Stewardship &amp; Generosity

Preacher, Crew, to Climb Volcano

Greg Nettle, senior pastor at RiverTree Christian Church (Massillon, OH), is one of nine guys climbing a volcano in the Andes Mountains this month! Nettle and his team leave for Ecuador tomorrow; while there they will climb four mountains including Cotopaxi, the second-highest summit in the country and one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. The last 5,000 feet of the climb will be over the world’s largest equatorial glacier! The nine climbers, all part of RiverTree, are raising $100,000 for ChildReach Ministries and Compassion International. Click here to watch Greg and two teammates discuss the trip and

December 24, 2010

Church Offers Year-End Offering Opportunity

“Being a part of this church has changed my life! I am in a very difficult financial place right now so finding an extra $20 is hard. I do, however, have these rings to give. Thank you, I have been able to make it through the darkest time because every Sunday you are all here for me.” Inspired by this note, the team at 2|42 Community Church (Howell, MI) created a special year-end offering opportunity””“The Original Christmas Gift.” Just as the wise men gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus, members were encouraged to bring their gold (in

October 8, 2010

“˜Give 10 for 5,000″²

Central India Christian Mission has designated October as “Give 10 for 5,000” month. It is asking supporters to give $10 each to provide 5,000 copies of the Hindi Family Pictorial Bible, which CICM first published in 1999 and which has played a vital role in sharing the good news with children and illiterate adults in India. Click here to find more information and to access bulletin inserts, posters, videos, and PowerPoint presentations!

September 27, 2010

10,000 Pairs of Shoes for Romania

Andy Baker, an alumnus of Milligan College in Tennessee and founder of Remember the Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to meeting the needs of Romanian families, spoke about shoes in Milligan”s chapel last Thursday. And students, faculty, and friends donated shoes to the cause. “10,000 shoes,” an initiative to collect 10,000 pairs of shoes in 10 months for Romanian children, captured the attention of Milligan students like Rachel Severns. She rallied students across the campus to meet the goal and even collected donations from the public. “Our students are excited about this campaign and combining the heart of the students

September 23, 2010

Tweeting for Haitian Children

Northwest Haiti Christian Mission has partnered with a variety of organizations to raise money for a Miriam Center, a home and therapy center for Haitian children with cerebral palsy, severe autism, and other challenges. One of the partners””A Home in Haiti“”launched TwitChange last week to raise money for the cause by giving bidders the chance to have more than 150 celebrities follow them or mention them on Twitter or retweet their message. Celebrities participating include Eva Longoria, Shaquille O”Neal, Demi Moore, and many others. Read more about the project on NWHCM”s Web site or click here to visit TwitChange. The

June 27, 2010

Great and Mighty Things

By Chuck Booher What is the best way to conduct a financial campaign when 14 percent of your county is unemployed and your offerings are barely making budget every week? Any sane person would probably say the best answer is, “You don”t!” You just don”t do a financial campaign in a down economy. Several months back, however, I found myself wrestling through this predicament. Truth was, not having a campaign was NOT an option. I had become senior pastor of Crossroads Christian Church three years prior and inherited several obstacles that had been worked through. The last hurdle to jump

April 28, 2010

Stewardship & Generosity

Pondering the Demands on My Abundance

By Mark A. Taylor This March I accompanied a small group of ministers as they saw firsthand the work of Christian Missionary Fellowship in Kenya. When we walked through slums in the capital city, Nairobi, all of us experienced squalor and poverty that none of us will ever forget. But as I write this, after one week home from the visit, I”m still deciding what to do with what I discovered there. Accompanied by CMF-employed social workers, Doug Priest and I visited one of the slum homes. Jane, a single mother, lives there with her mother and her two children.

March 28, 2010

The Blessings of Scarcity

By Stephen Bond I meet for lunch every month with four other senior pastors who serve in my community. I”m surprised by the openness of each pastor in sharing the unique hurdles and challenges his church faces. But one challenge we”ve all wrestled with in the past two years is finances. The economic downturn has affected our churches in different degrees””but we”ve all felt the crunch. In our state, Nevada, unemployment hovers near 13 percent. When people don”t have jobs, it often means they don”t have money to support their local church. This inevitably affects the financial resources churches have

January 30, 2010

Guaranteed Returns

By Jeff Faull Can I share the talk I had with myself recently? I said, “Self, what few assets you possess are not really yours; they are God”s. And in these tough economic times you need to protect and use God”s money wisely. “But where is a safe place for God”s money? Is it the bank? Is it the stock market? Are CDs the way to go? Can it bolster my sagging 401k? Should I buy precious metals? Should I hide it under the proverbial mattress or bury it in the backyard?” Perhaps you have had similar conversations with yourself

July 1, 2009

Establishing the Work of Our Hands

By Mark A. Taylor The picture (which accompanied the article “It’s Simple” by Luke Erickson and Tom Moen in this week’s print edition)Â reminds us of the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31: “She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy” (v. 20). She is typical of men and women described in our series ongoing through 2009. The theme (borrowed from last year”s National Missionary Convention) “Get Your Hands Dirty” connects their stories. We”ve included in their number not only those whose hands are literally soiled by digging wells, collecting trash, remodeling mission outposts, or

