Dealing with Tough Financial Times: Money, Morale & Momentum, Part 5

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Jay F Guin

money-churchHere are Driscoll’s final 5 suggestions for maintaining morale and momentum in lean economic times —

5. Budgeting

Eat what you kill and have a monthly and quarterly budget that you watch so you do not get too far behind. If you do, and you then lay people off, their severance will cost you for months, which will put you even further behind financially than if you had the financial data to make cuts earlier. The days of an annual budget are gone. Things are changing so quickly that ministry leaders need to carefully track income and spending weekly, comb over monthly reports, and not make budgets in anything other than pencil beyond a quarter in advance. Changes to the budget need to be made quickly; otherwise poor reporting and slow responding will sink the ministry financially. Continue reading →

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Shrinking Congregations, Part 3 (Preaching Hebrews)

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Jay F Guin

cooperation.jpgSo what does yesterday’s post have to do with shrinking congregations? Well, not as much as my conservative friends might think, but it does matter a lot. Churches that forget to get around to teaching the boundaries of grace will soon have the problems the writer of Hebrews warned against.

Indeed, I think our preaching should mirror Hebrews, with powerful lessons on confidence and assurance interleaved between lessons against the dangers of falling away. We don’t need to make our members afraid so much as aware — we have confidence, yes, but a confidence that can be thrown away. And while I don’t believe we should build our theology on fear, fear has a place for the immature.

You see, if we don’t do this, in a generation or two, we’ll  have lost our members — not to the Baptists and Methodists, but to Satan. Continue reading →

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Dealing with Tough Financial Times: Money, Morale & Momentum, Part 4

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Jay F Guin

money-churchDriscoll continues the series with 9 suggestions for keeping staff morale up and church momentum going in lean times. Here are the first four —

1. Morale

The big dissatisfiers of staff are pay (including benefits) and policy, so the goal is to keep pay high and policy low, as is reasonable. Continue reading →

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Shrinking Congregations, Part 2 (Boundaries)

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Jay F Guin

cooperation.jpgMy Tuesday conversation with Greg Tidwell and Phil Sanders was illuminating in lots of ways. It certainly confirmed the rightness of the decision to meet. I had asked that we find a time to meet face to face before beginning the online dialogue. I just think you communicate better with people you know — and it’s hard to be mean to someone you’ve met (and there are times I really have to wrestle with the temptation to be mean.)

And I learned a lot about how they see the progressives. You see, they are genuinely concerned that the progressive movement is headed away from repentance and faith in Jesus. One asked whether we (me and Todd Deaver) believed that the fact a given sin is not a salvation issue makes the sin permissible? We said no. Continue reading →

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Dealing with Tough Financial Times: Money, Morale & Momentum, Part 3

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Jay F Guin

money-churchContinuing the series based on Mark Driscoll’s suggestions for coping with the recession —

7. Real Estate

This is the time for multi-campus churches to pursue real estate from dying and struggling churches that are facing an uncertain future and would benefit from a partnership that breathes life into them. This is also a good time for any church, if it is able, to pursue purchasing real estate because the market is down and prices are cheaper than they have been in many years. Continue reading →

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Amazing Grace: Can the Reader be Restored?

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Jay F Guin

grace2.jpgI get emails —

Jay,

I’ve been reading The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace online, and based on what the bible says and your interpretation of what the Hebrews passages say about a christian losing their salvation, I am pretty sure I fit into that category. I was raised in the church of Christ, baptized at eleven years of age (I am 53 now) but never grew or matured as a Christian. I have tried a few times but always end up giving in to temptation. In all these years I’ve committed many sins. I guess this would constitute rebelling against God. Continue reading →

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Dealing with Tough Financial Times: Money, Morale & Momentum, Part 2

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Jay F Guin

money-churchThe next 3 points from Mark Driscoll’s advice on coping with the recession —

4. Fairness

When financial cuts need to be made, don’t subscribe to fairness and make cuts across the board and across all ministries and staff members.

Instead, fund your core ministries and key leaders first and best. Continue reading →

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Shrinking Congregations, Part 1

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Jay F Guin

cooperation.jpgIt’s been an interesting week. I spent Tuesday meeting with Todd Deaver, Phil Sanders, and Greg Tidwell planning our GraceConversation dialogue. Toward the end of our meeting, Greg described how many Churches of Christ that have added an instrumental service are losing members, rather than growing as they’d hoped. Richland Hills is, of course, a major exception.

Then on Wednesday I attended our weekly elders meeting, and some of my fellow elders were describing how their (conservative) home congregations were dying — losing members, aging, and having no young members join them. There are, of course, exceptions, but around here, there aren’t many. Continue reading →

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Dealing with Tough Financial Times: Money, Morale & Momentum, Part 1

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Jay F Guin

money-churchMy congregation’s giving is under budget. Tuscaloosa is actually much better off than many communities. I imagine there are many churches in near-desperate circumstances. And so I thought I’d share some financial advice from Mark Driscoll, at Seattle’s Mars Hill Church.

Driscoll is an interesting personality. He’s been extremely successful at building a maga-church in one of the most unchurched communities in the country. He is theologically conservative — a neo-Calvinist — and yet methodologically on the cutting edge. Continue reading →

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Instrumental Music: A Question About Transitions

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Divided churchIn a recent Christian Chronicle article, it was noted that Churches of Christ in the United States had elected to omit 21 congregations that have added an instrumental worship service, but several other congregations with instrumental services had been included by accident.

I figure this means we have at least 25 congregations with an instrumental service, and yet I’ve only heard about Richland Hills and Quail Springs. Richland Hills’ decision became well known, I’m sure, because it’s the largest of our congregations (not to mentioned Dave Miller’s book declaring them damned), and Quail Spring became famous because of the ads run in the Daily Oklahoma declaring them apostate. Continue reading →

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