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The Official Unofficial Staff Member

As a PK, I grew up with my parents serving on staff together at a small church. My dad was the pastor, and my mom didn't get paid, but make no mistake, they both worked there. Growing up with it, it never struck me as odd or out of place. These days, they even have a name for her: First Lady!

I had a staff member from a church I was working with hit me with this.

We hired a new staff member last week. Well, we didn't really hire her, but she started coming to our management meetings, the Pastor doesn't make any major decisions without asking her, and I think we even started paying her. (And I'm ok with that, because she's here 50 hours a week anyway!) Strangely enough, she has the same last name as the pastor, and rumor has it that they're sleeping together. Good thing they're married!

I couldn’t help but laugh. As a PK, I grew up with my parents serving on staff together at a small church. My dad was the pastor, and my mom didn't get paid, but make no mistake, they both worked there. Growing up with it, it never struck me as odd or out of place. These days, they even have a name for her: First Lady!

As an adult who works with churches daily, I can see the struggle that may exist. On one hand, the pastor’s wife plays an integral role in the ministry. She might lead a ministry and even speak from the main stage from time to time. She’s vital, and the pastor listens to her! On the other hand, how do you interact with someone who isn’t on staff or serve in any official capacity? Can you speak your mind openly? Are you free to offer criticism? Be careful, though. Handling this relationship poorly could be detrimental to your career in ministry!

How does it work in your church? Is there a good way or bad way for this to happen? What are the best (or worst) examples you've seen (in your church, or in another)?

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Banana Pudding and Business Processes: Perfecting Your Recipe for Success

When I was younger, my mom made the most incredible banana pudding. It wasn’t just pudding; it was custard—a delicate, flavorful, and complex dessert that was as unique as it was delicious. I loved it so much that I wanted to learn to make it myself. But when I asked for her recipe, she didn’t have one. Her process was intuitive, a series of steps perfected over time but never written down.

So, I decided to learn the old-fashioned way: by watching her. The first time, I stood in the kitchen and observed. The second time, I worked alongside her, mimicking her every move. The third time, I took the reins while she supervised. Finally, I was able to replicate her pudding on my own and even write the recipe down to share with others.

It’s this same process I use in my work as a fractional CXO.

Uncovering Your “Secret Sauce”

Many entrepreneurs have built incredible businesses, but when asked to articulate their “secret sauce,” they often struggle. Their success is real but not always fully understood—even by them. This is where I come in.

Much like learning my mom’s banana pudding, I start by observing. I watch how you operate, from your financial strategies to your operational workflows. Then, I work alongside you, helping refine and replicate those processes. Finally, I step into your shoes, testing and proving the systems under your supervision. By the end of our collaboration, you have a well-documented, scalable, and repeatable “recipe” for success.

Why Fractional CXO Services Work

Hiring a full-time CFO, COO, or other executive can be cost-prohibitive for startups, small nonprofits, and businesses that are still growing. Yet these organizations often face complex challenges that require high-level expertise. That’s where a fractional CXO comes in.

By engaging fractional services, you get the benefit of a C-Suite executive’s full expertise but only pay for what you need. Think of it like hiring the world’s best chef to teach you one signature dish rather than hiring them to cook for you full time.

Scaling with Your Needs

The goal isn’t just to solve your immediate challenges—it’s to position you for long-term success. Whether you’re a startup navigating uncharted waters or a nonprofit making every dollar count, I help you establish the processes and insights you need to scale.

Just as I can now whip up my mom’s banana pudding anytime, you’ll have the tools and confidence to run your organization with precision and purpose.

Ready to perfect your recipe for success?

Let’s start by uncovering the ingredients that make your business unique. Together, we’ll refine your processes, empower your team, and set you up for sustainable growth.

Contact us today to learn more about fractional CXO services!

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Did you count this week?

Counting everyone who can fog a mirror every single week is unnecessary overhead. If it doesn't change the way we operate, or create an actionable metric, we don't bother

Did you count your attendees at church this week?

You might be thinking to yourself, "Duh! Of course we counted. We counted in the worship service, in the children's area, in Bible study classes and small groups. We counted our volunteers, cars in the parking lot, and anyone else who would stand still long enough to be counted."

Or, maybe you're in another camp. "Count? We don't care about numbers. We just want to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit. Numbers don't really matter."

Or maybe some of you had a third response, like this one I once heard from a thoughtful pastor. "No, we didn't count this week. We use a cycle count system. We only count the worship service once a month. We count Bible study classes and small groups at their first meeting, last meeting, and maybe once or twice in between. You see, for us, we don't take attendance…it's more like a census. We want to know how effective we are at reaching new people, and that we're retaining visitors, and that our members are getting involved, but counting everyone who can fog a mirror every single week is unnecessary overhead. If it doesn't change the way we operate, or create an actionable metric, we don't bother."

So, what did your church do? Is your way the right way, or is there a better way? 

