“Should we burn the mortgage note before we start raising money for future projects?” That was a question one of my pastors asked me last week in a Zoom call about planning for their future. Let me state right up front: one of my goals is to get churches out of...
An Interview with Greg Fine, Pastor of FBC Higginsville A few months ago, I was wasting some time on Facebook and came across a retirement announcement of long-time pastor Gregg Fine of FBC, Higginsville MO, fifty-plus miles east of Kansas City. Greg has been on the list of MBC pastors that...
The following post can be found at: https://www.onlinegiving.org/blog. The Hybrid Church is here to stay, and we now know that the future of giving is hybrid. In the future, we can “expect that post-pandemic giving and fundraising will likely remain hybrid, as the adaptation of digital and hybrid giving models...
Did Bruce Willis predict the future of the Church in the 2009 movie Surrogates? IMB says this about the film, “Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in...
In Moses' last recorded speech to the Israelites, he re-emphasizes that they should love God with all of their heart, soul, and strength. He then tells God's chosen people to pass this on to the next generation - to "impress" this lesson on their children. Moses understood the importance of...
The following is an email interview with Ron Sellers of Grey Matter Research & Consulting about their newly released study, The Generosity Factor: Evangelicals and Giving. I asked Ron a few questions about the study. Mark: My initial reaction reading this report was that this doesn't paint a pretty picture of...
19% of evangelicals give zero to church or charities. That was the shocking revelation in a new Infinity Concepts|Grey Matter Research study entitled, The Generosity Factor: Evangelicals and Giving. Here is their sobering conclusion, “The common thread we have discovered when it comes to generosity is that, as a group,...
Seniors With Money to Spend Buoy Consumer Activity. That was a recent Wall Street Journal headline to an article that shared the positive power of spending for people over 65. The WSJ article stated, “In August, 17.7% of the population was 65 or older, according to the Census Bureau, the...
50% of U.S. Protestant pastors say the current economy is negatively impacting their churches.1. “Most churches are not seeing growth in offerings that keep pace with inflation (currently at 3.7% annually according to the Consumer Price Index,)” says Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “The good news is the...
The following is a brief overview for your consideration and for future discussion. Social Media Push - Across all platforms of communication, we want to focus on the crisis you are trying to meet and the need to heighten awareness of that need. A picture is worth a thousand words. Let’s...
