The Point

I talk about money every day, seriously.

I get paid to talk about money.

But when it comes to asking for money for my own need, I get nervous and proud and light headed all at once.

There is something about realizing that you have a goal that is beyond your own ability to meet that is frightening, humbling, and energizing!

That’s where I am today.

 I shared last week that the total costs for our adoption will tally nearly $30,000. A major portion of which is due in less than a month!

As I stared at the number for a while, I realized a couple things- that’s more than I can do alone…AND if I’m going to ask for help I might as well DO MORE.

I have decided that it’s not enough to simply adopt a child and get them out of an orphanage in Africa, we also need to change Africa. So today I want to introduce you to A Glimmer of Hope. Their work on the ground in Ethiopia is helping the country make great strides towards sustainable income, lower infant mortality, and higher standards of living.

So, in addition to asking you for money to help rescue an orphan, I’m also asking you to help build a better Ethiopia.

If every Twitter and Facebook friend gives $2 a month for the next 6 months…

Together we can raise all the funds for adoption and enough to drill two wells in rural Ethiopia!

Some of you can give a lot more, if we raise more than the goal, all additional funds will go to build additional wells.

To give via credit card you can click the box to the right of the page, if you’d rather send a check, shoot me an email and I’ll give you our mailing address.

Let’s do this…it’s time!

Water: A Global Crisis from A Glimmer of Hope on Vimeo.

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This is a Re-Post from Will Mancini, he says it better than I could so I’ll let him, you can visit his blog here–

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I talk with hundreds of churches every year.

Most are genuinely striving to do things the best they can to reach as many people as they can.

Most also have the common denominator of a capable senior leader, the visionary/speaker.

What sets apart the Great from the merely good or less than good?

The successful ones almost always have one thing in common.

A dynamic second chair leader- most often referred to as Executive Pastor but known by different names in different settings.

What makes a good second chair leader?

As we discussed in a previous post–Competence and Character are keys to leadership, but the competencies of a good Executive Pastor should and do look different from those of a Senior Pastor.  So what skills should your team be looking for when adding this person–

1. Business acumen/savvy- this takes several names, but basically can be summed up by saying that while it’s essential that the XP understand and buy into the spiritual vision, he must also have a sense of the business actions and framework that can enable and boost that vision.

2. Faith- I’ve seen a few disasters where someone with excellent business pedigree was put into the XP seat and absolutely tore a church apart because of their complete disregard for the consideration that this still a church, even if it should be run more like a business that can be taken too far!

3. Team Focus- Many great second chair leaders are independent go-getter’s, but all that they do must support and enable the best work of the entire team, this is true for everyone in leadership and because  the leader in the second chair can subvert authority if they lead inappropriately, team focus is more important here than in any other role.

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“Organizational decline is more about what you do to yourself than what happens to you.” –Jim Collins

There was a time when I’m not sure I believed that quote. Spending most of the last year working with struggling non-profits has confirmed its truth.

With the crisis consulting I’m involved in today, most calls come to me when a church is about to lose their property or some other dire event is occurring.

What I find after spending some time with these ministries is that these situations don’t come out of nowhere.

Where we find ourselves today is the result of many small steps we’ve taken in this direction!

Sometimes the way out of this mess isn’t to continue bravely forward, but to make the decision now to change directions.

So, how do we get out of the pit?

1. Acknowledge the situation–I see far too many situations made worse by denial to admit that what got us here won’t get us out, or worse that there is nothing wrong with where we are (it’s not what we’ve done but what’s been done to us mentality)

2. Seek counsel– Every organization has talent they are not utilizing, both internally and in your network of contacts, there are people who can help, seek them out and then hear them out.

3. Communicate clearly and fully- In the situation of a church in a financial emergency, almost all of them initially want to hold this information within a very small circle of leadership, when ultimately the solution to the problem lies in the vast majority of people who may help if given the full story.

An important thing to remember is that you can get out of today’s mess, one small step at a time…

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Every week I sit down and talk to Pastors and ministry leaders and the first question I ask is always the same

“How are you doing?”

           Sitting across from the guy they called because they needed or wanted to talk money they go immediately into the church budget and how good or bad the recent offering trends have been, important stuff to be sure, but not really what I was asking.

It’s important for your staff to stay healthy. Spiritually, Emotionally, Physically, Mentally…

If you, like me, sometimes find yourself not feeling as well as you should, here are a few tips that I use to write the ship-

1.  Take a break-sometimes this is just a Starbucks run and sometimes it’s completely unplugging for several days. We often need to step away from a problem to see the solution.

2. RUN-This has become one of my go to stress relievers, but it’s not just running, wrestling with the kids, biking with the wife, anything to get your blood pumping and your mind off of whatever its been obsessing over.

3. Read a book- I often find solutions to problems I’m wrestling with in the pages of a good book.

4. Talk about it-  sometimes you just need to unload, and you’d be surprised how often this alone makes you feel better.

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Over the last year, an increasing amount of my time has been spent with organizations experiencing hardship.

