Maintaining Balance with Church Management Work

Coming off of the Memorial Day weekend, we offer this cartoon courtesy of our Church Laughs e-newsletter. It's a good bet the to-do list is already long for those who labor in church offices. We pray those details don't distract from the personal time you need with the Lord:

Are details like these a constant challenge for you or someone in your office? Consider pre-ordering the 2012 Church Office Planner, a unique solution tailored to the needs of most church offices.

Churches Weather Copper Thieves, Insurance Concerns

Copper remains a hot commodity. On Thursday afternoon, one pound of the industrial metal was worth nearly $412, according to Bloomberg. And because of the metal's increased value, thieves see a prime opportunity to swipe copper from air conditioning units and home and commercial construction sites, then turn around and sell their spoils to scrap metal dealers for quick cash.

Churches remain a primary target.

For instance, Southern Mutual Church Insurance, South Carolina's largest insurer of churches, says it paid more than $707,000 in claims to 113 churches through April. In 2010, it paid $1.2 million to 174 churches for the entire year, according to The State.

Thieves hit one South Carolina church twice, causing more than $100,000 in damages. That church's insurer, unidentified in the article, stopped insuring it altogether, one of the church's leaders says.

Southern Mutual Church Insurance says the problem has grown so large that it may limit payouts on future coverages to any church that suffers damage from a copper theft and refuses to put protective measures in place.

A protective cage around an air conditioning unit is one such measure. Other steps can thwart thieves, according to this ChurchSafety.com article, which also points out that rooftop heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units, gutters, pipes, and electrical wiring are also at risk:

Hinder Access

• Place a cage or fence around air conditioning units.
• Secure the electrical power shut-off switch. Move the switch, if it's located near the air conditioning units.
• Enclose church property with a secure fence.
• Post "no trespassing" signs.
• Remove ladders and other items offering easy access to rooftop HVAC units.
• Replace copper downspouts with other materials.
• Store vehicles inside locked garages or sheds. If that's not an option, have members drive vehicles home each night, so they're not left in parking lots.
• Don't leave copper plumbing, gutters, or wiring on construction sites.

• Increase lighting around HVAC units and places where thieves might hide.
• Install alarms on HVAC units.
• Use security cameras to monitor target areas.
• Ask church members to drive past the church when they're in the neighborhood, looking for suspicious cars, people, or activity.
• Invite church neighbors to call police if they notice unusual activity.
• Have local police patrol your property regularly during evening and night hours.
• Ask your local police or fire department if they'll do a free assessment and offer tips for improving your property's security.

For additional help on securing church property, be sure to check out these electronic training resources from ChurchSafety.com:

• Securing Church Property
• Preventing Crime on Church Property
• Safeguard Your Building Projects

Using Social Media During Disaster Relief

Editor's Note: Relief efforts continue in Joplin, Missouri, following Sunday's horrific tornado, which killed at least 117 people and left extensive damage in its wake (the area remained on edge during the early parts of the week as predictions of more explosive storms rolled in). Churches and ministries are looking for ways to help. Aside from When Disaster Strikes and Serving as a Disaster Relief Team, two helpful church training resources from ChurchSafety.com, we offer this interesting blog post from Jenni Catron, who uncovered the power of Twitter during her church's response a year ago to flooding in Nashville:

I swore I wouldn't sign up for Twitter. It seemed like a nuisance. I had already given in to Facebook and started my personal blog. I didn't need one more thing!

But I quickly realized that as a leader in a church with a population of primarily Generation X and Y, I needed to engage this medium if I intended to influence them. Little did I know that less than a year later Twitter would become a key tool for responding to one of the greatest tragedies our city has ever faced.

