Tuesday, September 27, 2011

End of the Month = Finances

If it's the end / beginning of the month in the GTD office then that means it's financial accounting time. Although I have accounting tasks every week of the month, it's during the last week & the first week of each month that I spend a concentrated amount of time entering monthly statements, paying the upcoming month's bills, sending out invoices, setting up payroll checks, paying payroll taxes, archiving receipts, creating financial status reports, making deposits, sending out contratcs & occassionally having to track down people who haven't paid what they owe us. With the exception of having to sometimes be a collections agency, I LOVE the accounting part of running an organization. It's very time consuming, but praise God that my spiritual gift is administration so like any other admin geek I can't wait to organize everything, including our ministry finances!! Like most non-profits we aren't in this for the money (Oh, I've got tons of proof I can show you to validate this point - LOL!!), but as an organization & a business if you neglect or minimize the importance of finanial stability & financial order then your organization will quickly cease to exist. Finances to a Christian ministry is much like oxygen is to the body. Your body doesn't live to breathe; it breathes to live. My body doesn't focus on breathing; it focuses on living. Breathing helps fuel the living. As a ministry we focus on glorifying God through our Programs, the finances help support the focus. If we "hold our breath" as a ministry and deny the importance of God's establishment of an economy then we will soon suffer hypoxia (lack of oxygen) then become sluggish followed by unconsciouness followed by death. We weren't designed to serve both God & money (Matt 6:24). We were designed to serve God and wisely manage our resources & finances (Matt 25:14-30). It's the end of the month which means it's time to assess our "breathing" and "oxygen levels" so we can get back to the business of living... fully living in & for Jesus Christ that is.