God requires that money be handled in a faithful manner (Luke 16:10, 11). Our goal is to manage all contributions given to the churchwith integrity. Our financial system is designed to provide appropriate accountability, authority, and responsibility to trustworthy people in handling and spending the gifts entrusted to the church.
Final responsibility and authority for financial management at the church rests with the Board of Trustees. The Board is made up of one pastor and a number of lay people who have training or skills in money management. The Board carries out their responsibility in three primary ways:
Approving and monitoring the budget.
Developing financial, legal, and employment policies.
Determining the employee compensation and benefits plans.
In addition, the Board, through audits and other means, monitors the performance of the Finance Director. The Finance Director carries out the day-to-day activities of managing the money. He cannot, by himself, approve any budget, authorize any expenditure, or spend any money. He fulfills his responsibilities by:
Leading the Finance Department
Enforcing policies enacted by the Board Ensuring that controls, division of authority, and other safeguards are followed by all people who handle money
Overseeing a number of volunteers and staff who do various finance related tasks
Coordinating staff in putting together budgets and long range financial plans
Making sure that the churchis complying with tax and other legal matters
Each ministry at our different church locations is lead by a Ministry Leader. These people are responsible for putting together a budget and then spending that budget wisely to meet the needs of their ministry. Ministry Leaders approve all expenditures. If the expenditure is over $1,000 then that location’s Budget Leader must also authorize the expenditure. As a safe guard, Ministry Leaders cannot write out church checks and those who can write out church checks cannot authorize expenditures.
Ministry Leaders work with a Budget Leader in developing the budget. The Budget Leader is a Pastor who coordinates the budget for a location and helps see that money is spent wisely. The Budget Leader’s main responsibility is to see that the budget and spending at a location is done in a manner that supports the goals and vision for that location. Budget Leaders can authorize expenditures but they cannot write out checks.
Over all, the financial system at the church is designed to give Ministry and Budget Leaders authority and responsibility to spend money to accomplish the ministry that God has entrusted to them. The Finance Department handles the money, writing out checks as directed by appropriate Ministry and Budget Leaders. The Finance Director oversees all day-to-day activities related to money management, while the Board of Trustees has final authority and decision making over all financial issues and policies.
The church's goal with all contributions is to handle the gifts with integrity and to spend them wisely. The 2004 financial records for Evergreen Community Church, The Rock and The Urban Refuge were audited by an independent auditor in order to verify that contributions are being handled with integrity, that the financial reporting is accurate, and that the financial system is sound. The Board of Trustees hired the accounting firm of Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co., LLP to perform the audit. After examining the church's records the auditor gave the church a clean audit report.
If you would like to receive a complete copy of the auditor's report please contact Greg Kapala or at (952) 895-0887 x 116.