Sunday, May 2, 2010, is a day that will be etched in my memory forever. I'd never seen so much water in my life, and it just continued to rain and rain and rain. I had spent nearly two hours trying to get home, but there was simply no way. My neighborhood and several of those around it were completely surrounded by water. Since going home was not an option, I found my way to a friend's house and camped out in front of the TV, paralyzed by the continuous news footage. Soon I received word of not one, not two, but three of my staff members whose homes were submerged in water. Tears began to flow when one of my staff texted me a picture of the roof of her house—everything else was under water. "God, please make it stop," I begged.

Nashville was devastated and we needed to respond. That evening, Pete Wilson, lead pastor for Cross Point Church, and I brainstormed ways our church might bring the love and hope of Christ to our flooded city. We had no idea what we could do, but we knew we needed to rally Cross Point volunteers and begin to help. Sunday evening Pete and I began tweeting our plans to our combined 60,000 followers and several thousand Facebook friends, asking them to meet Monday morning to help with flood relief.

Continue reading "How I Became a Twitter Believer" on our sister site, GiftedForLeadership.com.

Better Minds, Better Church Office Management?

Editor’s Note: On Thursday, the early registration and discounted rate ends for the National Association of Church Business Administration’s 55th annual conference (July 1-5 in Washington, D.C.). Christianity Today International’s Church Management Team is a content partner with NACBA, an organization that supports the work of thousands of business administrators and office staff across the country. As leaders contemplate whether to go, we sat down for a Q&A with Dr. Julie Bell, 44, one of NACBA’s keynote speakers for this year’s conference. Bell is founder and president of The Mind of a Champion, a Dallas-based coaching consulting firm that helps professional athletes, corporate executives, and church teams improve their performance.

As a part of The Mind of a Champion, you’ve developed a concept called Performance Intelligence and wrote a book about it. What is it? It’s your ability to perform your best when it matters most. A lot of people can do their best when the circumstances are right. How do you use the talents and resources that God has given you to do your best, regardless of the circumstances?

How would this benefit someone who works in a church office? A lot of great programs come in to maximize your skills, such as a communications workshop or conflict resolution or time management. Mind management is our greatest inefficiency. My list of things to do doesn’t wear me out—my thinking about my list of things to do wears me out.

What are some common problems in church offices that you think can benefit from better “mind management”?

I talk about something called the “Three R’s.” Church teams need to recognize their thinking, refocus, and then establish new routines, new habits of the mind. Part of how to recognize that thinking and refocus involves developing a “Winning Game Plan.” You start by asking, What’s most important now? Everything can’t be important now. You have to work on that focus. Is what we’re doing really aligned with our desired results? For example, Wednesday nights at church—what is the church’s overall purpose and what does that look like in the Wednesday night children’s ministry? There are desired results on discipleship, on fellowship, on Bible knowledge. On the front end, we’re not clear on purposes, then on the back end, we have staffs who are beat up and worn out because they’re smart people, talented, gifted by God, but they’re not executing because they never knew what plays to call. Without clearly defining (what’s most important), we try to do all of it, and we fail because we can’t do it well.

What kind of toll does that take on church staffs? We have a win-lose mentality. For instance, with a church calendar, a conflict in dates causes one event to get pulled over another. … I can turn anything into a win-lose opportunity. If I win, then you lose. … If you just look at the overall desired result of the church and made sure the programs in competition with each other are aligned with that, you may find that not all are aligned.

How does individual performance feed into team performance? That coaching voice in your head sets you up to do your best and other times it will undermine you and burn you out. Your coaching voice is the most influential coach you will ever have—kids begin recognizing it at the age of five. … Individually we have that coaching voice in our head, and it requires focus, confidence, competitiveness, self-discipline, and a winning game plan. … Does your church have a winning game plan, with the right people doing the right things to get the results you want? Or is it business as usual? I need a winning game plan for my life individually, and then we need a winning game plan corporately.

How does that shift a church staff’s dynamics? It’s very hard to perform your best when you don’t have a clear focus. I’ve had to work on this in my parenting, in the relationship with my husband, and my work—how to ask different questions and identify the win-win, the next step.

