Overall, are pastors are adequately prepared to provide counseling to their church members? Yvonne N. Glass, Ph.D., LPCC-S: It depends. Pastors are prepared for pastoral counseling. Some are certainly well-equipped to deal with parishioners’ spiritual and emotional issues. Many more are reasonably equipped to do “non-clinical” counseling, such as grief and pre-marital counseling. They likely […]
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Expert advice for protecting the church’s children against sexual abuse and bullying — plus, how to mitigate internet-use risks What are the biggest risks and liabilities facing churches in the area of protecting children? Alex Smith: Allegations of sexual abuse are the greatest risk and liability. Also, complacency — saying, ‘We’ve always done it this […]
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Sexual abuse: training ministry staff to care well AND prevent At the beginning of each new year, many of us make New Year’s Resolutions: evaluating our past year or present circumstances and resolving to improve on a particular matter (i.e., more time with the kids, less coffee, more exercise). For the Southern Baptist Convention, the […]
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Red flags and best practices to better protect your religious organization They’re on the news on a regular basis: stories of church theft, fraud and embezzlement. Sometimes the culprit is the church accountant who intentionally misrepresents church spending. Sometimes it’s the church food pantry director, who purchases food for the church — and $30,000 in […]
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Whether you’re an established megachurch with multiple campuses or you’re a small local church in a tight-knit community, it’s equally important to provide a benefits program for full-time staff. But with rates going up by 10 to 20 percent every year, it can be a challenge for smaller churches to keep up. The result? Understaffed […]
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By Sharon C. Lincoln In the context of paying one’s taxes, the New Testament counsels the faithful in Matthew 22:21 to “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When it comes to taxation in the United States — for nearly all of this country’s history — […]
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How to get the best, safest bus for your most precious cargo When is a new bus the best option for a church? Ami Sailor: While each church has unique transportation needs, more often than not, a new bus is the best option. Church leaders often assume that a used bus is the best […]
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Help protect your church’s youngest members by taking these steps By Elizabeth Norman Childcare centers and preschools at churches across the nation are experiencing rapid growth right now — in fact, many of them are at capacity and even require waiting lists. With this demand, it’s important to remember to revisit procedures to help keep […]
Read More >View this insightful webinar — “Bring the Benefit Back to Your Employee Benefits Program” — now at: www.churchexecutive.com/webinars By Skylar Griego Like any employer (faith-based or not), it’s important for a church to provide a benefits program for full-time staff. This can be a struggle for a small church when program rates commonly increase 10 to 20 […]
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Like any other organization, it is necessary for a church to compile financial reports on a regular basis. Many churches use Microsoft Excel, which requires constant manual data input from a user on a designated device. The problem with this system is that configuring the information for specific reports requires a lot of work […]
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