The good folks at Luther Seminary have a great blog Stewardship for the 21st Century. In a recent post they offer some suggested questions when a local church’s Call Committee interviews a potential pastor. Lutheran churches hire their own pastors, as opposed to the United Methodist intinerant system. So these are presented as questions critical […]

I spend a lot of time listening to people who are smarter than I am. Perhaps because there are so many of them out there! Marcus Buckingham is a pretty smart guy and a management guru. One of his basics is that we need to do a self-assessment and figure out what our strengths are […]

I was speaking with a pastor a few weeks ago and as we parted I felt very good about his church’s money culture. He was looking for resources he could share with his Finance Committee about healthy money cultures in churches. This happens sometimes when a church is in real trouble and the minister is […]

Two years ago I didn’t know I needed to be able to check my email on my phone at a red light. I didn’t know I needed to be able to play Angry Birds at the dentist office. I didn’t know I needed the weather radar and 10 day forecast whenever I wanted it. But […]

This post does not take sides in the ongoing debate about rights of homosexuals in our nation and our church. Please don’t pretend that it does. Conservative US Senator Rob Portman surprised many a few weeks ago when he announced that his position on gay marriage had changed. After learning that his son, Will, is […]

Get the right legs, under the right table, asking the right questions

As we are all aware, there are plenty of Americans sitting on couches on Sunday morning. Sure, some are coaching soccer, eating hash brown casserole at Cracker Barrel or walking in the park, but whatever it is they’re doing, what they’re not doing is coming to church. But once in a while, a few of […]

Last week I posted about my distaste for most donor recognition programs in churches.  Based on some emails I have received, I want to make clear the difference between recognizing donors and acknowledging donors. Donor recognition publicly lifts up certain donors, such as a listing in the program at Playhouse Square or a giving tree […]

Earlier this week the Cleveland Browns announced that First Energy is paying huge money for the stadium to be named after the electric company.  It’s a win-win:  the Browns get a huge infusion of cash and First Energy gets some good PR and visibility in the community. This practice, of course, is not new.  When I was […]

A week or two ago the family and I went to see Les Miserables at the movie theater.  We rarely go see a movie, but figured a classic story as a foundation for a great spectacle of show makes this worth seeing on the big screen rather than through the TV. It was a good […]