By Jonathan Smith I was asked a question recently that got me thinking: “If there were only two things you could convince church leaders to do, what would they be?” As I thought about it and looked back over the past several decades I’ve spent working in church IT, two things quickly rose to the […]
Read More >
By Jon Barron When most organizations prepare for renewal, they gather the required information, complete the application, and trust the process. But what if the most important parts of your risk story never make it into that conversation? Applications, schedules, payroll, vehicles, losses, locations, and program descriptions all matter. But they mostly capture known, structured […]
Read More >
By Matthew Mattingly, ARM Most churches review their insurance policy once a year, sign the renewal, and move on to the hundred other things competing for an administrator’s attention. That’s understandable — risk management isn’t why anyone got into ministry. But in 20 years of working with religious institutions, the churches that get hurt aren’t […]
Read More >
With a title like that, I’m sure you’re hooked and can’t wait to keep reading. You might be saying, “What’s with all the acronyms, and why should I care?” I’m glad you asked, and I hope you’ll stick with me. SMS stands for Short Message Service, which is the technical term for text messaging. SMS […]
Read More >
By Michael Lattis Church leaders and staff are called to wisely administer the resources God has given them. Stewardship, however, extends beyond managing finances. It also includes protecting information. Caring for congregants’ personal and sensitive data is a sacred responsibility that reflects the trust members place in their church. Discretion helps safeguard not only […]
Read More >
Don’t outsource your discernment Artificial Intelligence is no doubt one of — if not the — defining technological advancement of our generation. In the past 100 years, humanity has gone from inventing airplanes to landing on the moon, and from creating the internet to building machines capable of generating essays, writing code, answering questions, […]
Read More >
Why policies alone do not produce consistent outcomes By Jon Barron A ministry has an employee handbook with policies for leave, conduct, accommodations, reporting concerns, and corrective action. The policies were approved, stored and shared. Everyone assumes they provide control. Then a real situation comes up. One supervisor follows the handbook closely. Another makes an […]
Read More >
Why similar organizations experience very different outcomes By Jon Barron A ministry has a major water loss over a weekend. The policy responds. Adjusters are assigned. Mitigation begins. On paper, the organization is covered. By Monday morning, however, the harder questions are operational: Where will programs meet? Who speaks to staff, donors, residents, parents, or […]
Read More >
The news and media are full of stories about how AI will either solve all of our problems or ruin our lives — and amidst all of that chatter, folks still wonder: Is AI safe? When people ask this question, they might mean several things: • Is my data safe? • Is the information […]
Read More >
Why ministry readiness begins with the ordinary, not the extraordinary By Chris Atkins Ask a church safety team what they train for, and many will say the active shooter. Walk with that same team through a real year, and you will almost never see one. You will see a great deal of everything else. In […]
Read More >