A Communion of Purpose

by Evertt W. Huffard   Paul’s vision was clear—to increase thanksgiving to the honor of God by extending grace to more people. His strategy involved daily spiritual renewal because he focused on things that were unseen and eternal (2 Cor 4:15-18). Once God extended Paul’s horizon beyond Asia Minor, his vision was stretched to Macedonia […]

How Your Church Can Navigate Year-End Giving

by Matthew Soper  Many people make special contributions at the end of the year. Some want to avail themselves of the tax advantage. Others realize they fell behind on their planned giving and want to make it up. Still others receive bonuses or end-of-year gifts and want to give a portion of these.  Giving Rocket, […]

Instilling Congregational Confidence in Church Finances

by Matthew Soper In my thirty years as a preacher of four congregations and now in my work as an interim minister, I continue to stress the importance to church leaders of pursuing integrity and excellence in how finances are handled. This honors God, inspires confidence from the congregation, and contributes greatly to congregational health […]

Financial Management as a Spiritual Discipline

by Matthew Soper I was baptized into Christ at age 21 and moved to Houston for my first job after college. My second job was 100% commission sales. I had already committed to first-fruits tithing but I was earnestly perplexed about how to do that with uncertain income. I approached an elder at my church […]

How to Craft and Implement a Healthy Church Budget Process

by Matthew Soper Most congregations have a budget process for formulating the next year’s planned income and expenses. At the least, they add an inflation percentage and essentially recreate the present budget. At the most, they “tear down to the studs” and do a zero-based budget, which involves critically examining all ministry spending. A general […]

Finishing Well as Leaders

by Scott Laird Robert J. Clinton researched and wrote a lot about leaders and leadership development. The theory connected to his work is “Leadership Emergence Theory” based on research of biblical characters and modern Christian leaders. By 2012 he had processed over 7,000 case studies.[1] His theory argues that God works in sovereign and providential ways […]

Who’s Leading?

by Rodney Plunket In exploring the biblical narrative of Exodus, we uncover a thought-provoking pattern of the Israelites’ wavering faith in their leaders, Moses and Aaron, as they journey through the desert. This pattern serves as a powerful example of the dynamics of leadership and followership within a church family. Through a careful examination of […]

Listening, a Skill Worth Pursuing

by Steven Carrizal The pastoral role of church leaders is a calling that puts us on holy ground as we are invited into a space of vulnerability. It is also a role for which it is easy to continually feel ill-equipped no matter how much training or experience a leader has in such situations. From […]

Continual Learning and Growth

by Greg Anderson I love to learn. This was not always the case. As a younger minister, I was naïve enough to think I had most of it figured out and did not really need a bunch of other perspectives to influence the surety of my insights. How very wrong I was, and how I […]

10 Practical Steps for Recruiting Volunteers

by Shannon Rains   The start of the school year typically brings a flurry of activity in our church’s education ministry. Leading education has many challenges, and recruiting is one of the most critical, yet dreaded, tasks. If I ask any team of ministers about the biggest struggle in their ministry, someone (probably the children’s […]

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