Finance Staffing Costs

Every organization spends money on staff who will do the financial accounting for it. These are skilled individuals with a passion for their organization. Frankly, they’re not working there for the money; these people are talented enough that they could get better-paying positions at for-profit companies. But that’s not where their heart is. They want to make a difference in the world, so they work for churches and non-profits.

My experience and knowledge says that there is a formula that can be applied to determine what an organization should pay for its finance staff. This formula is for the staffing functions only; there are additional costs for materials, computers, training, etc.

Here’s the formula: 3% to no more than 4%

That’s it. That simple.

Here’s what I mean by that. Figure out what your gross receipts are for the past year. By gross receipts, I mean all revenues from all streams that came into the organization for the past fiscal year. Take 3% of that figure and you should be able to staff your finance department with that budget figure.

For instance, if your operating budget plus additional gifts totals $600,000, then should expect to pay about $12,000 for someone to manage the entire financial office: contributions, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger (which includes bank reconciliation), and financial reporting. At the most, you should pay $15,000 (which is 2.5%).

If you are paying substantially more than that, I think you’re paying too much (remember, this is my opinion) unless your finances are incredibly complicated (and if they are that complicated, then you need to find ways to simplify them). Check out your financial operations, see how efficient and effective they are, see if they have the right tools to make them work faster and better, and then decide if you are paying too much because you don’t have the right staff. Then, get the right staff people!

Lead On!
Steve

Favorite Sayings

Over the years I’ve collected a few favorite sayings. Some are original with me, and others I’ve adopted. Here they are (I’ll add to the list as I go along through life):

  1. The problem with leadership is knowing who is following you and who is chasing you. That may take a while to sink in. What it means is that some of the people behind you are supporting you while others are actively throwing knives at your back. You want to get rid of the latter or transform them into the former. Regardless, leaders need to know that some people in their circles are not followers but chasers.
  2. A financial crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Use crises as opportunities to fine tune the organization and prune programs, expenses, staff, and even buildings that are not in the critical path of your mission. If everyone knows there is a fiscal crisis, then don’t waste it by continuing to support ministries that have needed to go away but you didn’t have a good enough reason to terminate them.
  3. Give God what’s right, not what’s left. Neat stewardship quote (not original to me).
  4. Separate the Personal from the Professional. Too many times people perceive a professional criticism as a personal attack. Or they mix their professional lives with their personal lives and that blend causes angst for them and those around them. Professionals should act professionally and realize that who they are (personal life) is NOT their job or career (professional life).
  5. Committees should be a balance of institutional memory and new ideas. As you work with who should be on a committee, always have a balance young people and new people with new ideas with people who’ve been on the committee a while and those who’ve been in the church a while. The longevity group tempers the younger/fresher group (but hopefully doesn’t completely dampen them) and the younger/fresher group instills vitality and enthusiamsm (but not at a cost that tramples history or leads into minefields which could cost the church its unity).
  6. Quality + Service + Cost = Value. This is based on Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, who used the QSCV formula to run his stores. I’ve modified it to define value which is what I strive for in all my purchases. I don’t necessary take the low bidder but I will go with the vendor that gives me the best perceived value, and that is a combination of quality, service, and cost.
  7. If nothing unifies us, then everything divides us. Every church and every organization should have one central thing around which everyone unites. That one thing will keep everyone on task and everything in focus. When a church or organization just does routine things without any unifying commitment, then everyone will feel that their particular passion should be the most important thing. That leads to division.
  8. Attack the problem, not the person. Quote from an article in the 1980s in Fortune magazine. It’s been something I’ve used with every staff I’ve ever had. It helps people to focus on the issue and not the person. If the person is the issue, that’s another thing, but most of the time, problems (not people) are at the root of conflicts.
  9. Hire attitude; train aptitude. After hiring and firing dozens of people, I’ve learned that aptitude (skills, abilities, talents, knowledge, etc.) can be taught or learned (not always, but most of the time). Attitude cannot be taught or learned; it is in someone’s DNA to have the right (or wrong) attitude. My experience as a manager is that a person’s attitude is the single most important factor in that person keeping or losing a job. Résumés list a person’s aptitudes; the interview reveals the attitude, and that is the part that should get you hired.
  10. If you need a tool to do your job and I don’t give it to you, shame on me. If I you need a tool to do your job and I give it to you but you don’t use it, we’re going to talk. I let all new employees know that this is what I expect from them. First, if they need something, they need to ask me for it. Second, if I don’t provide it (and don’t have a good reason for not providing it), that is my fault and they should complain louder or to someone else. Finally, if I do give them a tool and they don’t use it, then the employee is heading toward losing his/her job.
  11. Have conversations, not policies. This comes from North Point Community Church where they have almost no operating policies (except Personnel Policies, which are a must). Instead, they have conversations when someone acts up. So, when someone does something that out of bounds, instead of passing a policy to “punish the entire class” the supervisor has a conversation with the person. For instance, if someone schedules an event and gives the building staff about 24 hours to get ready for it, that results in a conversation to explain to the person that there are lots of moving parts to pulling off an event, even a small one, with just a few hours’ notice and the best practices is to give two week’s notice of a event.
  12. I get worried when I don’t hear laughter in the halls. A former boss said this. He feels that having a staff that laughs with each other is healthy emotionally. When a staff does not laugh and carry on, then things have become very serious in the office and even tense. I encourage laughter in the halls!

