By Denise Craig, CAE, CCA  The Church has always been a place of transformation, where people are changed and challenged spiritually and relationally. Today, we find ourselves in a season of transformation once again, not only in how we minister but in how we manage the ministries entrusted to us. Barna recently published research showing that Gen Z is attending church more than any other generation, so we must consider how that will that affect the way we do ministry, especially as AI continues to quickly change the digital landscape. The Rise of AI in Church Operations AI is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s a present-day tool that can help churches operate more efficiently and serve more effectively. From automating routine tasks to analyzing complex data, AI can support ministry in ways that free up time and energy for what matters most: people. Consider these practical applications: Smart Scheduling: AI can coordinate calendars, volunteer shifts, and event logistics with minimal manual input. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: These tools can answer common questions on your website, guide new visitors, and even help with event sign-ups. Data Analytics: AI can identify giving trends, attendance patterns, and engagement shifts — helping leaders make informed decisions. Personalized Communication: AI can tailor messages based on individual interests and behaviors, ensuring that people receive relevant, timely information. These tools don’t replace the human touch; they enhance it. They allow us to focus more on relationships and less on repetitive tasks. Rethinking Metrics: Beyond Attendance and Giving As we integrate new tools, we must also re-evaluate what we measure. For decades, church success was often defined by three numbers: attendance, giving, and membership. While these remain important, they no longer tell the full story, especially in a world where digital engagement, community impact, and spiritual formation are just as vital. Gen Z, now attending church more frequently than any other generation, is leading the charge in redefining what it means to be part of a faith community. They may not attend every Sunday, but they engage deeply through worship, service projects, and small groups. They value authenticity, purpose, and participation over programs and polish. This means we must expand our metrics to include: Digital Engagement: Tracking livestream views, podcast downloads, and social media interactions. Spiritual Growth: Monitoring participation in discipleship pathways, small groups, and spiritual practices. Community Impact: Measuring volunteer hours, outreach initiatives, and partnerships with local organizations. Relational Connection: Understanding how people are forming meaningful relationships within the church. Administrative Shifts for a New Generation Gen Z’s presence is also influencing how we structure and lead our churches. They value transparency, collaboration, and purpose-driven leadership. As a result, church administration is evolving in several ways: Digital-First Systems: From mobile-friendly giving platforms to app-based communication, churches must invest in tools that meet people where they are. Leadership Development: Gen Z wants to contribute, not just consume. Administrators must create clear pathways for young adults to lead, serve, and grow. Policy Updates: As ministry models change, so must our policies — especially around digital privacy, volunteer care, and hybrid ministry practices. Flexible Staffing and Wellness: With a growing emphasis on mental health and work-life balance, churches are rethinking how they support staff and volunteers. These aren’t just operational changes. They are cultural shifts that reflect a deeper commitment to serving people well. Moving Forward with Faith and Wisdom As we navigate this new terrain, it’s essential to approach both AI and evolving metrics with discernment. We must ask: Does this tool help us love and serve people better? Does this data reflect our mission and values? Are we using technology to enhance, not replace, human connection? At The Church Network, we believe that church administration is a sacred calling. It’s about creating systems that support ministry, foster community, and steward resources with excellence. By embracing innovation and rethinking success, we can build churches that are not only efficient but also deeply impactful. Let’s lead with open hands, open minds, and open hearts — ready to serve a new generation with timeless truth and timely tools. Related URLS: To explore the resources of The Church Network, visit: https://thechurchnetwork.com Denise Craig, CAE CCA is a dynamic leader with more than 30 years of experience, currently serving as the CEO of The Church Network. She is passionate about helping others discover their God-given purpose and excels in strategic leadership. Denise is a member of the advisory panel for Church Executive Magazine, serves on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Society of Association Executives, and is a frequent speaker at various events. She holds certifications as a Certified Association Executive, Certified Church Administrator, and Certified Financial Coach. Denise can be reached at denise@thechurchnetwork.com. *TCN reserves all rights to this article. We grant Church Executive an unlimited license to publish the article, post it on their website, and include it in an eBook. 

