Issue No. 400 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting adds three “B’s” (Bolin, Buford, and Busby) to my personal Mount Rushmore tribute list! (Who’s on your list?) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and visit Issue No. 397 for my 2018 Book-of-the-Year and my Top-10 books of 2018.
Don't Run Out of Money!
In 1983, and still fairly young to be named the executive director of Pine Cove Christian Camps in Texas, Dan Bolin received some savvy financial counsel from Bob Buford.
At the time, Buford (1939 – 2018) was a member of the camp and conference center’s board of directors. His 1997 book, Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, became a popular bestseller.
Bolin told me that Buford’s advice still ranks high on his list of Top-10 management insights. In Dan’s first few months as the camp’s CEO, Bob had a defining conversation with him. “Dan, let me give you some advice. It may be one of the most important principles I can share with you about ministry leadership,” Buford said.
Dan’s energy perked up. He was all ears because he knew that Bob Buford was a successful business leader with a heart for God. Whatever leadership lesson Bob was about to share would be memorable.
Bob looked deep into Dan Bolin’s eyes and whispered, “The fun stops when the money runs out—so don’t run out of money!”
I’m sharing this story in this 400th issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting—because I was recently reminded what Peter Drucker acknowledged to Bob Buford: “The fruit of your work grows on other people’s trees.”
I so appreciate leaders who intentionally shine the spotlight on others. Bob Buford generously wrote the foreword to Mastering the Management Buckets. Dan Bolin’s influence, insights and friendship have fueled my career. (You’ll appreciate his weekly eNews, Refueling in Flight.) Another “B,” Dan Busby, is also on my Mount Rushmore tribute list of colleagues, coaches, and friends who mentor leaders with quiet competence and God-honoring grace.
And speaking of cash (“don’t run out of it”)—how fitting then that this issue highlights two must-read resources from Dan Busby and the ECFA team.
VERIFIABLE ACCOUNTABILITY
If you serve as a board member, staff member, or volunteer of a nonprofit or church, you’ll appreciate these two very helpful annual updates:
Zondervan 2019 Church and Nonprofit Tax & Financial Guide for 2018 Tax Returns, by Dan Busby, Vonna Laue, Michael Martin, and John Van Drunen (Order from Amazon)
BIG MISTAKES! Read page 213 first: “10 Biggest Tax and Financial Mistakes Made by Churches and Nonprofits.” Note #7: “Inadequate controls over disbursements, leaving the ministry at risk for embezzlement.” Yikes.
That’s the headline, but fortunately, the solution is well-documented in Chapter 6, with 30 pages of commentary, templates, and helpful call-outs/icons titled “Idea,” “Remember,” “Caution,” and “Key Issue.” A one-page “Integrity Points” summary is included in each chapter. Example:
In Chapter 1: “Faithful Administration,” the five “Integrity Points” note that “setting the biblical tone for financial accountability” starts at the top. Another bullet point: why “a majority of independent board members (board members other than staff members or relatives of staff or board members) is vital to ensure the board’s action is done without partiality, undue influence, or conflict of interest.”
ACCOUNTABILITY DEFINED. Another must-read section begins on page one and details the dramatic difference between “self-accountability” and “verifiable accountability.” The authors cite 1 Corinthians 4:2, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” They add, “Proving faithful requires verifiable accountability.” The next 200 pages describe how and why nonprofits and churches can meet the high standards of accountability—and sleep well at night!
POP QUIZ! List five Bible references that address the “Biblical Basis for Accountability.” Time! Put your pencil down and read pages two to four—the list of 40 Bible verses, including 2 Corinthians 8:21 (NLT), “We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to know we are honorable.”
Over these last 400 eNews issues, I’ve encouraged leaders and managers to delegate their reading. So…what person on your staff, board, or volunteer team will you inspire to read this important book? Or…you can deal with Big Mistake #7 later. Your choice!
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Zondervan 2019 Church and Nonprofit Tax & Financial Guide for 2018 Tax Returns, by Dan Busby, Vonna Laue, Michael Martin, and John Van Drunen.
AHA’S ON EVERY PAGE!
PASTOR PAY PACKAGE. How much should you pay your pastor in 2019? “Chapter 2: Compensation Planning” and “Chapter 3: The Pay Package” in the Zondervan 2019 Minister’s Tax & Financial Guide delivers comprehensive wisdom and an insightful and practical format for reporting ministerial compensation—while also noting a common reporting practice to avoid.
The “Checklist for Churches Demonstrating Integrity in Compensation-Setting” is worth the price of the book. Plus, there are bonus “aha’s” on almost every page:
• “To avoid confusion, it is wise for churches to have a policy covering who owns books (and other property with a useful life longer than one year) paid by the church.”
• “Statistics suggest that a minister is seven times more likely to need disability insurance than life insurance before age 65.” (Wow—tough job?)
• “Caution! The previous tuition and fees deduction of up to $4,000 annually was eliminated under tax reform and may no longer be claimed by a minister starting in 2018.”
BIG MISTAKES! Be sure to read page 183: “10 Biggest Tax Mistakes Made by Ministers.” Note #9: “Improperly opting out of social security because of the belief that it is not a good investment.”
If your church is operating on last year’s tax and financial wisdom—that’s unwise. Read the invaluable information on minister’s housing exclusion, business expenses, retirement and Social Security, paying taxes, Form 1040 filing details, and more in this critical update for 2018 tax returns for ministers.
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Zondervan 2019 Minister’s Tax & Financial Guide for 2018 Tax Returns, also by Busby, Laue, Martin, and Van Drunen (order from Amazon). And…special thanks to the authors for providing me with review copies of both books.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Reminder: “Don’t run out of cash.” That wisdom is echoed in my 2018 book-of-the-year pick, Scaling Up. Verne Harnish writes: “You can get by with decent People, Strategy, and Executive, but not a day without Cash.” So…how’s our cash flow? Who is reading the “Cash” section (pages 195-234) in Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0? (Order from Amazon.)
2) Busby, Laue, Martin, and Van Drunen write, “When Christ-centered ministries do not demonstrate verifiable accountability, they risk doing what is right in their own eyes, as the Israelites did (Judges 17:6).” So…would the public, our donors, and the media agree that we are demonstrating verifiable accountability—or is it more like this paraphrase from The Message? “People did whatever they felt like doing.”
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Power Tools for Impact
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
While Chapter 15 is labeled “The Budget Bucket,” there’s a huge difference between budgeting versus finance and accounting.
In The Minister’s MBA: Essential Business Tools for Maximum Ministry Success, (see my 2006 review in Issue No. 9), George S. Babbes and Michael Zigarelli write, “Mention the words accounting and finance to a ministry leader and the first thing that comes to his or her mind is budgeting. But mention the words accounting and finance to MBAs and what instantly come to mind are tools. Power tools. Tools that, as we’ll see, help an organization spend in a way that maximizes mission-consistent outcomes, whether that’s profitability in a for-profit enterprise or social impact in a nonprofit.”
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⇒JASON PEARSON AND I QUOTE WILL ROGERS in the intro to the Budget Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips From John Pearson: “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing is to stop diggin’.” For more financial wisdom and tools, visit the Budget Bucket webpage here. Click on the graphic below to order from Amazon.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Does the Budget Bucket come up empty when you need a branding refresh? There are cost-effective alternatives to traditional communication strategies. Check out the innovative work from Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Click here.
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