor, God does 
 not seem to be a good collector to-day. God 
 should be reckoned as our first preferred 
 
 [61] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 creditor, then there would be fewer debts 
 to others. 
 
 4. The man who gives once a year. "It 
 is too much bother to get the change every 
 week." Has he ever thought that to feed 
 his body, he plans and partakes of three 
 meals every day? Why does he not eat just 
 once a year, and what would he do if the 
 digestive function worked only once a year? 
 Such giving is not like a normal function. 
 While his annual gift may be as large as a 
 series of regular weekly gifts, though it is 
 not likely to be, he robs himself almost 
 entirely of the blessing of giving. 
 
 5. The man who declines to use an en- 
 velope because he does not want any one 
 to know what he gives. His gift is probably 
 such that he is ashamed to have it known. 
 His principle is, let not your left hand know 
 what your right hand doesnt do. 
 
 6. The man who says: "I do not believe 
 in pushing financial matters in a church. 
 
 [62 1 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 Let them develop normally. Let people 
 do as they like, and they will do all right." 
 Under such circumstances it is a well sub- 
 stantiated fact that about half will do noth- 
 ing at all in any regular way to support 
 the Church. Giving is a vital function. It 
 must be produced and then developed after 
 production. 
 
 7. The pastor who declines to give to- 
 ward his own salary. I constantly meet 
 pastors who object to participating in 
 Church support. The pastor should assume 
 the same responsibilities as a member. His 
 gift is not for salary but for support of the 
 divine worship of the Church of which he 
 is a member. No pastor can lead his people 
 to do what he is not doing himself. 
 
 8. Finally, we have the irregular giver. 
 He gives for weeks, and then stops for a 
 month, or he gives for a quarter, then does 
 nothing more for a year, and excuses himself 
 by telling what he has been doing. Suppose 
 
 [63] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 the heart acted as irregularly as the giving 
 function. Death would quickly ensue. 
 
 Every church has an official board, trus- 
 tees, or finance committee. In the ordinary 
 church these men seldom inform the mem- 
 bers what the funds they request are needed 
 for, and an annual report is all that is made 
 concerning the use of the money received. 
 Very many churches have no auditing com- 
 mittee, as it is thought to be a reflection 
 upon the honesty of the treasurer. 
 
 Many treasurers are a law unto them- 
 selves. In some cases this seriously affects 
 the minister. If the minister is not in favor 
 with the treasurer, he is paid only when all 
 other bills have been settled, and if there is 
 not money enough to settle all accounts, the 
 minister has to wait for his salary. In other 
 cases he is counted as a preferred creditor. 
 Many a church has lost its power in a com- 
 munity because the minister was chronically 
 in debt, and the fault lay with the church 
 [64] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 because the salary was in arrears all the 
 time. The credit of the church rests upon 
 the minister. He should be paid first, fully, 
 and regularly. 
 
 Recently I visited a church where the 
 treasurer had not attended a service in 
 three years. Why should a church dishonor 
 itself by following such a policy? At an- 
 other place I saw a check drawn in pay- 
 ment of a church account, but it was the 
 check of a business firm in which the treas- 
 urer was a partner. He paid all church 
 bills with similar checks. Many hundreds 
 of dollars went into that bank account from 
 missionary collections that were constantly 
 coming in during the year, but were never 
 paid out till the last day of the fiscal year. 
 In the meantime the missionary societies 
 were paying interest on borrowed funds and 
 the treasurer's firm was discounting bills 
 by use of money that belonged to the King- 
 dom. Why did not the church get another 
 
 [65] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 treasurer? "It would make a split in the 
 membership," was the answer, when I 
 asked that question. This occurred not in 
 some out-of-the-way place, but in a large 
 
 city. 
 
 Many church treasurers take all moneys 
 coming in, no matter for what purpose, and 
 put them together in one bank account. 
 They pay all church expense bills regard- 
 less of whether or not enough money has 
 come in on that account. Other accounts 
 run short. Then it comes time to pay one 
 of them and there is not enough money in 
 hand. Sometimes the deficit is raised, some- 
 times it is not, but is covered up. A treasurer 
 recently told me that the missionary money 
 was all in, so I suggested he should send it 
 on to the missionary societies at once. Then 
 he added, ''Well, I mean it has all come in, 
 but just now it is loaned to one of the local 
 societies.'' 
 
 In a large city church a number of special 
 [66] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 offerings had been made for a definite pur- 
 pose outside its local activities. Some of 
 the subscribers were greatly surprised to 
 receive word from the treasurer that he did 
 not want the money, as '^this church has 
 given too much already.'^ No church 
 should tolerate such a treasurer for a day. 
 Another treasurer reported with great pride 
 that his church had paid its missionary ap- 
 portionment in full, and had kept back $112 
 which had also come in for missions, "in 
 order to have a good start on the next year's 
 budget." The apportionment plan was a 
 help to begin with, but in the cases referred 
 to it has certainly lost its dynamic and 
 objective. 
 