If it doesn’t change the way we operate, or create an actionable metric, we don’t bother.
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Introverted and Lonely?

Introverted and Lonely—Two words that you probably wouldn’t use to describe your pastor, but are probably accurate

You hear him speaking to you week after week. There’s a sort of familiarity, intimacy even, that you feel when you look at him. His words pierce your soul, because he knows you, he really knows you. But does he?

His words pierce your soul, because he knows you, he really knows you. But does he?

You and I are among a sea of faces that he sees every week. He genuinely wants to know us, to care for us, to love us. And I truly believe that in his heart of hearts, he does, at least to whatever extent he can. But how well can anyone really know an entire congregation of people?

I suspect it’s similar to the way we view celebrities. If you’ve ever met a celebrity in public, it’s a strange sensation. Our brains instantly spark with recognition and familiarity…we know this person! Yet we are not surprised when they don’t know our names if we ask for an autograph. I mean, of course they don’t know who we are, right? They are the celebrity, not us. But why is it still hard to shake the feeling that maybe they should still know us?

But pastors are different, right? After all, we’ve probably actually met before. We’ve spoken to them, shared our names, maybe shared our stories, even sometimes even shared our struggles and sin. They’ve counseled us, consoled us, and comforted us. How could they not know us?

If we stop and think about it, do we really know them either? Do we know their struggles and sin? Do we know their fears and fantasies, their joys and sorrows, their startling successes and their utter failures? Unless their inner life became a sermon illustration, or their sin became very (and certainly painfully) public, we probably do not. 

Our pastor may not know us, but most of us are fortunate enough to have a close circle of family and friends who do know us, people we can be ourselves in front of without shame, fear of retribution, or any necessary pretense or show of strength. We are free to be ourselves. 

But what about pastors? For them, I think it’s a lot tougher.  Whether it’s true or not, they feel the need to have it all together for their congregation. They want to show strength and confidence to their staff. They want their elders, deacons, board or leadership team to have confidence in their decision-making and leadership. And the hold themselves to a higher standard. Scripture even seems supports this notion (James 3:1). 

If you think you deal with imposter syndrome, imagine how a pastor must feel?

I’ve come to the conclusion that being a pastor must be one of the loneliest professions in the world.

I’ve come to the conclusion that being a pastor must be one of the loneliest professions in the world. Who can they talk to? Who can they confess to or confide in? To whom do they admit weakness, uncertainty, or fear? Their spouses? Of course. But is that always enough? Other pastors? Maybe, if they know any and are willing to be vulnerable. Their small group? Probably not, at least not fully, any more than they could open up to their staff or elders. What a burden of responsibility pastors carry! And how sad, how terribly sad, that the enemy whispers to them that they must carry that burden alone. 

In my experience, introvertedness often goes hand-in-hand with loneliness. Of course, not all pastors are introverted, and more than all pastors are lonely. And there’s certainly not a causal relationship between the two: being introverted does not make one lonely, nor does being lonely make one introverted. But I find the all-too-common correlation seemingly undeniable. 

I am an extrovert. And just so we’re clear about how I define the term, it means that I am energized by being around other people. That doesn’t mean I always love large groups of people, or even small groups of people, just that I renew my energy more efficiently and effectively when I am around others than I do by being alone. 

Most pastors I know … are generally more energized after having time alone. 

Most pastors I know are the opposite. That doesn’t mean they don’t like being around groups of people, just that it tends to drain them, not energize them. They are generally more energized after having time alone. 

Does that mean we should leave pastors alone? That’s not what I’m saying at all. I just think that a healthy awareness of their natural tendencies might help us practice the Golden Rule and “do unto pastors as we would have done unto us.” 

Many introverts will say that they benefit from one-on-one (or one-on-a-few) time with close friends. So as we seek to encourage pastors and help them battle the loneliness that would otherwise plague them, we should do this with an awareness of their potentially introverted nature. 

Throwing a party with 500 of their closest friends is not apt to energize an introvert! And, frankly, it probably won’t do anything to help his loneliness, either!

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Knowing and Sharing Your Story

If you want the opportunity to know and share your story, visit Todd and his team at https://www.315project.com/ or comment below and we’ll be happy to make an introduction!

Over the last several months, we’ve had the unique opportunity to work with Todd Miechiels at The 315 Project and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into this remarkable ministry. Take a look at this video.

If you want the opportunity to know and share your story, visit Todd and his team at https://www.315project.com/ or comment below and we’ll be happy to make an introduction!

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Shark Tank Exercise

Thinking about Shark Tank gave me an idea. Instead of trying to think of all the questions they need to be asking themselves, I decided to try to let the show lead them in the right direction.

I met with a couple of guys a few weeks ago. They have a business idea they were pitching. As I started asking questions, I felt a little like one of the investors on the ABC television series Shark Tank, only without a big checkbook!

