Being so close to the Washington D.C. area, I’m starting to develop a new and different perspective on how the non-evangelical world looks at evangelicals. For years, I’ve been so involved in my church and ministry, it was easy to not understand how completely different some of our elected officials and others look at not only what we do, but who we are.
One of the first telephone calls I received from the media when I took this position was regarding relief efforts still going on in the hurricane ravaged gulf area and the fact that evangelicals were still there, helping and sharing.
“They are proselytizing you know….trying to get people to become Christians”, was his comment as well as his obvious, but unasked, question.
I tried to help our friend from the press understand that sharing the good news of Jesus Christ is what we do. We are to be motivated by both the Great Commandment ---to love God and neighbor, and the Great Commission -- to share our faith in Jesus Christ.
One of the other things that I’m starting to understand being close to Washington DC, is the increasingly loud call for transparency in our finances; both with respect to our typically donated income as well as our expenses.
ECFA standards of responsible stewardship advocate full financial disclosure (Standard 5 – providing a copy of current audited financial statements when requested) as well as specific communication and truthfulness in communicating with the donors regarding fund-raising. ECFA Accredited Members have taken the lead and not only comply with standards related to financial disclosure but also have agreed to an independent board, to having audited financial statements, to avoiding conflicts of interest, etc.
If you pay attention to what some of our political leaders are saying, the Charitable Community (including our evangelical organizations) are not doing what they should be doing with regard to providing comprehensive and accurate information about their financial activity (typically, income and expenses). While the 1,200+ accredited members of the ECFA lead the way in accountability, it is time that we become advocates for the rest of our evangelical friends including the churches that we attend.
Churches are largely exempt from government regulation because of historical understandings of the First Amendment. However, donor trust as well as government wonder, has much to do with the willingness of our organizations to freely provide financial information and become transparent with regarding to our fund-raising purposes and results.
It’s really time for all of us to become advocates for financial accountability and transparency. Providing simple financial statements and balance sheets on a regular basis to our donors and/or positing financial information on our websites helps answer many questions before they are even asked.
Over the past twenty-seven years, ECFA accredited members have taken the lead on financial accountability and transparency. We now need to become advocates as well for the rest of our evangelical friends in order to maintain the publics’ trust and to clearly show that we have a “higher standard and a higher purpose”
