Church Administration and Finance Manual

A field-tested guide to the management and finance of church congregations, revised for a new generation.

Clergy are generally equipped to preach and provide spiritual care. But when it comes to budgets, insurance, fire safety, and church management many find themselves at a loss. The Church Administration and Finance Manual is the classic guide to running a church, written to answer key questions for clergy and lay leaders.

Not simply a theoretical resource, the Manual provides suggestions for almost every aspect of parish administration: position descriptions, financial forms, materials for stewardship and Christian education, building use and safety issues, employee record keeping, and much more. This revised edition offers guidance on many new topics that are of vital importance to churches, including protecting children, information security, approaches to preventing and responding to violence, planned giving, social media, and hybrid work and worship.

Whether clergy are just out of seminary or well-seasoned in parish life, the Manual is full of excellent guidelines, tools, and forms for improving the management of the parish.

Otto F. Crumroy, Jr. serves as an independent financial management consultant to churches and teaches church administration and finance. He served as director of 65-member audit group for the Army and Air Force Exchange service. He lives in Lacey, Washington.

Stan Kukawka is president of a management consulting company and has 25 years of management experience with two world-renowned electronics companies. He lives in Vista, California.

Frank M. Witman was a United Methodist pastor. In his last two pastorates, he was involved in the building of new sanctuaries and the raising of more than $2.5 million for debt elimination. He died in 2010.

Paul Witman teaches information technology management in the School of Management at California Lutheran University, where he is one of five inaugural faculty members in the Executive Skills for Pastors program. He has undertaken several leadership and governance roles in protestant denominations, including serving on the boards of the United Methodist Campus Ministry at UCLA and the Center for Non-profit Leadership in Ventura County, the National Advisory Council for the Ecumenical Appalachia Service Project, and the Western Jurisdiction of United Methodist Camping. He has taken on numerous lay leadership positions at the local church level on committees responsible for communications, stewardship and budgets, property and facilities, and capital campaigns, and serves as chair of his church council. He lives in Simi Valley, California.