Making Governance, Finance, and Property a Spiritual Practice

written by Jeff Martinhauk | August 5, 2025

I have heard it (and maybe said it myself) so many times in church:  ‘don’t send it to committee.’  Whatever ‘it’ is, it is not uncommon for even the most dedicated Episcopalian to get frustrated at times by the church’s slowness to action when facing an opportunity, getting mired in detail.

Our society has seen a dramatic change in the view of institutional process in the last 50 years.  We have a church that was built on not only the Book of Common Prayer but also the Constitution and Canons, Parochial Reports, and committees for everything.  It can seem like we’re stuck in molasses as we administer our affairs in a world primed for social media, quick reaction, and fast change.

As a full-time church administrator, I am no stranger to these sentiments.  In my current role, I am often the one calling for detail, process, and order to our governance.  That has been a growing edge for me, because as a parish priest I was very much in the camp of ‘the institution needs reform because it’s too stuck in the past.’  I very much believed that the structures and mechanisms of the church had become too separated from the mission of the Church.

But I’ve been in the role of Diocesan Treasurer and the Bishop’s Canon for Finance for a few years now.  My position has given me new insight into our administrative processes in the church, and I’ve come to not only appreciate its value but to also believe there is a case for making finance, governance, and leadership (church administration) a spiritual practice rather than seeing it as an impediment to mission.

I would suggest that a primary focus of church administrators (by which I mean anyone paid or unpaid, lay or clergy, providing this ministry to the community) is to hold the community together.  As Episcopalians, the church is primarily a community:

  1. What is the Church
  2. The Church is the community of the New Covenant

– BCP Catechism, p. xxx

A community requires trust, and administrators are, in large part, stewards of the trust that church members place in their community.  A good church administrator must take action not based on his or her own opinions, but focused on how to bring transparency, honesty, and clarity to the community; to take action based on deepening trust among the congregation.

The specific practices and tools that administrators use to steward that trust may seem unexciting.  Producing financial statements and following Robert’s Rules aren’t the reasons anyone I know goes to Church.  But if that trust is broken or if it isn’t tended to, it has too often been the reason why people don’t go to Church (just think of financial irregularities or voices not being heard).  And perhaps with good reason; without trust, it’s hard to be a community of faith.

Stewardship has a deep history in our tradition.  Over and over again, the Bible has stories of stewardship as discipleship.  It’s unfortunate that the word stewardship has come to be limited in many circles to fundraising.  Stewardship does include how we care for our funds, but it is so much broader.  A steward is one who does not own the property him/herself but holds it for another who does own it.  The steward ensures that it is used wisely and effectively, not for the steward, but for the owner who placed their trust in the steward.

Church administrators steward many things: funds, property, volunteer time, and so many others.  But the key that makes us stewards is the discernment on behalf of the one who we hold these things for.  For me, that question is:  How do we organize the resources and people of the church to better love God and love others?

And that question is a big question; perhaps it’s THE big question.   What are the practices in your congregation that exist to discern how to use your resources to love God and love others?  In my experience, they are practices of community.  That may mean a finance committee prays before making a difficult decision about how to spread funding.  It may mean that the whole parish is invited to a conversation about building housing on vacant church land.  It may mean that vestry meetings are structured in a way that encourages all voices to be heard, even the unpopular views.  It may mean practicing forbearance when you really don’t want ‘it’ to go to committee, because going to committee promotes order and trust, and valuing life in community requires practice.

Who are these administrators, these stewards?  The answer to that has changed over the past decades.  Once upon a time, most churches had a paid employee to take care of many of these functions for them—and some still do.  But an increasing number of churches find their administrators in the pews, coming from many different backgrounds with a wide variety of gifts.  Priests are spread thin with less time for routine tasks, and churches, even large ones, can no longer rely on paid staff to do the hard work of stewardship and administration.  We have volunteer parish administrators, volunteer treasurers, volunteer committee chairs- each tasked with caring about this stewardship function deeply.  As leadership in the church changes, it may be an opportunity for the Church to more fully live into who we proclaim to be, if these new leaders (all of us) can focus on the practices that make administration into a ministry.

The bishop and the rest of us on her staff believe that it is possible to have administration rooted in mission.  For that reason, we are offering a new workshop day this fall.  Finance, Governance, and Property (FGP) will be a day where we can explore this call to missional administration together as a diocese.  All are welcome, and the day is especially structured for lay/volunteer administrators, whether you are a treasurer, committee chair, volunteer staff, or are just interested in how to steward the resources of the church in a way that intentionally works to love God and love each other.

We will have sessions on financial stewardship, property maintenance, mission and money, real estate stewardship, and leadership.  The day is modeled very similarly to Leadership academy (our spring offering focusing more on discipleship, formation, evangelism, and outreach).

Finance, Governance,  Property workshop will be held at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in UTC, San Diego, on September 13 from 8:30 – 2:00.  Lunch will be provided with your registration fee. Please RSVP your attendance today!