Experts emphasize the unique rules and dynamics churches face. By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Church Finance Today Jennifer Neal wanted to be successful — as a woman, as a mother, and as a financial controller at a multibillion-dollar company. “I was desperately trying to make my mark and have it all,” she said. What Neal didn’t intend was for Jesus, as she put it, … Continue reading Five tips for professionals joining a church staff
Six tips that will keep a church from breaking the bank on big-ticket fixes.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Church Finance Today
Several years ago, members of the Bridge Church in Fresno, California, committed millions of dollars to a special capital campaign to upgrade facilities and expand parking lots.
But the church didn’t make a plan to set aside the future funds needed to keep its facilities running well.
“There had been pretty serious deferred maintenance for a while prior to that date,” recalled Dave Cowin, who serves as chairman of the church’s elder board.
When Cowin joined the elder board of Bridge Church in 2012, he proposed creating a capital reserve fund as part of the church’s annual budgeting process. The board chose to go with Cowin’s proposal. It was a wise decision that safeguarded the church’s resources and saved thousands of dollars for other ministry priorities just a few years later.
Like Bridge Church, many churches spend valuable time, energy, and money getting a building, but then neglect to plan — and budget — for the expenses needed to keep those buildings operating.
“They are more than happy to raise the money to move into a building,” said Tim Cool, chief solutions officer and project facilitator for North Carolina-based-Cool Solutions Group. But after they move in, churches “fail to plan for the fact that everything in their buildings has a natural life of deterioration.”
This article appears on the November 2016 cover of Church Finance Today, a publication of Christianity Today.
How pastors can preach about the important matters of the day — without becoming too political or risking a church’s tax-exempt status.
This article first appeared in March 2016 at ChurchLawandTax.com, a website of Christianity Today.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Christianity Today
Nationally, nearly 90 percent of pastors believe they should not endorse candidates for public office from the pulpit, according to the latest figures from Lifeway Research, an evangelical polling group based in Nashville, Tennessee.
That finding came in a 2012 survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, said Ed Stetzer, Lifeway Research’s executive director. “Since Jesus is not coming back riding an elephant or a donkey, I’d suggest that pastors be known for Jesus and not politics,” Stetzer said. (Updated figures from September 2016)
Speaking up for Jesus, though, may take pastors into territory claimed by Caesar.
The expansion of government’s role in society has made preachers’ balancing act more difficult, said Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, who hosts “The Briefing,” a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
“To talk about any number of issues today is to involve politics in a way that would not have been true in generations past,” Mohler said. “Talking about healthcare or an adoption ministry or a ministry to orphans — none of that would have been overtly political even 30 or 40 years ago. But it is today because of the state’s increasing role in those areas.”
Every pastor must be careful to identify issues on which all Christians must stand together — and those on which legitimate differences of opinion could exist in terms of public policy, the seminary president said.
Continue reading “Avoiding the elephant (or donkey) in the pulpit”
The growing need for cyberliability insurance: How increased online and electronic activity exposes congregations to new risks.
In recent years, major data breaches involving millions of stolen credit card numbers have targeted national retailers such as Target and Home Depot. Experts warn, though, that smaller organizations — including churches — increasingly fall victim to cybercrimes and other online mishaps.
As congregations wade further into the world of technology usage, they handle rising volumes of sensitive personal data about staff, volunteers, and members — from payment information tied to “e-tithing” to Social Security numbers obtained to run background checks.
Churches also stream intellectual property on their websites, use email and social media to interact with both members and nonmembers, and publish or distribute prayer requests electronically that sometimes reveal private, confidential details of people’s lives.
All of this electronic activity potentially exposes congregations to greater liabilities, be it a copyright claim for a song distributed through online streaming or a libel claim after a disgruntled staff member uses a church-owned social media platform to reveal damaging information about someone.
Given these heightened liabilities, insurance carriers have responded by developing special “cyberliability” coverages — beyond prototypical general liability policies — to cover technology-related claims and damages.
This article appears online at ChurchLawandTax.com, a website of Christianity Today.
Continue reading “The growing need for cyberliability insurance”
Get a Loan in the ‘New Economy’: Five tips that can help churches secure more favorable lending terms. An emphasis on changing its culture to reach a younger generation has helped the Copper Pointe Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, quadruple in size in recent years. The evangelical church — with ties to the Assemblies of God — has grown to more than 2,500 people at its … Continue reading Five tips that can help churches secure more favorable lending terms
Laying your church’s debt burden down: The benefits — and drawbacks — of debt-reduction campaigns. On a Sunday morning, two days before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Edmond Church of Christ—my home congregation in a growing, affluent suburb north of Oklahoma City—made a long-awaited pilgrimage. A thousand fellow Christians and I marched from our old building, hidden behind trees in a quiet residential neighborhood, to … Continue reading Laying your church’s debt burden down
What happens when schools cut denominational ties: A new study raises questions about the merer Christian college.
For decades, the Kentucky Baptist Convention had appointed the board of trustees of Georgetown College — all required to be Southern Baptist — and financially supported the small liberal arts school.
But that arrangement recently ceased as Georgetown decided to forgo convention funding, allow non-Baptists on its board, and expand its fundraising.
In November, the Kentucky convention voted to sever its remaining ties with the college, ending a scholarship program to attract students from the state’s Baptist churches.
Its decision came after Georgetown moved away from a statement of specific Baptist identification to one “built on a Baptist foundation” in pursuit of a “knowledge of and commitment to the Christian faith.”
But a major new study by the Council on Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) raises questions about what happens when schools with strong denominational ties loosen them.
The three-part study, published in the journal Christian Higher Education, surveyed thousands of faculty members and students at 79 evangelical schools.
This story appears in the January/February print issue of Christianity Today.
Continue reading “When Christian universities cut denominational ties”
Will the Supreme Court pop abortion clinic bubbles?: A challenge to ‘buffer zones’ against anti-abortion protesters gets a surprise hearing Jan. 15. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly allowed “buffer zones” that keep abortion protesters from approaching medical facility entrances. So the court surprised many observers when it agreed to hear a challenge to a Massachusetts “buffer zone” law on Jan. 15. Mark Rienzi, lead counsel for the … Continue reading Will Supreme Court pop abortion clinic bubbles?
Supreme Court Won’t Reconsider Ban on ‘Gruesome’ Church Protest Case pitted freedom of speech against freedom of religion. But protecting children from disturbing pictures was the trump card. Christianity Today story published online June 12. The U.S. Supreme Court this week said it would not take up a case involving an anti-abortion protester’s free speech right vs. a Denver church’s right to free exercise of … Continue reading Supreme Court won’t reconsider ban on ‘gruesome church protest’
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 