  A look back at the articles that mattered most to our readers in 2025 Throughout 2025, a unifying theme emerges across all the Church Executive articles: faithful ministry in today’s rapidly changing landscape requires both spiritual clarity and strategic wisdom. From financial stewardship and governance to facility design, technology adoption, and next-generation engagement, the stories and insights offered in the top 10 most popular articles of last year reveal churches leaning thoughtfully into the future while remaining anchored to timeless mission. You’ll hear seasoned financial leaders call administrators to preparation, transparency, and mission-aligned decision-making. You’ll discover how trustees quietly safeguard both resources and vision through integrity, literacy and collaboration. And you’ll step inside congregations across the country — growing churches in Texas, North Carolina, Arkansas, California and beyond — where courageous leadership, generous people, and carefully planned spaces are expanding their reach in tangible ways. At the same time, this collection highlights emerging frontiers: integrated child-safety systems, AI-shaped financial tools, flexible worship environments, and digital giving pathways designed for a mobile-first generation. Each innovation raises the same essential question: how can the Church steward today’s opportunities to serve tomorrow’s people? Together, these articles form more than a snapshot of ministry trends. They tell a larger story of perseverance, partnership and purpose — evidence that when mission drives every decision, the Church is uniquely positioned not merely to adapt, but to flourish. — The Editors #1: Church Executive™ Annual Finance Summit   The Church Executive Annual Finance Summit brings together financial leaders serving churches in lending, banking, accounting, technology, and non-profit governance to provide practical guidance for ministry sustainability. Across topics ranging from leadership and borrowing to transparency, technology and interest rates, panelists consistently emphasize stewardship, preparation and mission alignment. STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP FOR NEW ADMINISTRATORS Panelists advise new church administrators to begin with listening and relationship-building rather than immediate change. Sandy McClure, Director — SIS NFP Vertical Lead at Baker Tilly, encourages leaders to “evaluate where you are before deciding where you want to lead,” stressing communication with pastors, boards and finance teams. David Lee, Sr. Relationship Manager for Thrivent Church Financing, adds that administrators should not feel pressure to “figure everything out,” but instead rely on peer collaboration and professional networks. Dan Mikes, Executive Vice President & Director of the Faith Based Banking Division at Cass Commercial Bank, underscores the importance of reviewing internal accounting procedures to ensure leaders receive timely, accurate financial insight. PREPARING TO BORROW AND PLANNING LONG TERM When pursuing loans for construction or renovation, early conversations with experienced church lenders are critical. Lee compares preparation to homebuying: churches must determine affordability before falling in love with a project. McClure highlights the need for consistent financial reporting and trend visibility, while Jeremy Moore — Managing Director, Head of Religious Institution Banking at BMO Commercial Bank — recommends living as if the loan already exists by setting aside funds — demonstrating repayment capacity and potentially reducing borrowing needs. The Church Network CEO Denise Craig notes that lenders also evaluate non-financial factors such as pastoral tenure and leadership stability. In long-range planning, Mikes describes two common fundraising models: one-fund giving campaigns that raise overall generosity and three-year capital pledges tied directly to construction. Michael Blanton — who leads Industry Marketing: Nonprofit+Healthcare for Sage — observes that churches increasingly seek real-time financial visibility and nimble planning tools, especially amid economic uncertainty. BUDGET PRESSURES, GENEROSITY AND GROWTH DIVIDES Panelists report widening disparities between thriving and struggling churches. Moore notes that “the divide between the haves and the have-nots is widening,” with larger churches gaining economies of scale while smaller congregations face basic facility challenges. Still, leaders emphasize discipleship-driven generosity. Lee explains that churches increasingly aim not merely to raise funds but to “raise disciples,” trusting that spiritual growth fuels giving. BORROWING PITFALLS AND FINANCIAL SAFEGUARDS Common risks include excessive debt burdens and inadequate fund protection. Mikes warns against allocating too much giving to debt service, stressing that “you want the building to serve the ministry, not the ministry serving the building.” He also urges churches to verify deposit insurance and institutional stability. Moore cautions against beginning construction before securing financing, while Lee recommends investment policies aligned with mission and risk tolerance. REPORTING, TRANSPARENCY AND OUTSOURCING Efficient reporting requires reduced manual processes and clearer data structures. Blanton encourages churches to modernize systems so leaders can quickly answer key financial questions. McClure advises year-round “mini audits” and dashboards that track compliance and performance. Transparency should be thoughtful and audience-appropriate: high-level donor communication, understandable board reporting, and mission-centered storytelling using both ministry and financial metrics. Outsourced accounting is becoming more