Policies

Welcome to the next installment of “Built & Watched by the Lord”! In this segment, we are going to be discussing the topic of policies. 

Policies seems like a dirty word when it comes to how we do ministry. Why would we want to limit God’s work based on human parameters? I’m convinced God is all about boundaries and policies, and they don’t have to lead to a legalistic mentality. Policies are good and provide protections for the church as well as those who enter the property boundaries of the church. One very important point ought to be understood as we move into the discussion of policies. This article is not intended to be legal advice outside of a recommendation to seek an attorney to review policy statements prior to implementing the policy. 

As I mentioned above, policies are used to protect individuals and organizations. They are not intended to create a legalistic mindset to restrict ministry. There are various areas of ministry in which solid policies are important. I’ll address a couple of those areas below.

1. Money – We have generous people in the Dakotas. Various ministries in the Dakotas are well funded because of the Cooperative Program giving of Dakota Baptists. People do like to know what is happening to the money they give to their local church. Therefore, it is important to have transparency and accountability in how money is handled within the church. This transparency and accountability can be seen through clearly defined roles in handling money given to the church. A segregation of duties regarding money can provide peace of mind to donors. In his book Corporate Fraud and Internal Controls, Richard Cascarino writes, “these segregation of duties controls are the policies and control procedures to ensure that those who physically handle assets are not the same people who record asset movements, who reconcile those records, or who authorize transactions. Controls should allow for the procedures performed by one person to effectively provide a check on the procedures of another in the transaction process. The critical issue in the segregation of duties is that duties performed by different people should not be incompatible and that individuals are adequately qualified and trained to perform the relevant control procedures.” When handling the weekly offering, for example, there ought to be one set of people who pass the plate, another two or three involved in counting and recording the giving (which ought to be done as soon as it is collected), and two separate people responsible for the deposit. It can be very difficult in a small congregation to task six or eight people to handle the offering, but adjustments can be made to segregate duties for the smaller congregation. Perhaps one option would be rotating responsibilities on a semi-regular basis between a smaller number of people could allow for checks to be made on the process. The church financial secretary should be able to audit the process at any time.
2. Events: Church policies for events should be put in place to protect the church and those using the church facilities. One aspect of the policies for events that is of incredible importance is the requirement that a church member is present and responsible for making sure the facilities are properly utilized. It would be of benefit if the member present is a ministry team leader, whether paid or volunteer. The church can decide if any sort of monetary compensation is to be provided to the church by those wishing to utilize the facilities.

When it comes to putting together policy statements, there are various means of gaining assistance in the verbiage. One option is to utilize an internet search for a specific type of policy statement. A book like Robert Welch’s Church Administration can be helpful in putting together a set of policies. MinistrySafe has a few sample policy statements for camps and other children’s ministry programs. 

We have only dealt with two areas of developing policies, and only scratched the surface on the purpose of those policies. I am open to discussing the use of policies more and if your church is interested in hosting a security seminar, please reach out to me at everett@dakotabaptist.com. 

“Policies seems like a dirty word when it comes to how we do ministry. Why would we want to limit God’s work based on human parameters? I’m convinced God is all about boundaries and policies, and they don’t have to lead to a legalistic mentality.”