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A Good Treasurer

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 7, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 27.

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A Good Treasurer

By E. K. SLADE

It is pleasing to note that the churches of our conferences are awakening to the fact that careful attention is required in selecting treasurers for the local churches. Many times persons have been chosen for that office with apparently little consideration. Some have appeared to think that almost any one could act as treasurer of the church. This is a mistaken idea.
In the first place it should be borne in mind that it is a sacred responsibility to have charge of the funds handled by any of our churches for the Lord's work. So far as possible, persons should be chosen for this office who possess the required qualifications. The treasurer should be one who has the confidence of the church. One who is slack in his own business matters, and especially in his obligations to the cause of God in the matter of tithes and offerings, is not qualified to fill an office in which thoroughness and exactness are especially required.
The office of treasurer calls for one who can kindly yet firmly remind the members of the church of their obligations, and help them, by tactful and timely suggestions, to meet their obligations, and to be prompt in paying their tithes and offerings. A wide-awake treasurer will endeavor to see that the financial plans of the conference are recognized and carried out in the local church. A treasurer must have some knowledge of bookkeeping, for it is very important that the accounts be neatly and properly kept. A little slackness in handling money, or in the matter of making out receipts, may cause serious trouble. It is not pleasing to God that any department of his work be dealt with in a slack manner.
While it may be true that a deacon's responsibilities pertain to the temporal matters of the church, placing upon him some measure of the financial burden, it does not seem proper in many of our churches to place the responsibility of caring for all conference funds upon the deacon, or to make the deacon of the church its treasurer as well. There are good deacons who are not well qualified to do all the work of the treasurer. We speak of this matter because some of our people have been perplexed in regard to it. I have seen churches, that were blessed with a faithful, consecrated, wide-awake treasurer, make decided advancement in all the funds, even to the Sabbath-school offerings. A good treasurer is a great blessing to the local church, and a decided help to the cause in general.
E. K. SLADE.