Why do we have margins on our paper and in our books? I first thought it might be so that my teachers would have plenty of room to add their red ink comments. It turns out, according to Google, books needed margins in the old days because mice like to eat paper. Since they start [...]
If you had the opportunity to change someone’s heart or change their mind, which would you choose? We often change our minds – what to wear, which meal to order, call vs text, where to go on vacation, etc. But a change of heart isn’t as common since we often wrestle with our worldly selves. [...]
According to a recent summary of the MB Associational 403(b) Retirement Plan, 220 pastors participate in the denomination's plan with an average account balance of $59,375. Of the active participants, average employee contributions total $5,808 per participant while the employer is contributing $3,935 per year. The final observation from our plan report is that according [...]
When it comes to our economy and investment markets, the wisdom of King Solomon is true when he states in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “History merely repeats itself, it has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” We can’t reference all the way back to Solomon’s time, but in recent history there have [...]
When I was a pastor I enjoyed my children talking to me about my sermons. Well… most of the time. I had just finished preaching from Luke 10:25-37 about the Good Samaritan or to be true to the text, “an example of being a neighbor”. I hit the main points – two Jewish men returning [...]
In the last Insights, I introduced the concept of a dashboard for church leaders. A dashboard is a visual summary of key indicators of church health, using significant data points to help leaders assess the current conditions and what actions to take. In this article, we consider what to measure, how and how often to [...]
On August 1, 2022, I made a transition from serving as Central District Minister to beginning a newly formed position as the Director of Financial Discipleship at MB Foundation. This move sparked two questions- “Why are you leaving the ministry?” and “What will you do for MB Foundation?”. The answer to the first is, I’m [...]
If your church had a dashboard, like your car, what gauges and warning lights would fill the instrument cluster? What kind of indicators could assure you, as a leader, that things are going well? What would effectively tell you if there was a problem developing? Of all the things I don’t want to have fail [...]
As leaders and followers of Christ, it is essential to keep assessing who we are as well as who God wants us to become. One of the beautiful ways the Lord stretches us is by having a mentor or being a mentor. Having someone who has experienced some years ahead of us in faith, marriage [...]