WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Church Frauds Trouble Leaders

BY ANSEL OLIVER, Adventist News Network editorial assistant

ontinuing cases of church theft or embezzlement are prompting Adventist leaders in North America to give greater attention to the way they handle local church audits.

A church in the western United States recently involved in such a case is calculating its losses, estimated to range between $170,000 and $200,000. The church treasurer is facing prosecution, according to a local conference official familiar with the situation.

While it's a small percentage of the nearly $1 billion congregations collect in North America each year--at a rate of approximately $18 million each week--the losses are still troubling to church leaders.

Most church thefts are reported to civil authorities. However, some are not. Rick Russell, treasurer for Carolina Conference, says a local church sometimes may try to handle theft without reporting to civil authorities.

"Often times the person is very well respected," says Russell. "Sometimes the members go into denial that it's happened to them and may not want to report it. They might try to handle it another way."

Karnik Doukmetzian, a vice president of Adventist Risk Management Inc., the church's insurance unit, says a church handling theft without reporting to law enforcement authorities doesn't send the message that church theft will not be tolerated. He says there is no consistent policy of mandatory reporting to the authorities. He believes it's a significant enough issue that cases should be automatically reported. "It's not enough to make arrangements to pay it back and say 'I'm sorry,'" he says.

"Doukmetzian may have a point," says Philip Palmer, South Central Conference treasurer. Palmer also points out that just because a police report is filed doesn't mean the person is being charged. However, Palmer says it's a delicate matter, and whether or not to go to authorities is a tough decision for churches. Palmer says another issue is whether or not a prosecuted church member will stay in the church.

Lawrance Martin, Allegheny East Conference treasurer, agrees, saying that kind of policy might send the wrong message. "It might mean that we are more interested in getting the money back than saving the person," he says. "But the person needs to realize that it's a criminal act."

He says it is the church board and pastor's job to notify the conference, which should then notify authorities.

Two full-time auditors serve the central California Conference, and each church and school there is audited annually. "We are not taking this responsibility lightly," says Nelson Tabingo, Central California Conference treasurer.

According to Tabingo, constant delays in church remittances to the local conference could be a signal that something might be wrong. Tabingo is also leery of the excuse of a treasurer's computer crashing constantly. "When they say, 'All the information is lost,' I am suspicious."

Arthur Blinci, a vice president of ARM, says some local conferences are more compliant with division working policy than others. He cites one conference that regularly presents and distributes a list with the date when each church was last audited. "To me that sends a big statement," says Blinci. "It also reaffirms the work of the church treasurer."

Blinci also tells of a head elder of a church in a different conference who said his church had not been audited in the last five years. "Conference presidents and committees are going to have to get to the point where they insist on compliance with working policy," says Blinci. Most of the lost money is recovered through insurance after a $2,500 deductible. Premiums for local church coverage are paid with church expense.

"The strange ones we latch onto pretty quickly," says Victor Elliott, claims counsel for ARM. Large amounts of money draw attention. What hurts, he says, is long-term lifting of small amounts. This usually occurs because of a breakdown in auditing policy. "These are harder to detect," he says.

The Adventist Church in North America is addressing the issue by encouraging local audits, creating an awareness of the problem, and educating the local church and school treasurers and accountants, according to Juan Prestol, North American Division treasurer. He refers treasurers to a video with a guidebook titled, "Trustees of the Lord's Finances," (available through AdventSource, www.adventsource.org) produced by the Adventist Church in North America. It covers two hours and 45 minutes of instruction about internal control.

Church officials advise that the local conference treasurer or auditor should be contacted if a concern arises about the use of church money. In the United States, the importance of internal audits--helping organizations meet their goals by recognizing and implementing proper procedures--is being recognized more and more in the wake of scandals such as those of Enron, a private company. --Adventist News Network

Disaster Response Volunteers
Help Mid-West Tornado Victims

BY JERRICA THURMAN, communication coordinator, North American Division Adventist Community Services Department

dventist Disaster Response (ADR) volunteers worked intensely relieve the disaster victims of the tornadoes and severe storms that devastated the Midwest on May 4-5. Warehouse and distribution centers have been erected in Kansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, the hardest-hit targets, to assist communities that suffered the most property damage, power outages, and water contamination.

South Central Conference (SCC) Adventist Disaster Response volunteers worked in Jackson, Tennessee, where 14 of the 40 casualties caused by the storms occurred, and an Adventist Church suffered great damage. "My Maranatha Seventh-day Adventist Church was destroyed in the storm," declared Pastor Michael Hayes. He continued, "The wind picked up the roof, and the walls collapsed inward."