I wanted to find a way to add value, though. So thinking about Shark Tank gave me an idea. Instead of trying to think of all the questions they need to be asking themselves, I decided to try to let the show lead them in the right direction. So I sent them this email.

Hi Guys!

Thanks for inviting me to meet with you today. I found the concept you’re exploring very interesting, and I hope that I can help you guys take next steps. 

Here’s some more information on your “homework.” Again, the goal of this exercise is to watch some episodes of Shark Tank to get a feel for the kinds of questions investors ask. Right now, you guys are the investors in your own product, so this will help you understand the kinds of questions you should be asking yourselves before investing another dollar. Then, as future ideas and opportunities come your way, you should have a good handle on the kinds of questions you’ll want to ask before getting involved. We’ll want to brainstorm product questions that would be specific to your product or products, but that’s a different exercise. For now, let’s focus on the business model questions. 

Here’s a link where you can stream the show for free: https://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/episode-guide 

As you watch, you’ll notice that the Sharks will ask a lot of questions. Don’t get bogged down with completely irrelevant questions, or questions that are hyper-specific to a product. It’s still a good exercise to write them all down, but if you try to catch every single question, it’s going to take you a LONG time to get through an episode, much less five. (I did that, or tried to, on my test case, just so you guys would have an example to follow. It took me about 15 to 20 minutes, I think.)

So, go ahead and watch five episodes, because you can glean a lot just by watching. Then instead of writing down the questions from every pitch in all five episodes, just pick five total pitches (about one per episode, or every pitch from an entire episode) and write down the questions from those. If each of you does that, it should give you enough question samples to get a good feel for the kinds of questions we’ll need to be able to answer about your product/business. 

It was helpful to write them down all together, as a list, then categorize them afterward by copy/pasting them under the appropriate heading. Here’s how you should group them:

THIS QUESTION DOESN’T APPLY TO OUR BUSINESS AND OTHER GENERAL STATEMENTS

THIS QUESTION MIGHT APPLY, BUT I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER

I DON’T UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION (We can discuss these)

THIS QUESTION APPLIES OR MIGHT APPLY TO OUR BUSINESS AND HERE’S MY ANSWER

Does this all make sense to you guys? Are you up for it?

Please let me know if you have any questions. Then let me know when you’re ready to have another conversation. 

I hope this is a fruitful exercise for you. And maybe a little fun!

Talk soon!

The resulting discussion was interesting, to say the least.

Maybe this exercise would be worthwhile in your organization? Even as a nonprofit, we still have to think about our customers and investors (donors), and see things from their point of view. Maybe this approach could help you find your next breakthrough?

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Underworked and overpaid

[Warning: Satire ahead!] Jobs in ministry are among the easiest of any industry. We get to do what we love for the people we love in an environment we love. What could be better than a frictionless environment where everyone loves one another, and puts the needs of others ahead of their own?

Jobs in ministry are among the easiest of any industry. We get to do what we love for the people we love in an environment we love. What could be better than a frictionless environment where everyone loves one another, and puts the needs of others ahead of their own? Every leader leads as a servant, and we're all striving for the same goals. 

As a worship leader, all I have to do is show up on Sunday morning and sing a few songs.

As a pastor, my naturally extroverted personality gets to stand on stage and soapbox about whatever's on my mind.

As a nonprofit leader, I get to follow my passions and do good in the world. And best of all, they actually pay me for this! It’s like being a professional Christian!

As the business administrator, I get to manage the financial affairs. Since cash flow is never an issue, I have lots of time to create beautiful reports and interesting charts. And everyone, including the youth pastor, turns their expense reports in on time!

What's that you say? You say I'm living in a dream world? That this isn't your reality? 

Comment below and tell me where I'm wrong. Maybe you can convince me…

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The Disconnect

The disconnect for nonprofits is that our customers, that is, those who use and benefit from our “products” are not the ones who provide the revenues.

One of the biggest adjustments I had to make in my transition from for-profit business to not-for-proft ministry has to do with the disconnect between our “customers” and our revenue. In business, the old adage is typically true: provide a great product at a great value, and the rest takes care of itself. In other words, focus on delivering a good product and the revenues will follow. (Simplistic, I know, but generally true.)

The disconnect for nonprofits is that our customers, that is, those who use and benefit from our “products” are not the ones who provide the revenues. In other words, we can hundreds of happy customers, customers who are eager to continue using our products and services, but our revenue does not necessarily correlate. 

Many nonprofits run at capacity for their staff and facility. They simply can’t add any more participants without sacrificing the quality of service they provide to the participants. In a for-profit paradigm, they could increase the price, and let the laws of supply and demand adjust our revenues, allowing them to invest in more personnel or additional facilities. But that approach simply doesn’t work in ministry. Accepting one child would mean rejecting another, which is an impossible choice. 

Don’t let there be a disconnect between the hearts and minds of your donors and the benefits you’re providing to others.

