Churches and other charities should operate so they not only do good but are seen to be doing good, both because that’s the right way to operate, and also to polish their public image and avoid attracting more media opprobrium and government regulation.

The Church and Charity Law Seminar sponsored by Carters Professional Corporation heard this message from John Pellowe, CEO of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities.

He suggested a variety of positive action steps to “help us all maintain a healthy environment in which to do ministry”:

“Tell your own story as a congregation. Who are you? What do you care about? What are you doing to make the world a better place? Let people see the good things you are doing. If you don’t tell your story, the public will get their information from the media, and what they are saying will not help your cause.”

Churches should be positive presences in their community, Pellowe notes; “don’t withdraw from your community, they are the very reason for your existence.”

It’s necessary for churches to remember their mission, to make a difference in the world and spread the benefits of God’s love to all humanity, especially the poor and marginalized, he stresses.

“Be open. Be transparent. Make it easy for people to understand what you do. Be accountable not just to your members, but also to the public,” he says. “Be a good citizen. You have nothing to hide, so be generous in self-disclosure.”

Not all churches are registered charities, but those that are must be models of the kind and adhere to all the regulations governing registered charities, he says.

“Model the best practices for charities, for churches, for any type of organization,” he urges. “Be a model for the best of everything. At the very least, show that you are up to the public’s standards, so that no one can criticize you or take issue with you. It would be embarrassing if the public had higher standards than churches.”

All these things should be borne in mind by churches and other charities, says Pellowe, because the climate of the times favours greater regulation of nonprofits.

For one thing, he notes, young people are challenging their elders’ “stories” – they want to tell their own, and they want to look to the future, not be interested in what some institution accomplished in the past.

There is also suspicion of Christianity’s claim to hold the absolute truth in face of society’s conviction that people have the right to believe anything they like as long as they don’t hurt those who believe differently, or stand in the way of their holding those beliefs.

“There is a pervasive hermeneutic of suspicion in our culture,” says Pellowe. “The starting point for many people is the assumption that you are hiding something. What’s in it for you, they ask. You don’t really exist to serve humanity, do you?”

When people don’t trust, they feel the need to regulate, he says. People want charities to reveal how donations are used, but they don’t believe they do so. “In the court of public opinion, we have been found wanting.”

Finally on the negative side of the current temper of the times, he says, is the fact that people believe beliefs should be private and not influence public action.

“Everyone has beliefs and everyone acts in accordance with his/her beliefs. Some have religious beliefs, some philosophical, some are just arbitrary. But there has been a general trend to discount opinions connected with religious faith. This just further complicates the environment in which we minister.”

One positive aspect of today’s social temper is that the public is reaching out more to the poor and disadvantaged of other nations, those to whom the church is ministering. “Compassion work like this is one area where the church and society have an alignment, and to the extent that you can tap into that, you will be building bridges with society,” says Pellowe.

Churches should be aware that there is a trend in the UK, not yet matched in Canada, to reconsider giving religious institutions a free ride in the sense they are not required to prove their public benefit as are other charities, he says. This marks an effort to gain control of sects and cults.

The issue of fundraising costs and methods is much higher on the public agenda, and threatens to bring more regulation into charities’ operations, he notes. A uniform fundraising law for all provinces and territories, sought by many in the sector, would help weed out bad apples working on commission-based fundraising and/or buy low/donate high schemes, he feels.

There are some in the sector, including Imagine Canada, who favour a new regulatory body for registered charities, he notes. But there are already a number of voluntary standards organizations operating in Canada in addition to Canada Revenue Agency, he points out, and further regulation should not be necessary if charities are vigilant and police themselves and if more resources are granted to existing enforcement agencies like CRA and the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee.

“So what does all this mean for us as Christian charities?” he summarizes. “We acknowledge that we together are just one part of a very big and very complex world. Events do not revolve around us and it would be extremely naive to think that anything that we do will completely overturn the trends that I’ve identified.”