New Possibilities are All around You
Churches often see their circumstance through the lens of scarcity and fail to recognize assets and opportunities within their grasp. Joe Daniels and Christie Latona…
Browsing: Finances
Articles
How Much Should It Cost to Plant a New Church?
Church planter and consultant Paul Nixon responds to the frequently asked question about the cost of new church starts drawing from his own experience and…
Two Church Developers’ Experience with Funding New Church Starts
Two knowledgeable new church developers, Phil Schroeder and Dan Jackson, reflect on Paul Nixon’s six observations about “How Much Should It Cost to Plant a…
9 Questions to Assess Your Church’s Financial Health
Lovett H. Weems Jr. says paying attention to various indices of your congregation’s financial health is a key practice in remaining economically viable and sustaining…
7 Ways Your Quarterly Giving Statements Can Make the Right Statement
Stewardship expert Ken Sloane outlines ideas for making sure that your church’s quarterly giving statements express gratitude and let people know the difference their giving…
The $6.5 Billion Enigma
On the first day of a new year, all United Methodist churches begin working toward their common mission “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for…
5 Ideas to Increase Year-End Giving
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., says that giving at year-end represents an increasing portion of total giving in many churches. Recognizing the many different circumstances that…
Some Old Handbells Became Our Fish and Loaves
Pastor Rosario Picardo tells how selling two old sets of silver handbells that hadn’t been used for 20 years provided a surprisingly large infusion of cash…
Does Your Church Need a Capital Budget?
Lewis Center Director Lovett H. Weems, Jr., describes how formulating and funding a capital budget can help a church stay on top of building maintenance…
A Better Way to Report on Giving
Stewardship experts Kristine Miller and Scott McKenzie explain why publishing weekly and year-to-date giving amounts in the Sunday bulletin with a “woe is us” message…
Embracing Electronic Giving
Adam Copeland of Luther Seminary says electronic giving is the preferred method of giving for most churchgoers, including your most faithful givers. Reducing the barriers…
Clergy Personal Finance Resources
Our basic responsibility as Christian stewards is to manage our personal financial resources so that we can care for ourselves and our families and marshal…
When Higher Giving May Not Be Good News
As a new year begins, there will and should be a careful review of the past year. Perhaps there will be reports made to the…
Setting Stewardship Goals for the New Year
Setting annual goals for your stewardship and generosity ministry is very important to help create focus and energy. These goals can come out of brainstorming…
Games People Play During Budget Season
Is budget season in your church plagued with political maneuvering and game playing? Watch out for some of these common ploys that Richard J. Vargo…
Overcoming the Fear of Talking About Money
I confess to a complicated relationship with wealth. When I was in college, I thought of money as the “root of all evil.” I even…
Tying Facility Needs to Mission
Churches that have been around for many years often face numerous property challenges. With aging buildings, there are frequent unplanned property issues that arise and…
Should a Pastor Know What Church Members Give?
Every time I teach a stewardship workshop or class, this question invariably comes up: “Should a pastor have access to contribution records?” In some congregations,…
Models for Budget Building
Churches use a variety of budget building models. No one model or combination of models is right for every church. What approach might best fit…
Quarterly Financial Statements Enhance Giving
Every year churches are required to send out an end-of-year giving statement for IRS purposes. Instead of doing it only once a year, consider doing…
Online Giving Connects Ministry and Mission
Nearly three years ago our church began offering online giving through our website. We added a PayPal button and were curious to see how church…
Electronic Giving: A Matter of Vision, Not Just Convenience
In 2011, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church was experiencing a financial crunch. In addition to the turbulence associated with the national economic recession, our discomfort was…
Keys to Effective Financial Ministry
Not surprisingly, church consultant Clif Christopher’s new book, Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry (Abingdon Press, 2012), makes many of the same points…
Will the Mainline Denominations Get It Right?
“We can either have a hard decade or a bad century.” New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman used these stark words to describe the…
Remaining Fruitful in the Midst of a Financial Reset
I think the American Church is undergoing a reset. America is getting older; and the Church is even older. For a generation, expenditures have increased…
Denominations Face Major Reset
Most congregations know the financial squeeze of recent years from the economic recession. What is more striking is that the financial downturn for denominations is…
Do Endowments Help or Hurt?
Some churches have endowments in which the principal is invested, with the earnings made available to support the work of the congregation. One pastor said…
Working Through the Stages of Grief when Cutting Your Budget
Our church was not reaching its budget and had to make difficult changes to reduce expenses by 16 percent. The finance committee realized a reduction…
What Report is First on Your Church Council Agenda?
When I started out in ministry nearly 35 years ago, I wandered into my first church board meeting with wide eyes and my mouth firmly…
Saving Money without Sacrificing Ministry
In light of the current economic environment, how are churches reining in their budgets without reducing the quality of ministry? Last month, the Lewis Center…