Sometimes we try to please our constituents/clients/participants. Sometimes we seek the approval of our donors or grant providers. Sometimes we simply aim to please our bosses or the board. But our goal, our one and only goal, should be pleasing God. He is our only audience. He is the maker and provider of every good thing! He is the one that connects the givers of the funds and the recipients of our ministry. And he works all things together for our good!

So keep trying to please God. And keep working and improving the quality of care in the goods and services you provide. And finally, make the effort to communicate to your donors all the good that you’re doing, all the smiles and joy you are bringing, all the problems you are solving, and all the volunteers you are mobilizing.

Don’t let there be a disconnect between the hearts and minds of your donors and the benefits you’re providing to others. Shout it from the rooftops! Be clear. Be consistent. Be relentless. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Never grow weary of telling your story and sharing your vision. Where God gives a vision, he always gives provision.

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What is a Professional Layman

As a professional layman, I deliberately and actively use my vocation and my vocational experiences and abilities to assist churches in their mission.

When I was 17 years old, I was wrestling with what I perceived to be a calling from God on my life. Not completely sure what that meant, I approached a mentor of mine in ministry to get wise counsel. His response surprised me a little, but I'll never forget it.

"Delton, there is so much more you can do as a layman. You have more freedom, more resources, more time. I'd give anything to still be a layman. Go out and be the best layman you can be. If God wants you in full time vocational ministry, he'll know where to find you."

So that's what I did. I went to college, got two degrees in business (finance and accounting), and pursued a career. At the same time, I was deliberate and intentional about being an effective layman. I stayed involved in church, and my family and I routinely gave our lives away.

As a professional layman, I deliberately and actively use my vocation and my vocational experiences and abilities to assist churches in their mission.

A couple of decades later, I sat at another crossroads. More clearly than ever, I felt a calling to serve God in vocational ministry. I didn't (and still don't) ever expect to be a pastor, or even on staff at a church, but I want to spend the rest of my career, the rest of my life, effectively serving God and his Church with my vocational efforts. In short, I want to be a professional layman.

Paul says that we're each called according to his purpose. He says that we should each use our gifts to serve the Church. teachers should teach,

  • Romans 11:29-God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn

  • Romans 12:6-In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.

  • Ephesians 4:11-Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church; the apostles, the prophets...

The dictionary says that a layman is "a person without professional or specialized knowledge in a particular subject." In the context of ministry, it's more apt to refer to a non-ordained member of a church. The Bible, interestingly, is silent on the topic. We are all called to be ministers of the Gospel, regardless of our vocational calling.

To a great extent, churches can (and should) use volunteers from within their congregation to accomplish their mission. By matching the available tasks or positions with the gifts, talents, skills and passions of the congregational members, it allows a church to have the right people doing the right things for the right reasons. That goes back to having the teachers teach, the givers give, and the servants serve.

Sometimes, though, it makes sense to utilize a "professional' layman. In the financial arena, for example, preserving the independence of your auditor or avoiding a conflict of interest might be a reason to utilize someone from outside the church. Insurance is another area, in that you may not have an agent within your congregation with specific church experience.

There are other areas that might also need attention. Perhaps you need to involve an expert when performing background checks for children's ministry volunteers, or an architect that specializes in church buildings, or a security expert with a church background, etc.

The term "vocational ministry" has always had a certain connotation to me. It's like clergy were up here, and the rest of us down here. But the mandate of responsibility for creation (subduing the earth) was never qualified as clergy-specific. Interestingly, neither was the great commission in Matt 28. In fact, Acts 6 is the arguably the first place in the New Testament where there is any sort of distinction of clergy and layman. And there, it would appear that the layman are being more empowered, not less, being given administrative responsibility for the daily distribution of food. That left more time for prayer and teaching the word.

Acts 6:1-4 "1But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, 'We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.'"

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Church Shopping

An acquaintance at a networking lunch, during a time of sharing prayer requests, asked for prayer as she searched for a church near her home where she and her children could get involved. She went on to tell us a horror story about visiting a church near her home. She arrived at the door, and the greeter asked if she was visiting. When she said yes, the greeter said, “Today's probably not a good day to visit. We're baptizing today. You should try back next week.”

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An acquaintance at a networking lunch, during a time of sharing prayer requests, asked for prayer as she searched for a church near her home where she and her children could get involved.

She went on to tell us a horror story about visiting a church near her home. She arrived at the door, and the greeter asked if she was visiting. When she said yes, the greeter said, “Today's probably not a good day to visit. We're baptizing today. You should try back next week.”

“Are you asking me to leave?”

“Yes. It's just not a good week for visitors. Try back next week.”

Sound incredible? I thought so, too. When she posted this on Facebook, she was very careful not to mention the church. She went so far as to not mention that they were having baptism that week, so as not to tip anyone off and inadvertently slander the church. Yet several commented on the post with guesses. And most got it right!

Many of us have our own horror stories about visiting churches. When my wife and I moved to Nashville in the late 90s, we visited several churches. One church asked all the visitors (we were the only ones) to stand. When we didn't stand, the family in front of us began to point! So much for remaining anonymous!

