Spiritual Health Exam for the New Year: Look Up, Look In, Look Out

By on December 7, 2021   /   Biblical Encouragement, Communication and Relationships, Thriving for a Lifetime   /   Leave a comment

Wouldn’t it be nice if while getting our annual physical exam we could also get a spiritual exam? We could go to a clinic, step on a scale, get spiritual blood work, and feel the squeeze of the spiritual pressure cup. Then afterwards, we would receive a list of supplements to take and exercises to do to become more spiritually healthy. When it comes to spiritual health, sometimes I just want to say, “Tell me how I am doing and give me a list of what to do to improve. I will do it!” If only it were that easy. […]

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5 WAYS TO DEAL WITH DYSFUNCTIONAL TEAM MEMBERS WHEN YOU’RE WORKING FROM HOME

By on November 15, 2021   /   Communication and Relationships, Leaders   /   Leave a comment

Dysfunctional team members are hard to deal with at the best of times. They can frustrate you, perplex you and leave you wondering how to deal with them. But, when you add remote work to the equation, it gets even more challenging. How do you deal with dysfunctional people in the workplace when you’re working from home and can’t talk to them in person? As you know, your company culture can take a deep hit if dysfunctional behaviors are allowed to fester. Here are five strategies that can help you keep a healthy culture and deal with dysfunction when you’re […]

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7 Simple, Yet Powerful, Principles to Empower Your Ministry

By on November 1, 2021   /   Communication and Relationships, Helpful Tips   /   Leave a comment

I’ll be honest. Raising financial support for my ministry is not one of my favorite things to do. I’ve discovered that it is much easier to keep the partners I have than to continually find new ones.  Henri Nouwen in A Spirituality of Fundraising said, we are offering “people the chance to invest what they have in the work of God. Whether they have much or little is not as important as the possibility of making their money available to God.” Nouwen’s words changed my perspective on partnership development. Up to that point, it had seemed like work and drudgery. […]

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Vision Leaks

By on October 4, 2021   /   Helpful Tips, Thriving for a Lifetime   /   Leave a comment

How do you keep the church’s passion for ministry from deflating? Vision doesn’t stick; it doesn’t have natural adhesive. Instead, vision leaks. You’ve repeated the vision for your church a hundred times. Then someone will ask a question that makes you think, What happened? Didn’t they hear what we’ve said over and over? Don’t they know what this church is all about? You can spot leakage by listening for three things: 1. Prayer requests. What people pray for will tell you more than anything else whether they are locked into the vision and priorities of the church. When you are […]

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4 Myths About Giving

By on September 1, 2021   /   Appointments and Asking, Basics, Biblical Encouragement, Family and Finances   /   Leave a comment

What the Bible really says-and doesn’t say-about giving  When it comes to giving, we all have our beliefs and opinions. But it’s time to turn some sacred cows about giv­ing out to pasture. As we become more and more inundated with appeals for finances, we must separate truth from myth. Let’s examine what Scripture actually says and doesn’t say about giving. MYTH #1: You must give 10 percent.  Don’t get me wrong! I’m not suggesting we water down our giving. Instead, let’s discover the New Testament’s tough-yet-fair standard for giving.  I used to believe that everyone should give 10 percent. […]

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Seeing Ministry Partners as People – or Targets?

By on July 6, 2021   /   Communication and Relationships, Ethnic and Gender   /   Leave a comment

A few years ago, a prayer formed in my head and heart, ”Lord Jesus, help me see the person, not the package! You always did that when you were here on earth!”  I was facing a challenging circumstance where I desperately needed God’s perspective to form my attitude, my responses, my words.  I was about to attend a gathering of people, including many with different perspectives than my own…those in the LGBTQ community.  I wanted to engage with people, to see their intrinsic value through God’s eyes, and not to react to their lifestyle which collided with my Christian values.  […]

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Growing a Heart Filled With Gratitude

By on June 8, 2021   /   Biblical Encouragement   /   Leave a comment

“The joy of the Lord is my strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10). This was my mantra as a teen and young adult.  I always thought it was my job to keep striving for the joy of the Lord.  Joy was something I had to work at, make a habit of, keep believing in and just keep smiling.  Keep going! After all, wasn’t joy visible in my countenance?  I learned fairly quickly that the joy of the Lord does not come from within myself, but in the restorative work Jesus did on the cross on my behalf. My salvation in Jesus Christ is […]

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It’s All About Perspective

By on April 20, 2021   /   Basics, Communication and Relationships, Strategy and Planning   /   Leave a comment

When talking about support raising, I try whenever possible to stay away from the words “fundraising” and “donor“when describing support raising as a ministry worker. Instead I use the phrases “partnership development” and “financial partner“. Why you ask? The nuance lies within the overall perspective of raising one’s budget. The word “donor” denotes someone who gives blood, gives one time, or is involved in a limited transaction. “Fundraising” denotes car washes, bake sales, golf tournaments, and transactional events. Right? Right. Of course fundraising and donors are in and of themselves not bad. OF COURSE. However, neither indicate an ongoing relationship […]

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INVITING is UNITING: Partnership with the Local Church

By on April 5, 2021   /   Communication and Relationships, Helpful Tips   /   Leave a comment

When I was a child and my parents would go away on a trip, I was always a bit anxious for their return and was always so glad to see them when they got home. Looking back now at those times, I can honestly say that I was mostly just selfish in wanting to see the gift they got me while they were away! This is a tradition our family started years ago and still practices when we travel. We typically grab something small to simply say ‘I was thinking about you”.  I can’t help but think of my family’s […]

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Learning that Connects

By on March 15, 2021   /   Communication and Relationships, Training   /   Leave a comment

As children, we are expected to learn. Our parents, teachers, and coaches dictate the things we need to know, often with a “you’ll need this in the future” caveat. We observed and listened. After all, learning was our primary responsibility as children.  All of that changes in adulthood. Learning becomes a choice, and with that choice comes the authority to dictate what we will learn, when we will learn it, and whom we want to learn it from. Adult education includes unique factors that impact the learning experience.  As support-raising trainers, we want to effectively equip staff within our organization […]

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