Strategic Contributions of Internal and Budget Controls to Church Financial Performance

Abstract

This exploratory empirical study adopted an integrative agency-stewardship perspective to assess the contributions of internal control activities and budget control to the qualitative financial performance of churches. Ten people who had practical working knowledge of the churches‟ finances were purposely selected from each of the 12 churches (societies) of the Amakom District of the Methodist Church. The results of the study, based on data from eighty respondents, showed that the tithe contributed the most to church income and overall members found the internal control activities, budget control and financial performance to be satisfactory. Internal control activities contributed significantly to financial performance but budget control made significant contributions only when the size of the church was introduced into the regression model. The strategic implication is that internal control is a prerequisite for handling church funds and church size determines adherence to budget control. The study contributes to the agency-stewardship theoretical perspective by affirming the notion that agency control solutions support the stewardship role of managers to maximize organizational performance.