Another church asked the visitors to remain seated, while the rest stood and greeted us. (Do you know what's at eye level when you are seated and everyone else is standing?)

At another, we walked from the car, through a large parking lot, through the front doors, through the Welcome Center (ironic name, but I guess it's more friendly than "Narthex"), to our seats, sat through an entire service, and walked back to our car. In that hour and a half, not a word was spoken to us by anyone.

Nearly 20 years later, we were looking for a new church. I guess you could say we were church shopping. At dinner with some friends, the topic came up.

"What are you guys looking for in a church?"

So I'd like to ask the question: How would you answer? What would you be looking for if you decided to change churches? Comment below and let me know.

And while you're there, share a horror story. It's ok. We won't judge, but we can all learn.

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7 Traits I Have Observed From Great Ministry Leaders

As a pastoral coach, I have worked with hundreds of pastors across the country. I love what I do and am privileged to meet and connect with some of the greatest leaders in ministry. I have learned many things from some amazing leaders. Below are a few common leadership principles I have observed…

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As a pastoral coach, I have worked with hundreds of pastors across the country. I love what I do and am privileged to meet and connect with some of the greatest leaders in ministry. I have learned many things from some amazing leaders. Below are a few common leadership principles I have observed that many strong leaders have in common:

  1. They build great teams. In my opinion, this is what separates the good leaders from the great leaders. They are constantly looking for ways to mentor, develop, and coach their teams. Strong leaders understand the power of investing into a few. As Peter Digiammarino shared on the intelliven.com blog, "No one leader, and not even any two, has the breadth of competence and depth of capacity to do anything of much significance alone. Successful organizations often have a core leadership team of three to seven top executives who are aligned to accomplish specific goals as a cohesive unit."

  2. They recruit and develop people. Notice I didn't say they recruit great people. They make leadership development a priority. The strongest leaders recruit people that have passion and potential and then develop them into great leaders.

  3. They huddle together. Strong pastoral leaders not only have scheduled times to meet, collaborate, and discuss their team successes and failures, they also take advantage of "impromptu" teachable moments. Strong pastoral leaders also meet one-on-one with their leaders on a regular basis.

  4. They listen to their team. Strong leaders aren't afraid of feedback. The best leaders seek and gather input from their teams. This creates goodwill and builds trust with your team. But effective leaders don't just listen to their teams, they also seek to incorporate feedback received where possible.

  5. They are constantly casting vision. It is clear and compelling. Ronnie Floyd's "The 4 C's of Effective Vision Casting" says it best.

  6. They love what they do. It is their passion. It is their caffeine, their coffee. Their love fuels them, drives them, and inspires them.

  7. They encourage their team. All of us like to hear, "Atta boy - good job!" I loved what one Children's Pastor shared - he would write and MAIL notes of encouragement and appreciation along with a gift card to several volunteers each month. Simple, yes, but a priority nonetheless. Appreciation goes a long way! Yvonne Hudson has eight great tips on appreciating and keeping volunteers.

Ministry passions can change over time and that is okay. We often ask pastors, "If God gave you a blank canvas and fresh color palette and asked you to paint a picture of what your heart desires to do next in ministry, what picture would you paint?" If your picture is different than what you are doing now, contact us and let's discuss your future.

What are your thoughts? What are other great ministry leadership traits you have learned and/or observed over the years?

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Making a List and Checking it Twice (Santa Claus's Unsolicited Accounting Advice)

Though “making a list'“ might sound simplistic, it is important to track a church's fixed assets at some level or another. Whether utilizing software specific for this purpose or general-use software such as Access, FileMaker or Excel, a church should develop a database of some sort to aid in this tracking process.

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Though “making a list'“ might sound simplistic, it is important to track a church's fixed assets at some level or another. Whether utilizing software specific for this purpose or general-use software such as Access, FileMaker or Excel, a church should develop a database of some sort to aid in this tracking process. Whatever solution it employs, churches should ensure that the database includes accurate relevant details such as the cost of the item, the date acquired, its service life, and any accumulated depreciation. Many CPA firms have depreciation software that can be utilized as well.

Once you make the determination of how to track this information, it should be input into the fixed asset module or another software program designed for maintaining fixed assets. Tracking property and equipment in a spreadsheet program like Excel can become an administrative burden, but is a viable solution in some instances.

A database should be kept up-to-date for insurance purposes as well as for proper accounting. These objectives might overlap, but each subset may contain different records, as the criteria for tracking are different. The church insures buildings and property in the event that there is a theft, tornado or some other tragic event, so having a detailed inventory of the church’s assets could be critical.  A current inventory listing of property and equipment allows the church to present to the insurance company an accurate record of the assets that were lost. This property and equipment inventory should include the date of acquisition, a description of the asset, quantity, and location.

