At one of the fastest-growing churches in America, a favorable refinancing agreement is essential for propelling ministry forward. By RaeAnn Slaybaugh When Greg Petz and his wife, Donna, moved to San Antonio in 1996, they found their church home — Westover Hills — even before their physical home. The Petzes’ dedication to Westover grew along […]
Read More >
By Brian Byersdorf Bear Creek Baptist Church’s vision is “to be a gospel-centered disciple-making community for all people,” and they truly live out that vision each and every day in their ministry. They actually started as a home Bible study group in 1977, founded by seven couples in West Houston. Their vision was for a […]
Read More >
By Shanda Boyett Your unique culture pulls guests in your front doors for the holidays, but digital commitment is required to keep them engaged afterward Your church is probably already getting set for the busy Christmas season, preparing for a surge of guests that you typically don’t see more than once or twice a year. […]
Read More >
When I was growing up in a pastor’s home, I remember the building fund appeals and public declarations of how much we had raised for the new sanctuary. I remember watching the magic of construction progress over the next few years. Behind the scenes, however, there were meetings with bankers, bond brokers, and large donors […]
Read More >
By Rev. Dr. Perry J. Hopper, MBA After two years of doing ministry and worshipping with the uncertainty of the pandemic, most churches have returned to in-person worship. Church attendance at mainline churches had been experiencing a steady decline before the pandemic, and that has been exacerbated because churches were forced to worship online for […]
Read More >
Church Executive: Are churches typically easy targets for fraud? Sarah Barham: Yes, because typically one person is responsible for completing all financial responsibilities from beginning to end. This means one person opens the mail to review invoices, sets up vendors in the accounting software, writes the checks, reconciles the bank accounts, and produces financial reports. […]
Read More >
Infinite growth, invariable expansion At the nation’s premier multisite church, two financing needs take precedence above all: flexibility and simplicity By RaeAnn Slaybaugh North Coast Church in Vista, Calif., is one of the 20 largest churches in the United States. It also consistently ranks among the country’s fastest-growing, most influential churches. But it all started […]
Read More >
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh Back in 2017, Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix had already contemplated adding covered parking, in the form of solar structures, to its campus for some time. It was (and still is) a forward-thinking move not only for a house of worship, but for the area-at-large: when finished, it would be […]
Read More >
For the past 14 years, we’ve been experiencing near-historic low rates, and it appears those days might soon be gone as rates have risen over the past several months. The wonderful news? Many churches were able to take advantage of the low rates either by refinancing, purchasing a new property, or renovating or building a […]
Read More >
Before you talk with any lending group, your church will need to fully understand the ups and downs of its last three years of financial statements. Church lenders will always focus on undesignated income, cash flow, debt and equity trends. The first thing churches really want to know, however, is their borrowing capacity. Determining this […]
Read More >