 Usually a church has but one treasurer. 
 He handles all the money in his own 
 way. He generally empties the collection 
 into a money sack or his pockets, takes it 
 home and counts it at his convenience, with- 
 out any one to check his figures and vouch 
 
 [67] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 for the correctness of his count. We are 
 all human and liable to err. The church 
 has scattered around her outer walls many 
 former contributors who were miffed when 
 they claimed a mistake had been made in 
 their account and it was their word against 
 that of the treasurer. They believed their 
 own account and the official was equally 
 sure that he was right. I heard not long 
 ago of a church collection which a baby 
 found in the house and which her father 
 had not counted and checked up. It made 
 a splendid plaything for her. 
 
 It is strange that business men are so 
 loath to put into operation in the church 
 the modern methods which they have found 
 so efficient in their business. In a certain 
 church the president of the official board is 
 also the treasurer. He is general manager 
 and part owner of a flourishing store, in 
 which he has installed all sorts of up-to-date 
 appliances, such as cash registers, loose-leaf 
 [68 1 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 ledgers, a splendid follow-up system. All 
 employees handling money are under bond 
 and the efficiency of the establishment is 
 excellent. Yet, as church treasurer, he is 
 fifty years behind the times. He fights the 
 introduction of up-to-date methods in 
 church finances. No one has looked into 
 his treasurer's books in twenty years, and 
 they have never been audited. A delinquent 
 subscriber is never followed up systematic- 
 ally. In fact, it is doubtful if he can tell 
 who is delinquent. Member after member 
 has quarreled with him as to his church 
 account, and then, angered, has left the 
 Church. Is this an isolated case? Would 
 that it were, but nowhere in America will 
 you find so much of archaic, inefficient 
 machinery as in the Church. In many cases 
 it is so because some up-to-date business 
 man insists upon doing things in the dear 
 old way in the Church. Why should there 
 be an up-to-date, efficient method in one 
 
 [69] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 place, and an old, inefficient method for 
 doing the same thing in another place, 
 when the same men are handling both 
 operations? 
 
 A treasurer remarked recently that his 
 church was in fine shape, and had all the 
 money they needed; that they did not owe 
 a cent to any one, and that they always had 
 money in the treasury. Yet, according to 
 the records, only twenty-six per cent, of the 
 membership were giving at all. The pastor 
 was sadly underpaid, the property was run 
 down, and the whole enterprise had a neg- 
 lected air. To be out of debt, or in debt, 
 does not of itself reveal the actual condi- 
 tions. Only when the real needs of the local 
 organization and the world have been 
 summed up, and alongside of those needs 
 has been placed the adequate response of 
 every member, can it be said that the church 
 is doing its task properly and is in fine 
 shape. 
 
 [70] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 We have many treasurers who are doing 
 up-to-date, efficient work for the church 
 and the Kingdom, Often they do their 
 work under serious difficulties and genuine 
 opposition and they deserve hearty and 
 generous recognition for their frequently 
 thankless task, hut, sad to say, we have many 
 others who have no realization of what it 
 means to help the church and the world 
 enterprise by efficient, modern methods. 
 
 In many churches about a dozen people 
 are giving most of the money and frequently 
 not more than half the membership do any- 
 thing to support the church. No other or- 
 ganization could long survive a failure on 
 the part of so many members to do their 
 share in its support. The Church is a divine 
 institution. The covenant, the discipline, or 
 the articles of faith obligate every member 
 to contribute regularly. If only half do so, 
 and the Church makes no real effort of a 
 sustained sort to secure compliance from 
 
 [71] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 the others, the Church has thereby per- 
 mitted a moral weakness to permeate its 
 life. 
 
 At a recent Church conference the ques- 
 tion of unpaid pledges came up, and an 
 officer said that in their membership they 
 had a number who always made pledges 
 but never made even a pretense of paying 
 them. So year after year the official board 
 made a motion to cancel their indebtedness, 
 thereby condoning the fault. Sugh a prac- 
 tise on the part of an individual is plain 
 dishonesty, and the church which permits 
 it is failing to register its disapproval of 
 the wrong. 
 
 There is usually an insistent demand for 
 secrecy in all that pertains to the individual 
 subscriptions of members. Any pastor who 
 has never seen the list of subscribers and 
 subscriptions has much to learn. It is a very 
 revealing list. Some wonderful nobility in 
 sacrificial giving is always discovered, and 
 
 [72] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 then some mean, despicable withholding 
 comes to light. Many a member's leanness 
 of soul is explained by that subscription list. 
 If you are in ill health and go to a doctor 
 and hide the symptoms, it is extremely 
 difficult for him to give you the right 
 help. Time is lost until some other things 
 indicate the symptoms you hid from the 
 physician. In the cure of souls, God's 
 under-shepherd cannot render the necessary 
 help if the symptoms are hidden from his 
 eyes. We should have as little secrecy as 
 possible and w^ise publicity does not hurt. 
 If some are offended, it is generally their 
 pride that is hurt, and pride of that sort is 
 sin. It was our Lord himself who saw the 
 widow's gift and made it immortal. 
 
