Because I’m seen as a neutral “third party,” it is not unusual for me to get complaints from agencies about churches, and from churches about agencies. While some of the accusa- tions may be unfair or just plain inaccurate, they reveal com- plex issues that can create serious fissures in the church/ agency relationship. Nowhere are the tensions more evident than in the area of finance, where discussions are too often problem focused rather than solution focused.

The following dialog is hypothetical and, I acknowledge, con- trived to fit this space. But the topics surfaced here need to be discussed in various church-agency settings with a healthy balance of grace, candor, and good listening skills that I have attempted to illustrate. . .[Click below to continue]