Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi of the Pentecost University has urged Church Leaders and Pastors to tighten up and insist on all the accepted safeguards, control and strictest financial procedures. They should acknowledge the relevance of financial accountability in the church stewardship, he stated.

Prof Omane-Antwi made the call in a speech delivered on his behalf at a day's workshop, organised by Perez University College of Theology, for Church Leaders and Pastors in and around the catchment area of the University.

The Workshop was on the theme “Improving the Finances of the Church: The Role of Church leaders and Pastors”. The aim was for Christians to acknowledge the relevance of financial accountability in church stewardship among others.

“Christian leaders and Pastors are supposed to be in the forefront in the fight against corruption, as the Bible calls all Christians to be doers of God’s word and not only the hears (James 1; 22)”.

According to him, Financial Accountability in church stewardship held the key to improve the finances of the church, hence the need to eschew the notion that financial management in the Church was unimportant.

He pointed out that mismanagement of Church finances could have serious consequences and therefore carelessness, leaders of Churches or ministries should review the necessary accounting and financial management steps and live above reproach, while preventing the bankruptcy of their churches Prof. Omane-Antwi said, structures and processes of the church must be guided by the scripture, the Holy Spirit, tradition, experience and reason by Church Leaders and Pastors.

“The sacred role of the church leader is to ensure credibility and trustworthiness of the church as the most fundamental base of the church and also the purpose of its existence”.

Prof. Omane-Antwi indicated that the collapse of most churches was due to loss of credibility, particularly through financial mismanagement and scandals, adding that bad practices must have avoided at all cost.

He stated further that the expectations placed upon church leaders particularly a Pastor in the 21st century were exponentially more difficult than a few decades ago, saying the Pastor’s attitude towards the use of money was a major factor in the account of his stewardship.

In exercising a standard of responsible stewardship, Church leaders should put in place a governing board with strong financial governance committee, conduct annual audits by appointing accredited Chartered Accounting Firms to audit their finances annually and to inform the members accordingly.

Prof. Omane-Antwi stated further that as leaders and pastors they should be men and women of integrity and pass the integrity test at any point in time. He took the participants through topics including; Leadership factors, Financial Management and Accountability, understanding financial Accountability and Inherent Biblical Perspectives, reasons for financial Accountability in the Church, Accountability perceptive and The Role of Pastors and Leaders in improving Church Finance.

Professor Jacob Sekyi Arku, Head of Entrepreneurial Unit and Innovation of the College, in a presentation on the topic “Role of Non-Financial Church Leaders in the Accounting Function of the Church”, said the success and continued existence of an institution depended on the quality of its product or services to meet the demand of consumers.

He schooled the gathering on the primary cycle of events in institutions, management of the cycle to ensure survival, accounting function and objective of accounting function.

Others were examples of basic business document commonly used in accounting function, responsibilities towards basic business document, benefits from accurate and timely record-keeping, generation of revenue and lesson for non-financial managers.