Congregational Leadership

The nuts and bolts of money and the church (or synagogue) is found in the works of Richard R. Hammar, whose Pastor, Church, and Law has been the standard textbook in its field for many years. Hammar's briefer but still weighty annual Church and Clergy Tax Guide gives the most complete and authoritative coverage of tax laws, IRS policies, and court decisions. Together with Hammar's Web site (www.iclonline.com) and monthly newsletter, these works provide much more than most clergy and lay leaders want to know about finances, taxation, payroll, incorporation, accounting, liability, insurance, and a long list of other topics that are more important to us than we like to think.

Too little has been written about the leadership role clergy play and could play in the money realm. Loren B. Mead, in his Financial Meltdown in the Mainline?, lays much of the blame for mainline churches' financial plight on clergy who learn in seminary how to preach and counsel but not to connect their vision to the budget, fundraising, or the management of property and endowments. One small step toward filling this lacuna is my book Ministry and Money: A Guide for Clergy and Their Friends.

Still valiantly filling the comparative dearth of humorous writing for congregational leaders is a forgotten classic from 1965, How to Become a Bishop without Being Religious by Charles Merrill Smith. Smith points out that the lack of an authoritative book on the theology of church finance is understandable. As Smith points out, "You can't find any published information on 'The Philosophy of Fee Setting for Medical Doctors' either."