It’s the time of year when church leaders start to see lots of red—and it isn’t always early Christmas decorations! Many churches have deficits they need to close by year’s end. I have been there many (MANY) times. Sometimes, these gaps are relatively small. All you need is to remember to ‘double December’ and take…
Is Fundraising Really That Hard? #GivingTuesday
In 2012, in response to the so-called consumer holidays “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” New York’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation partnered to create Giving Tuesday. This November 28, organizations, influencers, and individuals will reach out across their platforms to encourage people to give generously to worthy causes. As I wrote in Giving…
Hack Next Year’s Budget
It is that time of year again. Budget time! As pastors, leaders, vestries, and boards are wringing their hands about the close of this year, plans for next year are being drawn up. Over the years I developed a few ‘hacks’ for church leaders. I’ve collected a few of these tips, tricks, and rules of…
Giving Up Excerpt in Christianity Today
You can see the latest sneak peek at Giving Up: How Giving to God Renews Hearts, Changes Minds, and Empowers Ministry on CT Pastors. This excerpt reveals five big ideas that church leaders can use to jumpstart generosity in your church. Check out the whole book on Amazon.
Sneak Peek: An Excerpt from Giving Up
Here’s another sneak peek at my new book, Giving Up: How Giving to God Renews Hearts, Changes Minds, and Empowers Ministry, available now. This excerpt is from the second chapter, titled “The Hidden Virtue of the Early Church.” I want to give the church corrective lenses to see that the ministry of Jesus, Paul, and the very…
Announcement: Giving Up is Coming Soon!
It’s Ready After years of gathering ideas, studying Scripture, preaching “The Money Talk”, collecting three decades worth of wisdom…and months of writing and re-writing, the book is finished. We took our final pass at it with our red pens and now it lives with the publisher and then onto the printer…and then I hope…to you!…
Lenten Disciplines: Almsgiving
We continue our series on the Lenten disciplines with one often neglected during this season: almsgiving. Almsgiving is not a word that we use often today. We will often speak of “mission support,” “charity,” or something akin to “philanthropy.” These terms certainly speak of God’s mission or of his call to us to be a…
