October 17, 2022
Generosity Action Steps for Church Leaders
Kent Fillinger shares four action steps your church’s leaders can take to help prompt people to take the next step in their generosity journey.
Articles for tag: Missions Giving
April 22, 2021
Would You Choose This Man as Your Minister?
Our “pulpit was empty.” In the jargon of our church that meant that our professional orator in residence had left us for greener pastures and we were on the prowl for another. Then we got this letter from some preacher fellow that wanted to come for two weeks and live with us and preach to us on three Sundays.
September 29, 2018
No Small Measure
The statistics from four small-town churches stood out in our 2017 Christian Standard survey. But numbers never tell the whole story. What were the real reasons for their growth in baptisms, attendance, and giving? By Kelly Carr “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes—how do you measure, measure a year?” These are lyrics from “Seasons of Love,” a song from the Broadway show Rent. Church leaders may find themselves asking the same question when they reflect back on a year of ministry at their church: How do you measure a year or season of ministry? You often measure ministry
July 5, 2018
Special Church Report Part 3: Small and Very Small Churches
By Kent Fillinger This is the final installment in a trilogy of articles from our annual church survey. If you missed the updates on megachurches and emerging megachurches from May and large and medium churches from June, I suggest you backtrack and read those articles—and view those charts—as well. For the first time, our survey included churches with attendances of fewer than 250. We received responses from 77 small churches (average weekly worship attendance of 100 to 249) and 51 very small churches (attendance of fewer than 100). Click here to access “The 2017 Charts: Small and Very Small
January 12, 2018
Open Your Eyes to Manage the Finances of the Church
By Brad Dupray We lived in fear. It could happen at any time. We stood with our freshly shined shoes on the edge of the carpet scanning the mall. Waiting. Watching. Our shoe store’s district manager would show up only about once a month, but when he did, we knew we were in for it. He had a knack for finding those things we didn’t see. We were “store blind.” Store blindness happens when the proprietor or employees of a retail store walk into the environment so many times that they simply don’t perceive the little things—the crooked table, the
November 4, 2017
The Church and Global MissionsÂ
By Kent E. Fillinger With 195 countries and 7.5 billion people in the world as of April 2017, we have our work cut out for us in fulfilling Christ”s commission. Therefore, every church should have a clear global-missions strategy. I surveyed 148 churches in late August to gain a better understanding of the current status of global missions in our movement. The survey size was somewhat small, but the responses included a nice cross-section of churches:  “¯37 small churches (average worship attendance of fewer than 250) “¯38 medium-size churches (attendance of 250″“499) “¯29 large churches (attendance of 500″“999) 22 emerging
November 17, 2014
Now They Are Receiving
By Craig and Shirley Woolsey After graduating from Ozark Christian College, we worked for almost three decades in the capital city of Santiago, Chile. When we left the United States, the oldest of our five children was just entering his teens, so we moved into a middle-class neighborhood in Santiago and looked for Chilean schools where some English was spoken. We found a school, but of greater importance, we realized few of our neighbors had any connection to a church. The higher classes in Chile might have been called an “unreached people group” in the 1970s! Craig began making contacts,
November 7, 2014
Missions Ministries that Work: First Christian Church
By Jim Book At First Christian Church, we support missions directly connected with churches of Christ and Christian churches that also value the Restoration Movement plea. The money designated for missions is allocated in three specific areas of ministry. One portion goes directly to Timothys sent from this church who are still directly connected to this church family. We are blessed to have Timothys in South Sudan and Japan, as well as a team preparing to minister in Jordan. A second portion goes to missions directly involved in church planting, discipleship making, and local church leadership training. The third portion
May 18, 2013
New Home Brings New Growth
By Kent E. Fillinger What a difference a new home makes! Legacy Christian Church of Senoia, Georgia, started in March 2009 with a core group of 59 believers. Legacy met in an inconveniently located elementary school for three and one-half years. The church desired a permanent home and looked for an existing warehouse or storefront to meet its needs. The church”s leaders looked at 66 different properties but couldn”t find one with the right combination of space and parking. Eventually God opened the door to a great 20-acre property two counties away. The new location had excellent visibility from a
November 10, 2012
Perhaps a Little Guilt Can Be a Good Thing
By Jennifer Johnson In 2011, Americans spent more than $1 billion on scrapbooking supplies. They spent more than 100 times that on fast food and, unbelievably, another $1 billion on the Facebook game Farmville. Anyone who”s grown up in a Protestant church in America has experienced “missions angst”””that gnawing guilt for having so much material wealth and good food while missionaries in foreign countries eat goat and wear discarded American T-shirts. We admire them, but we don”t want to be one of them, which we feel guilty about. We write a check once or twice a year, and know we
September 16, 2012
Why We Believe in Faith Promise
By Jim Bird What”s faith promise? I had never heard of faith promise and now I was expected to lead it! I became the lead minister at Fort Caroline Christian Church in Jacksonville, Florida, in summer 2009. Soon I asked how we fund our missions giving and was told we do it through faith promise giving. It is an approach I didn”t know, but I soon decided I would preach two sermons on missions and stewardship, and then, on Faith Promise Sunday, our folks would make God-directed commitments to support our missions. With that in mind, I determined to learn
November 13, 2011
WJU Makes Connections in One-Day Fund-raiser
By Jennifer Taylor  This fall, William Jessup University (Rocklin, CA) tried a new approach to fund-raising””and set a record in the process. Vice President for Advancement Eric Hogue had three goals: to recruit new donors, help WJU students, and to raise the money without taking the staff away from work. “Give:24″ accomplished all three. Every member of the staff, faculty, and administration was encouraged to participate by asking 24 friends and family members to give $24 each. They made the requests and promoted the effort via social media and e-mail during the month of August; donors could give online during
June 16, 2011
Our Finest Hour, Our Ongoing Challenge
By LeRoy Lawson My subject today is missions. Please don”t yawn. Sometimes preachers are made to feel a little defensive when promoting this essential part of a church”s life. Announce a “missions emphasis weekend” and watch the attendance plummet. Announce that giving has been falling behind and expenses have to be cut and you can count on a chorus of calls to slash missions giving. It”s a hard sell””this missions enterprise. That”s why I bring the subject up. Please don”t be cynical, either. You might object that I think this matter is so important only because I work for a
September 13, 2009
MEDIUM-SIZED CHURCHES: The Elephant in the Room
by Kent E. Fillinger Describing the 66 medium-sized churches analyzed in this issue reminds me of the old fable of the blind men who each touched a different part of an elephant and then tried to describe what the animal looked like. The men disagree based on the part of the elephant they touched and their personal perspective. For the last four years, 3:STRANDS Consulting has partnered with Christian Standard to conduct in-depth research of Christian church/church of Christ megachurches and emerging megachurches. For the first time, the same research survey was completed by churches with average worship attendances of
December 7, 2008
Nurturing Missions Partnerships
By Janie Mehaffey READ THE SIDEBAR: “Church Pursues More Active Partnerships” by Janie Mehaffey    A church cuts off support to a missionary after 20 years. Is it a travesty or a natural progression of ministry? Church and mission leaders are considering this and other mission-giving questions after Sam Stone stirred up the topic in his May 11 CHRISTIAN STANDARD column, “Second Thoughts About Mission Giving.” Sam”s article pondered, “What constitutes missions giving?” and “What responsibility does the church have?” Whether looking at it from the church”s perspective or through the eyes of a mission/parachurch organization, the view