Lead On!
Steve

Bell Curves and Giving

Here’s an interesting stat: the most generous age bracket in any church are 50-somethings.

  • College for the kids is done and paid for
  • The kids’ weddings are over
  • The mortgage is low because they got it several decades ago (if they even have a first mortgage)
  • They are in middle to upper management at work making really good money
  • In short, their expenses are low and their income is high which means they’ve got more disposable income than other age brackets.

What about the other decade age brackets regarding their charitable gifts? Here’s my analysis of them:

  • 20-somethings are just getting started financially. Many have serious college debt, most are not ready to settle down with a spouse (much less kids), and their income is on the low side since they are just beginning their careers.
  • 30-somethings have begun to settle down with families and careers but they are financially strapped because of the mortgage, cars, retirement planning, new furniture for the home and kids, etc. They’ll give, but it will be usually from their financial leftovers. A few are giving more and more but they are the exceptions.
  • 40-somethings are well into their careers and an impressive number have even risen to upper management already. Many have figured out a financial strategy and are able to give surprising amounts. Others want to give but can’t, right now.
  • 50-somethings are the main givers to every church. Not every 50-something is a big giver but the preponderance of them give more than at any other time in their lives. They’ve reached the age when they want to live for significance, not success.
  • 60-somethings have retirement looming over them and their giving begins to decrease, sometimes rather sharply. Some 60-somethings have to keep working while others are planning comfortable retirements. However, in every case, they are beginning to ask the question that 70-somethings ask every day.
  • 70-somethings wonder “Am I going to outlive my money?” and that causes their charitable giving to drop off a cliff. Those with ample resources continue to give, but the ones with “just enough” cut their giving back significantly.
  • 80-somethings and beyond do not form a large giving base for two reasons: their numbers are smaller than other age brackets (and shrinking daily) and their financial resources are smaller than the other age brackets. An occasional 80-something will be a high-capacity giver, but most are hanging on by their financial fingernails.

How does this translate to a church?

