Gina Jayne wrote:
As ranger leaders, I know there are some of you who have numerous other jobs in your church and . I have just been elected to be the missions secretary. My goal this year is to attempt to computerize missions giving in the church. I would appreciate any suggestions, ideas, programs, etc.
Hmmm.... what would I do in your shoes?
First, I would try to figure out what I want the computer to do to help with the job. That would be storing data about the missionaries for quick retrieval, helping with disbursement of funds and tracking the money, and helping to communicate with the missionaries.
On the first point, a generic database could be used. Things you might want to track (if you know):
Names of everyone in the family, marital status, birthdays, anniversaries, field address, home or forwarding address, support address, email address(es), mission organization, how to get funds to them (i. e. mail a check, deposit to a certain account, etc.), term of commitment (indefinite or until a certain date), amount pledged to them if any, and a place for free-form text comments such as special instructions on getting packages to them, what they are doing for the Lord, special instructions on contacting them if they work in "sensitive" areas, etc. You should also know if a missionary is meeting their budget or not. Some sending organizations have specific budgeting procedures and requirements, and can give a precise answer, and some do not, but you should have an idea if they are meeting their basic expenses, ministry expenses, travel budget, and if they are able to save for retirement if you are really serious about supporting someone doing God's work.
On the money tracking side, it kind of depends on how the church does its accounting and finances. If they are already using Quickbooks or something like that, you may want to use it, too. Maybe just a simple spreadsheet will do. If you act directly as the sending agent, you need to consider doing the nonprofit tax accounting and deal with the missionaries as employees or contractors. You need to know stuff like what the difference in tax laws are for ordained or licensed ministers of the gospel and those who are not, and what forms must be filed with the IRS, etc. The church probably already has to deal with that for church staff, but maybe not for someone in another state or country.
Now, for a little perspective from a missionary on the other side of the planet. You should ask your missionaries to keep in touch with you regularly with prayer letters, emails, phone calls, or something just so that you know what they are up to, and so that you can represent them to the church. Post pictures and newsletters on bulletin boards for people in the congregation to read. People need to feel connected to their missionaries to give to them and to pray for them. (The prayer is more important than the money. I'm not just saying that. It is true.) It works both ways, though. It is good to keep in touch with your missionaries. A personal note from time to time, even just a simple email (or paper letter) telling them that you just prayed for them can really be a lift. One thing our home church does for us is send us audio tapes of the services. That is really nice. Regular, predictable donations are nice, but really any amount is nice, as God has ways of averaging things out. Very few missionaries live on what just one church sends to them.
Another issue that comes up is in selecting missionaries to support. Be led by the Holy Spirit. Listen to your pastor. Some churches allow people to designate offerings to specific missionaries, and if you do that, you need a way to keep track of that to make sure it happens. It is really nice for the missionaries if you can provide them names and addresses of people to send "thank you" notes and prayer letters to when you support directed donations.
Last, but not least, if you are short of missionaries to support or even if you aren't, and the Lord so leads, our support has dropped and our needs have increased lately. God will supply for us one way or another-- even if He tells me to go fishing in the local river. It might be through you instead of a fish that He wants to work. :-) You might want to look at our web site at http://kahunapule.org or http://eBible.org/mpj/ for more information. Even if you don't feel led by God to support us, you can use that site for ideas for missionaries you send out to help them in communicating with their partners.
Thanks for your willingness to serve God. May God bless you!
-- Kahunapule Michael P. Johnson http://Kahunapule.org
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Jesus Christ is LORD!
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