A Note from your Treasurer

T he Treasure r ’s Ledge rThank you for the overwhelmingly

positive response we received for the first issue (January) of The Treasurer’s Ledger. We appreciate your feedback! Because we hope that our newsletter will be a good resource for treasury in the Middle East Union, we recommend you file copies for future reference. Your email is important to us so that we can continue to provide a viable newsletter, with informative articles and topics of interest, beneficial to your work as church treasurer.

In this issue we will be looking at Tithe Envelopes, the various offerings, their use and distribution.

Yvonne is sharing about the development of investment offerings and their use through the years. She has found an informative article by Ed Reid, Stewardship Director for the North American Division, (NAD).

Unbeknownst to you, we’ve been doing a little sleuthing to determine just how many

of our church members really understand the offerings as listed on our tithe envelopes. The result was a decision to devote some additional time in future issues to clarify the use of various offerings.

Donovan Cleary, Secretary Treasurer of EMF, will be sharing some thoughts about the spiritual purpose of Tithe Envelopes, and the change in perspective. You will be impressed by the picture of one tithe envelope currently used in the British Union where they have prayerfully addressed the need to have tithe envelopes reflect giving as an act of worship.

MEU NEWSLETTER FOR TREASURERS APRIL 2010

That about sums up this issue. Happy Accounting!Richard Novlesky

Sixteen Good Reasons You Should be Using Church Pal

1) No formulas ~ easy to understand and use!2) Treasurers can enter receipts with few key strokes;3) Cash balances are easily monitored;4) Treasurer can access giving records at members’ request;5) Files are easily backed up and restored; 6) Reports are generated quickly and are easily understood by board members;7) Field and local church funds are properly segregated;8) Accurately records transfers between departments or funds;9) Budget is easily monitored;10) Provides church membership detail;11) Offering codes and descriptions can be designed according to need;12) Church expenses can be labelled for easy review;13) Best of all - Church Pal has a bank reconciliation capability!14) Easily facilitates sending monthly financial reports to field or union;15) Technical support and training is available from the MEU;16) Updates to better handle the unique needs of the MEU treasury are in process.

Roger TaerAssociate Treasurer, MEU

CONTENTS1CHECKLIST Sixteen reasons you should be using Church Pal!

2OFFERINGSWhy do we separate tithe and offerings and how are the various offerings used? Part 1

3TITHE ENVELOPESHow and why are they changing?

4INVESTMENTYesterday and Today

5.1WHAT IS INVESTMENT?A few words from the NAD

5.2MEET RAVEENThe man behind Church Pal

6.1TREASURY GUIDELINESSetting up and using local church accounts

6.2CHURCH PALIt’s good for you!

-Roger Taer,Associate Treasurer, MEU

-Yvonne Novlesky,Stewardship Director, EMF

-Donovan Cleary,Secretary Treasurer, EMF

-Yvonne Novlesky,Stewardship Director, EMF

-G. Edward Reid,Stewardship Director, NAD

-Yvonne Novlesky,Stewardship Director, EMF

PS!Please note our announcement on page 2 and our request on page 4!

-Richard Novlesky,Treasurer, MEU

-Richard Novlesky,Treasurer, MEU

Volume 1 Number 2

God’s gifts returnedYour Tithe Envelope

Each Field creates and prints their own tithe envelopes. A well designed tithe envelope is so much more than solely an envelope to record tithe and offerings. When properly designed and understood, it reflects God’s needs in the local church, the Field or Section and indeed around the world. Returning tithes and offerings is an act of worship, and even the envelope on which we prayerfully record our offerings should be reflective of our respect to God, our faithful appreciation of His gifts, and a sincere desire to see His work go forward. In other words, we should not carelessly fill it with whatever change we dig up from our pocket, at the last minute, before the offering plate comes around.

