Determination of Spiritual Ownership, Management Integrity‎and Internal Control Systems Towards The Church Institutional Accountability

Abstract

This study analyses the influence of spiritual ownership, managerial integrity, and internal control systems on the accountability of church ‎institutions in Indonesia. The growing concern over weak transparency and misuse of church funds highlights the need for an accounting ‎approach grounded in Christian faith and ethics. From a theological perspective, the church functions as a service institution based on the ‎principle of stewardship, where humans act not as owners but as managers of resources entrusted by God. Thus, church accountability ‎encompasses both administrative and spiritual dimensions. Using a quantitative explanatory design, this research employs the Structural ‎Equation Modelling–Partial Least Squares (SEM–PLS) method. The sample consists of 150 church financial and managerial administrators ‎in South Sulawesi, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected via a Likert-scale questionnaire measuring four constructs: ‎spiritual ownership, managerial integrity, internal control systems, and accountability. The findings reveal that both spiritual ownership and ‎managerial integrity significantly and positively affect the internal control system, which in turn partially mediates their impact on church ‎accountability. The R² values of 0.611 for internal control and 0.684 for accountability demonstrate strong model explanatory power. This ‎study concludes that strengthening church accountability cannot rely solely on administrative systems but must be founded on spiritual ‎commitment and managerial integrity. The results reinforce stewardship theory within religious organisations and provide practical insights ‎for developing faith-based governance, encouraging churches to integrate spiritual formation and ethical training into internal control practices-‎es‎.