How Long Should We Keep Church Records?

If you are like most church treasurers, you probably have asked yourself a hundred times, "How long should we keep church records?" It is a legitimate question. After all, church offices can become overwhelmed with old records and forms. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

This article is the first in a series of articles in Church Treasurer Alert! that will summarize recordkeeping rules for several kinds of church records. This article will address the retention of corporate records. Future articles will address retention rules for several other kinds of records including tax, employment, insurance, correspondence, contracts, property, financial, vehicles, members, investments, and legal.

Churches approach recordkeeping in a number of ways. Some retain records "forever" just in case they may be needed even though most records have not been looked at in years. Others react to growing ...