As I glanced through my messages and Twitter feed, I noticed a picture from Jud Wilhite. It was a snapshot of 1,100 people being baptized at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas earlier Sunday morning. It was like a payday for me. Central is a client of ours, and even more, dear friends. You have to know some of the backdrop to really understand why I teared up when I thought about that scene. Central has grown by leaps and bounds for the last decade. They now have about 20,000 attenders each week at their services. A lot of that growth has happened in the last few years. That’s right, since the economic downturn of 2008, Central has grown. That’s all in the context of a city many economists say has been hit harder than any other.

They are America’s largest generation, slightly edging out the Boomers. They stand to become America’s most educated generation. Almost all of them want to make a difference in this world. And none of them like to be stereotyped. They are the Millennials, born from 1980 to 2000. It’s difficult to generalize a generation that doesn’t like labels. Indeed, many make a point to fight against categorizations. Rather than oversimplifying a diverse generation into homogeneous units, my aim is to show how this diverse amalgamation of young people is shaping the culture.

Your ministry has a distinct organizational personality; in fact, every ministry does. However, many church executives remain largely unaware of organizational personality, and how it helps or hinders ministry efforts. Within any church, a unique mix of people rise to positions of influence. These influencers define your organization’s personality. To identify organizational personality, we need to know: 1) The personality of each influencer within the organization; 2) Assuming a four quadrant assessment tool is used (Myers-Briggs, DiSC, or AssessME.org’s ePersonality), the quadrant categories shared by key influencers. The four assessment quadrants include:

As the spiritual advisor of a church, pastors are the ones most often turned to when a congregation member is in need of spiritual guidance and counseling. While this type of service is part of the job, it also is very important that certain guidelines and boundaries are established and maintained. Sadly, 20 percent of GuideOne’s sexual misconduct claims involve adult claimants, with the overwhelming majority of these incidents taking place in the counseling setting.

For example, a male associate pastor undertook counseling of a female 21-year-old church member. “Counseling” took place away from the church premises at various locations, such as a park, a restaurant and other places. One evening they met for counseling at a restaurant. They both ended up drinking and went from the restaurant to a hotel where sexual activity took place. As the spiritual advisor of a church, pastors are the ones most often turned to when a congregation member is in need of spiritual guidance and counseling. While this type of service is part of the job, it also is very important that certain guidelines and boundaries are established and maintained. Sadly, 20 percent of GuideOne’s sexual misconduct claims involve adult claimants, with the overwhelming majority of these incidents taking place in the counseling setting.

For example, a male associate pastor undertook counseling of a female 21-year-old church member. “Counseling” took place away from the church premises at various locations, such as a park, a restaurant and other places. One evening they met for counseling at a restaurant. They both ended up drinking and went from the restaurant to a hotel where sexual activity took place. As the spiritual advisor of a church, pastors are the ones most often turned to when a congregation member is in need of spiritual guidance and counseling. While this type of service is part of the job, it also is very important that certain guidelines and boundaries are established and maintained. Sadly, 20 percent of GuideOne’s sexual misconduct claims involve adult claimants, with the overwhelming majority of these incidents taking place in the counseling setting. For example, a male associate pastor undertook counseling of a female 21-year-old church member. “Counseling” took place away from the church premises at various locations, such as a park, a restaurant and other places. One evening they met for counseling at a restaurant. They both ended up drinking and went from the restaurant to a hotel where sexual activity took place.

In 2008, the leaders of Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie, TX, realized they had unintentionally left out an incredibly important component from their ministry — sports. A church that once had boasted a very active sports ministry for children, youth and adults now had very little to offer. As the leaders had aged and stopped participating in sports, programs related to sports began to disappear as well. So they decided to do something about it. An architect was hired and plans were made to build a complex that people from every age and stage of life could use. The result was the SportCenter — a 20-acre complex.

Adoptions between churches are becoming more common. No, not the kind of adoptions that cry in the night and wet their pants.
Where mergers of two separate churches are familiar, adoptions can be somewhat different. (Two mergers were reported on in the February issue of Church Executive.) As for adoptions, one church leader says: “Traditionally the process is started and directed by the adopting family based upon their criteria and desire to adopt. After considering all of the possibilities, the family finally chooses.” But the process for Central Christian Church in the east valley of Phoenix, and CrossPoint Church of northwest Glendale, AZ – 42 miles apart – proved counter-intuitive, says Jeff Small, executive pastor of Exalt Ministries at Central Christian, where 10,000 people worship each weekend at now four locations.

J. Martin Bailey and Betty Jane Bailey have been closely involved with their denomination, the United Church of Christ, for years in missions work throughout the Middle East, most frequently visiting Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, and Turkey. They take a turn to Sri Lanka too, when they can, where they have a daughter and her husband, and two grandchildren living there.

So you have a project to fund! You may be asking yourself which is better, a capital campaign or a bond issue? I have survived both, and the answer is either one. I am sorry to say it is not one or the other, but each option has its strengths and weaknesses, and relying on only one could put the funding of your project in jeopardy or kill it entirely. I’ve learned a few lessons in the school of hard knocks that I hope will help you in the evaluation of which will serve your needs better. In 2008 our church started our building project with a capital campaign because we understood it, had seen good outcomes elsewhere, and felt comfortable with the process. When we completed it, however, we received commitments for about half of what we expected and still needed yet another solution to entice the lenders.

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