While no two situations are ever exactly the same, I run into recurring themes among organizations that are having trouble, most seem to stem from a single source-

Leadership.

Within the failures of leadership I’ve seen there are two primary streams

Failure of Competence

Failure of Character

The worst situations often have a combination of both!

To be clear, it’s not always a blatant failure by the senior leader, though they are often a culprit, there are other leaders in any organization whose character and competence are also crucial to success and when a failure occurs in these ranks it can still be devastating.

There are many ways to end up with a failure of competence or character, but I’d rather spend this time on ways to protect against such failure.

Find a Mentor- A good mentor is a great resource of knowledge and accountability

Seek outside counsel- I am often amazed at the seemingly simple things I can’t see when I’m too close to situations. The same is true for anyone dealing with something day in and day out, seek unbiased counsel, regularly, to help resolve issues and to avoid issues before they get out of hand. You may think your problem is so big and unique that no one knows the answer, but there is likely someone closer than you think who has experience dealing with those very issues.

Build the Board of Directors- A large, involved, independent  board of directors can ensure the health and success of an organization more than any individual leader.

If you’re reading this and think that you or your organization could never fall prey to a Failure of competence or character, be careful, almost all the crises I’ve stepped into have been preceded by a period of increasing pride.

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My wife asks me the question all the time…What were you thinking?

So today, I thought I’d share a few random thoughts from my random mind…

Why do we do it this way?

What if there is a better way to do this that nobody has even considered yet?

Who is doing things differently and getting results?

Would what’s working there work here?

What can I do better than anyone else?

Why am I not doing more of that?

I try to ask questions a lot, when it works I get better, when I stop asking questions I often stop getting results and almost always stop getting the results I want…

GO.

THINK.

ASK.

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By some estimates, over $8,000,000,000 is funded in church loans…every year.

So who are the institutions that loan money to churches?

Banks- Some big players among banks include, Bank of the West, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BB&T, Regions, and hundreds of regional and community banks all over the country. They tend to have the most standardized approach and are both reasonable in price and service. Most churches look here first.

Credit Unions- Unique because of their membership requirements and restrictions, some of the church lending focused credit unions include ECCU, ACCU, and CCCU. They generally specialize and offer a level of service and expertise that few banks can match, but they also have a smaller deposit pool to fund from which can limit their potential to do loans in certain size, denomination, or geography.

Bond Companies- Church bonds are one of the oldest bonds of any kind and these companies have gone in and out of vogue for a long time. There a lot of companies in this category with few real leaders, but a few I run across with some regularity include Ziegler and Share.  The  benefits of bonds for some churches, long term, fixed rate, are also the disadvantage to others that may have more than one phase planned which could complicate and increase the cost of such funding.

Other Sources- Congregants, private money(Hard money) lenders, and pension funds are among some of the other creative sources of financing for churches. These often come with additional stipulations and challenges that make them a second or third choice…

In each of these categories there are a lot of options and the right fit for an individual ministry can be unique from one to the next. I’ll be doing a few posts in the future talking about things to consider with each type of institution and also steps ministries should take to ensure that when the time comes to borrow funds, they’ll be well positioned to have the request approved.

I’d love to hear from church leaders who have had a memorable experience in the church loan process, good or bad!

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I originally wrote this last summer, as I was trying to figure out what to write today this is what came to mind…

I don’t remember where I saw this video first, but…It’s AMAZING!
Watch the whole video, you won’t get it if you don’t!

A few things we can learn from this video…
1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled.
3. When you look around and nobody else is joining your dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go… There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts, as you “movement” alone, will be the same people dancing the hardest in the end.

It’s time to start your movement, or if you already have and it doesn’t seem like anyone has joined the dance…keep dancing!

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I get this question with some regularity.

The detailed answer is… it depends.

Most churches reach out to me initially because they were referred to me by a Pastor friend of theirs who has done work with me. The initial purpose almost always has to do with the church looking for a loan.

Purchase, Construction, Refinance.

Where we end up is often a very different place. In order for me to help a church with what they THINK they need, I must understand what their ultimate goals are, not in the we need a 2500 seat worship center sense, but in the true mission and vision sense.

So while we start with “Jeremy, can you help me finance this project?”

We usually end up with “Our church is better positioned to minister to this community”

So for those of you still scratching your head, over the coming weeks I’ll be going through some of the things I look at when talking with a church and trying to help them be more effective at ministry. Here’s the preview of topics–

Marketing/Advertising-What are you doing to get them on campus

Sunday mornings/Worship experiences

Signage, Parking Lot, Greeters

Visitor Follow-up/Assimilation

Children’s Ministry

Offerings

Outreach/Community events

Revenue Optimization

Expense Control

Social Media–this post is already out there!

As always, most of the best posts come from ideas I get sitting in meetings with ministries or from readers who ask questions here, the more interactive the better, let’s learn from each other!

Back to what I do…really…

I help ministries ask questions they haven’t…to find answers they haven’t… to reach people that need it!

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