The Financial Secretaries are the folks who count the offering every Sunday, deposit the cash and checks in the bank and enter the information concerning contributions into our financial records system so that everyone who makes a cash donation can be given a record of their contributions for tax purposes. It is one of the administrative ministries of CPC that tends to operate out of sight.

We, as individuals, as families, and as a church, are to be good stewards of the resources that God grants us. As individuals and as families, one of the ways we do that is to be aware of the activities and purposes of the organizations to which we donate a portion of our income. We will direct those gifts, at times, to certain specific ministries or purposes. As a church, we need to ensure that directed gifts go to the directed purpose.

While many people in the church are involved in seeing that proper financial records are kept and that gift designations are honored, the Financial Secretaries are the first laborers involved in that process.

The structure of our ministry is fairly simple. Two people collect the offering after second service on Sunday. They count and record the cash donations; they enter information into our computer system, recording the amount of each gift, the giver and any designation(s) applicable to the gift; they prepare the deposit and then deposit cash and checks with the bank. Depending on how many people are actively involved, a given person counts every third or fourth week. Our goal is to have eight people counting so that there would be a four week rotation. We are prepared to have more than eight people in the rotation.

Going forward, we need to continually recruit new people (as do most ministries) and maintain accurate and complete records of giving. We have been one or two people short of desired eight people for about two years. To be a Financial Secretary, you need to be at least eighteen years old, a member of CPC, able to count to 100, and willing to spend a couple of hours every third or fourth Sunday afternoon performing a valuable service for your brothers and sisters at CPC.