Does so much focus on the mind detract from spiritual development, though? You have to be intentional with your thinking. Paul talks about thinking about whatever is true, noble, and lovely. He talks about taking every thought captive to Christ. If we let our mind wander to whatever we want to, we are in the world and suffering the consequences of sin.

Where is your home church? Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas. My husband L. Nelson II grew up at that church. About six years ago, we were living in Oklahoma when he was called to be its pastor of adults and personal discipleship.

You’re related to Billy Graham (the global evangelist and founder of CTI). Tell us about that connection. My husband is the grandson of L. Nelson Bell, Billy’s father-in-law.

Who is your hero? Ruth Bell Graham, only because everything I’ve read of hers, and my experience meeting her, I knew she was full of grace raising her children, a lot of it on her own with Billy traveling a lot. Whenever I need inspiration as a wife and mother, I read stories about her.

What are you reading right now? Grace-Based Parenting, which was my beach reading on a recent vacation. My church also just started The Bible in 90 Days.

What’s your favorite movie? Chariots of Fire. My all-time favorite quote is during the last race of the movie, when everything slows down, and that signature music is playing, and Eric Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”

Your favorite Bible verse? Jeremiah 29:11. After graduate school, this became very real for me. It’s my go-to verse.

Survey Says, Millennials Do Give—and Not Just Online

Contrary to what you might think, Millennials are generous and technology isn’t the only way to motivate them to donate to nonprofits (including churches), according to the 2011 Millennial Donor Report.

Among the nearly 3,000 Millennials between the ages of 20 and 35 surveyed, 93 percent gave to nonprofits in 2010. Most gave to more than one nonprofit.

More than half of these Millennials gave in response to a personal request for support. Pastors and church leaders feeling uneasy about asking personally for donations might take comfort in knowing that informal, personal conversations about the ministry, and ways to support it, may build the relationship in a way that encourages future giving.

Earn Trust

Trusting the individual who personally requests support motivates Millennials to give, with 84 percent saying they are most likely to give if they fully trust the organization. Conversely, 90 percent of Millennials would stop giving if they lost trust in a nonprofit.

Celebrity endorsements to motivate financial giving don’t resonate well among Millennials—only two percent are motivated by those endorsements to donate. For churches that ever thought the public backing of a big name would make a difference in generating additional financial support for a campaign or other giving initiative, this suggests otherwise.

One way to help gain this needed trust of Millennials is to give them chances to meet and talk with church leadership: 63 percent say this ability influences their trust of a nonprofit.

Hearing or reading about how their financial support is making a difference also helps build Millennials’ trust. One way for church leaders to apply this is to include testimonies in church services and on their websites if they don’t already.

Communicating the financial condition of the nonprofit is also important in gaining Millennials’ trust. Seventy percent say this influences their ability to trust an organization.

Another way to motivate Millennials in financial giving is to offer a compelling mission and cause. Along with occasionally reviewing the church’s mission and cause, church leaders should make sure both are clearly communicated and found on their websites (71 percent of Millennials get information about a nonprofit through web searches).

A way to keep and build trust that’s not mentioned in the report would be to keep confidential information secure. These two resources can help:

• Creating a Church Office You Can Trust is a helpful downloadable resource if you would like to know ways to help ensure that privacy is kept;
• Protecting Electronic Data is a downloadable resource that will help you protect your church records and data from hackers and malicious software.

Online Efforts

Beyond these three ways to motivate Millennials to donate—personally asking, having a compelling mission, and earning trust—churches should still think about online approaches to communicate and encourage giving. In the report, 49 percent of Millennials say they give online, and websites communicate mission and cause. If worries about liabilities associated with websites makes you hesitant to create or revamp your church website, the download Untangling the Web Feature Report can help.

For more information on Millennials, the recent Leadership Journal article “Meet the Millennials” covers other statistics about this group, including their views on family, marriage, and religion.

