Last week I attended a dinner at a church where Danny and Kathy Dickriede told their story.  Kathy is a Deacon and on the staff at Mentor.  The Dickriedes have committed much of the last three years to missionary work in Africa with a great deal of 2009 in Liberia at Camphor Mission Station.  Here at […]

I think that working for a sausage factory would be a lot like working for the church.  There are some things you’re just better off not seeing behind the scenes. One thing that I have been very disappointed to learn in the three years that I have been with the Foundation is the state of stewardship education […]

I thought one of the most thought-provoking presentations at Annual Conference was Rev. Valerie Stultz’ analogy of the church as a family business.  I thought about retelling the story, but thought it would be better coming from her.  Here is the much boiled-down version she provided.  I was raised in a family business – truly. […]

Largely lost in the cycle of annual conference was an announcement that the churches of East Ohio had donated  $634,423.74 for relief in Haiti.  This is money that people donated through their local churches to UMCOR for this important cause. That’s a lot of money.  Of the nearly 800 local churches in the conference there are […]

I’ve had many requests for copies of the information I presented at Annual Conference last week.  Below is my report in its entirety.  Take what is helpful and leave the rest. They say it’s good to summarize at the beginning of the presentation.  So here’s my summary.  This is the fourth consecutive day you have […]

I had a great consultation with a local church last week.  The topic was starting an endowment fund and a planned giving program.  By the end of June I will have had this conversation with four different churches this month. When I do these, I am interested to see who the group is that I’m […]

We’ve had a soggy spring.  My daughter pointed out that the grass is good and green.  She credits it all to the rain. She’s partly right.  Without enough rain the grass wouldn’t be nearly as green. But it’s also true that I have spent my weekends maximizing how healthy my well-watered grass is.  I use both […]

Last week Rev. Fred Leasure, my counterpart from Western Pennsylvania, was talking with our board about a number of issues around church finance, stewardship and UM Foundations.  He had 10 great bullet points and one of them really stuck with me. Seek the Kingdom, not the Castle. He was saying that churches should not get […]

I spent some time with my good friend Dave last week.  In our hour-long conversation there were two pieces that at the time I thought were completely disconnected, but now I think they’re tied together. On one hand we were talking about the United Methodist church where he and his family are members.  The first […]

“When I was a young man I was too shy to kiss my best girl.  Boy was I hopping mad when I found out that she wasn’t shy and had been kissing all the boys in town.” I have had lots of conversations with lots of people in lots of churches, but that was my […]