Nineteen persons from seven church plants, including two from neighbor island churches and two Chuukese language church plants attended the training organized by the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention’s Church Planting Deptartment.
The training was hosted by Sean Lathrop, our NAMB Church Planting Catalyst.

Mike Martin, HPBC Director of Church Finance led the Friday night portion of the training with a focus on satisfying the state and federal requirements to be recognized as a church (i.e. Articles of Incorporation; church constitution and bylaws; Employer ID Numbers; State of Hawaii Basic Business Application; Hawaii General Excise Tax). Mike also shared practical help on how to set up church accounting, payroll, and budget. Participants were given a training booklet called Church Reporting Made Easy (2019 edition) that Mike compiled. Mike also shared several handouts including a sample Ministerial Tax Return for 2018 that he had prepared, an article he wrote on Salary Compensation Packages, and Guidestone’s, Financial Checklist for Pastors.

Sean Lathrop led the Saturday morning portion of the training with a focus on how to submit funding requests for evangelism projects.

Pray for these pastors and church leaders as they deal with the business side of ministry that will allow them to share Christ, make disciples, and develop community. This training was provided with support of your church’s gifts to the Cooperative Program.