  • At either end are the 20-somethings and 80-somethings: the goal is for the 20-somethings to be giving, per person, more than the 80-somethings. “More” is probably about 1.5 times.
  • Next are the 30-somethings and 70-somethings. In a healthy-giving church, the 30-somethings will be giving about twice what the average 70-something is giving, because giving by 70-somethings is plummeting.
  • The 40-somethings should be the second strongest age bracket in a church, and the third strongest should be 60-somethings. 40-somethings are the “left shoulder” of the bell curve and 60-somethings are the “right shoulder.” Strengthen that right shoulder as much as you can because in 10 years, they’ll be 50-somethings.
  • The peak of the bell curve is the 50-something crowd. Who are your 50-somethings today? Who coached them to give? What was their giving like 10 and even 20 years ago?  But wait, look at your church 10 and even 20 from now. Is estimated future giving by your current 30- and 40-somethings enough to replace what your current 50-somethings are doing? What are you doing long term to ensure that generosity becomes part of your church’s culture?

A church must be cultivating and encouraging generous giving with the 40- and 50-somethings. That should be the church’s main focus. Next should be the 30- and 60-somethings. Lastly, the 20-, 70- and 80-somethings should get the least financial emphasis focus, because they are in the weakest position to contribute to a church. By “cultivating and encouraging generous giving,” I mean that there should be a stewardship education plan for all groups but that those age brackets should get a bigger dose than other age brackets. Give them a second helping of generosity teaching; it will do them and you some good.

By the way, this analysis is true of annual giving (giving from your checkbook or income statement) but also of planned giving (giving from your estate or balance sheet). A church should encourage 40- and 50-somethings to put the church in their will. The 60-something and older crowd have typically already created a will (although the percentage of people without wills is shockingly high). Get some estate planning for 40-somethings and 50-somethings ASAP!

Lead On!
Steve

Strategic Budgeting for a Young Marrieds’ Ministry

One of my former churches has a strategic vision for reaching young and median married adults. They don’t ignore senior adults, but they put a vast amount of resources to targeting 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings (and that overlaps a little to the 50-somethings). Since I was on staff there, let me give you their “secret” plan. Actually, I don’t think it was strategically thought out except that God led them to develop a very good plan. The plan is actually buried in the detail of the budget which most people don’t see, but they do see the results. Serious financial resources (staffing, buildings, and programming) are expended – the results are that this church is known as the church for young married in that city.

