By Mike Schueler Out of space and out of time, Sunnylane Church needed a loan to grow. But the promise of an ultra-low interest rate turned into a financing nightmare for this Oklahoma City congregation. Drew Sanford was frustrated. He’d already wasted too much time working to secure a loan for Sunnylane Church, the Southern […]
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Right now, our School of Divinity at Regent University is seeing incredible growth among full-time ministry leaders, pastors, counselors, workers, and missionaries coming back to seminary for further education. It’s because our world is complex and changing fast — and, because ministers are discipled scribes leading their flocks into truth in such a world, they […]
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By Rodney C. James While many spaces in existing churches are no longer used for their original purpose, it opens doors for reimagining how to recapture that square footage for new ministry opportunities. Such was the case at Central Baptist Church in Owasso, Okla. Church leaders engaged Master’s Plan Church Design and Construction to help […]
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3 strategies that will take you from start to success By Jeremy Moore Your church has not only survived a pandemic, but it’s actually growing — how amazing! As a church family, you’ve emerged from an incredibly disruptive and uncertain season and now find yourselves needing to build or expand. If this scenario resonates, you’re […]
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By Ben Stapley Sweeping emotions under the carpet is not healthy in our personal or professional lives. But neither is the opposite extreme of oversharing. Here are six guardrails to help you, your team and your organization express themselves in a healthy manner. We’ve all inappropriately handled our emotions at work. We’ve either stuffed our […]
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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. […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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By RaeAnn Slaybaugh No pastor can — or should — undergo a major building project without the right bench strength Rod MacIlvaine is no stranger to ‘quarterbacking’ a church building project. What he didn’t want to do with the new, 16,000-square-foot facility at Grace Community Church in Bartlesville, Okla., however, was navigate a third such […]
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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 […]
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