Should the Jobless Tithe on Their Unemployment Benefits?

In the March edition of Christianity Today, three men with backgrounds in church and personal finances were asked whether the jobless should tithe on their unemployment benefits. Read their answers, then share how your church has (or hasn't) addressed this question as the unemployment rate remains at or above 10 percent for many parts of the country:

"Yes, if joyfully. ... There are some reasons for jobless people—or anyone, for that matter—not to tithe. Do not tithe out of joyless obligation to law. Do not tithe if your soul requires nothing short of a New Testament demand to tithe (there is none). Do not tithe under the assumption that God will owe you anything. Do not tithe if you expect to default on a debt. Do not tithe if you will resent God for asking sacrifices of you—unless you intend the tithe, in the spirit of "I believe; help my unbelief," as your invitation for God to purge your resentment." —Douglas LeBlanc, editor at large for The Living Church magazine and author of Tithing: Test Me in This. Read his full answer here.

"Yes, with generosity. ... Scripture does not speak directly to the topic of tithing on an income that is not your own, so I am reluctant to say firmly, "Yes, give this much." But the Bible has much to say on the subject of generosity and gratitude. There are four questions church leaders and others can ask to help someone struggling with tithing on their unemployment benefits:

• Do you see unemployment benefits as part of God's provision for your life?
• Are you continuing to practice generosity in every area: time, talent, and treasure?
• How does giving a portion of your unemployment benefits differ from giving a portion of your "employed" benefits?
• Would giving a portion of your unemployment benefits demonstrate gratitude that God is providing for you in this season of your life?

"Probably not. ... The simple reason, to begin biblically and to paraphrase the Great Steward, is that the tithe was created for people; people were not created for the tithe. Moses taught that the tithe was a celebration for the affluent and a gift to the less fortunate, including priests (Deut. 14:22-29). The tithe was created in part to help those on the biblical equivalent of unemployment; requiring them to contribute to the offering when they should be receiving is an unhealthy inversion of the biblical mandate to give to the poor.

When Malachi gave his challenge to "bring the whole tithe," God was not telling people to fund the temple's institutional needs as much as to make plenty of food available for those in need. Taxes were levied for temple needs, but this tithe was for something more.

Yet studies from empty tomb, inc. and other Christian financial advisers have long indicated that little giving to churches goes beyond institutional support. We've grown comfortable with the modern church abdicating, largely to governments, the extrinsic work for which the tithe was intended in biblical times. Most churches should therefore not expect the full biblical tithe, particularly if it's to support a comfortable lifestyle for the church's leaders." —Gary Moore, founder of the Financial Seminary and author of Faithful Finances 101. Read his full answer here.

Report: More Older Americans Prefer Giving Online

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a brief but interesting article about new research on the demographics of online givers. In short:

Most people, no matter what their age, now prefer to make charitable donations online, according to a new study of more than 17,500 donors.

The survey by Cygnus Applied Research, in Chicago, found that more than half of donors who are 65 or older now prefer to make their gifts online, with much higher percentages of younger donors saying the same.

It was the first time in the three years the survey has been conducted that a majority of donors in all age groups said they preferred to give online.

What’s more, two-thirds of donors said they want all their communications to be electronic.

Two reasons this caught our attention:

• Churches that don't offer online giving tend to suggest a primary reason they don't is the lack of interest or participation in online activity by older members. In the 2011 State of the Plate, 36 percent of the more than 1,500 church leaders surveyed said they offered automatic electronic payments (EFT), and nearly 30 percent accepted donations through their websites, during 2010;
• Interest in electronic communications, such as e-newsletters and the like, appears to be growing among seniors, which churches—especially those that don't offer any form of electronic communications--should note.

New Report: Households Spent $368 on Gas Last Month

A new report issued last week by the Oil Price Information Service shows the average American household spent $368 in April on gas, according to this CNN article.