 There are many churches where the pas- 
 tor has laid upon him the whole financial 
 burden, even to canvassing for the money. 
 In other and more numerous cases the 
 minister is warned not to touch the financial 
 
 [73] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 side of the church. He is often told that if 
 he pushes finances, people will think he is 
 after his own salary. In some churches he 
 needs to be after his salary, or he does not 
 get it until long overdue. How much of 
 failure and inefficiency in the church is due 
 to an underpaid or improperly paid minis- 
 try, thereby rendered inefficient? This is 
 a serious question, and one that merits 
 investigation. 
 
 There are some men who insist upon giv- 
 ing for their whole family in one pledge. 
 They frequently pay it by check, three or 
 four times during the year, sometimes not 
 at regular intervals even, but only when 
 personally solicited to do so. Asked to 
 break it up into several parts, one for each 
 member of the family, they decline on the 
 ground that it is too much trouble. Such 
 a pledge is unscriptural, for the apostle 
 said, speaking to all the members, "Let each 
 one of you lay by him in store." No man 
 
 [74] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 can give for his wife or children any more 
 than he can breathe for them or be saved 
 for them. He robs them of a distinct privi- 
 lege and blessing when he fails to provide 
 this opportunity for them. 
 
 Another says that his father always did 
 his giving in a certain way, that the way 
 was good enough for his father, and what 
 was good enough for the father is good 
 enough for him. A man made that remark 
 to me some time ago, and repeating his re- 
 mark I asked him if he meant it. He said 
 he did. Then I asked him if he was honest 
 in his statement and he said he was. But I 
 kept on by adding, "If you are honest in it 
 you will of course give away your auto, for 
 you have no use for it. What was good 
 enough for your father is good enough for 
 you, and there were no autos in your 
 father's day." I did not get the auto, but 
 the man saw the point. 
 
 Many men insist that they do not believe 
 
 [75] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 in pledging and have never made a pledge 
 in their lives. They mean to the church 
 support, of course, for in every other phase 
 of life, material and spiritual, a pledge 
 underlies everything. Their salvation came 
 with their pledges to God. They got their 
 wives by pledges. All human and divine 
 relations are intermingled with pledges. 
 All business is done on pledges. All such 
 claims are excuses made to cover covetous- 
 ness or ignorance of God's will. 
 
 An elderly deacon in very comfortable 
 circumstances arose in a conference on 
 church methods and ranted about what a 
 good Christian he was. He affirmed and 
 reaffirmed what he believed, but in it all 
 he made no mention of giving or missions. 
 When the missionary session began, and 
 stewardship was presented, he arose again 
 and stalking out of the meeting said audibly, 
 "I don't believe in no such stuff; it's more 
 of those modern fads." His church record 
 [76] 
 
PREVALENT METHODS 
 
 was looked up, and it was found that he 
 had been a member many years, but in all 
 that time no one remembered that he had 
 ever laid a gift on God's altar, and on the 
 books of the church was no record of any 
 money paid in by him. Can it be possible 
 that such a man really knows "the unspeak- 
 able Gift"? 
 
 Present conditions are not satisfactory. 
 There is too much confusion in plans. We 
 have skirmish after skirmish, but no great 
 siege. Standards of Church life and action 
 are sadly low. We have not had a militant, 
 productive, heroic Church. In the last five 
 years, if personal gifts are deducted, not 
 many communions have materially in- 
 creased their giving for missions. There 
 should be a marked, steady advance in gifts 
 from the membership of the churches. 
 
 Heretofore we have not realized the con- 
 ditions that existed. Now we are beginning 
 to realize them and attempting to cure the 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 ills. Shall we not go on attacking our in- 
 efficiency till we are efficient? It is one 
 thing to know and another thing to do. We 
 must both know and do. 
 
 [78] 
 
VII 
 
 PROPER METHODS OF CHURCH 
 FINANCE 
 
 WE have now set forth the place and 
 the importance of giving in the 
 normal Christian life. We have also out- 
 lined some of the unfortunate methods 
 which have crept into our Church efforts to 
 deal with this problem and the results. It 
 now remains to outline some better and 
 more successful methods. In all our plans 
 of Church finance we must keep in mind 
 two fundamental purposes, namely : the de- 
 velopment of the spirit of Christlike giving 
 in all our members and the acquisition of 
 the largest contributions possible, that we 
 may the more rapidly spread the Kingdom 
 abroad. We shall make but slow progress 
 in the increase of our giving unless we de- 
 vote our first attention to the proper spirit 
 [79] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 within our members. The Christian Church 
 cannot afford to neglect any opportunity 
 for the development of this spirit within 
 its entire membership. Short-cut methods 
 to secure large offerings will inevitably be 
 accompanied by a reaction which will be 
 disastrous to the Church and members alike. 
 The Christian Church should lay out a 
 program whose ideals run far into the 
 future and work steadily toward the incul- 
 cation within its entire membership of the 
 true spirit of giving. If this spirit is prop- 
 erly cultivated, we shall have an end of our 
 difficulties regarding Church finance. 
 