Distribution of Tithes and Offerings

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a world church with missions in your local city and country, reaching out around the world. Your Tithe Envelope is divided to give you opportunity to prayerfully consider where and how much God is calling you to return to him. After the first line reserved for tithe, the envelope is generally divided into sections

for local church offerings, Section or Field offerings, and World Mission Offerings.

TitheYour tithe is sent from your local

church to your Field or Section, where it is used to operate the work in your area. Tithes are used to support the pastoral ministry, and for administrative costs directly related to the work of ministry. Each Field passes on 6.4 % of their tithe to the TED and 10% to the MEU. The MEU passes on to the TED, the 6.4% received from the Fields with an additional 10% of Union tithe money received. This means TED receives 7.4% of all tithes collected from within the Middle East Union. The TED retains 5% of this amount for its operations and passes on the .4% to Newbold College, and the remaining 2% to the General Conference. (TED returns some of these tithe dollars back to the Unions, in the form of appropriations.)

Local Church OfferingsYour local church offerings remain

within your church and are recorded by your local church treasurer. They support the local church congregation and its ministries. These include expenses related to outreach, Sabbath School, utilities, local building projects, etc.

Field OfferingsYour section or field offerings provide

for projects that affect every member of the church in your section or field. These include for example evangelism, Christian education, and youth outreach.

World Mission OfferingsThese offerings support various

ministries worldwide such as global mission projects, investment, 13th Sabbath special projects, media ministries and institutions of higher learning.

YN

But sacrilege

does not only consist

of profane use.

In its worst form

it consists of taking

something and giving

to God when it

means absolutely

nothing to us.

G. Campbell Morgan, 1863-1945

THE TREASURER’S LEDGER PAGE 2 APRIL 2010

Type to enter text

Treasury AnnouncementMEU will soon be designing new tithe envelopes, for use within our Sections, at no cost to them. Their design will be incorporating both the spiritual and confidential approach as described in this newsletter’s feature by Donovan Cleary. Your input is welcome. Each field is responsible for the development, printing and distribution of their own envelopes, but we recommend that a prayerful evaluation of the current envelopes and a subsequent new approach may be in order.~Richard Novlesky, MEU Treasurer

THE TREASURERS’ LEDGER PAGE 3 APRIL 2010

THEN

NOWAnd

Tithe Envelopes: How and Why They're Changing

Donors have a right to confidentiality. As treasurers, we have a duty to respect the privacy of the donor’s gift. We also have the duty to respect the honour of the gift. A gift is a gift, whether large or small -- size does not determine the respect given to either the donation or the donor. We should never make assumptions about the reasons for giving or make inferences about the welfare of the donor.

The new tithe envelopes used by the British Union Conference (BUC) allows the donor to give information simply and the gift is concealed within the envelope for confidentiality. The back of the envelope has the donor’s details. The offering and amount details are concealed.

The purpose of our giving should not be regarded as a test of fellowship, although it is a symbol of discipleship, and an expectation for leadership.

The purpose of giving should be a matter of the heart, and these new tithe envelopes introduced by the BUC a decade ago, focuses on encouraging these spiritual matters of the heart. The envelopes have biblical texts and illustrations which aim at complimenting the reasons for giving, such as making God a priority in our life and putting Him first by keeping our promises of giving, as well as expressing the goodness of God in our lives.

Tithe and offering envelopes should be used to enhance and encourage the spiritual reasons for giving, rather than focusing on the mechanics and amount of giving. God is the author of every gift in our lives and shouldn’t the tithe envelope reflect that generosity of experience?

With these thoughts in mind, The BUC envelopes (one of which is illustrated above) are printed in full colour with varying spiritual themes.