If church leaders haven't already done so, it's time to think about the possible ramifications of unprecedented gas prices on attendance and giving this summer. People, already pinched by rising prices, small (if any) wage increases, job losses, and the like, may struggle to give what they normally would. And a need to cut down on car trips to conserve fuel for work and school commutes may prompt some to skip the drive to church some weekends.

Challenging economic times offer opportunities to speak of the blessings that come from faithful weekly commitments. It's also wise to anticipate the possibility of decreased giving.

On a budgetary basis, churches should consider the ramifications of slowed giving on spending and other budget plans, including travel for conferences and missions trips. Summer is usually a slower season for giving anyway, because attendance fluctuates as people travel for vacations, so many congregations likely already scale back their spending during this stretch. Still, further reining in of expenditures may be needed.

In addition, leaders may want to discuss ways to help congregants, such as establishing carpools or providing local public transit information. If your church hasn't yet begun offering online streaming of its services, this also may be a good time to re-evaluate that as well.

And for the benefit of paid staff members and lay leaders alike, churches also would do well to identify what meetings and other weekday and weeknight activities might be consolidated so that fewer trips are necessary (and less energy use in the building throughout the week is required).

Church Bus Driver Arrested on Sex Abuse Charge

A church bus driver in southern Illinois was arrested and charged last week with sexually abusing a child.

According to the local newspaper, "the arrest came after a Wayne County Grand Jury returned an indictment against him." The driver, 33, was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a person under the age of 13, a Class 2 felony, the paper reported. He faces three to seven years in prison, and up to $25,000 in fines if convicted.

The article doesn't indicate the circumstances of the alleged abuse—whether it occurred as the man served in his role with the church, during church activities, or on church property. It also doesn't indicate whether the man has any prior convictions.

Without those details, it's less clear as to how his involvement with the ministry could have been handled differently.

However, church leaders still can take away this immediate lesson: Regardless of the role or position within the church, be it paid staff member or volunteer, children's ministry director or bus driver, anyone who will have access to children must go through a careful screening process, including thorough background checks.

These resources can help any church set up policies and procedures, including helpful ways to establish them in a positive way:

• Reducing the Risk: Keeping Your Ministry Safe from Child Sexual Abuse
• Creating Child Protection Policies
• Child Sexual Abuse Response Plan

Missouri Woman Admits to $140,000 Church Theft

A woman in Missouri pleaded guilty last week to stealing nearly $140,000 while serving as the treasurer of a local church and its denomination’s local governing organization. According to a Kansas City-based news website, the woman wrote checks to herself, overstated various expenses, or received reimbursements for expenses that never occurred. She faces severe penalties, including up to 10 years in prison without parole.

As lawmakers closely study financial accountability in local churches, it’s important to note that these types of cases are the exception, not the rule, across the country (although two more headlines emerged here and here this week, sobering reminders that the threat remains real). Leaders must build healthy practices and procedures at their churches to protect the money entrusted to them by those who attend.

To get started, or to refresh your memory and test your knowledge, use this Weekly Lesson and related interactive quiz created by Richard Hammar for church board members (get similar lessons every week for free by signing up here).

As a next step, consider our Internal Controls for Church Finances, a downloadable training tool to equip paid staff and lay leaders, and from there, the Essential Guide to Church Finances as the final, comprehensive resource to reference whenever needed.

A Pastor's Thoughts on Knowing What People Give

Editor's Note: In November, TheYourChurchBlog.com published "Should Pastors Know What People Give?" It generated numerous responses, some in favor of the idea, some opposed. We recently came across another viewpoint on the question by Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in California and author of Sticky Church.