 Coming now to the methods and plans 
 which should be adopted in the local 
 church, I shall set forth a concise, ideal, 
 and yet practical program of methods to 
 which every church can and should address 
 itself. It is applicable at every point in 
 every church, even the smallest. The adop- 
 tion of this program will produce gradually 
 
 [80] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 if not immediately a proper and successful 
 method of securing and using the output 
 of its complete resources. 
 
 1. A spiritual vision and motive: Every 
 
 member abiding in Christ. 
 
 2. Every member at worship. 
 
 3. Every member a giver in accordance 
 
 with I Cor. xvi. 2. 
 
 4. Every member bearing his share in 
 
 church and world-wide work. 
 
 5. An adequate church budget, including 
 
 both church expenses and missions. 
 
 6. A steady program of missionary educa- 
 
 tion throughout the year with a 
 period of education preceding the 
 annual every member canvass. 
 
 7. Annual canvass of all members of the 
 
 church and parish. 
 
 8. A system of weekly giving. 
 
 9. Two treasuries with two treasurers and 
 
 two financial secretaries. 
 
 10. All incoming moneys handled in a 
 
 businesslike way, counted in the pres- 
 ence of others besides the treasurers. 
 
 11. Quarterly reports to the church and to 
 
 each contributor. 
 
 12. A proper follow-up system to secure 
 
 the payment of pledges when due. 
 
 [81] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 13. Monthly or at least quarterly distribu- 
 
 tion of all missionary funds in hand. 
 
 14. An annual audit and report in fullest 
 
 detail. 
 
 15. Constant presentation of all missionary 
 
 activities of the Church with oppor- 
 tunity for any to make gifts. No 
 request for contributions, however, 
 to follow presentation, unless, after 
 due consideration, the church spe- 
 cifically issues a permit for a special 
 collection. 
 
 16. Christlike determination not to harbor 
 
 dead members lest they injure the 
 whole body. 
 
 17. Every regular attendant and giver as- 
 
 signed a regular seat and expected to 
 occupy it. 
 
 18. A record of the attendance of all mem- 
 
 bers at the services of the church. 
 
 19. Every member of the church related to 
 
 others in the body in some definite 
 spiritual work. 
 
 20. Expressional activities provided to fol- 
 
 low every impression. 
 
 Now that we have the outline, let us 
 proceed to discuss and amplify it where 
 needed. 
 
 [82] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 If a church is to work out a financial 
 program, the first necessity is the adoption 
 of an annual budget. This is of supreme 
 importance. Every modern business house 
 makes out each year in advance with care 
 and minuteness a budget that shall cover 
 its operations. It is equally essential that 
 such a budget should be prepared by every 
 church. The church will be able, there- 
 fore, to determine in advance exactly how 
 much money must be raised and will be 
 able to set before its contributors the exact 
 situation that faces them. This budget 
 should include both the expenses for church 
 maintenance and its beneficence. Many 
 churches have adopted a budget covering 
 the expense account, but not including the 
 beneficence. It will be a long step in ad- 
 vance when our churches come to realize 
 that their share of the expense for work 
 outside their own parish is equally as much 
 of an obligation as that within their own 
 
 [83] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 community. When the churches come to 
 assume this attitude, the missionary problem 
 will largely be solved. The so-called mis- 
 sionary societies of each communion are not 
 organizations outside the church which are 
 appealing for support, but organized agen- 
 cies of the churches themselves. They do 
 not appeal to the churches as outsiders, but 
 for the support of that work which the 
 churches themselves have authorized. 
 
 We give here a sample budget which 
 may be adopted in almost any church. 
 
