Church Embezzlement

There were a lot of stories in the 80’s about Jim and Tammy Baker embezzling millions from their church. Closer to home, there have been stories about UPCI preachers embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from their local churches. When I hear stories about church embezzlement now, as someone who has been deeply involved with a church for 30+ years, I’m realizing that it’s not just about the money that was selfishly and illegally extracted out of the church. There’s an additional “opportunity cost” of what that money could have done in the mission of the church: more staff, more programs, more outreach; more of the work the church is supposed to be all about. And as someone who supports the idea of the mission, it’s an added disappointment to an already-dismal occurrence.