You can read the introduction, who I think is responsible, and the current situation.
Today I want to talk about what can be the fix (that is, if I think its broken... covered the next time).
In a previous post I pointed out the obvious first fix. OPEN THE BOOKS. I am not talking about the pie charts, but the opening of the transaction logs. The church is supposed to be a bunch of brothers and sisters, not parents and children. If brothers and sisters shared a budget, the full details would be openly available to all the brothers and sisters.
Another item is to take input. The great thing about a church family is that there is a lot of wisdom to go around. After you open the books you are likely to get a lot of INFORMED opinions. Now to be fair you'd get a lot of bad ones as well, but I really believe the vast majority will be good opinions.
Follow the spirit of the church. One of the bad traits of the church is that once something is started, it doesn't end. However the spirit of the church moves forward, the money should as well. If an activity or ministry has outlived its time, move forward. Because what happens is that you have a group of people wanting to try something new and relevant but can't because the support isn't there, which then builds bad attitudes.
Teach about it. Churches avoid two topics sex and money. Sex just in general, and money unless things are going bad. That needs to change. However I think its a bit of bad timing to do it after a bad time. I remember very distinctly in my first church the minister standing before the church and asking people to give $5 more per person this week to fix a problem that he admitted the staff caused. I looked over to my wife and simply shook my head no. Some may be thinking that this IS the time to talk about the issue, but I do strongly disagree. To me its like a spouse who cheated on the other fessing up then telling the other spouse they need to be a better partner. There is a point where you really lose the ability to take a high moral road on an issue.
I'm sure there are more items that could be added here... what would you add?