Archive for Stewardship and Financial Management

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 […]

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