Continuing a periodic series of articles exploring the work of CBWC’s Calgary office. The Calgary office is the hub of daily operations, and lots of great stories come out of their work.
“One Accord is pastored by a guy, Thomas, who works full time. He often works nights. He pastors out of the goodness of his heart,” said Alberta’s regional minister Dennis Stone. “They have a church that’s mostly paid off in an inner city section of Edmonton with some loyal people.”
In transitioning from one volunteer bookkeeper to another, some CRA reporting information got missed, and the church found themselves out of compliance with charitable status rules.
“There were no ill intentions, things just got missed,” Dennis said. “They have an empty lot beside the church that gets used as a parking lot, and the city of Edmonton wanted to tax it because it wasn’t being used enough.”
CBWC staff stepped in to help navigate the registration with CRA. Between Victor Ku, CBWC’s finance director, Shannon Youell, the church planting director who’s also an accountant, and Dennis, the paperwork got sorted and both Edmonton and CRA were satisfied.
“We connected with CRA and processed some steps which took a number of months. They were able to get their registration number in the end,” said Dennis. “It involved a few people and things turned out pretty well.”
Is your church facing a business-related issue? Get in touch with your regional minster to find out what CBWC resources are available to help.
This article was published in Volume 13, Issue 10 of Making Connections. Subscribe to the Making Connections monthly newsletter here