Ministerial Ethics—the Decisions we Face

What would you do in each of these cases…and why?

 

Each semester we have a short unit on ministerial ethics in my Church Leadership class. I use something like the following test to get discussion going and to help my students see the sort of decisions they may face in actual ministry. Each of the following scenarios is based on an actual situation from a real local church. So what insights do you have from your own real-world situation to add or suggest to my students before they visit this in a week or so?

 

1. When visiting the widow Mrs. Kramer, a shut-in who can no longer get out to church, she slips a $20 bill into your hand and says, “You are so wonderful to think of coming and praying for me.” What would you do and why?

a. Put the money in your pocket and thank Mrs. Kramer for it.

b. Take the money and say you will drop it in the offering for her—and do that unless she says it is a personal gift to you.

c. In front of Mrs. Kramer put the money in an actual tithe envelope saying you’ll give it for her—unless she says it is personal.

d. Tell the lady you don’t accept cash money then give her a stamped envelope addressed to the church.

e. Other?

 

2. You have 50 pages of stuff related to your new house purchase you want to photocopy and have no photocopier at home—but there is one at the church office and a jar labeled “personal copies” but nobody ever told you how much to put in the jar and you’ve never seen ANY money in the jar from other ministers and staff. What would you do and why?

a. Ask the senior pastor or church secretary what the charge per page is supposed to be and put that amount in the jar right away.

b. Just make the copies and forget the jar but every few months put a $20 bill in the jar estimating it to more than cover the personal copies you make at the office.

c. Put some extra money directly in the Sunday morning offering every once in a while to cover the cost of things like personal photocopying.

d. Make the copies you need on the church machine—they shouldn’t be muzzling the ox as it treads the grain—it is part of the benefit of working anywhere to use their photocopy machine—do it and forget it.

e. Other?

 

3. Your church has an “Guest speaker’s Credit Card” so you can take speakers out to a restaurant when they preach at your church.  Dr. H. C. Wilson preached at your church today and you and your family took him out to dinner after church. You just got the dinner check and the bill includes the cost of his meal, yours, and your husband’s and both children’s meals. What would you do and why?

a. Charge only Dr. Wilson’s meal to the church credit card and pay for my family’s meal on my own.

b. Charge Dr. Wilson’s and my own meals to the church credit card and pay for my spouse and children’s meals on my own

c. Charge the entire bill to the church credit card—they wouldn’t expect me to not have brought my family.

 and pay for my family’s meal on my own

d. Call the senior pastor or church treasurer from the restaurant and do whatever they say is the policy’s intention.

e. Other?

 

4. You recently purchased for your church office (with your own credit card) a small color printer for your church office computer that cost $279 and you received this full reimbursement from the church Treasurer even before your Visa bill came.  When you bought the printer Staples® also gave you a rebate coupon which you sent in. You just a moment ago received a rebate check from HP for $70. the check is made out to you name. What would you do and why?

a. Endorse the check and give it to the treasurer with a note saying it is a rebate on the church’s printer.

b. Endorse the check and put it in the offering plate—the church gets their money and I get a tax deduction

c. Cash the rebate check and tuck the money in the back of my wallet to give to someone in need when I see them.

d. Keep the rebate personally, it was for me the one who bought the printer, not the church who paid for it.

e. Other?

 

5. The church board authorized you, the senior pastor to get a new large photocopier for the church office. After shopping around you selected a $6500 model presented to you by Ross a friendly salesperson in town. As you signed the contract on behalf of the church, Ross said with a wink, “Of course I’ll be showing my appreciation for your decision.” One week later, when you got home from the church a UPS box was on your porch addressed to you. The note from Ross said, “I appreciate your business.” Inside was a brand new Garman® GPS for your car. What would you do and why?

a. Return the GPS to Ross explaining that you cannot take “appreciation gifts” like this because they might appear to be “kickbacks”

b. Take the GPS to the church office until asking the board what should be done with it.

c. Keep the GPS but don’t use it personally—give it as a gift to someone else.

d. Keep the GPS and use it personally, this is the way “things are done” in the real world.

e. Other?

 

6. Tom Powers, the owner of a local Audi® franchise attend your church but is about to retire and move out of town. His present house is a virtual mansion. He has had it up for sale at it appraised value of 1.4 million dollars though he ahs not had any bites on it for six months.  Your church happens to be building a new worship center and you are still short $300,000 from your goal.   Powers suggests the following to you as you prepare for the upcoming board meeting:  “I will donate my 1.4 million dollar house to the church if you will promise to sell it to my Daughter Christie for $300,000—the church can keep that money to apply toward the building fund.” What would YOU do?

a. Tell Mister Powers thank you then kindly suggest he sell the house to his daughter directly then give a $300,000 gift to the church.

b. Suggest to the board they find out if either Powers or the church is doing something illegal—don’t do it if either would be doing something shady.

c. Suggest to the board they find out if either Powers or the church is doing something illegal—don’t do it if the church is doing something shady; but what Powers does is his own business.

d. Take the money gladly—this is how God provides for His people!

e. Other?

 

7. When looking over your contributions statement the Treasurer issued for last year you discover it credited you with giving $3000 last year more than you actually gave.  What would you do and why?

a. Call the church Treasurer and ask for a corrected giving receipt before filing taxes.

b. Report the correct amount on my taxes but don’t tell the Treasurer—keep the incorrect receipt “just in case.”

c. Don’t even check to see if this is wrong even though I think it is—just report what they said I gave—it wasn’t my mistake.

d. Report the incorrect amount as a chartable contribution on my taxes—hey, I need every break I can get.

e. Other?

 

So what insights would YOU give my students on these and other ethical decision-making they may face in the real world? 

 

So what do you think?

During the first few weeks click here to comment or read comments

 

Keith Drury   January 1, 2008 

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