“Shepherd the flock of God among you…not for sordid gain, but with eagerness….” (I Peter 5:2).
“Will a man rob God?” (Malachi 3:8). Of course, it happens all the time. For most, it happens when they keep for themselves God’s tithes and offerings. However, every year hundreds of pastors go to jail for embezzling God’s money from their churches.
How does this happen? How could a God-called pastor fleece God’s sheep?
Aside from the spiritual considerations, two large things keep me from stealing millions from my church: 1) I would not know how, or even where to begin, and 2) my church has structures in place to safeguard the Lord’s money. (My pastor will read this and think, “I can tell you another: We don’t have millions of dollars!” True enough. But that’s not the point. Smiley-face goes here.)
So how do people manage to pull off such grand thefts of God’s money?
Christianity Today magazine for April 2014 tells of the downfall of 78-year-old legendary Korean Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho who embezzled $12 million from his church. One page over, we read of Barry Minkow, former pastor of San Diego Community Church, being sent to prison for stealing $3 million from his church.
Such instances of outright theft are mind-boggling. These pastors had been given great acclaim, enjoyed incredible success by anyone’s standards, and possessed the opportunity to make a world of difference in the lives of untold thousands. And they traded it all in for cash.
They swapped the pearl of great price for a few bucks at the devil’s pawn shop.
How did such a tragedy happen? I think we know. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that everyone reading this piece knows the answer to that.
1) Grand theft begins with tiny thefts: “This will not matter.” “This is a little thing.” “No one cares.” Exaggerating on my taxes, estimating on my expense vouchers, that sort of thing.
2) Small thefts feed off rationalizations as they begin to grow: “I deserve this.” “I can always pay this back.” “I’ve worked hard.” “The board does not appreciate me.” “God understands.”
3) It moves forward by perceived needs: “This will enhance my ministry.” “This will make me more presentable (or eloquent or effective or something).” “This is for everyone’s good.” “My life is the Lord’s work too, so it’s all His.”
4) It shifts into overdrive by our self-delusion: “I’m not like other people. The little people wouldn’t understand. But God has made me different.”
5) It culminates in outright lawbreaking: “No one will ever find this out. And if they do, I’ll tell them it was for this other thing.” “I forgot.” “No one is perfect.”
The process–a slippery slope, to be sure–is the same one voiced by Achan to Joshua in the Old Testament after his sin during the capture of Jericho.
Achan confessed, “I saw the mantle and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold…I coveted them…I took them…I hid them.” (Joshua 7:21).
I saw, I wanted, I took, I hid.
We start small and work our way up.
No wonder our Lord said, “He who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much” (Luke 16:10).
Three steps to steal a fortune from God….
One: The Lord’s man begins to dream unhealthy dreams…
Long before the small thefts, the would-be thief does something that sets the entire matter in place: He wishes and longs, he fantasizes and dreams. Our Lord Jesus said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders….” (Matthew 15:19.)
–Before a man commits adultery, he ponders what it would be like, how it would feel, how it would make him feel. He begins to soften his heart against this sin. Then, when the opportunity presents itself, he is ready.
–Before he embezzles large amounts of money, he fantasizes about living large. He begins to envision the difference wealth could make. When a way is opened for him to take money without anyone knowing–he thinks–he has already settled this in his mind.
–What he does not do is envision the consequences of his great sin: the people who will be hurt, the ministry he will give up, the shame he will bring to those who love him most. The great seducer, he who is “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), will see that he never dwells on the cost of such sin.
Paul said to young Timothy, “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into sin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang” (I Timothy 6:9-10).
Two: The Lord’s man who is dreaming of law-breaking now begins to change himself.
First, he convinces himself that enough money will take care of all his problems. This is a fool’s project, to be sure. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money,” says Ecclesiastes 5:10. Jesus said, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses” (Luke 12:15).
Second, the man who would embezzle God’s money–the mind reels at such a thought!–must first transform himself into a conniver, a schemer. He sets about thinking of ways to do this.
Is there a fund at the church–benevolence, perhaps?–to which he has uncontrolled access? A fund for which he is not accountable to anyone? Do people sometimes hand him checks for various church projects? Is there some way he could divert them into a personal bank account? How could he avoid detection?
Three: He makes changes in his church.
To steal money from his church (or any kind of office), protective structures will have to be removed, giving him access to certain funds and then guarding them from discovery.
This is not done easily. Such a pastor would have to convince people of his integrity, his trustworthiness, and proceed to make an issue of it. “You folks will have to trust me on this.” “You trust me with eternal things, but don’t think I can be trusted with a few dollars? What’s wrong with you?” He works on their guilt.
