Operations Archives - Church Executive


Great Leaders Do the Hard Thing First

Andy Stanley is a bestselling author, communicator, and founder of North Point Ministries. In his latest book, What Great Leaders Do: 7 Essentials for Enduring Impact, he distills decades of leadership experience into seven essential practices that create strong leaders, healthy organizations, and lasting influence. Andy Stanley on the leadership tensions that quietly derail churches—and […]

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Train for the Year You’ll Actually Have

Why ministry readiness begins with the ordinary, not the extraordinary By Chris Atkins Ask a church safety team what they train for, and many will say the active shooter. Walk with that same team through a real year, and you will almost never see one. You will see a great deal of everything else. In […]

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Vetting the right security team for your church 

By Frank Sheldone It has become an unfortunate fact of life that church services have become targets for some people seeking to harm others. In 2025 alone, three places of worship — in Michigan, Minnesota and Kentucky — were targeted by active shooters. These events remain rare, and they do not mean churches should fear […]

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ACCOUNTING TOOLS & SERVICES, SIMPLIFIED

LESS CHASING, MORE STEWARDSHIP Simplifying church finance without losing accountability Church Executive: Why do churches struggle to simplify accounting without sacrificing completeness? Adam Alphin: Church finance is complex because churches are managing funds, not one pool of money. Operations, missions, building projects, youth, benevolence and other restricted purposes all need to be tracked so each […]

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Examining the practice of IT

Why humility and wisdom should go hand in hand As someone who considers himself a quasi-IT “professional,” I’ll admit something many of us in technology probably won’t say out loud: we can sometimes come across as a bit … all-knowing. You know the look — slight head tilt, confident nod, maybe a quiet sigh when […]

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FROM SURVIVAL MODE TO SCALABLE MINISTRY

(Above, left to right)  Kingdom Kids Director Mary Tod Braswell; Ministry Coordinator Sarah Miranda; Worship + Communications Pastor Reid Work; Youth Director Hunter Stonebraker; Lead Designer Mary Kate Kitsmiller; Assimilations Coordinator + Interim Kingdom Kids Coordinator Logan Hunt; College + Young Adult Director Caleb Anderson; Teaching Pastor Will Campbell Six years ago, Reid Work and […]

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AN EARLY ADOPTER FOR SEAMLESS CONNECTION

  When Catalyst Church’s Next Generation Director helped test a new workflows feature, the result was a more unified system for managing data, follow-up and discipleship. By RaeAnn Slaybaugh If Megan Hinesley — a former educator — were a student in her own classroom, she’d be the first to raise her hand to volunteer. That […]

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TCOs and ROIs and KPIs, Oh My!

Decision-making is hard.  Decision-making in areas where you might not be as well versed — like technology (or for me, my vintage car engine) — can be even harder. One way to make decisions relating to technology is to remove the knowledge gap by using objective metrics. Here are some good metrics to use, and […]

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A WARM RECEPTION

  By RaeAnn Slaybaugh Amid a tumultuous culture, people are yearning for authentic connection. With the right offerings — and the facilities designed to support them — churches can be their best “ports in a storm.” Church Executive: As a church building professional, what does ‘community-focused’ design mean to you? Tanner Goff:  A long time […]

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MORE THAN WELCOME

  By RaeAnn Slaybaugh In spirit, churches have long embraced their communities, of course. But in recent years, their physical presence — their facilities — reflect a big (and growing) focus on community-friendliness. Why are churches prioritizing this objective more than ever? And what does community-focused church design look like, anyway? We asked a seasoned […]

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