HR In The Church Part 2

In my previous post I compared HR in churches to HR in companies.  In this post I am going deeper into this issue.  Unbeknownst to them, many churches have HR issues.  I get it, most people don’t like to think of the church as a business.  The mission of a church is to meet the spiritual and physical needs of its congregants and the surrounding community(ies). 

Like a business, a church has many expenses: rent or mortgage, water, phone, electricity, gas, internet, insurance on the property, insurance on any equipment the church owns, software, etc.  I’m not suggesting that people should look at the church as a business.  I am suggesting that people be realistic and understand that the church has monthly expenses just like they do.   

Many people don’t have the proper perspective of the church.  Lacking the proper perspective leads to people making mistakes when it comes to the daily/weekly/monthly functions of the church.  I have come across instances where utility companies have threatened to cut off the electricity, water, or gas at churches for failure to pay.  For some reason, many people think because they are a church it’s okay not to pay their bills on time.  

Preventing mistakes is why the church needs someone to perform HR functions for them.  In my previous post I talked about a small church making the decision to pay someone as a contractor rather than hiring them as an employee.  No, the church is not a business, but someone has to make business decisions for the church.  

The church must make sure it’s using good recordkeeping practices.  Lacking the proper perspective of handing the church’s affairs and bad recordkeeping are two of the biggest problems for churches.  By not realizing the seriousness of proper recordkeeping many churches have ended up in dire situations such as:  having a lien placed against the property, losing its non-profit status, filing bankruptcy, and having to permanently close the church.