When I was writing Giving Up, I discovered an unlikely source of insight in Zag: The Number One Strategy of High Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier. The foundational principle is that successful brands don’t follow the crowd—they don’t look at the leaders in the marketplace and try to latch on and say “Me too!” Instead,…
Guest Post: Kentucky Teacher Protests and an Anglican Church
This guest post was provided by Kentucky teacher Heather M. Morgan, who is a member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Frankfort, Kentucky. Many Kentucky teachers have been protesting low wages and inadequate funding. St. Peter’s sits adjacent to the Kentucky state Capitol. St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Frankfort, KY has always been keenly aware of…
Generous Resolutions
Our church year begins with Advent, but self-reflection and goal-setting are good for all of us and the turning of the calendar is as good a time as any to start. This year, why not resolve to be more generous? As we argue in Giving Up, generosity is at the heart of the gospel. To…
Interview: Arrabon
After the events in Charlottesville in August, I came across an article by Doug Paul of Missio Alliance with a catchy and convicting subtitle: “When a Generation of Church Planters Reach Only White People” In reviewing the book The Creative Class, Paul argues (persuasively) that in creating ‘hip’ church plants, many young pastors may be inadvertently…
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…
The American Religious Landscape: A New Resource
The Public Religion Research Institute just released an invaluable new resource to help church leaders see what’s been happening across the American religious landscape. Their American Values Atlas is an up-to-date, representative dataset drawn from over 100,000 interviews conducted in 2016. The breadth of the data allows church leaders to target the responses of specific…
Five Ways to Help Houston
Are you on the dry earth right now? Most of us are. But we cannot imagine the impact of Harvey. As much as the media has covered it, our minds cannot take it in. To help us truly fathom it, experts set up mind-blowing comparisons. Here are a few. It is truly unbelievable. But most…
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!…
The Matthew 25 Initiative Opens up a Website
Dear Friends, I am happy to announce that the Matthew 25 website is up and operational. I worked with a great team of people around the Province get it done. In addition, many donors have stepped forward to provide the initial funding for this project. As funds continue to be available, we will open up…
