Financials in the Church Bulletin?

Recently, I was asked by a faithful and very godly church member why we don't put a financial statement in the church bulletin every week. While the decision to remove it preceded me, I agree with the action for a number of reasons which I'll give in a moment. Let me first say that currently, we offer a financial statement at the information desk for anyone who requests it. We also have a line in the bulletin indicating this. But why not include an insert in the bulletin every week and eliminate the extra step of having to go get one from the info desk? Let me give four reasons why:
1. Confusion. In previous generations, church goers tended to give in a linear manner. That is to say, people would tithe weekly. Today, many people give in lump sums at various times of the year. For example, it's not unusual for churches to receive over 50% of all income around the month of December. For tax purposes, it is not uncommon for givers to donate large amounts before the end of the year. Many businesses and most individuals, however, do not have such patterns of income. Most people get a regular paycheck with a regular amount every two weeks. Therefore, when they look at their own finances, they can see linear income and expense patterns. If a church gives out a weekly giving statement, the months that are typically low giving months can give the impression that the church is in financial trouble when, in reality, it's simply a normal low giving pattern that will be offset later in the year as December approaches. I've found that every church is a little different in terms of its giving patterns, but I've never been at a church that had linear giving week to week. As one mentor of mine (a pastor of a very successful church) put it, "since most of us have a strong December, it makes things look artificially bad through most of the year. While that might be a good way to 'scare' some money out of people – it’s also a good way to insure that most of the year they think the leadership is financially irresponsible." Why introduce confusion to the church unnecessarily? Currently, we have quarterly business meetings where our finances are explained precisely by our accountant so there is no confusion. If we are struggling, this is stated and if we are not, the patterns of giving can be more adequately explained.
2. Visitors. One of the reasons good people disagree on this is their differing views on what, exactly, a bulletin's purpose is. For me, a bulletin is similar to a program at a concert or a menu at a restaurant. It is to orient visitors to the order of events and invite them into participation. It is not primarily for the insider. If I went to the Coronado Theater to see Fiddler on the Roof, I'd find it strange to have a financial statement from the Coronado stuffed in the program. That would seem to be more appropriate for its board of directors or its Coronado Arts Membership Society (if it has one). When a visitor goes to a church, he or she already feels like an outsider. If the bulletin is filled with "insider information" such as jargon that only members understand and announcements that are to already-assembled groups, the visitor gets the clear message that he or she is, indeed, an outsider. I remember a doctoral professor of mine who said he could tell within five minutes if a church was growing or dying. If he saw that the church listed its finances in its bulletin, he knew it was primarily aiming its ministry at insiders and was probably dying. Putting insider information in the bulletin to me is similar to showing my checkbook balance to our new neighbors when we invite them to dinner. It's not visitor sensitive and could give the impression that I'm hitting them up for money (something many visitors suspect churches are only about).
3. Stewardship. The truth is that most attenders have little if any desire to see this information. I've found that in churches where leadership is doing its job and has established a track record of integrity, there are virtually no requests for financial information. When there is such a low desire for financial statements among regular attenders, there is a stewardship of resources issue that arises. It takes time for a staff person to assemble figures every week, put these figures into a format that is understandable (the typical person cannot read the complicated spreadsheets of a large church), have it printed, and then have the document stuffed into a thousand bulletins. This also takes money for printing and paper costs. I find it difficult to justify the expense of staff time and church money on this if the vast majority of these reports will not be read and will, in fact, immediately end up in the trash. It makes more stewardship sense to have a smaller number of copies available for any who requests one.
4. Propriety. This reason is less weighty to me, but it's worth mentioning. I believe anyone who gives to the church has a right to see how the giving is spent. But I have trouble with giving out this information to just anyone. We've all met people who attend churches who are destructive critics. I've known of people who were, as Chuck Swindoll describes them, "savages" to local congregations. Jesus described them as "wolves in sheep's clothing" in Matt. 7. These are people who want power but who don't sacrifice and are not committed to God or the church. They wouldn't be caught dead tithing, but will show up at every business meeting with an agenda. Doesn't a church have a responsibility to protect its body against such malcontents? One friend of mine who is also a very successful and wise pastor told me that his church will not issue financial statements to anyone who does not actually give to the church. Other pastors have told me they will only issue that information to people who are actually members of the church after being adequately evaluated for membership through a solid membership process. I think there is wisdom in this. Recently, a good church in our area found itself as a major story in the local newspaper. Due to the economic downturn and its effect on church giving, the church leadership had gone through the painful decision to lay off staff. Soon after, a negative story was printed in the paper with slanderous comments from critics. I personally talked to the Pastor of the church and found that the leadership had been very responsible financially. Yet critics of the church took financial information that was nobody's business but the members of that church and splattered it on the cover of a newspaper hurting that church's reputation in the process. It seems to me that giving this information as easy-access to anyone who walks in off the street may be irresponsible, especially in this age of slander and attack against Evangelical churches.

These are some of the reasons behind my support of our current method of sharing financial information. We give the information freely out to members who request it and we give detailed financial reports to our members at our regularly scheduled business meetings. There is a weakness to this method, however. The weakness is that those who may be disposed to pray for our finances may forget to request a copy of the statements. One precious prayer warrior recently stated this as a reason for his concern that finances were not listed in the bulletins. In weighing the pros and cons, I'm still inclined to follow our current pattern while trusting that those who pray regularly will take it upon themselves to seek out this information. But, we will continue to evaluate this issue as we go along.