 Church Expense Budget Missionary Budget 
 
 Pastor's salary Foreign Missions 
 Janitor Home Missions 
 Fuel Women's Foreign Mis- 
 Lighting sions 
 Building repairs Women's Home Missions 
 Pulpit supplies State Missions 
 Bible School Publication Board 
 Young People's Society Aged Ministers' Fund 
 Women's Societies Christian education 
 Men's Brotherhood Reserve fund 
 Contingent Fund 
 
 [84] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 Large churches might add to the above 
 
 items the following: 
 
 Church missionary City missions 
 
 Advertising National Organization 
 
 Music expense 
 
 Printing Anti-Saloon League 
 
 Taxes 
 Telephones 
 
 Foreign-speaking work 
 Fellowship fund 
 
 It is not possible to suggest what relation 
 these two parts of the budget should have 
 toward each other. There are some 
 churches where the budget for church ex- 
 penses must be considerably larger than that 
 of the missionary budget. On the other 
 hand, many churches are coming to recog- 
 nize that their ideal ought to be to raise for 
 work outside the parish an amount that is 
 equal to that which is spent upon their own 
 church. Our American churches ought 
 speedily to set before themselves as an ideal 
 an equal amount for beneficence and for 
 
 [85] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 church expenses. Some of our best churches 
 are already contributing much more for 
 the work beyond their parish than within 
 its limits. 
 
 It should be noted that the budget which 
 we have suggested unifies the entire giving 
 of the church. For example, the expense 
 of the Sunday-school, the Young People's 
 Society and the Women's Societies is in- 
 cluded within the amount which is to be 
 raised for church expenses. In making a 
 pledge to such a budget, therefore, each 
 giver is contributing to the running expenses 
 of all the activities of the parish. Without 
 question, this is as it should be in every 
 parish. The customary method of permit- 
 ting each organization to finance its own 
 expenses is largely responsible for the chaos 
 which exists in church finance. There is 
 no reason why all the members of the 
 church should not share the expense of the 
 Bible school, nor why the men of the parish 
 [86] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 should not support the work which the 
 women are seeking to do in the name of the 
 whole church. 
 
 The second essential step in the reorgan- 
 ization of Church finance is the adoption of 
 an Every Member Canvass in the church 
 and parish. This is so essential to a suc- 
 cessful financial plan that no church, under 
 any conditions, can afford to neglect it. 
 There is no successful substitute. Many 
 churches have refused to put this canvass 
 into operation on the theory that they had 
 plans which were just as good. But the 
 method has now been tested out sufficiently 
 in all kinds of churches, under all possible 
 conditions, so that there need be no hesi- 
 tancy in saying that no church has an ideal 
 financial plan unless it puts into practise 
 each year the Every Member Canvass. 
 
 Sufficient publications have been issued, 
 outlining the plans for this canvass so that 
 we do not need to go into detailed explana- 
 
 [87] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 tion here. A few suggestions will be suffi- 
 cient. The canvass should include all mem- 
 bers of the parish. Every man, woman, 
 and child should be urged to make his 
 pledge for the expenses of the Kingdom. 
 When the canvass is made, no member of 
 the parish should be omitted because of 
 previous failure to give or because of failure 
 to attend the services of the church regu- 
 larly. The visit of the canvassers may be 
 the one means necessary to put such mem- 
 bers into active touch with the church. 
 Many have been induced to become regular 
 attendants through the visitation of the can- 
 vassers and the opportunity given for sup- 
 port of the local church. 
 
 There are none so poor as to be over- 
 looked. If there are any members of the 
 church who are too poor to make a contri- 
 bution for the support of the organizations, 
 they are poor enough to receive the financial 
 ministry of the church itself. If in the 
 [88] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 Every Member Canvass families are dis- 
 covered who are too poor to make an offer- 
 ing, the deacons of the church should imme- 
 diately take up the question of rendering 
 assistance to these families until they are in 
 a sufficiently independent position to be- 
 come fellov^ contributors. It is also ex- 
 ceedingly important that the children 
 should be reached. The simile of the bent 
 twig is particularly adaptable to the train- 
 ing of children in this matter. One reason 
 why we have been having so much difficulty 
 in the past few years is that for several 
 decades the children in our churches have 
 not been taught to give to the worship of 
 God, but have been led to suppose that they 
 were fulfilling their duty by giving a penny 
 to the Sunday-school. The penny contri- 
 bution in our Sunday-schools is one of the 
 fearful curses in our modern churches. It 
 inculcates in the children habits which it 
 is almost impossible to break. 
 
 [89] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 In connection with the Every Member 
 Canvass it is important to see that every 
 new member upon reception is instructed 
 in the plan of the church. Immediately 
 upon accession, every new member should 
 be confronted with his obligation to join 
 with the others in the support of the church. 
 His pledge should be taken and the en- 
 velopes placed in his hands. If this co- 
 operation is not secured previous to the day 
 of his reception, it should not be postponed 
 beyond the day of his first communion. 
 New members should be started right at the 
 beginning, and there will be no danger of 
 the development of sensitiveness. 
 
