What’s Really Causing Church Decline … and What We Can Do About It
How can we renew the church’s identity and help in join God’s work in the 21st century?
Clergy
I’m here to find resources that can help me innovate faithfully and renew Christian communities.
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Being Good Stewards of Time
Adam Walker Cleaveland on the stewardship of summertime.
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The Range of Changes
Stewardship guru Keith Mundy reflects on some shifts he’s seen in recent years and what they mean for our ministry leadership.
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An Empty Offering Plate
Laura Wilhelm describes how her congregation’s context developed a local practice of having practically empty offering plates.
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Keep it Simple
Beyond faith communities, the second most popular place for charitable giving is colleges and universities. Given that fact, this week I’ve invited a college friend of mine, Matt Fedde, to share his wisdom for our audience from his expertise working in digital giving at St. Olaf College. Most of his advice will translate easily to…
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Why Does the Church Need Innovation?
How design thinking can apply to ministry—not for its own sake, but to discover and follow where the Holy Spirit is leading.
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Giving Alone
Many assumptions accompany the way we do church. Some of these theological and cultural assumptions are helpful to tie us together. Others can push us apart. Further complicating things, they’re assumptions we’re often not even aware of in the first place. In today’s post, Grace Duddy Pomroy writes about an assumption many church leaders make…
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Winner-Takes-All? Gaming Church Structures
While we seek another way, the mindset of our culture is obsessed with winning and losing. Someone’s going to end up on top. Another party is defeated. Survival of the fittest. Yet, Christians seek another way, even when it’s so very hard. In today’s post, Robert Walker calls us to a new way of imagining…
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What the Spiritual Life Inventory Reveals about the Health of Our Churches
What does the Spiritual Life Inventory reveal about the health of our churches–and how might your congregation compare?
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Why Jesus?
Share stories of faith and listen deeply to others.
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Gratitude & Grace
There are many G-words in the English-speaking church world; God, Good, Glory, Giving. But in the work of stewardship and congregation maintenance, peering closely at budgets and the results of giving campaigns, squinting at the numbers can obscure the big “G”s of Grace and Gratitude. This week, Sean Mitchell explains the importance of gratitude strategies…
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Five pitfalls to avoid when evaluating the senior minister
There is no one right way to evaluate the performance of a senior minister. However, there are many ways to do it that can harm the relationship between minister and the congregation.
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Unwrapping the Annual Campaign
The annual stewardship appeal ripples through many congregations in the fall, but the planning should begin much earlier. In today’s post, my colleague Catherine Malotky shares some of her congregation’s takeaways from last year’s campaign. It’s not too early — in fact, it’s the perfect time now — to start thinking about your approach to…
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No More Junk Mail
Stewardship ministry is about big, conceptual, theological challenges. And, it’s also be about smaller, tactical, practical choices. In today’s newsletter I consider how quarterly giving statements might function as inspiration, and not just another piece of junk mail. Yours truly, Adam J. Copeland, Center for Stewardship Leaders It took a few months, but I finally…
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Together For Good
As we tumble into the Easter season, we remember stories about how the disciples first banded together to relish and share news of the Resurrection, and can examine room for collaboration in our own ministry contexts. Individualism and even social media can reinforce the idea that we’re telling stories independently from each other, but sharing the Gospel…
