Calculator_ ink pen and financial sheets

Lovett H. Weems Jr. says paying attention to various indices of your congregation's financial health is a key practice in remaining economically viable and sustaining vital ministry. He offers nine questions to help focus attention on important considerations related to your church's long-term financial sustainability.

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Person writing in a notebook on a table covered with index cards that say IDEAS
 
Missouri Pastor Jim Hoffman discusses how a five-step process for evaluating and testing possible new initiatives can help churches develop and implement ideas in a more thorough and systematic manner.

The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions. 

Psychologist Gary Klein uses the concept of "premortem" to analyze a potential new endeavor. While "postmortems" begin after death, a "premortem" assumes the worst for the new undertaking. People are asked to imagine that it is a year from now and the project was a total fiasco. It failed miserably. Then they discuss this question:

Why did it fail?

A person_s cupped hands holding a seedling in soil

Managing church finances requires skill, dedication, and know-how, but also the heart of a steward. Protect, Sustain, Grow: Best Practices for Handling Your Church's Money provides practical advice, best practices, and resources for pastors, finance committee members, church treasurers, financial secretaries, and bookkeepers -- all those charged with the sacred trust of protecting, sustaining, and growing the resources God has entrusted to your church.

Support the Lewis Center

Leading Ideas is made possible by contributions to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership from readers like you. Thank you.

Friendly person waving in front of a church

We asked church members in several states to attend nearby churches as visitors and report on their findings. Many reflected on the difficult y churches have in viewing things from the perspective of persons new to their church. The challenge is to think of everything from arrival to departure -- signage, hospitality, bulletins, and more -- from the vantage point of someone who has never been to your church before.

Quotable Leadership

It is dangerous to pretend that we know more than we do about how the future will turn out.

Gary Hamel and Jim Scholes
Serious Answers to Hard Questions

In this thought-provoking video-based congregational study, leading theologians address ten issues that are obstacles to faith for many both in and outside of the church. Topics include the existence of evil, the relationship between science and religion, the sins of the church, and more. Serious Questions to Hard Answers is an outstanding introductory level study that appeals to a very wide audience and is ideal for your congregation's small groups, adult Bible studies, and Sunday School classes.


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