No new pastor can pull this off. It requires a preacher of long tenure as a rule. The ideal scenario is that he pastored the church when it was small and the protective safeguards were few, and now that the church is large, he insists on running the business side of the office in the same way.
Let the church and the pastor wise up…
No one is immune to this kind of temptation. We all require money to live in this world, and “just a little more” would help a great deal for most of us.
Therefore, the church leadership must take into account its most basic doctrine in setting up guidelines for handling contributions to the Lord’s work: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and will do so again before the day is out.
I just added that last part. But it’s true.
The pastor who thinks he could never be tempted by large amounts of money is fooling himself. The church who thinks its pastor is so godly and spiritual he “would never do such a thing” is setting itself (and him!) up for trouble.
Let the leadership of the Lord’s churches be smart and strong. Let them challenge the pastor who wants free access to any fund at the church! Let them hold their ground and not be moved, not even an inch.
Let the church get good counsel. Bring in outside financial consultants to study their procedures and recommend improvements.
And one more. Let the pastor constantly keep before the other ministers and office staff the importance of financial integrity. Let him insist on it personally, for himself and his team. In staff meetings, periodically discuss how money is handled and what dangers have been spotted or they may encounter. (Remember, the situation changes everytime a new person joins the team or a new bookkeeper is hired.)
Let us do all we can to honor Christ and do nothing to soil His Blessed Name.
Good advice. People are always surprised when I tell them that I do not want the authority to sign any financial documents. The last pastor here could sign checks. Because I have made it a policy that I have no access to church funds on my own, I have made it impossible to take any money from the treasury. Because it is impossible, it is not really a temptation.
As usual, Pastor Joe has offered excellent advice. A pastor can be too close to the money, but also can be too far removed so that he is unaware of problems in the money department— just so he feel confident in saying that he does not handle the church’s money. Everything Bro. Joe said about establishing guidelines for the church is vitally important for any sized church. It is my opinion that no member of the pastoral staff or family member of that staff should have access to the church’s money or bank accounts. This doesn’t ,mean that the pastor should not have some authority in regards to money, just that he needs to distance himself from directly handling it. Also, the church should have an oversight team to prevent embezzlement by other officials (treasurer). The books should be open to the church.
One church in our local area discovered that all of the money that they were supposedly giving to the Association, the Cooperative Program and missions was really going into the treasurer’s pocket. How? Because nobody had oversight and the treasurer of many years was trusted– until the pastor was asked why the church was no longer supporting the Association and the kettle of worms was opened. A sad, sad, story.
However, I’d like to add a comment about other things pastors tend to steal from the church, perhaps not quite so intentionally.
1) Time– since most pastors set their own hours– it can be a temptation to leave the office early to catch an afternoon matinee or play a round of golf, etc. While I believe that there are times when God would honor and even encourage some recreation time, pastors need to be careful about willy-nilly disappearing from ministerial availability during hours that his congregation believes he is ministering. Set some specific hours– let the church know when you plan to make a change in those hours. This doesn’t need to be done in a legalistic manner, but a pastor who is not doing the job that his church is paying him for and putting in time on the field is stealing.
2) Credit – Be careful about taking sermon shortcuts– while there are a number of fantastic websites and resources for Pastors– if you learn from another pastor some idea, principle, or illustration– take the time to let people know where that idea came from. Oh, and take the time to make it your own as well. If you use another pastor’s outline, look carefully for places to personalize and intensify your own personal signature on it. It is fine to preach that which you’ve heard others preach– but be careful that you aren’t doing it out of a sense of laziness or spiritual poverty, but because someone else’s teaching led you to deeper truth.
3) Church equipment- Wear and Tear
If you are going to use the church’s projector at home for a home entertainment project, be sure you understand that when the lamp goes out (some of them do) and the church has to spend $200-$500 replacing it that you participated in putting some of the wear on that lamp. If you use a computer belonging to the church be very careful about using it too much for pleasure and not enough for sermon preparation and ministry. If you borrow the church’s lawnmower, realize that you are putting wear and tear on it. Be aware of that so that you can help provide a replacement, should it wear out, especially while in the midst of using it.
4) People
Don’t go fishing in someone else’s pond. What I mean by that is don’t try to get members of a church across town to come and join the church God has allowed you to pastor. If the Lord leads them, okay– but I believe in asking people not to come unless they really feel the leadership of the Lord. If they are mad at the pastor I ask them to go and resolve their anger and THEN if moving their membership is still necessary– okay. Don’t get excited when the church across town splits and its members start attending your services. If they fought over there, what will prevent them from fighting in your church. Seek members that God brings, not that come as emissaries (some unknowingly) of Satan.