Try asking 80 church executives if the “secular” media are friends or foes. Every time I take this poll at a church leadership conference or seminary, one or two hands timidly go up for “friends.” The rest go sky high for “foes.” What’s your vote? Over the course of his prolific career, Cal Thomas has been one of America’s most popular media commentators on television, radio and in print. While the mainstream media often is biased, Thomas believes the bias “isn’t always deliberate.” Often, a reporter’s bias is borne out of a bad church experience or personal tragedy that produced deep feelings of disappointment with God.

In a Peanuts episode, Charlie Brown feverishly searches for a quarter he has dropped in the dark. Standing under a porch light, Lucy offers some sage advice; “Why don’t you look over here where there is more light?” This cartoon, dredged up from childhood memory, brings to my mind the approach many churches take in fraud prevention. Despite evidence to the contrary, they continue to look for fraud weaknesses in the wrong places, or at least in using the wrong methods. They do this by often utilizing methods that are the most expensive while at the same time being the least effective, the most notable example of this is over-reliance on the external audit.

Church pastors want their congregation members to come to their church and have that sense of peace, to be able to pray to the Lord without distraction, and to be able to escape the world that seems so overwhelming at times. It’s therefore ironic when the same pastors state they do not believe in implementing security into their churches because they want the church to remain open and inviting. The reason it is ironic is because the very definition of security is to be “free from fear and anxiety” and isn’t that the environment pastors want in their churches? The misconception is that security is all about guns, guards, cameras and metal detectors, but that really isn’t what security is all about. In fact a properly designed security program is like an iceberg, people should only see about 10 percent of what you really have in place; the other 90 percent is in place in case it is needed.

Sometime during the spring of 1976 I was told about a new church — Willow Creek Community Church — that had recently started. I was so intrigued by what I heard about the church that I decided to check it out for myself.

Well, I knew from the moment I walked through the door that this was not my father’s church. Besides contemporary music and a young pastor who spoke directly into my heart, there was drama! They had a six-minute hilarious drama reflecting life as I was living it. What an experience this was. By the time the service was over I was hooked and from that moment on, Willow Creek Community Church became my home church. And drama became my ministry for the next 25 years.

Mary Camp says that “mega,” as in megachurch, is not inherently distasteful. Afterall, the Holy Spirit birthed the first “mega” congregation, drawing about 3,000 people to faith in Christ. However, Camp, working with Bible Study Fellowship International for more than two decades, has a definite viewpoint of the larger churches that she shares in Stench!: How Abominations Polute and Desolate the Post-Modern Church (WinePress Publishing, 2011). “However,” she says, “worship style is determined by what the majority can tolerate. By necessity, the larger the group the lower the minimum standard becomes. They never raise the bar to honor God but lower it to accommodate the desires of people.”

Churches were long considered good credit risks. Weekly collections tend to be steady, even during recessions, and churches feel a moral tug to pay debts. Most of the nation’s churches carry little or no mortgage debt, and are based in buildings that were paid off long ago. But some churches, especially those not affiliated with major denominations, borrowed briskly to build or expand in recent years. Spending on construction of houses of worship rose to $6.2 billion in 2007 from $3.8 billion in 1997, according to the U.S. Census. Now, churches are seeing congregants lose jobs and savings.

So you’re considering an online program for professional development or to earn a degree? That’s great! There are many excellent online opportunities available but there are also some cautions to consider before moving forward. Let’s answer a few common questions associated with online learning to assist in your journey. Online learning is an umbrella term referring to structured educational experiences that are delivered via the Internet to students who are geographically separated from the instructor. This latest iteration of distance education is unique because the online environment enables students and instructors to build rich learning communities which simply weren’t possible in the era of corresponding courses and satellite campuses.

David Platt admits that his own congregation is “wrestling” with the way they look at what the Gospel demands of them. “We certainly have a long way to go, but this is a journey worth taking for the sake of God’s people accomplishing God’s purpose for God’s glory,” Platt, senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, AL, says. He shares his hopes and misgivings for ministry in Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (Multnomah Books/Random House, 2010). Church Executive asked him a few questions and he responded with some provocative answers:

Imagine the shock of opening your newspaper and seeing the headline, “Youth Minister Jailed,” and discovering this was a staff member at your church. Just the thought of a child predator in a congregation is a fearful concern of pastors. In recent months our community had several youth ministers and pastors face charges of sexual impropriety: men and women, married with children, mentors and counselors, respected and loved, friends and leaders. The churches were large and small, structured and unstructured, denominational and non-denominational, pastor or elder led. They were accused of raping pre-teen girls, soliciting sex with a young male through the Internet, and molesting adolescents during counseling sessions. The impact on the child, the family, the church and community is devastating. A child is harmed. Trust is broken. Spiritual lives are impacted. Members leave. Security in the ‘house of God’ is forever changed. Financial losses from lawsuits can run into millions for the church, staff, ministry leader or volunteer. Insurance will not cover the cost if there was a negligent selection of the worker.

Teaching biblical truth from the pulpit, when many in the congregation may have differing views on the subject, can be a weekly challenge for most pastors. The comments that come to the pastor on a Monday from disapproving parishioners can often be disheartening and discouraging. But when the subject at hand is one of local and national debate, with international overtones, a pastor who voices a controversial stand for himself and for his congregation, is truly taking a leadership position and putting himself and his family at risk. Even more so when the issue is with a church that is just a half mile down the road from his own congregation. That is where Dan Johnson, senior pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville, FL, found himself one day this Spring when he first heard about signs reading “Islam is of the Devil” in front of Dove World Outreach Center in his town.