Changing the structure of your stewardship ministries might bring new life to familiar work, writes the CEO of the Executive Stewardship Center.
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R. Mark King: Using an Oft-Neglected Asset to Fund Ministry
An executive pastor describes how church land can be a source of ministry funding
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Leadership in Scarcity
by Mark Miller-McLemore | My church was located across from an abandoned strip mall and the local “No-Tell Motel,” where drugs and sex were peddled. We worked closely with homeless people through a shelter program in our building. It was a place…
Read MoreNever Let Money (or the lack of it) Stop You From One of God’s Good Ideas! The Pastoral Residency for Turnaround Ministry
by Mary Louise Gifford In 1953, with its membership over nine hundred people, no one could have predicted the cultural and personal changes that would lead the thriving congregation at Wollaston Congregational Church (WCCUCC) in Quincy, MA, to the gates of…
Read MorePutting Your Money Where Your Mission Is
Some pundits see a silver lining in our recent economic troubles: Americans have finally kicked the habit of conspicuous consumption. I’ll believe it when I see it. Over the last couple of years, I have consulted with a number of…
Read MoreResilience in the Recession: Economic Impact Study Highlights Congregational Strengths
A recent survey of more than 1,500 mostly Protestant congregations found that the first half of 2009 was more financially challenging for churches than 2008, but the leaders of the organizations involved in the research also find cause for hope—and…
Read MoreWhat to Keep, What to Cut: Reshaping Budgets in Times of Adversity
Like many congregations and organizations with an endowment, at the beginning of 2009 Western Presbyterian Church faced a painful situation. Despite our endowment outperforming the market benchmarks by six points, it had suffered a huge loss of value in the…
Read MoreFootsteps Not To Be Followed: Ten Mistakes Churches Make When Applying for Grants
As Sunday offerings have gone down for many congregations, their interest in alternative revenue sources has gone up. Many churches are now considering grant funding as a way to support some ministry programs. In my twenty-plus years of writing grant…
Read MoreSpiritual Formation and Money: Mission, Ministries, and Generosity
For many religious people, their faith and their money live in an uneasy truce with each other. Seldom are we encouraged to see our attitudes about—and actions done with—our money as essential aspects of our spiritual formation as believers. Our…
Read MoreWinning Grants: The Case for Faith-Based Organizations
Too often, I run into faith-based organizations that seem embarrassed in the presence of secular funders, as though the faith aspect of their work were a liability. Instead, I think we need to consider why being faith-based is a reason…
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