In my hometown there is a church. This church has a sanctuary. A steeple. A large staff of religious professionals. A jet. A hashtag campaign for each sermon series. A fleet of boats. A “membership” of over 8,000. And at…
Does anybody really know what tithing is? Does anybody really care?
Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a left-brained legalism about tithing interpreted as 10 percent of…
Let’s play: morph your church into a museum
The long-range goal of many congregations is to turn their church into a museum. It is not intentional. It is unintentional. It is just that actions taken year after year migrates them away from thriving as a missional movement to…
What do you do when your budget becomes a straitjacket?
How has the budget development process gone in your congregation this year? Was there plenty of money to go around? Or, once again did you lower soft or flexible costs like program support and missions because hard or fixed costs…