How to hammer out your problems

I want to break the previous post down over the next few blogs and show how and why this will work.

1.     Find people that are an appropriate fit for your church committee:

a.      If you have a Building and Grounds committee, put your carpenters, plumbers, electricians, contractors, painters, roofers, landscapers, etc on the committee. That way if you need something fixed, you know who is a possible source in your church, plus you can use their expertise to verify what the repair person is telling you.

Now pastors, this is not for you to get a bunch of free work from your members. I believe that one way people can give to their church is to do things that they are good at for no charge for any labor. The church should still pay for materials. But if you know a trade and you see the paint peeling off of the wall, take a day off or use a Saturday (or whatever your day off is) and repaint that area. Make sure that you touch base and get the okay from the committee, that way duplication is not planned and feelings hurt. If you do not see anything in the church or on the grounds that you can tell are in need of repair, ask the committee. Sometimes they are aware of things that are ongoing that they have not brought to the church because of taking bids, or waiting on funds to become available in the budget. Your offer of labor may make the project affordable now and it can be taken care of, and they will provide you with the specifics of what is needed and how they want it done.  One warning with this: Let it be the committee’s vision of how they want it done. If there is nothing structurally or local code that is wrong with their choice, remain quiet and perform the task or ask to find someone else. This is not an opportunity for you to insert your wishes if you are not on the committee. You’re the instrument by which the task is accomplished. Your tools can’t talk (although in these days, it won’t be long before everything can) and neither should you.

The finance committee should operate on the same principle. People who are used to crunching numbers and handling money in their employment are the people who should be handling the church money. If businesses think that they are trustworthy to deal with the vast income that they receive, surely they can be competent to handle the churches finances.