  1. Nearly/Newly married couples (20-somethings)
    1. The church wants to get in front of engaged couples or even couples who are going to be engaged. Female staff members informed the male staff members that future brides spend a lot of time reading local wedding magazines. So, the church now hosts bridal shows, advertises in wedding magazines, reaches out to local wedding photographers and caterers, etc. They want to be known in their local wedding industry as a wedding-friendly church.
    2. The church has two small group or Sunday School classes for nearly/newly married couples. The teachers for these classes are couples who’ve been married for over 20 years who can provide good role-models. The female teacher regularly meets with the young women in the class and the same for the guys. This provides outlets for the genders to share what is going on with them as they go through life.
    3. The church also supports this age group with seminars by bringing in speakers and/or sending them to a conference at another church. Also, about two times a year there are fellowship meals  at the church (with childcare provided if needed). The goal of these times together is for nearly and newly marrieds to get to know each other and eventually to become the support network for each other as they go through the various life-stages together.
  2. Families with young children (20- and 30-somethings)
    1. When a couple announces they are pregnant, the staff assign another young married couple to partner with the pregnant couple. The assigned couple helps the pregnant couple in any way possible such as accompanying the woman to the doctor if the husband is away, providing childcare for other children while mom is at the doc, having at least one supper together during the pregnancy, and even organizing a baby shower especially if this is the first child.
    2. After the baby is born, the assigned couple coordinates getting food to the new parents, informing the church staff of the new baby, and getting a sign from the church which they place in the front yard of the couple so that their neighbors will know about the new arrival.
    3. The church has a bulletin board with 12 sections (one for each month) and pregnancies are made public by placing the couple’s name on the bulletin board in the month that the baby is due. When the gender of the baby is known, a small blue or pink ribbon is pinned by the parent’s name.
    4. At least once a year, the church hosts a nice supper for everyone that had a new child born in the past year. Childcare is provided and the parents get to enjoy a quiet dinner (maybe their first as a couple since the baby came) with a bunch of friends who are in the same life-stage as them.
    5. There are no “mass baby dedications” – only one baby is dedicated per worship service. The family is invited onto the platform, the pastor holds the baby, says a few nice words, has a prayer of dedication for the baby, parents and any siblings. BTW, the baby is kept in the nursery until the dedication time – then a volunteer brings the new baby from the nursery, hands the baby to the mom just before the parents go forward and after the dedication, the volunteer takes the baby back to the nursery so the parents can stay for worship.
    6. Each month there is a PNO (Parents Night Out) and a SNO (Social Night Out). PNO is meant for couples to drop their kids off at the church so mom and dad can have a date. SNO is for classes or small groups to have fellowship time together while kids are safely in a church nursery. The cost for three hours of childcare is minimal, about $7 or $8 per child in order to make this affordable for parents – yes, the church budgets money to subsidize this but not much since there is so much volume that a fair amount of income is provided by the parents.
    7. The children’s division had a priority for funding in the annual budget. If necessary, the pastor would solicit children’s workers and also encourage them. Teaching the teachers was emphasized by bringing in education specialists from nearby colleges.
    8. Facilities improvement was constant. A list of needs was kept current and as items on the list were ticked off, other items would be added. The goals was to keep the facilities in very good condition because new parents want and expect the best for their children.
    9. Over the summer, there were day camps at the church for preschoolers (“popcicles and pools”), weeklong summer-day camps centered on recreation at a nearby campground. These kept the children busy and provided opportunities for the parents to talk and support each other.
    10. The goals are for the church to be a place children WANT to go to and a place where young parents are finding the support and training network for this brand-new stage of their lives.
  3. Marriage enrichment (30-, 40-, and 50-somethings)
    1. The church provides bi-annual marriage conferences with a very good outside speaker. The conference is often a two or three day event where the speaker is on several times speaking in formal settings (such as Sunday morning sermon time) and informal settings (such as a dinner with a Q&A time). The topic of the conference is about making marriages work and improving communication between spouses.
    2. There are other seminars on personal finances which is critical to new marriages. The church provides training for small group teachers regularly; it continually improves the facilities, and even has on-campus counselors (a local Christian counseling org uses church space rent-free but gives church members a discount).
    3. The goal is for the church to support couples during all the difficulties of marriages. Couples who’ve been married 10 to 30 years go through massive life-style changes and adapting to them requires constant re-focusing by both spouses. The church wants to help each partner understand his/her role in the new patterns and understand what the other parent is going through. Yes, there are divorces at this church, but fewer than I’d seen at other churches.

Okay, this is how one church (albeit with a lot of resources) does it. And I never said what this church does for children of these young marrieds. Frankly, the children get about the same as children in other churches but the difference is how much attention the parents are given in the church’s budget and programming.

How are you living out the key components of your strategic plan and vision?

Lead On!
Steve

Walt & Roy

One of my favorite business books is Me, Myself and Bob. This hilarious book is the story of the rise and collapse of Veggie Tales as told by its founder, Phil Vischer. Throughout the book you learn that Phil’s childhood hero was Walt Disney – to the point that Phil wanted to create a Veggie Tales theme park like Walt did. It was not to be and it all fell apart due to some bad business decisions. Toward the end of the book, Phil has a chapter called “Lessons” in which he very openly shares what he learned from the experience and that will help him in the future.

One of his critical lessons was that while Walt was the innovative genius, his brother Roy was a fiscal sage. Orignally it was called Disney Brothers’ Studios before Walt bought out Roy. One of the advantages that Roy had over anyone else was that he was Walt’s brother. As such, he had the ability and power to confront Walt and tell him, as no one else could, whether one of Walt’s ideas was crazy or not. Roy could get in Walt’s face and tell him the honest truth. Walt had to accept it – it was coming from his partner who had as much to lose as he did. Roy’s motives were honest – he wanted success. Roy was responsible for counting the money (Roy’s Boys were the Disney beancounters!) while Walt’s guys were the creative thinkers. It took both of them to come up with the American success story that is the Disney empire. However, none of this could have happened if Walt didn’t have a Roy and if Roy didn’t have a Walt.