In addition to a listing, we also suggest that a church make an annual video recording of the church property. Such a video would slowly scan church property, panning each room carefully, and should be done at least once per year. It could even be a fun project for the youth pastor and a couple of students. The inventory listing and/or video should be duplicated and stored off-site for safekeeping.

Finally, churches should prepare a periodic reconciliation of the fixed assets or depreciation schedule to the general ledger. That ensures that the physical listing agrees with the financial statements and records, thereby ensuring the accuracy of both.

A church practicing good stewardship will watch over its assets by maintaining accurate and thorough property records, taking periodic inventories of its holdings, and making security a priority.

What software do you use to track your fixed assets? Is it reconciled routinely? Do you tag your assets? When was the last time you performed a physical inventory?

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Call me. Maybe?

Professionalism is more than just courteous behavior, though. It carries with it a degree of integrity. The Bible teaches that we are to "live our lives in a manner worthy of the calling God has put on our lives." Whether you are a church leader, a professional who serves churches, an Executive Pastor or church business administrator, or even a volunteer, God has called us to act professionally. It seems mundane, but that is the way that we, as professionals, can demonstrate our commitment to Christlike living.

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I had an interesting experience shortly after I first started consulting with churches. Late in the day, I emailed an Executive Pastor to follow up on an inquiry he had made. And an hour or so later, much to my surprise, he called me back. From his cell phone. On his way to hospital visitation. After hours.

If your background is Corporate America, you might be asking yourself, "What's so unusual about that?" But if you've spent any significant time working in "church world," it's likely that you completely understand my surprise at such a quick return call. Maintaining a proper work/life balance is difficult for almost everyone. But for church workers, it can sometimes seem impossible. Because their work overlaps virtually every other area of their life, from family time to volunteerism to recreational time, a church leader, particularly pastors, must make a concerted effort to keep his or her work life from overwhelming every other area of life. However, perhaps because of this emphasis, it seems that the pendulum sometimes swings too far in the other direction, often placing every other responsibility above work. Being unresponsive can be as unhealthy for your professional relationships as working late every night might be for your personal ones. The key, of course, is balance.

And lest anyone reading this post should become smug and judgmental toward church staff, who are often overworked and pushed beyond normal human limits, this unfortunate rule of thumb does NOT just apply to church leaders and staff, but to MANY of those who work in, for, and around churches.

Professionalism is more than just courteous behavior, though. It carries with it a degree of integrity. The Bible teaches that we are to "live our lives in a manner worthy of the calling God has put on our lives." Whether you are a church leader, a professional who serves churches, an Executive Pastor or church business administrator, or even a volunteer, God has called us to act professionally. It seems mundane, but that is the way that we, as professionals, can demonstrate our commitment to Christlike living.

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Ephesians 4:1 NLT

Here are some practical tips on acting professional we've gathered from other administrative church leaders, and meeting the expectations of your customers (be they vendors, employees, church members and attenders, or volunteers). This list is not exhaustive, but if you can incorporate these habits into your workday, you will have come a long way toward the professionalism that properly represents our vocational calling.

  • Speak to a volunteer or church member at least once per day. If you are too busy with duties, tasks, meetings, and other responsibilities to speak directly to your congregation, then, simply put, you are too busy.

  • Meet face to face with any employee in your charge at least daily. This meeting does not have to have an agenda or be lengthy. A simple "Good morning" or other greeting during the day will suffice. You should be accessible to your staff, no matter what.

  • Meet face to face with a church volunteer at least once per week.

  • Respond to emails on the same day on which they were received. Even if your email says, "I'm sorry, I can't respond fully right now, but I will make every effort to get you an answer by xx:00 pm tomorrow," it shows that you value the correspondence. And, NO, an auto-reply does not count.

  • Return all phone calls and voicemails within 24 hours.

A good rule of thumb would be to treat everyone you correspond with as though they were your child, spouse, mother or boss. That's not to say that the conversations must be familiar or intimate, but every person matters to God, and should therefore matter to us and be treated with a sense of urgency. We all know that every relationship does not carry equal weight with us. The goal, though, is for those on the other side of the conversation to not realize that fact. Everyone should feel valued and important, and in our roles, the easiest way to do that is by responding.

"Everyone should feel valued and important, and in our roles, the easiest way to do that is by responding."

It was not terribly surprising to me when I found out later that the Executive Pastor who had made such a priority of calling me back had spent much of his career working in the treasury department for a Fortune 500 company. But the kindness and compassion he demonstrated that day did not come from his Corporate America background. Rather, it was a natural outpouring of the fruit of the Spirit in his life.

What's your experience? Have you ever been tempted to ignore a call or email from a vendor who wouldn't quit? Have you ever had an email or call ignored? We'd love to hear your stories.

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Are you playing by the rules?

