Ray Linder, MBA, is a pastor, CEO of Goodstewardship.com, and author of three books, including What Will I Do With My Money? Ray serves on the ministry staff of Cornerstone Chapel, Leesburg, Virginia.
Building Church Leaders, a leadership-training resource published by Christianity Today International, asked him how church leaders can help their people be responsible with God-given resources.
Our financial secretary called. "Pastor, we have more bills this month than money to pay them. What do I do?"
I was young and ambitious. I had pressed the board of our small church for an aggressive ministry budget. I hadn't expected an economic downturn to thwart my one-year plan to single-handedly fulfill the Great Commission. Then I remembered the advice a board member gave me on the night I proposed ...
Does a building campaign change the way a church teaches stewardship? For our congregation, the answer is dramatic, but not in the way you might expect.
You see, for 15 years, our church did not own a building. Saddleback Community Church grew from a few people meeting in an apartment, to renting facilities in various schools, to meeting in a tent. Then in 1995, with over 10,000 regular weekly attenders, ...
ARTICLE Borrowing Trouble? A new Leadership survey reveals that most churches make some debt work to their advantage. Bruce Howard
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The church I attend has a problem—a good problem, but still a problem. We have run out of space and we're landlocked. These issues have been the grist for leadership discussions.
Elder Bob: "We need to face the facts! We have four worship services on Sunday mornings. We're parking cars bumper to bumper, but we still have to run a shuttle service to the public parking garage. And we're renting ...
When Bowser pokes a cold, wet nose under my arm to signal it's time to pet him, the nose tells me he's healthy. When the nurse announces "120 over 80" for my blood pressure, I know I'm healthy. But when my church treasurer flings a file of figures across the table in his report, how do I know if my church is financially healthy?
What are some vital signs of churches that are fiscally fit?
The Case "How did we ever get ourselves into this situation?" the budget committee wondered.
Fifteen years earlier, Trinity had received a sizable bequest that, year by year, the church had begun to rely on to meet its increasing financial shortfalls. Now the bequest was almost consumed.
The more important question, though, remained unanswered: "Now that we are facing large deficits, what do we do ...
Is Your Church Fiscally Fit Four factors to help you determine the vitality of your church finances. James D. Berkley
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Total Annual IncomeHere's a benchmark for church annual contributions, adapted from Lyle Schaller's book The Interventionist (Abingdon, 1997). Multiply your average worship attendance by $1,250 to get a healthy idea of what you should be taking in per year. Thus, if my church has 100 attenders on an average Sunday, and annual giving is $125,000, we're on track.. Another way to look at the same ...
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