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how not to kill your treasurer

Page history last edited by Andrew Alder 1 year, 10 months ago

...or your congregation

 

A good ideas page and a page about church

 

Many church congregations have great trouble from time to time finding a new treasurer.

 

As both a result and a reason, many church treasurers stay in the job for many years.

 

Yes, it's both a result and a reason.

 

  • One of the reasons nobody else wants the job is that it tends to be a difficult one to pass on.

 

  • But one reason it is difficult to pass it on is, nobody else wants the job. It's a vicious circle, is it not?

 

And the pattern is obvious once you've seen it occur a few times, and it's common enough that many people have seen it occur quite often. Haven't we?

 

The solution is equally obvious. And it doesn't just apply to the job of treasurer, and nor does the problem, see below. That's just the most obvious example.

 

In my opinion, every volunteer church position should be a three year appointment ONLY. That includes Treasurer, Chairperson, Webservant... all of them.

 

This is how it should work:

 

  • The first year you are working hard just to do the job. There are things about it that you won't understand until you actually do them. Your main focus is to do the job and do it well.
  • The second year you make the job your own, making whatever improvements year 1 has taught you are necessary... and they will not be the same ones you would have done had you done them in year 1. Your focus is now to do the job even better! And you are now competent to do this too. But don't do it unilaterally. Get advice. There are many people willing to give it. And you are now also equipped to sort out the good advice from the bad (there will be both). Accept both sorts graciously and prayerfully. The world has changed. The job may have changed. You are now the best one to decide this.
  • The third year it's going as you want it, and your main focus is to identify and equip and motivate at least one potential successor. This is not optional. It should be part of the job. And as with any other part of the job, if you need help with it, you should get it. And you should get it at the start of year three, not wait until near the end of it. It's your job to make sure it happens, but it's not your job to do anything that God has not equipped you to do.

 

It won't always go this way of course! Your planned successor may be hit by a bus, or you may be. But that's the way it should be planned.

 

Then year four you are free to take on another job. If you do, that's another three year commitment. And then year seven you take a year off. Get to know your spouse again. Learn your children's names. Maybe even those of their children. They will be glad to get to know you.

 

And even more important, in that seventh year you will have the time and energy to look a bit more globally at the organisation and your role and how (and even whether) God wants them to fit together. And you may get some pleasant surprises. Most people will. If you are in a key role, it is often hard to see the bigger picture, particularly if you are doing it well and are enjoying doing it. And if you are in the role God wants you in, it will be both challenging and rewarding.

 

Arguably my favourite piece of liturgy is There is no gift without its corresponding service. God has no travelling reserves. All of your God-given talents and passions have a purpose. God wants these purposes fulfilled. All of them. So give God the chance to do it.

 

And give God the chance to do it for others in your congregation as well. I have seen many organisations where people such as treasurer or webmaster (I prefer the title webservant) have stayed in the job for decades. Chairperson or Leader or similar roles also suffer this problem, but here the prestige and visibility attached to the position is an added problem. People like it. But if you have the same Chairperson for twenty years, and at the end of that twenty years you find that the average age of your congregation is now also twenty years greater than it was at the start of their "reign", perhaps you should not be too surprised!

 

If your younger people are not being involved in every aspect of your congregation, they will leave. It is only logical, is it not?  

 

So, these long terms have always been a disaster in the long term, in my experience, and I'm convinced it was nearly always an avoidable disaster. They may be attractive in the short term. But be aware of the danger. It is potentially fatal.

 

If not to the treasurer or to their family life, then certainly to the congregation. 

 

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