There is one other thing about rules that should not be overlooked: they usually do not happen on their own. Rules usually come into existence after someone has done something wrong. They exist to remind us that the paths we walk on can be dangerous. Willful disregard can be an indicator of serious problems. We all complain about the IRS and the Tax Code it enforces. But they only exist because people sometimes have difficulty doing the right thing.

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"There is one other thing about rules that should not be overlooked: they usually do not happen on their own. Rules usually come into existence after someone has done something wrong. They exist to remind us that the paths we walk on can be dangerous. Willful disregard can be an indicator of serious problems. We all complain about the IRS and the Tax Code it enforces. But they only exist because people sometimes have difficulty doing the right thing." - Pg. 86, Weeds in the Garden by Verne Hargrave

There is a familiar story in the book of Luke where the Jewish leaders tried to trick Jesus that could be reported to the Roman governor and arrested.

"'Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?' He saw through their trickery and said, 'Show me a Roman coin.t Whose picture and title are stamped on it?' 'Caesar’s, they replied. 'Well then,' he said, 'give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.'" ‭‭Luke‬ ‭20:22-25‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I grew up as a preacher's kid. My dad had his own paraphrase of that last verse. "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but ONLY what belongs to Caesar!" In other words, good financial planning, and knowledge of IRS rules can 1) keep you out of trouble for not paying enough to "Caesar" and 2) keep more in your pocket by not paying too much, either. This is important for churches and non-profits as well as for the pastor.

That being said, if there are obvious signs of non-compliance, such as a stack of penalty notices from the IRS, that may be an indication of something much more nefarious than incompetence or apathy. Just as Paul wrote to the church in Rome, the law (even tax laws!) is there to show us our "sin."

"Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”" (Romans 7:7 NLT)

In some contexts (particularly for preacher's kids!), rules were made to be broken. But rules were also made to point out shortcomings, directly and indirectly. The rules exist anyway...we may as well use them to help us in our prevention efforts!

How do you feel about rules? Are you a rule-breaker or a rule-follower? Have you seen situations where a rule had an unexpected effect?

Join the conversation by commenting below. Or ask your own questions, and we'll try to address them in a future post.

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Some things can't be measured. Or can they?

"Lots of churches measure attendance and offering," he began, "but how do you measure the spiritual formation and health of your attenders? Isn't that the real measure of a church's health?"

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I was talking to the headmaster of a large Christian school, and the conversation quickly turned to metrics and church health. He told me that he recently spoke to the pastor of the church (a mega church in the Dallas Metroplex) his school is associated with about that very topic.

The pastor shared some of his thoughts, then asked this headmaster for his. And my friend was ready with an answer. "Lots of churches measure attendance and offering," he began, "but how do you measure the spiritual formation and health of your attenders? Isn't that the real measure of a church's health?"

As he told me the story, he looked at me intently, clearly concerned, then went on. "Talking about that same thing, a student pastor said to me, 'That kid right there is on fire for the Lord!' I pushed back and asked, 'How do you know?' He said, 'Because he's here every single week, helping with setup, bringing his friends, in a small group. He's even one of our student worship leaders.' I wondered as he told me that, 'But how do you know his spiritual health if you're only looking at the outward signs?'"

Then he asked a challenging question. "Spiritual formation is, at its core, an internal matter. So how do we measure it?"

"I don't really know," I admitted. He went on to share with me that "there is always a risk in attempting to assess spiritual growth in students, or the spiritual climate of a school, because of our human limitations in truly seeing into the hearts of students. Although only God looks into the human heart perfectly, since spiritual maturity is our deepest desire for our students, it makes sense to stop and look at character and climate in our schools."

He then told me about several up and coming tools available to schools:

1. Spiritual Transformation Inventory. This instrument was developed by Dr. Todd Hall, professor of psychology at Biola University. There is a version for college students that has been used by several Christian colleges.

2. Christian Character Index. This suite of assessments were developed by Dr. Michael Zigarelli, formerly of Regent University and now a professor at Messiah College. This is a measurement of Christian character qualities that has been taken by thousands of individuals; comparisons to the norms can be included.

3. Engaged Schools is led by Chris Brown, Bible Department Head at Wheaton Academy and an adjunct professor at Moody. Their site introduces the Global Student Assessment which is designed to lead to “engaged” discussions with students. Wheaton Academy uses this each year – it is a combination of a survey and some teaching tools.

I poked around the internet a little on my own and found a couple of others that are perhaps more church-centric than school centric, like the Spiritual Growth Assessment by LifeWay and Randy Frazee's Christian Life Profile.

Whatever the tool used to measure it, I'm haunted by his question, "How do churches measure spiritual formation?" Or one may ask, "Do churches measure spiritual formation?" Many churches (most churches?) don't even try. Why? Probably because it's hard.

What about you? Do you measure spiritual formation? What tools do you use to do so? Are there outward indicators you look for that indicate the inward?

Spiritual formation is definitely important. So let's talk about it.

