When Hurricane Katrina hit in September of 2005 it not only did a tremendous amount of damage to the Gulf Coast, but it also brought very real human needs to our television every night, needs that weren’t a continent away affecting people with a vastly different culture, but folks we could relate to. Before that, […]
November 2, 2012
It was a pretty serious phone call. A minister said that he was very concerned about his church’s stewardship program and asked if we could meet for an hour in a few weeks. I agreed and he offered to send me information about his last several years, both giving and expenses. On a hunch, I […]
October 8, 2012
It was one of those strange news items that appeared as the final story on a lot of broadcasts a few weeks ago. Dr. Michael Norton, a business professor at Harvard, did the research and was able to prove that money does, indeed, buy happiness. To be honest, my first thought was that money also […]
October 2, 2012
In the name of transparency (and perhaps to goad more in donations) many churches are fond of putting financial information in the bulletin. It usually goes something like this: Amount received last week: $800. Amount necessary each week: $1,000. Some with the guts to do so will add something like, Last week’s deficit: $200. And […]
September 24, 2012
I am a self-proclaimed Methodist Geek and I’m about to determine if you are one as well. If the phrase “16 Drivers” brings about thoughts of high school sophomores behind the wheel of a car, congratulations. You’re not one of us. But if you immediately went to the Call to Action, welcome to the dark […]
September 17, 2012
On Friday I had a rare opportunity. I spent the day with Rev. Clif Christopher, author of Not Your Parents Offering Plate, as he consulted with a half dozen local churches. He looked at a bunch of things, like average giving levels and how they compare with the national average. He spent a lot of […]
September 11, 2012
I am so grateful for the many, many reactions I received to last week’s post about my Katrina experiences. And I watched with some degree of relief to see that New Orleans area fared much better this time around than they did seven years ago. But two realities remain: After 7 years, there is still […]
September 3, 2012
Seven years ago I, along with most of the country, watched the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and wanted to help. With the benefit of a connectional denomination, we quickly found how we could help, Antioch UMC in Laurel, Mississippi was coordinating clean up in their rural area about an hour north of the coast. I was blessed […]
August 29, 2012
You see those ice machines everywhere, big white freezers sitting in front of gas stations, convenience stores, sometimes it’s just them, plugged into an outlet on a utility pole. But there’s a funny thing about this industry. No one needs ice. Think about it, you may think you need to add ice to your cooler […]
August 27, 2012