 One of our serious problems relates to 
 that of the large giver. A person of large 
 means should not provide more than a 
 normal proportionate share for local ex- 
 penses or for missions through the regular 
 church channels. If any one member gives 
 beyond his proportion, he acquires an in- 
 
 [90] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 fluence which is likely to work harm within 
 the membership of the church. But what 
 is even more serious, he unconsciously re- 
 lieves many others of doing their full duty. 
 Many church-members hide behind the 
 large gifts of their fellow members and 
 make them an excuse for making small con- 
 tributions themselves. This does not mean 
 that we are to decline the large gifts of 
 wealthy people. In fact, such persons should 
 be cultivated for the purpose of securing 
 even larger contributions. But these should 
 be made, not through the treasuries of the 
 local church, but by direct remittance to the 
 missionary organizations of the denomina- 
 tion. In many of our churches there is an op- 
 portunity for the development of large per- 
 sonal giving, and if these gifts are made in 
 such a way that their church is not pauper- 
 ized, they themselves will be greatly blessed 
 and our missionary work will be strength- 
 ened. All our churches must in the near 
 
 [91] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 future enter upon a wide effort to secure 
 much larger giving upon the part of those 
 whose wealth would enable them to make 
 generous contributions to the Kingdom's 
 efforts. 
 
 Each church should adopt the duplex 
 envelope system of weekly giving. There 
 are several devices on the market for this 
 purpose. The first consists of an envelope 
 made with two separate pockets, perforated 
 in such a way that they may be easily 
 severed. This has been found very con- 
 venient by many churches. Others, how- 
 ever, prefer to use two small separate 
 envelopes of different color, which are per- 
 haps equally as convenient for both the con- 
 tributors and for the treasurers. At the 
 close of the morning service, these envel- 
 opes should be separated and taken in 
 charge by the treasurers of the separate 
 funds which they represent. In case of 
 children who are attending Sunday-school 
 
 [92] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 and not the church service, the envelopes 
 may be placed in the regular Sunday- 
 school offering. But the opportunity of 
 making their own contribution at the church 
 service may be an inducement for many 
 children to become regular church attend- 
 ants. These envelopes should be placed 
 in the hands of each contributor well in 
 advance of the beginning of the new finan- 
 cial year. Nothing is more unbusinesslike 
 than to stack the separate bunches of en- 
 velopes at the rear of the church, to be 
 taken by such persons as may possibly be 
 present at any service. The business firm 
 that left its monthly statements to be taken 
 by such patrons as happened to drop in, 
 would scarcely be able to maintain its 
 credit with the bank for any length of time. 
 Many strong churches, whose finances are 
 in the hands of leading business men, have 
 followed this senseless plan for years. 
 The duplex or double envelope is some- 
 
 [93] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 times objected to by members of the finance 
 committee on the ground that its adoption 
 will lessen the funds for local support. Of 
 course, the man who occupies this position 
 reveals the fact that he has no real concep- 
 tion of the purpose of a Christian church. 
 But very wide experience has demonstrated 
 that the double envelope has greatly assisted 
 local support rather than injured it. The 
 double envelope is equally advantageous in 
 a large city church or in a small country 
 parish where there are services only two or 
 three times a month. 
 
 We have already suggested the impor- 
 tance of two treasuries with separate 
 treasurers and financial secretaries. Many 
 churches would have saved themselves and 
 their treasurers from temptation and wrong- 
 doing if they had adopted this system. 
 Under the double system there would be 
 no temptation for the treasurer of the 
 church expense fund to draw upon money 
 
 [94] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 which has been contributed for missionary 
 work or to make up deficits in his own 
 accounts. This has not infrequently hap- 
 pened in some good churches, and we need 
 to guard our officials against any possibility 
 of further participation in this crime. It is 
 nothing more or less than misappropriation 
 of funds. 
 
 More care should also be exercised in 
 the accounting of church funds. For his 
 own sake as well as for the sake of the 
 church which he represents, no one man 
 should handle the money alone. The treas- 
 urers and financial secretaries should meet 
 as soon as convenient after the close of the 
 service to open the envelopes and count the 
 cash. They should work in pairs so that 
 every transaction will have verification at 
 the hands of two people. One man should 
 open the envelopes, placing the money be- 
 fore him, while the other, receiving the 
 empty envelope, should note what has been 
 [95] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 taken from it and check it accurately on 
 the envelope and on the list of contributors. 
 When all the envelopes have been opened, 
 the cash should be counted, the amount on 
 envelopes totaled and if the count has been 
 accurate, the two sums will balance. The 
 money is then turned over to the treasurers, 
 while the envelopes go into the hands of 
 the financial secretaries. This may seem to 
 involve unnecessary work and care, but such 
 a plan would have saved many churches 
 from some serious experiences. 
 
 The following experience has recently 
 been related to the writer. In a certain 
 church the financial statements had just 
 been sent out to the contributors. Very 
 promptly an indignant individual came to 
 the treasurer and accused him of stealing 
 ten dollars, which she claimed to have put 
 in the collection. She was sure that she 
 had done so and had brought it to the 
 church herself in an envelope. Opening a 
 
 [96] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 drawer, the accused man brought forth 
 therefrom a soiled, indecipherable envelope, 
 only the heavy typed name of the church 
 being discernible. "A street-car conductor 
 brought that in last week. Could it be that 
 this is your envelope?" said the treasurer. 
 ^'The conductor said that he picked it up 
 on the floor of his car on Sunday morning." 
 The envelope was opened in the presence 
 of the woman and was found to contain a 
 ten dollar bill. The case was clear and 
 she had to acknowledge that she had 
 dropped it on the way to church. But what 
 would have been the position of the treas- 
 urer if this envelope had not been found? 
 