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What you don't know CAN hurt you

I had an interesting conversation with a banker who specializes in church loans. Knowing ahead of time that he is a banker with over 20 years experience doing loans for churches, I knew that I would find the conversation interesting. We talked about a variety of matters, but he said a couple of things that really stood out.

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I had an interesting conversation with a banker who specializes in church loans. Knowing ahead of time that he is a banker with over 20 years experience doing loans for churches, I knew that I would find the conversation interesting. We talked about a variety of matters, but he said a couple of things that really stood out.

The first statement he made that really stood out had to do with loan brokers. He told me that bankers are generally skeptical of loan packages brought to them by a loan broker. In fact, they insist that the actual application package be delivered to them directly by the church. They don't want the church to have "plausible deniability" about the veracity of the content of the loan package. They never want a church to be able to say, "We gave the broker our numbers, but he must have changed them before he gave them to you."

The second statement was almost as startling to me. "If a church can't produce their own internal financial statements, we won't do their loan." This was startling on a couple of levels. First, the implication that there are churches (and probably a surprising number of churches) who cannot produce an internal financial statement astounds me. It also saddens me. Second, I was impressed by the insightfulness of the bank to recognize that the inability of a church to produce its own financials is a likely indicator that the church will not have the sophistication it needs to meet the long term obligations the loan.

Tell us about your banking experiences. What insights has your banker given you? Has your church ever been turned down for a loan? What were the reasons? What sorts of stories have YOU heard from bankers? What interesting stories have you TOLD your banker?

Let's talk about banking. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Nickels or noses?

What kinds of questions are you asking yourself? What are your key performance indicators?What are you tracking and measuring? What do you want to know about your church? Maybe our geek is showing, but this stuff fascinates us!

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If you're a pastor, or if you've ever spent time around pastors, you've heard this question: "How many folks did you have this weekend?" or "How are your offerings?" It seems that every pastor everywhere wants to know the answer to these questions. And they secretly want to know how they measure up!

Sometimes this is referred to as counting "nickels and noses" or "bucks and butts" (I apologize to my Baptist friends if "butts" is offensive).

In our experience, these two data points only scratch the surface of the kinds of questions to which pastors are seeking answers.

Are you curious about what makes churches tick? If you're a layman and could sit down with your pastor, what kinds of questions would you ask about your church? Or if you're a pastor and could sit down with, say, Furtick, Chandler, Morris, or even Osteen, what would you ask? What about the pastor of the church down the street? Or across town? Or in another state? Are Baptist metrics the same as Methodists? What do Independent Christian Churches measure that Assembly of God churches do not?

What kinds of questions are you asking yourself? What are your key performance indicators? Baptisms? Conversions? Giving numbers? Small group attendance? What are you tracking and measuring? What do you want to know about your church?

Maybe our geek is showing, but this stuff fascinates us! We'd love to know, besides nickels and noses, what are you counting?

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What Inspires You?

We love to talk about churches and what inspires church leaders. What inspires you? Join the conversation. Please comment below and let us know what YOU want to talk about!

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We love to talk about churches and what inspires church leaders. What inspires you? Join the conversation. Please comment below and let us know what YOU want to talk about!

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What is ICNU?

How can we get pastors talking to one another in intentional ways in order to promote encouragement, exhortation, and growth? How can we get pastors to consult with other pastors by fostering conversations with insightful questions? The answer? We could start with a simple phrase: I see in you...

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I've been thinking about churches and church metrics for a long time. In fact, as a PK, I suppose I've known about church metrics since I was a kid. Mom and Dad would talk about "nickels and noses" at the dinner table.

I've been an intentional, active layman most of my adult life. Then in 2009, as I began exploring a new career, I started consulting with pastors about various topics, and began using the moniker "professional layman" to describe my approach to ministry.

As I began talking to my colleague Todd about churches, we realized that we shared that interest, that is, consulting with pastors. We both enjoyed talking to pastors and the impact we could have on the Kingdom through those conversations, specifically in the area of exhortation (a spiritual gift of both Todd's and mine).

We were brainstorming about influence and leadership development and Todd mentioned part of his strategy around asking couples in their small group to consider the possibility of starting their own small group. Todd shared a phrase that his church uses to raise up and develop future leaders - they use the phrase, "I see in you ..."

"I see in you the ability to encourage others." or "I see in you the gift of giving." We use this to build each other up in our faith and to encourage one another.

As Todd said "I see in you..." I instead visualized "I-C-N-U" as letters instead of a phrase. I said, "That would make a cool t-shirt." Responding to Todd's puzzled look, I walked over to the whiteboard and wrote the letters I-C-N-U.

A simple misunderstanding launched another entire conversation: How can we get pastors talking to one another in intentional ways in order to promote encouragement, exhortation, and growth? How can we get pastors to consult with other pastors by fostering conversations with insightful questions? The answer? We could start with a simple phrase: I see in you...

The acronym came before the phrase, but the idea came before the acronym. Inspiring Churches to New Understanding. ICNU. I see in you. 

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