common due to staffing shortages, though Mikes notes this might require separate audit relationships because of CPA independence rules. INTEREST RATES, TECHNOLOGY, AND AI’S FUTURE IMPACT Panelists describe today’s rate environment as uncertain, making delay risky. Moore argues waiting for lower rates is often “a bad bet,” especially as construction costs rise. Lee recommends stress-testing loans for potential rate increases and prioritizing liquidity according to ministry needs. Looking ahead, technology — especially artificial intelligence  —will reshape church finance. Blanton says AI will automate analysis, detect errors, and enable natural-language financial reporting, particularly benefiting small teams. McClure agrees AI can reveal trends and even fraud more quickly, though adoption will vary by comfort level. Craig concludes that the real risk is not AI itself, but leaders who fail to learn to use it. A UNIFIED MESSAGE: STEWARDSHIP ALIGNED WITH MISSION Across every discussion, a consistent theme emerges: faithful financial leadership requires preparation, transparency, wise borrowing, and openness to innovation — always grounded in the church’s mission. When churches steward resources strategically and spiritually, they position their ministries to thrive in both present challenges and future opportunities. #2: What are the qualities of a good church trustee? By Rev. Dr. William H. Foster, Jr. The role of a church trustee extends far beyond reviewing budgets or managing spreadsheets. Trustees serve as stewards of both mission and financial resources, entrusted with overseeing church property, managing <a class="cat-post-excerpt-more" href="https://churchexecutive.com/archives/the-church-executive-top-10-2" title="Continue reading The Church Executive TOP 10″>Read More >

By RaeAnn Slaybaugh For years, the production team at Wave Church in Virginia Beach, Va., battled content storage inefficiencies. Multiple servers created chaos and disruption. A lack of remote access limited the content they could produce. Nickel-and-dime pricing for the features they needed created anxiety and uncertainty. Altogether, this made it tough for Production/Communications Director Steve Tignor and his staff to produce the high-quality content that was not just needed, but that they were passionate about creating. Then, a game-changing alternative emerged — one that saves them tens of thousands of dollars a year. One that’s much easier to use and highly accessible (even remotely). A solution that accommodates 400% more content and ramps up the speed of content production by at least 30%. It wasn’t too good to be true. Here’s how. Nearly 10 years ago, Wave Church made the jump to using a studio-quality storage area network, or SAN — basically, a large, expensive hard drive. “We had to have it,” recalls Production/Communications Director Steve Tignor. “For the things we were doing — producing a lot of content, and even a TV show — speed is everything.” To start, the team got to work ‘digitizing everything,’ according to Tignor. “We moved all our content off of DVDs and other forms of storage, like Dropbox,” he recalls. This included rooms full of videotapes dating back to 1999. In the end, they wound up with four workstations providing access to every file a team member might need … but they really had to work for it. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) was set up to share files; however, it was slow. “It was more like file-browsing, not necessarily being able to work on a project,” Tignor says. “It was a lot of what we didn’t need; it probably added more headaches. We were making do with a workflow that didn’t match what we were trying to achieve.” On the one hand, it was better than the previous approach: adding one hard drive after another, with a big price tag each time. That, and incorporating Dropbox for storage, as many churches do, which created even more chaos and disorganization.  Then came COVID “We had to get letters for our team to be able to travel into the office, in case we got pulled over by police during the quarantine,” Tignor recalls. “That’s when it really started becoming a problem. No one was in this building except for us.” Once the pandemic passed, the team’s travel schedule further complicated matters. While in different cities shooting interviews, for example, they were unable to access other projects to work on in their down time. Ideally, the team would have a platform that enabled them to work on projects remotely and access and edit content — including full-length videos — from anywhere. Their then-current setup was far from perfect, but as far as Tignor and his team knew, it was the best they could do. A trip to the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) in 2023 would change that. A new, improved approach emerges “Going to NAB, I was pretty much on a mission to find a better content storage solution,” Tignor recalls. One of the first stops was the church’s current vendor. “Everything they said was pretty much ‘same old, same old,’” he says. “We learned that it would cost X more to add this or that basic feature for the things we wanted to do, which just wasn’t in the budget.” Dismayed but not discouraged, the Wave Church team spotted RED Digital Cinema cameras in use at another booth: DigitalGlue. Because the church uses these same cameras, they were drawn in. They soon learned about creative.space, a shared storage platform for video teams. “For them to show that creative.space can handle RED content was huge,” Tignor says. “That’s a high level of content; it demands a lot of data.” Product Manager Nick Anderson walked the Wave Church team through the workflow. “Our guys loved it,” Tignor recalls. “And then