A Hammond, Indiana Church Treasurer was arrested recently for embezzling $17,000 from a Baptist Church's checking account. She stole the money over a period of 2 years without being caught. She says that she used the money to pay bills and to pay her son's college tuition.
How can this happen? A trusted member of the church that was the church secretary prior to becoming the treasurer. How could she do this? The checks and balances that were in place were not being followed. You see, someone trusted her to make the right decisions. Well the problem is that she is human and when she felt the pressure of financial need, she made a decision that would ultimately affect the rest of her life.
Pastors and Board Members trust the people that work around them and volunteer in the ministry. Most of the time they think that these are Christians so they won't fall prey to worldly pressures. That type of thinking is wrong in today's world and economy. People will do things that no one ever thought that they would when confronted with the pressures of life. I have interviewed over a thousand subjects for theft in my career and all of them were trusted and no one ever thought that they would do what they did.
Trust but verify. Ensure that you have the checks and balances in place to keep this type of theft from happening and follow them. Always have two people involved when it comes to the church's finances. Never allow a human being the freedom to control finances by themselves. They may succumb to temptation when they see no other way out.
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