DC

Donovan ClearySecretary Treasurer, EMF

Investing for Jesus

InvestmentYesterday and Today

Yvonne NovleskyStewardship Director, EMF

Becoming involved in an investment project is an exciting

endeavour between God and you. “Investment” for missions is an earning project, with the proceeds given as a special offering. Did you

know that the investment idea was followed as early as the 1880’s and 1890’s? Members dedicated such

projects as an acre or two of a crop, some cattle or some cash to provide camp meeting equipment. Even

today, many church members dedicate proceeds from specific parcels of land to investment. In time as the idea of investing for

missions grew, articles appeared in various Adventist publications sharing testimonies. In 1925 the plan

was officially called “Investment Fund” and its promotion was officially undertaken by the Sabbath School department. The idea flew

around the world with various names in various countries.

Our ideas for investment funding

are limited only by our imagination. For example, in the early days when health reform was new and members

were learning better ways, there is the story of one man who quit the habit and gave the money he would normally spend on tobacco, to

investment. Today many nurses and other medical personnel who must work on Sabbath, take their Sabbath

pay and dedicate it to investment.One year I decided to bake

bread. In no time at all I was baking

over 40 loaves a week! A church member, who was a wheat farmer donated freshly ground flour and God blessed our partnership.

Another year, our children sold garden vegetables to neighbours, in our immediate neighbourhood.

Investment is a fun and unique

way to partner with God in a business venture to watch His funds grow. It feels good to know that we

can be a part of supporting world missions. Why not consider a spring project? You’ll be glad you did!

Together we can make a difference.

YN

THE TREASURER’S LEDGER PAGE 4 APRIL 2010

And so he had received five talents, came and brought five other talents, saying “Lord, Thou deliverest unto me five talents,

behold I have gained beside them five more.”Matthew 25:20

We would like to hear about your investment projects. .

If you have some ideas for our new tithe envelopes, (or suggestions for future issues of The Treasurer’s Ledger) we would like to hear from you. Email us at : yvonne.novlesky@gmail.com

Just so there is no confusion, the man on the left is Raveen Pal, author of Church Pal, an accounting package designed with the church treasurer in mind. It was designed specifically for Seventh-day Adventist churches and conferences.

Raveen began development of the program in 1999 when he was employed by the Ontario Conference, Canada. He noticed that the DOS system had become old and antiquated, not able to meet the changing needs of church treasurers. After seeing the struggles for supporting the old system and the frequent requests for new features, he decided to design a new program, a private undertaking, which was very quickly adopted for use in Ontario. Raveen never thought that it would be used outside Canada,

THE TREASURER’S LEDGER PAGE 5 APRIL 2010

What Is Investment?

G. Edward ReidStewardship DirectorNorth American Division

for more than 100 years. It brings in about $4 million each year. And some people don’t even know what it is. But Sabbath School Investment is coming back to life. Investment was designed for church members who like to see new, innovative projects that have the potential to really make a difference in communities in the interests of the kingdom of God.

Investment offerings go beyond what we regularly and systematically do in our tithes and offerings. The Investment idea starts in the mind of a person who is challenged by the concept of partnership with God—with making an initial “investment” in a project that is dedicated to God through the Sabbath School Investment program.

You begin with “seed money” to start a new venture that is dedicated to God. The profits from this project are then contributed to the Investment program in support of new outreach programs.

Each year, on a rotating basis, two union conferences in North America are encouraged to select projects in local conferences that are new and interesting enough to spark the support of Investment leaders and church members. All 13 world divisions of the Adventist Church have their own projects. From the funds allocated to the North American Division for Investment, a portion goes to the projects that have been highlighted and advertised throughout the year.

It’s been aroundin the Adventist church

To see the 2010 Investment projects, visit www.adventiststewardship.orgOn the home page click on “Investment,” then scroll down to “2010 M ission In vestment P rojects.” Join the growing ranks of Sabbath school mission investors!

