Our church belongs to a church coalition in our neighbourhood. It is often difficult to find volunteers to handle the financial aspects of this group. Is it permissible to allot employee hours from our church to manage this task? The church has a representative on the board, but the coalition is not a registered charity or non-profit. The coalition does not break the rule of political activism, but promotes prayer and a place for Christian ministries to meet and serve the neighbourhood.
Thanks so much.
Comments
Victoria,
I see no problem with this arrangement. The purpose of the church is to promote prayer and for Christian ministries to meet and serve the neighbourhood would appear to fall within the purpose of promoting the Christian religion.
Whenever the question "may we do this" is asked, it really needs to be accompanied by saying also, "as far as _____________ is concerned."
By my view, there are a number of possible problems with doing this, but none of those possibilities are actually a problem. For example, it could perhaps be a problem with the IRS (from several angles), but I think it clearly is not. And it could be a problem with the workers compensation insurer, but I think that unlikely as well. Etc.
Last but not least on the least is whether this would be OK with the congregation (a political question really), but I expect it would be. (They could be asked/informed).
So bottom line: I can't imagine how this would be other than permissible, and beyond that, appropriate.
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