Overview
In today’s environment the church faces many challenges to it’s existence. Churches have faced scandals from sexual abuse to loss of creditability, embezzlement and thefts. Knowing how many of these issues can happen can help to understand what can be done to prevent them. In Part One, we are going to focus on how the offering can be placed at risk, both from outside forces as well as internal risks. Since the offering is the tithing of God’s people back to God, most of the church family does not understand that there even is a risk. What can place the offering at risk. There are a number of problems including:
- Pilfering
- Embezzlement
- Robbery
Pilfering
Pilfering may be the most common risk to the offering that we will see. Why? There can be a large amount of loose cash given on any Sunday. Once the offering has left the sanctuary and is being transported to the place of counting or the safe/lock box it can be very easy to slip some unaccounted for cash out of the plates or bags. The risk is even greater for pilfering in a small church where only one deacon or staff member handles the offering. Even larger church may face pilfering if there is no means of accountability considering that we all consider our tithe private information.
Embezzlement
The next level is the act of embezzlement. Here is interesting information.
A survey by researchers at Villanova University has found that 85 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses that responded had discovered embezzlement of church money in the last five years, with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen.
The Catholic Church has some of the most rigorous financial guidelines of any denomination, specialists in church ethics said, but the survey found that the guidelines were often ignored in parishes. And when no one is looking, the cash that goes into the collection plate does not always get deposited into the church’s bank account.
“As a faith-based organization, we place a lot of trust in our folks,” said Chuck Zech, a co-author of the study and director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova.
“We think if you work for a church — you’re a volunteer or a priest — the last thing on your mind is to do something dishonest,” Mr. Zech said. “But people are people, and there’s a lot of temptation there, and with the cash-based aspect of how churches operate, it’s pretty easy.”
Specialists in church ethics said they believed this was the first study to assess the extent of embezzlement in a denomination.
The reality is that most large organizations can face some sort of attempt at embezzlement at some point. The Episcopal Church lost millions a couple of years ago to a crooked staff member in their national office. Financial fraud happens wherever there is lots of money floating around.
How the funds from the collection plate or boxes are handled can directly affect the ease of the loss of cash offerings in the Sunday collection.
Robbery
Robbery is defined as the felonious taking of the property of another from his or her person or in his or her immediate presence, against his or her will, by violence or intimidation.
In the case of the church, the robbery is committed against the church family when a robber decides to steal the offering. In the recent cases where this has happened, it is due to the idea that the church is a “soft target” where there will be no resistance, since we all know that church members will not offer any resistance. Besides only women, kids and old people go to church anymore. Once arrested robber had the following comment:
“They were good people. They wouldn’t put up resistance,” he later told police. “I could intimidate them.”
Summary
As criminals get bolder and look for places that are easy picking, we can expect to see more incidents happening to our churches. Coupled the the fact that a portion of the offering is usually in cash, there is little risk in cashing checks or fencing goods. In smaller church this may only be a few hundred dollars but larger churches often receive several thousand dollars in cash offerings. In Part Two, we will evaluate the risks and look at how we can minimize these risks.
