Church accounting and internal controls;

              Church Accounting and Internal Controls
By MALCOLM M. DEVORE Partner, Los Angeles Office
Presented before the Third Annual Conference of the National Association of Church Administrators, Los Angeles — July 1959
AT the outset of my talk I should like to pay tribute to you
gentlemen for the important role I feel you are playing in the ongoing program of our churches.
Yours is not the leading role, for you are the men behind the scenes so to speak. Yours is a supporting role but, in my judgment, a most important one.
Being dedicated men you realize fully that the primary function of the church is to further God's work here on earth. This work, the program of our churches, is carried on by our ministers and by our dedicated lay workers. They are the ones primarily who bring our people into a better relationship with God and thereby extend and strengthen His Kingdom.
Basically it is your role to free these persons of as much of the temporal problems of our church operations as you can. In this manner you thereby free them for their primary responsibility of carrying on God's program.
In the efficient performance of your tasks as business adminis­trators
you, as members of the team, are therefore having a vital part in winning persons to the Kingdom.
Your responsibilities are many and varied. One of them is the maintenance of accounting records and internal controls and the preparation of related reports. This is the area about which I speak to you today.
I think it might be well if we first set down our objectives in the area of church accounting and internal controls. This may seem quite elementary, yet I believe you will agree it is of fundamental importance, for if we do not have clearly in mind the result we are seeking, we will not, except by fortunate circumstance, achieve that result.
Accordingly, I would list our objectives as setting up and main­taining:
• Records of the monies received
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