 The system of double accounting safe- 
 guards the treasurer from any possible ac- 
 cusations and gives the church double assur- 
 ance that its funds are being properly 
 handled. 
 
 We need more publicity in our churches 
 about the financial affairs. Previous to the 
 
 [97] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 beginning of the year, each contributor 
 should receive a printed statement of the 
 budget which has been adopted by the 
 church, as only in the light of this can he 
 possibly make a contribution intelligently. 
 A statement should be made monthly to the 
 church as to all its receipts and expendi- 
 tures. In most churches, however, this re- 
 port is made only once a year and therefore 
 but few members of the church are fully 
 conversant with the financial situation. 
 Every contributor should receive at least 
 once a quarter a full printed statement as 
 to all receipts and expenditures. This will 
 tend to increase his interest and prompt him 
 to ready payment and it will also tend to 
 avoid the possibility of a deficit in the 
 course of the year. Moreover, the finance 
 committee has no right to allow any partner 
 in this business to be ignorant at any time 
 regarding the full financial situation. The 
 books of the treasurer or finance committee 
 
 [98] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 should without question be audited by a 
 third party, preferably outside the church, 
 at least once a year. Many churches would 
 have saved themselves from serious diffi- 
 culties if this plan had been followed. The 
 good name of the treasurer is thus protected 
 and the church has the full assurance that 
 its finances are in proper condition. The 
 number of churches is not few where sus- 
 picious charges regarding finances are 
 passed round from member to member. 
 
 Almost as important as the Every Mem- 
 ber Canvass is a proper system of following 
 up the pledges and contributions of the 
 members. In many churches pledges are 
 taken once a year and members are allowed 
 to become delinquent in their payments 
 without any notice being taken by the 
 church of the fact that contributors are in 
 arrears. The adoption of a proper follow- 
 up system similar to that which is used in 
 good business houses would avoid much un- 
 
 [99] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 pleasantness and would enable the churches 
 to realize much more largely upon the 
 pledges of assistance which were given. If 
 this matter is kept promptly in hand, the 
 danger of members losing interest will be 
 greatly minimized. The closer all attend- 
 ants and contributors are kept to the life 
 of the church, the better it will be for all 
 parties concerned. 
 
 The follow-up system may well be placed 
 in the hands of the Every Member Canvass 
 Committee, who may quite properly follow 
 up their own work. Their business will 
 not become primarily that of dunning 
 people for arrears, but by personal visita- 
 tion to minister to their spiritual needs, and 
 so keep the individuals interested in the 
 church and prompt in their payments. A 
 retail merchant at the end of each month 
 goes over his list of customers and if he 
 finds any who have been failing to appear, 
 goes after them personally or through a 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 personal representative. If this is worth 
 doing in order to get the profit on a few 
 dollars, is it not worth while to keep mem- 
 bers in touch with the means of grace and 
 fellowship? Frequently the church has 
 waited until the end of the quarter and then 
 sent out indiscriminately to all members 
 statements of their accounts. In every 
 church there are hard-working men whose 
 expenses run close to their income. These 
 not infrequently lose their positions or are 
 overtaken by illness and their payments run 
 behind. In a large church no knowledge 
 of this fact may come to the church author- 
 ities until the end of the quarter. If under 
 these conditions a statement of accounts is 
 sent to this man with a request to pay, he 
 may very likely feel that the church wants 
 his money more than it wants him. His 
 feelings are very naturally hurt and he may 
 be lost entirely to the church. The better 
 system would have kept the church closely 
 
 [lOl] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 in touch with his condition and would have 
 prevented any such experience. 
 
 Let us cite a case. The Brown family 
 of three members made pledges to the 
 church. The man worked in a nail factory 
 for twelve dollars a week and was the sole 
 source of support for the family. Each 
 member paid his subscription regularly for 
 five weeks and then suddenly the envelopes 
 ceased to come in. It was a large church 
 and no one noticed the absence of the family 
 and therefore no word came from the 
 church to them. Just before the statements 
 were to be sent out, the pastor asked a visit- 
 ing friend what he would do in such a case. 
 ^What do you know about the conditions?" 
 the friend inquired. "Nothing. I have nine 
 hundred members to look after," said the 
 minister. "You are not to blame," said the 
 stranger, "but something is evidently wrong. 
 Make a personal visitation to this family 
 and let us watch the outcome." The pastor 
 