Phil continues in this chapter with a personal lesson that he learned the hard way – he was a Walt without a Roy. He never gave anyone the authority to confront him with the cold, hard financial facts. Instead, Phil figured he could “create” his way to financial success. I especially like how Phil ends the chapter. He tells the reader that if you are a Walt, find yourself a Roy and give him the responsibility, authority, and trust to tell you the hard financial picture. And if you are a Roy, then wait for your Walt and don’t sell yourself short. Phil acknowledges that as a Walt or a Roy you may never find your counterpart, but always keep looking.

My take-away from this is to encourage pastors, CEOs, and other visionary leaders to intentionally find a Roy. Leaders absolutely need an equally visionary beancounter (that is not an oxymoron, they do exist!). And what’s more, leaders need to very clearly tell the financial guru that the leader depends on getting good, accurate, and even scary financial figures. The financial status of the organization is not the fault of the CFO/messenger, but that if the CEO does not heed the financial advice, the fiscal failure of the organization will rest on the CEO.

Lead On!
Steve

Who is the Church’s Risk Management Officer?

Every organization has a risk management officer – someone who is formally or informally charged with ensuring the safety and security of the church and its property, with knowing the church’s personnel and financial policies and insurance limits, and working to reduce its legal liability to almost nothing. Unfortunately, many churches, if not most or perhaps even 99.999%, do not recognize the need to assign this responsibility to someone.

From a legal standpoint, the courts have assigned this responsibilty to someone, the senior pastor. Whether or not the senior pastor realizes this is another matter. If the senior pastor does not want this position, then the senior pastor must formally assign this to someone, whether it is a staff person or a lay person. However, the senior pastor must verify that this job responsibility is being carried out regularly.

Here are some things to check on:

  • Safety issues related to the phyiscal building and grounds regarding things such as tripping hazards, sharp edges, or other things that can harm people
  • Safety items related to the people including background checks on people working with minors, protecting people from known predators who prey on adults and children, removing (by force if necessary) people who come to the church in a threatening manner
  • Building security to make that unauthorized access or use of the building is not happening so that people don’t hide in a building after it is closed to do something illegal or that they can’t get locked inside a room
  • Emergency safety including evacuations and hunkering down depending on the type of emergency such as fire, bomb threats, severe weather, armed intruders, kidnapping, etc.
  • Personnel law to ensure that the church is complying with all laws pertaining to its personnel management to prevent legal action from current or former staff
  • Medical emergencies which require the intervention of trained professionals and what by-standers should do in such a situation
  • Financial policies to make sure that proper laws are being followed so that the church is not exposed to the mismanagement of funds including embezzlement and lawsuits or threats related fiscal management
  • Vehicle inspections and safety so that all church buses and other vehicles are safe, road-worthy, outfitted with good tires, and that brakes, seat-belts and other safety devices are in good working order.
  • Police interaction to keep a good relationship with local law enforcement so that when there is an emergency the police will take a personal, not just professional, interest in the situation and the location.

As I said, the courts have already assigned this responsibility to the senior pastor but most pastors have no idea of this legal burden. Pastors would be very, very wise to sit down with the church’s personnel, finance, legal, and other wise counsel to draft a plan so that all aspects of risk management are covered. This will protect the organization and actually help the organziation be proactive in the instance of an event.

Lead On!
Steve

Generosity Not Just Tithes

For years I’ve struggled with the idea of tithing. Yeah, I know all about the verses in the Bible about tithing and why and when and whether you tithe on gross or net and all those other things about tithing. Yes, tithing is a critical component of Old Testament theology and practice. Yes, tithing is important for children to understand and it is easy enough for anyone who can move a decimal point to get as to how much they should give back to God. Tithing is for children – not for grown-ups.

