Christian Ministry Leaders Acknowledge Financial Fraud and CyberAttacks

While the crimes may not be common, they often have a sizable impact.

Sixteen percent of Christian ministry executives say the ministry they lead has experienced financial fraud or a cyberattack in the last 12 months.

This is one of the findings of MinistryWatch’s quarterly survey of ministry leaders.

Of the ministries that experienced a financial or cyber-based crime, about 31% said the crime was perpetrated by someone outside the organization. Six percent said an insider committed the offense.

However, a quick search of MinistryWatch articles related to fraud demonstrates there is plenty of fraud happening by those within churches and ministries.

The Center for the Study of Global Christianity reported that one in three churches will be the victim of embezzlement, but 27% won’t report the crime. If trends continue, embezzlement will cost churches $170 billion in the year 2050, Todd Johnson, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, told Christianity Today.

Ministry leaders said they experienced fraud primarily through unauthorized charges on credit cards and fraud committed by a field partner.

In April, Gregory Neal, the executive pastor of Journey Church in New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. He took advantage of the church during a time when the wife of Lead Pastor Rob Willis was dying of cancer, and used the church’s credit and debit cards to make unauthorized purchases. Neal’s position of trust made his crime both easier and more reprehensible.

“Regardless of someone’s relational status to the lead pastor, questions should always be asked and accountability must never be sidetracked, even in the smallest of ways in the seemingly smallest of matters,” Willis told MinistryWatch. “This man began in small ways doing unauthorized activities, and as it went unnoticed, he increased his activity. But some things could have been detected early if we hadn’t been so trusting.”

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Financial fraud can also be mitigated or prevented with the right checks in place. Common suggestions include requiring two check signers, implementing a credit card purchase approval policy, and reconciling bank statements by someone other than the check signers.

In April, attorney Matt Branaugh spoke with MinistryWatch CEO Warren Smith about the problem of financial fraud in churches and how to prevent it.

Ministries who responded to our survey said the cyberattacks they experienced took a variety of forms, including a cyber-ransom, a denial-of-service attack, and a data hack of a third party vendor.

In March, Our Daily Bread devotional ministry reported a data security incident to its donors, but it took five weeks to do so.

“We experienced an unauthorized third-party intrusion into our e-commerce web page during the period of November 18th to December 29th, 2022,” the letter said, adding that a forensic investigation began on January 4, 2023.

Sometimes cybercrime and financial fraud are both involved. The Florida Baptist Convention experienced such a situation in May when it announced it was “the victim of a highly sophisticated cybercrime” resulting in the loss of  $700,000 through “cybertargeting.” The theft was reportedly related to the convention’s Send Network Florida account in partnership with the North American Mission Board.

A 2022 article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy warns, “cyberattacks are a growing menace to nonprofit organizations around the world.”

Guidestone, a financial services ministry to pastors and ministry leaders, released a white paper noting that 43% of all cyberattacks target nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada.

It also provides tips to ministries for avoiding cyberattacks, such as proper training for employees, privacy protection policies, and the inadvertent spread of malware by email.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability offers a webinar to its members with “information and tools to help leaders stay informed on cybersecurity risks and emerging technology.” The seminar also teaches leaders how to recognize and respond to common threats as well as how to mitigate risks.

Every quarter, MinistryWatch surveys the senior executives of the 1000 largest Christian ministries in the nation. We then produce a series of stories based on the responses. This survey was conducted in July and is based on 81 responses from ministry leaders. Articles based on the April survey can be found here and here.

Main photo: Photo by Growtika / Unsplash / Creative Commons