 [ 102] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 went to the house and found that Mr. 
 Brown had been badly hurt and had been 
 confined to his room for five weeks. The 
 pastor had known nothing about his illness. 
 Many church-members seem to think that 
 a pastor has some sort of a wireless appa- 
 ratus in his head that enables him to know 
 when any of his members are sick without 
 any effort on their part to give him the 
 information. Returning from the visit, he 
 asked his friend what he would do under 
 these conditions. The stranger advised him 
 not to send any statement of the financial 
 situation, but instead he should request two 
 of his men to visit the family of the sick 
 man for a prayer in the home and as they 
 were leaving say, "We realize your condi- 
 tion and we want you to feel that you are 
 under no obligation to the church as long 
 as you are without income. The rest of us 
 will care for your obligation, which you 
 met so faithfully as long as you were well." 
 [ 103] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 As the callers went down the stairs after the 
 suggested visit, the sick man took his wife's 
 hand and said, ^'Well, wife, they really do 
 care for a fellow some at that church, don't 
 they?" When he recovered, the first place 
 that he visited outside his home was the 
 church, and as soon as he had returned to 
 work again the envelopes of the family 
 were resumed with their regular contribu- 
 tion. This effort not only saved a con- 
 tributor, but better than that kept a man 
 near God and kept his family in touch with 
 the Christian Church. Both minister and 
 people may learn much by following the 
 envelopes as they come in week by week. 
 A good follow-up plan will enable many a 
 church to save families from being lost to 
 their fellowship. 
 
 If a follow-up system is properly handled, 
 
 discipline on account of refusal to meet 
 
 pledges will seldom be necessary. In the 
 
 case of obdurate and final refusal to meet 
 
 [ 104] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 pledges which have been made by people 
 who are abundantly able to pay them, the 
 church should certainly take action. This 
 is a sin which cannot properly be condoned, 
 and the church had better cut off such 
 delinquent members than to allow its whole 
 life to be in danger. Discipline properly 
 administered under these conditions will 
 not injure the church, but will decidedly 
 advance its standing in the community and 
 in the Kingdom. Our gifts are not made 
 to the church, nor to the minister, but are 
 made to God. 
 
 The bills of the church should be paid 
 promptly each month ; the pastor being the 
 first man to receive his due. If the church 
 desires its credit in the community to remain 
 good, it cannot possibly allow his salary to 
 get in arrears. Many a church has lost 
 its standing because it has forced its pastor 
 into bankruptcy. Other bills should be 
 paid as they come due. The church which 
 
 [105] 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 pays its bills regularly has the sympathy 
 and respect of the whole community. The 
 church which allows its accounts to be in 
 arrears is despised by the business men. 
 
 Equally as important as paying the bills 
 is the remitting of missionary money to the 
 organizations for which it was contributed. 
 Most churches follow the plan of gathering 
 their collections and keeping the amount in 
 the bank until the end of the year. This 
 is no advantage whatever to the church un- 
 less it follows the dishonest policy of draw- 
 ing upon missionary funds to meet expense 
 accounts. But it is a decided detriment to 
 the larger interests of the Church, for the 
 missionary societies which represent the 
 Church are compelled to pay annually 
 thousands of dollars interest on money 
 which is borrowed to maintain their work 
 because churches hold back their contribu- 
 tions until the end of the financial year 
 rather than forward them regularly as the 
 [io6] 
 
PROPER METHODS 
 
 money is received. If our churches would 
 adopt the policy of monthly remittances of 
 missionary funds, they would enable their 
 own organizations greatly to increase the 
 efficiency of their missionary work. 
 
 The plans which have been outlined in 
 this chapter are not experiments. They 
 have been tried repeatedly in churches of 
 all kinds and in all parts of the country 
 and the case is not yet on record of a church 
 which has followed these plans consistently 
 that has not increased its contributions, 
 simplified its financial problems, and come 
 to rejoice in its larger work. If the 
 churches of America would put these plans 
 into practical operation, many of our prob- 
 lems would be solved immediately and the 
 development of the work of the Kingdom 
 would go far beyond any present antici- 
 pations. 
 
 [ 107] 
 
Every church should have: 
 
 1. A card index of all members of the 
 
 parish. 
 
 (i) A card for every man, woman, 
 and child in the life of the 
 church, woman's work, Bible 
 School, Young People's So- 
 ciety, Men's Brotherhood. 
 
 (2) The right address upon each 
 
 card. 
 
 (3) What each one is giving — how 
 
 they give it. 
 
 2. A treasurer's record book for each fund. 
 
 3. A financial secretary's record book for 
 
 each fund. 
 
 4. Pledge cards. 
 
 5. Statement blanks. 
 
 6. Copies of the budget for the year. 
 
 7. Duplex envelopes for every member, if 
 
 possible. 
 
 8. Assigned pews for regular attendants. 
 
 [108] 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
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