I don’t like tithing. Never have. Never will. There – I’ve said it. I don’t think tithing should be the basis for adult stewardship education in Christian churches. We’re beyond that. Actually, we’ve been beyond that for about 2,000 years – I’ll prove it. Here’s my premise – let’s stop teaching tithing to adults and really, really teach GENEROSITY.

Tithing is the first step in giving back to God. I think most adults stop at that point and never progress beyond tithing. What Jesus teaches and lives out is much, much more than tithing – it is generosity and that is what God wants and expects from each of us, not just tithing. Too often tithing can end up being a scorecard – yep, done my 10%. God doesn’t want just 10%, he wants more; he wants us to step out in faith and dependence on him. While tithing has a place, I don’t think it is enough for a mature Christian.

Tithing is mentioned in the New Testament three times.

  • Matthew 23.23 and Luke 11.42: Jesus roundly condemns the Pharisees for being sanctimonious and legalistic, even in their tithing on minutae but forgetting the big picture.
  • Luke 18:12: Jesus mocks a Pharisee who keeps all the commandments, even tithing and fasting, but is less justified before God than a miserable tax collector.
  • Hebrews 7.2-6: Paul tells the story of Abraham’s encounter with Melchizidek and the tribute, a tithe, that Abraham gave. Paul is citing history and not writing theology.

Jesus himself didn’t have anything good to say about tithing because the Pharisees had made a mockery of it. Like so many other things that the very human Pharisees “legalized” to death, Jesus didn’t argue the point but instead came at it from another direction. Jesus emphasized generosity at every turn.

  • He fed 5,000 men (plus women and children) – now that’s generous!
  • He brought people back to life and healed people with disablities
  • He taught people like they’d never been taught before
  • He gave of himself till he was exhausted from the crowds
  • He died as the ultimate sacrifice and sign of generosity

In fact, the only instance I can find (based on my memory, mind you) of God being selfish is God’s demand that humans not worship anyone else (including money). That’s it. All the other words spoken by God relate to his giving nature and generous spirit. God does chastize people for their selfishness and spiritual immaturity but otherwise God is all about giving – from creating Eden (Genesis) to creating heaven (Revelation).

How does this translate to our churches today? Glad you asked!

Teach tithing to children. There are fundamental principles in tithing and of the relationship between what we have (time, talent, and treasure) and how those gifts should be given back to God. By all means, teach tithing to minors. But from middle school age kids up to 120 year olds, tithing takes a back seat to generosity. Big G is now the ruler – nothing trumps generosity. Tithing has the pitfall of becoming a scorecard – generosity has no negative connotations!

Well, how much is generosity? It is giving of all that you have in a way that makes you feel like you are indeed imitating God. Paul commended the Philippians for their eagerness to be generous; he taught the Corinthians the basis of generosity. Even Paul, that legalistic first century Christian, never focused on tithing but always on being generous. Imitate God in giving things away.

Generosity for some is just 1%,  for others it is 50%. For most of us it falls in the 5%-20% of our income. Generosity is not about keeping score of how much you’ve given away – as if you could ever compete with God, ha! Generosity is about seeing how much you can rely on God by imitating him in giving away anything and every thing you have. Let me challenge you to look at everything you have and ask if you’d be willing to give it away tomorrow if asked for it.

I challenge pastors and educators to start the conversation with tithing but to move quickly to generosity and ask yourself, “Am I being generous? Or stingy?” Stinginess is not a Christian concept – generosity is. And I can assure you that if every Christian lived up to his own definition of “generous” – the world would be utterly amazed. Teach, live, and love generously and generosity – and watch things change!

Lead On!
Steve

Willie Waller

Willie died a few years ago but he wouldn’t mind me telling you his story, at least the part of it that has stuck with me. Willie and I met in February 1995 when I became the Director of Operations of South Highland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. South Highland Presbyterian is a beautiful building – built in phases in 1892, 1926, 1955, and 1996. The sanctuary and chapel are stunningly gorgeous (sometime I’ll post about the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket that a donor family and I approved to be placed in stained glass window in that church!).