Lillie Buckingham, SCC Adventist Disaster Response coordinator; Lillie Buckingham conference Adventist Community Services (ACS) director; Alexander Lampkin, James Mann, and more than a dozen trained disaster response workers of Maranatha Church labored to save the church's remains, while collaborating with Tennessee's Memphis and Madison County Emergency Management Agency to establish a disaster warehouse and distribution site in Jackson.

Kentucky-Tennessee Conference ADR coordinator, Meredith Snyder, and conference ACS director, Richard Teller, assisted SCC with the Jackson operation. "We will come together as allied forces to help the victims of the disaster," said Teller. Three dozen trained volunteers from Memphis and the SCC also joined the operation.

In Arma, Kansas, the Kansas-Nebraska Conference ADR workers, led by coordinator Janice Weeks and John Treolo, Kansas-Nebraska ACS director, distributed supplies donated by Dillon's grocery stores and Wal-Mart from a warehouse located in a bus barn and a distribution center in the Arma High School gymnasium.

Iowa-Missouri Conference ADR coordinator, Pauline Lewis, is staffing a warehouse in Bolivar, Missouri, for the communities Bolivar, Stockton, and Nevada.

"We are still in the early stages of locating and setting-up facilities and are faced with extra damages as the storms continue in other areas," said Larry Buckner, North American Division ADR coordinator. "We have teams conducting damage and need assessments and are working to make sure we have volunteers in place to help the disaster victims."

Adventist Disaster Response is a service provided by Adventist Community Services, which operates under a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross, and many other emergency management agencies. ACS is also a founding member of the inter-agency compact called National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) and the affiliated state VOADs.

Adventist Review, KidsView Receive Top Awards
The Associated Church Press (ACP) presented awards in 40 categories of religious journalism at its 2003 annual convention held this year in Indianapolis, Indiana. ACP, believed to be the oldest religious press association in North America, is a community of communication professionals brought together by faithfulness to their craft and by a common task of reflecting, describing, and supporting the life of faith and the Christian community. A panel of judges reviewed, evaluated, and critiqued 1,034 total submissions and granted Awards of Excellence, Merit, and Honorable Mention to 251 entries. Of these, four were awarded to the Adventist Review and KidsView in four separate categories. Nathan Brown, a frequent writer for the Review and former intern, won an honorable mention in the Devotional or Inspirational, Long format category for his article "An Unfinished Work" that appeared in the December 12, 2002 issue of the Adventist Review.

An Award of Excellence, the highest award in the Humor Graphic category, was presented to the Adventist Review for "The Tightrope," created by Ralph Butler, for the January 2002 issue (illustration accompanies article by the same name on page 21). The illustration was said to be "an excellent example of the marriage of current art style and effective message presentation." Another Award of Excellence in the Ancillary Product category was awarded to KidsView. The highest award in this category, the publication was judged on its effectiveness to reach a new group of subscribers' 8-12 year olds and their parents. Judges commented that "this [publication] may prove to have a life of its own. Good job."

Top honors are awarded to publications in what ACP refers to as the "coveted Best-in-Class designation," in nine categories set apart as the highest recognition within the ACP group of awards. First place, an engraved plaque honoring excellence in its class, was presented to KidsView. "A lively, wonderful presentation of accessible and appropriate content. The writing and graphics deserve high praise. The staff has done a terrific job of designing and directing a publication to its audience. A superb little treasure," said judges. One judge even suggested that KidsView consider creating a new publication for "tweens and teens."

"I am grateful to the Lord for the staff He has brought to the Adventist Review," said editor William Johnsson. "They are dedicated professionals, as this recognition by the ACP shows."

News Notes

Deborah A. Yancer (below), president of Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, has been selected as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women for the year 2003. The annual award recognizes the professional, personal, and community-based accomplishments of leading women across the state. "Debi is well-deserving of this honor, and we are pleased she has been recognized for her very significant contributions in the field of health care," said Bill Robertson, president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare, which owns and operates Shady Grove. "Throughout her career, and especially at Shady Grove, she has always sought to ensure that hospital services are closely linked to the needs of the communities they serve."

The Columbia Union College (CUC) New England Symphonic Ensemble and Columbia Collegiate Chorale joined world-renowned composer and conductor John Rutter center-stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on April 6. The concert featured several of Rutter's works for an audience of more than 1,800. "Guest conductor John Rutter energetically demonstrated how a composer, leading talented singers and instrumentalists through his own works, can ennoble music," reported the Washington Post.

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