Sanderson Leaked Video - Transcript
Mark Sanderson:
In Haggai chapter 2 in verse 8 the Bible says, Jehovah says, "The silver is mine and the gold is mine." And that's true, isn't it. Really, everything on this earth belongs to Jehovah. And it isn't just the material riches of the earth.
If you open your Bibles and you look at Psalm 50. Psalm 50 and verse 10. Here Jehovah says "for every wild animal of the forest is mine. Even the beasts upon a thousand mountains. I know every bird of the mountains, the countless animals of the field are mine."
So Jehovah claims ownership even of all of the animals and all the birds of the earth. He says "all of them belong to me." And if you look at Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 26, so Jehovah of course made all of the stars of the heavens, which is an amazing thought. I'm not even going to try to attempt to tell you how many stars you there are <chuckles>. I don't think I can comprehend the number. But isn't it interesting the Bible gives us this detail in saying that not one of those stars is missing. Jehovah knows where every one of them are, and not one of them is ever going to go astray.
Well this is the kind of God that we worship. One who claims ownership but also claims an accountability for the things that belong to him. Now this idea was raised very very soon after the creation of man. Now if you go...
...When something is valuable to him, he is going to watch over it, and he is going to demand an accounting. Now thus far in looking at this it's sort of negative, isn't it. You know, it's from the sense that I'm going to get you. If you don't do it, I'm going to get you.
Others:
<chuckles>
Mark Sanderson:
<chuckles> So there's kind of a negative aspect to it in what we've looked at thus far. But there's also a positive and a beautiful aspect to it too. And if...
...Well, this comes down to your work as auditors. And this work, brothers, is not trivial. It's serious work. And it's important work.
I just looked up quickly, ah, on various websites, ah, to look at what is auditing and how is it defined. And ah, one website just gave a very, a nice simple def- definition. It said "the main necessity for conducting the audit of financial statements stems from the fact that the persons responsible for the preparation of financial statements are often different from the owners of a large corporation."
Well, that's true isn't it. You see if we have branches all over the world that prepare financial statements and financial records, they're far away from the governing body. And so we have no way of knowing, ah, the the truthfulness or the accuracy of those reports. And so just as in business in the world there has to be some type of accounting, or some type of review to see the accuracy of those statements. Well, we we of course have to uphold that same standard. And we know that's very much in harmony with the thinking of our God Jehovah.
So what do you need to do, then, when you are given the task of auditing the records of of a branch? Well, ah, you want to apply very much the thinking of what's mentioned here in Deuteronomy chapter 13. So of course you, you're given guidelines and you're told a certain way of a procedure to of how to go about this, but Deuteronomy chapter 13 just gives you an overriding principle.
And this is where, you see, when someone was charged, there was a charge made against someone, ah, what what was the idea that those investigating would have to go in ah and search out the matter? See, verse 14 says "you should look into the matter, making a thorough investigation and inquiry. And if it is confirmed to be true that this detestable thing has been done among done among you" well then, of course, action would have to be taken.
But the principle is, a th-, ah, you should look into the matter, a thorough investigation, and an inquiry.
So when you're charged with making an audit, that's really what you have to do. You have to make a thorough investigation. So when you're going through the records, brothers, if something doesn't seem to be right to you, please don't look the other way. Ah, please take the initiative to include it in your report. If something just doesn't appear quite right. And, ah, you brothers are experienced men. Many of you have worked in the accounting world, ah, secularly or at Bethel. You understand how things should be done. And often when you review records you begin to perhaps see a pattern, or you recognize that something isn't quite right. If that's the case, please make sure that you bring it to the attention of the Coordinators Committee in your audit report so that the brothers can look into it and make decisions as to whether the matter needs additional inquiries or whether it can be left alone. And please, give us the benefit of your wisdom. Because, you know, sometimes something may not look appropriate to you, but we may not understand why, so don't just say, "This doesn't look right" but, but go into some detail and explain why it doesn't look right. And why it is a matter of concern.
I'll tell you one ah, one thing that ah, one story that happened to me when I was serving in the Philippines, one day a couple of young brothers came to my office in the Service Department and they reported that, ah, they were very very concerned about, ah, cardboard boxes and tin cans that were disappearing from the kitchen. Now, I mean, I thought that was so ridiculous. You know, in America we have tin cans and and cardboard boxes piled up everywhere and nobody's the least bit concerned about it. But, ah, so I was kind of dismissive of these brothers. But they were, there were not about to let me go, you know. They they continued. They were persistent. And finally, after they explained themselves several times I finally got the sense of what they were saying.