In 1995 South Highland built a 25,000 square foot, $4 million dollar children’s building and renovated the existing facilities. It was a much-needed overhaul of the current buildings with a badly-needed structure designed for kids. South Highland had a glorious past but had struggled to retain its members so the children’s building was the church’s effort to tell those who moved to the suburbs that the church was very much alive with a vibrant program for kids. It worked – South Highland to this day is a wonderful church.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama was racked by racial strife. City and county leadership didn’t want Blacks to have equal rights, equal education, equal opportunities, etc. In the midst of that tension, there were good relationships (but not equal) between individual Blacks and Whites – they were cordial and friendly to each other but there was a caste system between the two races. They lived on different sides of the railroad tracks and different sides of Red Mountain. In the 1960s, White Flight created the booming cities OTM (Over The Mountain, Red Mountain) which today form the business engine of north central Alabama. Willie grew up in a segregated and sometimes violent city.

Willie had already been the custodian at the church for 16 years when I got there. He was an institution: he knew all the members, he knew their cars and would get members out of worship if they left their car lights on; he knew how to run the building; he was THE caretaker of God’s house. Before coming to South Highland, Willie worked in one of the steel mills near Birmingham. That’s where breathed asbestos particles and developed a horrible illness which clogged his lungs. He got a monthly $300 check from the asbestosis lawsuit settlement but the illness shortened his life. He didn’t die from that though, his kidneys began to shut down and he had dialysis three times a week. The docs put a tube in his arm – that really grossed me out to see that tube, yuk! His death was greatly mourned by the mostly white congregants of South Highland – they still miss him today.

On to the story, my most painful story about Willie. During the renovation work in 1996, all the bathrooms got a makeover. There was one bathroom, literally under some stairs, that was impossible to re-do. When I man used it, he would hit his head on the angled ceiling (which was the downward angle of the stairs); women never used it because it was so bad. So I had that made into a mop-sink, janitor’s closet. It was perfect. There was floor sink and a faucet – I thought it was a great solution.

Shortly after that bathroom was completed, Willie came to my office. “Steve,” he said, “where should I use the bathroom now?” I didn’t understand the question. I told Willie that the church had sixteen bathrooms and he should use whichever one he wanted to, except the pastor’s private bathroom. Willie replied, “I can’t do that. See, I can only use the bathroom that you took away.” I still didn’t understand, “What do you mean you can only use that bathroom?” “Steve, when I started working here, I was told that the bathroom under the stairs is the only bathroom I could use and now you’ve done taken it away.”

I was stunned. The history of Birmingham’s Civil Rights struggles was now squarely in my face. This Black man, a very proud and dignified man, was told he could only use the “Colored Restroom” in the church and all the other bathrooms were for “Whites Only.” I sat there not knowing what to do, how to say what, and somewhere between anger and astonishment.

After 15 seconds of silence (which felt like minutes), I said, “Willie, you can use any bathroom in the entire church. Every bathroom here is available to you. And if anyone, and I mean anyone, says anything to you about you using a bathroom, you come tell me or Dana [the senior pastor, Dana Waters, a wonderful gentleman] and we’ll take it up with that person.”

Later, I told Dana about the conversation and he supported me and was equally incensed that one of God’s children, a servant in God’s house, would be relegated to second or third-class status. We agreed that we’d do our part, the right thing, to help erase Birmingham’s taint, if it ever came up – it never did. It was nice to know the church had grown up and moved on past those issues, at least in its building. At some point later, I saw Willie in bathrooms throughout the church – it was nice to see him using the “Whites Only” bathrooms.

I miss Willie. He brought home to me for one instant, for less than five minutes, the struggles that he endured for over 65 years. I’m sorry he experienced discrimination at all but it was disgraceful that he experienced any in God’s church. I was glad I could be part of giving grace back to a really, nice man, Willie Waller.

Lead On!
Steve