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Many church executives and parishioners know that rehabilitating or renovating a church structure in today’s economy is a daunting task. But often, with most of today’s church structures reaching or exceeding the century mark, repairs are necessities, not only to preserve the building but also to ensure the safety of the congregation.
Changes in our culture, technology, and even the global influences around us all, generate a deeper level of thought as ministry spaces are designed for today’s church-goers. The design team, architect and owner should push and pursue a higher relational and experiential aspect for spaces where ministry occurs.
Dr. Stephen A. Macchia, a contributing writer to Church Executive, is founder and president of Leadership Transformations Inc., Lexington, MA [LeadershipTransformations.org] and is the author of five books on church assessment and leadership.
In commuting the 30 miles to and from the office I probably pass 30 congregations, each of them laboring in the vineyards in their individual ways. Most of them are small, landlocked churches and likely neither purpose-driven nor prevailing.
Ministry can be wearing and draining for the best of us. It’s people-intensive and problem-pervasive. How many pastors are ready to quit every Monday morning? Virginia Todd Holeman and Stephen L. Martyn call it “losing your soul for ministry” in their new book Inside the Leader’s Head: Unraveling Personal Obstacles to Ministry (Abingdon, 2008).
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an advocacy and action alliance group in Scottsdale, AZ, which has the stated purpose of defending religious freedom, sponsored a project to challenge the 54-year-old ban on churches being allowed to participate in political activities.
A while ago I was reviewing the financial statements of a Christian ministry shortly before the end of the year and noticed that the expenditures for the year exceeded income by a significant amount.
When most churches think of a building project, often images of bulldozers, fundraising consultants, bricks and mortar come to mind but rarely a Web site. Although, countless studies have shown that the Web site is the first stop for many people looking to discover more about the church and determine if it might be a place where they could belong.
An Arkansas church creates a multi-venue campus with several worship centers for specific groups.
