BILL AANESTAD / EXECUTIVE PASTOR / ORCHARD CHURCH / MURRIETA, CALIF. By RaeAnn Slaybaugh As Executive Pastor Bill Aanestad and his team at Orchard Church neared completion of their construction project, they were looking for a long-term fixed-rate loan. With interest rates on the verge of a sharp increase, they wanted something predictable. Something manageable. […]
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For ministry leaders, ‘estate planning’ isn’t a priority; plus, a lot of misconceptions surround the process. To ensure your wishes are carried out and to protect your loved ones, it’s crucial to have a deeper understanding of what estate planning involves — and to get started now, while you can make the best possible […]
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Sadly, the threat of an active shooter incident is now a top-of-mind daily concern for today’s church leaders. Too many still believe it could never happen in their own houses of worship — but in reality, FBI hate crime statistics show that such incidents in religious facilities increased nearly 35% between 2014 and 2018. […]
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By Rev. Dr. Perry J. Hopper For any church to effectively carry out its ministry to faithfully serve God, it needs many lay leaders and volunteers with diverse gifts. All believers are called to be servant leaders, including the pastor and ministerial staff. While the pastor is often the most visible servant in most […]
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By Dr. John Wyatt The tech world is abuzz with the extraordinary power of what is now called ‘generative AI’, mind-bogglingly complex algorithms that can create original text, audio, images and video, on the basis of patterns learned from vast amounts of training data. ChatGPT, a text generating program, was made available to the general […]
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National Child Abuse Prevention Month is upon us. Commemorate it by brushing up on some basics — and taking impactful action in your own church to protect children. Church Executive: As insurers, what kind of an increase in child sexual abuse claims have you seen among churches in recent years? Andrew Shockey: It was […]
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By RaeAnn Slaybaugh Central Peninsula Church in Foster City, Calif., is blessed in many ways — not the least of which is in having land in the highly sought-after Bay Area on which to expand as necessary. “Divine timing” is another factor when it comes to locking in a favorable interest rate for its […]
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What to expect from child protection agencies By Gregory Love & Kimberlee Norris Child sexual abuse continues to present a compelling concern to the Church. An understanding of mandatory reporting requirements is critical for ministry leaders. If every allegation of child sexual abuse is simply reported by church leaders to appropriate authorities, the […]
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By Louis P. Barbarin, CPA Remember a few years ago when a gallon of gas was about $2? Or when the average round-trip airline ticket cost about $300? Those days seem long gone as Americans must now pay over 25 percent more for gas and 20 percent to 40 percent more on airline tickets. Prices […]
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J.T. ENGLISH / LEAD PASTOR / LINDSAY ACOCELLA / DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY & OPERATIONS / STORYLINE CHURCH / ARVADA, COLO. By RaeAnn Slaybaugh / Photos by Mike Schueler Storyline Church was running out of room. Nestled beneath the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Arvada, Colorado, what had started in 2015 as small church plant […]
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