You see, in the Philippines, those cardboard boxes and tin cans could be sold for money. And some of the brothers actually, sadly, had become involved in kind of an improper business arrangement whereby they were selling these things and benefitting personally from the arrangement.
Well, ah, you know it had to be investigated, looked into. And, ah, it had to be dealt with appropriately.
So ah, take the time. If someone comes and mentions something to you, that they're concerned about something that they see while you're doing your audit at the branch, listen to them. Hear them out. And make sure you understand exactly what they're trying to explain to you. And if it is a matter of concern, well then, please do report it.
On the other hand, just one caution to all of you, remember that as Second Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 24 says, ah, we are not masters over the faith of our brothers, but we are fellow workers for their joy. So, please, if you're assigned to do an audit, don't ever give the impression of being a, ah, an inspector or of someone that's harsh or critical. Ah, we always want to leave the impression of being a brother. We want to leave a kind, a loving impression in in doing our work so that we don't alienate our brothers, ah, as we carry out the responsibilities that we have.
My father was a an auditor for many many years. That was his profession. And so I grew up with auditing. I grew up, my father was the circuit auditor. He worked the district auditing. He c- audited the congregation books. So auditing was something very very, ah, close to me all the time of my, ah, my childhood and my youth. So I appreciate the importance of the work.
And I want to tell you brothers that we very very much appreciate what you're doing. And I know sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you might feel under pressure. It's a, a very ah you know kind of a uncomfortable position especially if you happen to see something that is not right. But we're try- we're trying to make this situation easier for you.
I know in the past some of you commented to me during my branch visits that you had to submit your report to the branch committee. And sometimes if there were irregularities that was very very awkward for you. But now we've taken that away, and now you'll be sending your reports directly to the Coordinators Committee. And we hope that will make it easier for you if there is some unusual situation that you need to report. You won't be put under quite so much pressure.
So thank you very much for the hard work that you're doing. Ah, please feel free to communicate with our office, with Brother Bartlett and the brothers that are working with him. And, ah, we know that Jehovah is going to bless this and as a result we're going to be able to say to Jehovah that we've looked after his resources in a fine way, and that none of his precious possessions are missing. So thank you very much for your kind attention. I'm going to turn this over to the brothers for the rest of the meeting.
Others:
<clapping>
John Ekrann:
Thank you Mark. Ah, I don't have, ah, a whole lot to add, ah, except, ah that you could see from Brother Sanderson's comments how seriously the Governing Body takes the work that you brothers are doing.
Ah, in the last year or two, I think you recognize there's been a lot more emphasis on our money. And, ah, what's happening to our money and how's that money being spent. So I think, it gives the Governing Body a great deal of confidence to know that we have brothers who are looking at how the money's being spent and to make sure that our money isn't bleeding off, ah, somewhere.
And I think that's one of the reasons they moved it, ah, to the Coordinators Committee. They want that directly reporting your work to the Coordinators Committee is that it gives them that kind of confidence, that the money is being spent wisely. And in time it may expand that we may have different kinds of audits, ah more than just the audit of are the transactions going well, but are the decisions by the branch committee about how the money is being spent in the branch.
Now, I realize that's outside of the scope, ah, sometimes of what you brothers are assigned to do. But if you do notice things like that in the branch, that they seem to be spending kind of richly on things, it would help us if you noticed that. Said, well they seem to be buying expensive headsets, or expensive computers or, ah, they, the money's being spent on things it seems a little rich, ah, for the environment, ah we'd also appreciate your observations ah on that.
Of course, we may have other brothers, the headquarters representatives, and others that we're going to be working with, ah, that they can be looking at that and working with the branch committee on exactly how, ah, that money is, ah being spent and what kind of decisions that they're making.
But I'll just reiterate, we really greatly appreciate the work that you brothers are doing and we want you to feel free to talk with us and to work along with us in the office, ah, here, ah. There's, ah, only a few of us, ah, ah, working in the Coordinators ah Committee office, ah, the two brothers, ah, Shawn and Justin are forming the Audit Records Management Department underneath the Coordinators Committee. And then, ah, Bram and Mark Bowden and Todd Ellison work along with Coordinators Committee, ah, for a lot of other matters, because we take care of Legal, Computer Department and other things, but these two brothers are really forming a new World Headquarters department called Auditing ah Records Management.
So you may also be hearing from them a little bit about records management and ah other things with the branches, but that's ah, a different hat that they're wearing.
So I'm going to go ahead and ah, conclude ah now with a prayer, and again we just want to say thank you for your work. If you have any suggestions as you go along, like I said, please, ah, feel free to let us know.
Other:
So before you...
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