Larry permitted us to offer it today as a guest post:

One subject that’s always good for a little controversy is a discussion of whether or not a pastor should have access to congregational giving records. Years ago, I was a proud, card-carrying member of the “I-don’t-know-who-gives-what” tribe. But I changed my mind after being challenged and realizing that:

• I had a hard time explaining why a pastor is any different from other ministry leaders (think missionaries, parachurch ministries, Christian media, seminaries, and the like).
• I had a hard time explaining why capital campaigns are different. No one seems to object to the pastor knowing about large commitments and gifts to a building project. So how is this different than gifts to the general fund?
• I found nothing in the scriptures supporting my viewpoint. Frankly, all the verses I used to support staying in the dark could just as well be applied to missionaries or anyone leading any ministry—even the church treasurer—something that no one I know of advocates. The idea that a local church pastor is somehow different is simply not Biblical.


• Even though I took pride in not knowing, I still made subconscious assumptions. I couldn’t help it. It’s human nature. But once I had the facts in hand, I was amazed at how inaccurate most of my assumptions were.

Awhile back, I was discussing this with a group of pastors at a gathering I was hosting. The very next day I had an experience that showed once again why having the facts is always better than making assumptions—and how having the facts radically changes (and should change) the way we deal with individuals.

Our church was being picketed by the carpenters’ union. Their huge “Labor Dispute – SHAME ON NORTH COAST CHURCH” sign showed up during the week and during our worship services in an attempt to “motivate” us into firing a non-union subcontractor we’d hired to work on our new campus construction.

After the first weekend of picketing, we received an e-mail from a concerned parishioner. He informed us that after prayer and reflection his family would no longer be giving their “first fruits” to our ministry. He said he would still give the Lord what was His, but it just wouldn’t be to North Coast—at least not until the issue with the union was resolved.

He then went on to say that though he didn’t particularly care for the methods the union was using, he felt our church had a moral obligation to support companies that provide a living wage in order to show the community that we care about people and not just the bottom line. He concluded by thanking us for the way our ministry and teaching had blessed his family and promised that his entire family would continue to pray for us as we worked to resolve the issue.

If you were in my shoes, how would you respond—not just in terms of what would you say or write, but in terms of how would you feel?

Based on content and tone, it’s clear that the writer is a union member, but he’s also a strong Christian, fully committed to the church, praying for it regularly, and supporting it with his “first fruits.” My bet is that you’d wonder if other families like his were thinking the same thing—and if they were, what they might do in response.

Here’s how I responded.

I asked my assistant to get me some facts. Who was this gentleman? What was his attendance pattern and involvement in our small group ministry? And what was his giving record?

Here’s what I found out: He attended our church for a couple of years. He was never involved in a small group. His “first fruits” giving the previous year was all of $500. Year-to-date, it was zero.

Now come on. Let’s admit it. That changes things a bit, doesn’t it?

Frankly, for me, the facts changed everything. Rather than crafting a response appropriate for a strong Christian, highly committed to our church, I needed to put together a response designed for a "big hat, no cattle" Christian making an empty threat about cutting back his non-existent financial support. It needed to be addressed to someone who talked a good game, but whose deepest loyalty ran far more with the union movement than his local church.

Once I had the facts in hand, I realized the best way to respond would read something like this:

Dear _________

Thank you for sharing your concerns about resolving the issue with the protesters. I fully understand, in light of your union loyalties, why you might be hesitant to give God’s “first fruits” to a church that hires non-union workers.

Perhaps that’s a sign that we are not the best church for you or your family at this time; especially since we’re likely to continue to use our donated funds to hire the lowest qualified bidder on this and other projects in the future.

In light of your concerns, I have asked our finance department to return to you all the “first fruits” gifts you have given to our church so far this year so that you can forward them on to a ministry you can fully support. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a record of any such gifts.

Rest assured, if we find any, we will send them to you posthaste. In the meantime, may God guide you and your family as you search for a church worthy of your full support.

Sincerely,

Pastor Larry Osborne

Now, did I really send it?

That’s between him, me, and the Lord.

In the meantime, what would you done once you knew the facts? And how might that differ from what you would have done with nothing but some assumptions based on his e-mail?