June 3, 2009

Much More Important Than Money

By Mark A. Taylor Why do some committees work well, while others only spin their wheels? Why do some groups of elders lead effectively while others baffle with their poor choices or inability to decide? Why are some colleges, missions, and similar ministries directed into effective futures by their trustees while others only tread water? Whole books have been written to answer questions like those, but insight from an unlikely source bears some attention. The article appeared April 25 in The Wall Street Journal. In his column, “The Intelligent Investor,” Jason Zweig discussed a host of bad decisions made by

May 24, 2009

What We Learned from Hard Times

Â By John Plunkett Thirty-two years ago, when I was interviewing for a ministry position with Creve Coeur (Illinois) Christian Church, it quickly became clear the church was dependent on the workforce of Caterpillar. My wife, who was invited to sit in on part of the interview process, asked a simple question: What happens if Caterpillar goes on strike?Â The answer was reassuring: Caterpillar had not been out on a strike in years and the company was enjoying the best of economic times. I accepted the position, and 18 months into our ministry, Caterpillar union employees went out on strike.

May 10, 2009

It Doesn”t Take a Village

Â By Jennifer Taylor “Would you like to use your Macy”s card?” the sales clerk asked. She paused, one hand on the price tag of the new shirt. “No, thank you,” said Laquita. “You can take an extra 20 percent off!” the clerk prompted. “Not today, but thanks,” Laquita answered again with a polite smile. Suddenly Laquita”s two daughters joined the conversation. “Credit cards aren”t good,” piped up Jada, 8. “We don”t have them.” Four-year-old Jamiah stood on tiptoes and gripped the edge of the counter. “We don”t like credit cards!” she added. Laquita”s eyes shine as she tells the

March 22, 2009

Church Loans, Risky Loans?

Â by Darrel Rowland It”s not weakness in the stock market or real estate sales that concerns Doug Crozier the most about whether churches can repay their loans from the Church Development Fund.Â It”s weakness of the flesh. “This current economic scenario scares me, but my biggest risk in making loans to churches is moral failure in the pulpit, not economic bad times,” says Crozier, CDF president. The Church Development Fund, based in California, currently has about 450 loans worth $650 million for Restoration Movement facilities in 41 states. Most are church buildings, although the list includes a handful of

March 22, 2009

The Greed Factor

Â by Karen R. Rees Â Money is a great motivator. It has enticed 240,000 women, mainly from the Philippines and now increasingly from Indonesia, to Hong Kong to work as household servants. For the last 27 years my husband and I have served a church mostly made up of these women, so I know their stories well. They come here because the economies in their countries have been ruined by private and governmental greed and corruption. The women, all from the low-income bracket, dream of building a house, helping their husband start a small business, or sending a child

March 18, 2009

Our Money Can Point People to Jesus

By Mark A. Taylor In a day when physical needs are multiplying and some non-Christians ridicule or distrust the church, extravagant giving by Christians is sure to get attention. So it”s no surprise that Waterfront Community Church in Schaumburg, Illinois, has received national coverage. The church gives away each week”s offering! (See this week’s “Buzz.”) But the church didn”t begin the practice to get publicity. According to “servant of pastoral care” Jim Semradek, Waterfront”s strategy is simply to point people to Jesus. In an interview on K-LOVE radio, he said, “Money is a tremendous vehicle to help people consider God.”

January 18, 2009

Harvest of Talents: More Than Money

Â By Pat Snyder Lincoln (Illinois) Christian Church”s “Harvest of Talents for World Hunger” is a unique ministry that calls on people to use their God-given talents to raise funds to fight world hunger. It is a partnership with International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES) based in Kempton, Indiana, that has sent money and food to hungry people around the world since the mid-1980s. When it first started in 1984, it included only the Lincoln church family (from toddlers to seniors), along with residents of local nursing facilities and shut-ins. It has grown to include participation from others in this country

January 4, 2009

Small Groups that Give and Live Graciously

By Brian Mavis What would happen if a church gave back to her small groups half of what the groups tithed and asked them to invest the money in ministry? I had pondered this for a few years. I wondered whether the people in the small groups would be motivated to give more, and what they would choose to do with the money. When I joined the staff at LifeBridge Christian Church, Longmont, Colorado, I shared some of these thoughts and questions with the leaders and elders, and I was floored when they said, “Let”s find out.” Before I share

November 19, 2008

Thankful for Our Riches

By Mark A. Taylor When Sam Stone wrote this week”s “Reflections” column earlier this fall, he couldn”t have known a cataclysmic financial crisis and stock market roller coaster would become headlines. But his advice rings true as we finish this issue and the country remains in the throes of economic uncertainty. No one in October is predicting what the state of the economy will be by the Thanksgiving holiday. (Except, that is, to say that retailers are bracing for less than usual consumer spending in December.) If the situation has righted itself by the time you read this, we”ll all

August 17, 2008