CHURCH

PAL

RA V E E NM E E T Maybe church accounting will never be this easy,

but with Church Pal it comes pretty close!

and he says he is humbled to see how it has grown, and how it is beneficial to so many church treasurers. Church Pal is used and enjoyed by many church treasurers across Canada, and the United States and now in the Middle East. Church Pal is vastly different than when it was first released. They have released so many new features over the last decade, they have literally lost count. As it expands into new regions, Church Pal is customized to meet the needs of that region. Raveen says, “Church Pal is where it is because of the valuable suggestions we receive from users. We absolutely welcome suggestions.” Raveen is working on some specific adjustments to accommodate the unique needs of the Middle East region and upgrades are scheduled to be in place in summer of 2010.

YN

Church Treasurersnever had it so good

TREASURY GUIDELINES Setting up and Using Church AccountsRichard Novlesky, TreasurerMany of you have recently begun using Church Pal or will be doing so soon. Following are guidelines for you, as well as for those currently not using Church Pal:MEU Accounts

The Union will give you a listing of accounts. They have been grouped to reflect the distribution of funds for TED/GC and those that remain with the MEU. When your statements are presented to your church board, the distribution of your funds will be easily understood and present a good opportunity to educate church members about the use and distribution of these offerings.Church Accounts

For your local church accounts, you will likely use many of the same ones currently in use. However, you will need to keep the guidelines at right in mind, when adding and changing your local accounts.

Board approval is required for any new accounts or for changes to existing accounts. Often unknowingly, church members give donations to non-existent accounts. Treasurers then add these as new local church accounts. (I have seen churches with as many as 30 plus accounts!) As treasurer you are responsible to educate the membership regarding accounts approved by the board. This is done at Church Business meetings when financial statements are presented to the church members and also on Sabbath morning when offering appeals are made.

A listing should be made for each account indicating the following:

i) Source of funds: Is this a one time gift, or an on going account?ii) Purpose of funds;iii) Authorization for spending;

The number of accounts you have should be determined by the board’s decision as to what is used and what is important for tracking. They should be as simple and as few as practical. The standard accounts used include Church Budget, Church Expense, Sabbath School, Pathfinders, etc.

Accounts should be set up or changed only after board approval by vote and as duly recorded in the minutes.

THE TREASURER’S LEDGERA resource newsletter for Field and Section Treasurers as well as for local church treasurers.

www.adventistmeu.org

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Richard NovleskyMEU Treasurer

Roger TaerAssociate Treasurer

Malou TaerDistribution

Yvonne Novlesky Editing & Lay Out

Contact Informationyvonne.novlesky@gmail.com

ContributorsMiddle East Union welcomes pertinent articles from treasurers across the Union

THE TREASURER’S LEDGER PAGE 6 APRIL 2010

Account Name: Women’s MinistrySource: Weekly offerings/donationsPurpose: For activities related to

Women’s Ministry;Authorization: Treasurer, Pastor and Women’s Ministry Leader

Church Pal: It’s good for local churches and it’s good for the Unionserves as an excellent internal control mechanism. And it’s all done via the internet! Your treasurer has questions? Needs helps with his books? Help is only a mouse-click away! It allows the Field or Union Mission Treasurer to work with multiple churches and switch between them with ease. Church treasurers can export reports into Excel or PDF files. Church Pal checks for, and updates itself automatically! The audit process is more efficient because Church Pal creates a more complete audit trail, with monthly statements and transaction details.

RN

Church Pal is the buzz word these days as many MEU local church treasurers are setting up their accounts using this (new to the Middle East) church accounting package. Church Pal has been around for over 10 years and evolving to accommodate the unique and specific accounting needs of the Seventh-day Adventist church treasurer. It has been tried and tested by many church and conference treasurers who speak highly of its easy to use approach, excellent statement presentation and a host of other benefits.It allows treasurers to transmit reports, (or even the entire database when needed) to the Field or Union. This not only facilitates the Field Treasurer to give better support to his treasurers, but it also

it is important to begin doing so right away. Treasurers should work closely with their board to go

through the account names, presenting their source , purpose and authorization. Final approval by

action and vote should be recorded with the file listing.

If you do not have a record of accounts

which has been approved by your board,