he told me the price.” At first, it seemed too good to be true. “It was so much cheaper than any other solution we’d found,” Tignor recalls. “I was like, Wow, that’s crazy. I don’t even know how you’re doing that.” More demos followed. A few months later, Tignor was a true believer. He ordered creative.space. Onboarding made simple A third-party IT company was hired to get creative.space set up and rolled out. By all accounts, it was much smoother than anyone anticipated. “Onboarding was super easy; there was no challenges that DigitalGlue couldn’t handle in that regard,” Tignor says. “Customer service was fast, quick, and very proactive, which was different. Instead of us reaching out, they were always checking in.” In fact, he says, any headaches originated with the IT company that was hired to set up the solution. “Fortunately, though, DigitalGlue would send someone out to help them get it all set up,” Tignor points out. So, with creative.space up and running, the Wave Church production team got to work, enjoying four times more storage capacity than before. They quickly began to appreciate features like user management, templates, tagging and much more. “In my world, prior to creative.space, my team said it took a lot of time to find certain content,” he explains. This was because content was previously stored using a folder system. Tignor explains: “When we recorded something or took a photo, it wouldn’t instantly add, ‘Here’s Pastor Steve’ to the data; this information had to be manually input. So, being able to create these tagging systems [within creative.space] really speeds up the search process.” This souped-up search functionality has been especially helpful as Wave Church hosts a variety of preachers at multiple campuses. “We have all different types of testimonies, conferences and events, so it just allows for structure,” Tignor explains. “We can still use the folder system, but the search parameters are much more targeted. Once we got it laid out, it made everything so much Read More >

  Walking in the footsteps of Jesus in the land of the Bible is the ultimate hands-on disciple-making experience for Christians — not just a vacation to a destination related to church.  Educational Opportunities Tours (EO) President/CEO James Ridgway recently interviewed Rev. Tom Smith about how Holy Land journeys have changed lives and inspired the faith of people who traveled with him in the Holy Land. James Ridgway: How did your first Holy Land journey influence your life and ministry? Rev. Tom Smith: It’s safe to say that it began to affect me even before I returned home. But the immediately noticeable influence was the way that it affected my preaching and teaching. I found myself painting word pictures of a passage of Scripture as I would preach or teach. I would give little tidbits of what it means to go ‘up’ from Jericho or the winds affecting the Sea of Galilee as they funneled into that area. It was like I had an entirely new resource to add to my library as I prepared for a sermon or class. Ridgway: When did you decide to start taking groups to the Holy Land? How did the people respond? Smith: I went the first time without a group. But after returning, my excitement was obvious. I talked about it constantly.  As soon as I was introduced to Educational Opportunities and learned of how I could ‘earn’ a trip, I decided to go back and take as many people as possible. As soon as I mentioned that I was putting a group together, people started signing up.  A journey to the Holy Land is in the hearts of a lot of people — not as a vacation but as part of their faith development — so there was natural interest in participating. Folks were excited that they could travel with me because they trusted me as their pastor.  Ridgway: Afterwards, what did you see in the lives of those who experienced the Holy Land? Smith: They were changed. They engaged with Scripture differently. They talked about the way they heard the sermons differently. They began to participate more readily in Sunday School, study groups or accountability groups. Many of them became more open and expressive of being leaders in the congregation. They have a renewed/revitalized faith, it seems.  Ridgway: What other benefits come from the Holy Land journeys? Smith: One of the things was how close the group became. They bonded with each other as they shared the experience.  They also bonded with me, as their pastor, differently. Instead of hearing me teach or preach a couple of hours per month, they spent 12 to 14 hours a day talking and experiencing this profoundly moving journey. We formed some truly lasting bonds.  They also came back with a deeper understanding of the current issues facing people in the region. They experienced not just what the news media shared, but what they themselves saw. They could ‘put a face’ to it, and it opened doors/eyes in a way that nothing else could do. Ridgway: How does a pastor plan a journey to the Holy Land?  Smith: There are two ways a pastor could begin this journey.  First, they could participate in an EO Familiarization tour. After experiencing the Holy Land personally, they could start planning a group journey. Personal experience helps while recruiting a group.  The second way is to jump right in and organize an EO Holy Land journey for their group by going to www.eo.travelwithus.com and reviewing the different itineraries offered and finding one that best suits what they and their folks would love to see. Then, they can reach out to the EO team to partner and build the journey that will help make disciples for Jesus Christ. The EO staff will provide all the tools necessary — including ongoing support — to build a life-changing tour for the congregation.