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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, January 9, 1981
FR0;1 t-1INISTERIAL SERVICES
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?"
(The following article comes from Mr. Ralph Helge of the Legal Office.)
Over my many years with the Church certain problems have been constantly
recurring, although fortunately not frequently. One of these problems
has to do with the borrowing of money, or perhaps better stated, the
failure to repay money borrowed.
It seems that if a church member loans money to some person outside the
Church, and the person does not pay, the church member realizes that he
has entered into a bad bargain. On some occasions, however, when a church
member loans to a minister or another church member and there is a failure
to pay, some church members feel that the Church itself is in some way
responsible or should feel an obligation to repay. This is not the case
at all, so much so that it was felt this brief article was in order.
Ministers are admonished not to borrow money from church members.
If a
minister has a particular financial problem he should turn and look to the
Church for aid in that regard. A minor exception to this is, of course,
when a �1inister might unexpectedly stop out with a church member for a
dinner or the like and be "finaneially embarrassed" at the moment.
This
exception, however, should not extend beyond that--a rare exception.
If church members are desirous of borrowing from other church members,
and the church members are willing to lend to other church members, that
is their business. The Church will not become involved to tell them that
theyshouldn't borrow nor, on the other hand, will the Church under any
circumstance feel itself obligated if the church member coes not repay
his loan. This would strictly be a matter between the church members
themselves. This would even be the case if they had gone to the minister
and sought advice and counseling regarding the wisdom or advisability of
doing so.
In other words, the Church does not vest any authority whatsoever in the
minister to obligate the Church as a surety to guarantee payment of debts
between church members.
It would well behoove church members, if they themselves have made a
decision in their own mind to loan to another church member, that
they
first consult the minister in order to determine whether or not the
minister may have some information that would render the loan to be ill
advised.
It has happened, unfortunately, in some cases that a church member has
borrowed money from numerous other church members and has not paid them
back.
The lending church member may have been able to
save
himself a
financial loss if he had only counseled with the minister. It might well
have been that the minister was aware of the proclivity of the particular
church member and could have warned the lending member of this fact.
It should be repeated again, however, that the failure of the minister
to be aware of his particular church member's proclivity not to pay
back should not be looked upon as a guarantee of payment from the Church
in the event the church member should fail to repay.