CHURCH:
FINANCES; CHURCH TREASURER

Church finances are a good and proper part of church life, but there is an ever-present danger that they will grow too important in the thinking of the church officers and slowly crowd out more vital things. In our local assemblies and other evangelical organizations there are signs that should disturb us greatly, signs of degeneration and decay that can only lead to spiritual death if the infection is not discovered and checked.

To be specific, some of our religious leaders appear to have developed mercantile minds and have come to judge all things by their effect upon the church finances. What a church can or cannot do is decided by the state of the treasury. Its spiritual outgo is determined by its financial income, with no margin for miracle and no recognition of a spiritual ministry unrelated to money. Such evil practice results from an erroneous attitude toward the whole financial question as it relates to religion.

It is an ominous thing in any church when the treasurer begins to exercise power. Since he may be presumed to be a man of God he should have a place equal to that of any other member, and if he is a man of gifts and virtues he will naturally have certain influences among the brethren. This is right and normal as long as he exercises his influences as a man of God and not as a treasurer. The moment he becomes important because he is treasurer, the Spirit will be grieved and His manifestations will begin to diminish.

Proverbs 11:24; 2 Corinthians 9:8–11; Philippians 4:18–19

The Warfare of the Spirit, 6, 7.