Many new church plants start out with several members of the family holding paid or volunteer positions. The wife heads up children’s work, a brother might be in charge of small groups, and as years go by, and the congregation grows, these people might remain and children may be added to other positions in the church.
Read More >I love to listen to music. For me it’s not just the beat, it’s the lyrics. What was going on when the writer wrote the song? One song that has meant a lot to me over the years is the Beatles “Help.” The difference from 20 years ago and today is that I can truly relate to this song.
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“Because Christ should be the head of the church, the church should be the model of organizational integrity for the business world,” believes Josh Whitehead, executive pastor at Faith Promise Church, a nondenominational church of 3,300 in attendance in Knoxville, TN.
Read More >In 1988 General Motors started an aggressive advertising campaign aimed at lowering the average age of Oldsmobile buyers. The ad theme, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile,” did not work. The slogan not only alienated loyalists, it did not attract the next generation. The brand that represented respectable middle-class achievement in the 1960s and 1970s lost to the “cool factor” of the 1980s and 1990s.
Read More >Among the most important things that church leaders can do for their congregations is keeping their children safe. In the past, many people didn’t worry about security issues at churches. However, times have changed and so have churches. Gone are the days when we simply relied on “good faith” to preserve the security of our children in the church nursery, Sunday school or youth rooms.
Read More >Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, IN, was formed last year from the former Indiana Wesleyan University — College of Graduate Studies in Ministry and has 250 students pursuing programs, including the Master’s Degree in Divinity. [ www.wesley.indwes.edu ] Like many graduate schools and seminaries, online education is a focal point for Wesley Seminary.
Read More >When Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, CA, accumulated $500,000 in debt — in addition to falling behind on their mortgage payments — financial ruin and foreclosure seemed imminent.
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At a conference hosted by the North American Christian Convention last summer in Kentucky, Rick Rusaw stood on stage before thousands of church leaders and posed this question: “If your church disappeared today, would your community miss it?” Then he echoed a disturbing finding by a national research firm: 66 percent of Americans agree that churches have little or no value in helping them find meaning or direction for their lives.
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This particular Saturday was the fifth wedding anniversary of Wayne Chaney Jr. and his wife Myesha, an occasion when they usually kicked back, enjoyed a leisurely dinner and spent quality time reflecting on their marriage. But the day began at 9:00 with a wedding ceremony, a 10:00 interview with a writer, a 2:00 funeral and burial, a 3:30 wedding in Los Angeles, and a 5:00 comedy showcase at Antioch Church of Long Beach. By the time they drew their breath at 8:00 that evening they had fallen asleep in the back of a limo ride to a restaurant. They opted instead to celebrate a week later in Palm Springs.
Read More >Remember when it was easy to manage church finances? Income approximated expenses. New programs were launched to meet people’s needs. Lives were changed; more people came, and expansion became necessary; capital campaigns followed, which met or exceeded expectations. Then the bottom fell out as the economy plunged into a recession unparalleled in our experience.
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