A governing board is approaching its annual officer elections. The chair’s term is ending. The treasurer has mentioned wanting to step back within the next year. The secretary has served long enough that everyone assumes someone else will eventually learn what she does. No one is leaving tomorrow. There is no emergency. Yet when the
Responsible Leadership Requires Succession Planning Read More »
A small church may have one volunteer who understands the accounting software, knows how to pay the bills, prepares the financial reports, and reconciles the bank account. Another person may count offerings, while the pastor or board approves larger expenditures. Everyone involved may be trustworthy and conscientious. There simply are not enough financially capable people
Small Church Financial Controls: What to Do When You Cannot Fully Segregate Duties Read More »
A church calls a new minister and adds the person to payroll. The payroll system asks whether the minister is an employee, and the church correctly answers yes. From there, the software may try to apply the same settings it uses for the administrator, custodian, or other employees: Social Security and Medicare withholding, ordinary federal
What Makes Minister Payroll Different from Ordinary Employee Payroll? Read More »
Imagine a newer pastor sitting at a desk late in the week with a difficult biblical text open in front of them. There are notes from commentaries, a half-developed idea, and several questions that have not yet resolved themselves into a sermon. The pastor is tired. AI can turn that unfinished material into a coherent
When AI Does the Work You Need to Practice Read More »
We’ve all seen the memes about AI confidently recommending something or giving an answer that turns out to be completely false. Those of us who work with AI have experienced our own versions: a fact that does not exist, an invented source, a response that misses the question, or an explanation delivered with more confidence
You Cannot Oversee AI You Do Not Understand Read More »
Suppose a church’s primary checking account shows $150,000 on a Wednesday morning. Payroll will run Friday, an unexpected repair needs approval, and the latest month-end fund report is nearly three weeks old. Of the cash reported at the last close, $75,000 was associated with donor-restricted purposes and another $25,000 had been set aside by the
Church Cash Management: Protecting Restricted and Designated Funds from Operating Use Read More »
For roughly the last eighteen months, I have spent a great deal of time learning how to use generative artificial intelligence well. I have used it across nearly every part of my work, from research and writing to presentations and routine administration. I have tried different systems, watched them succeed and fail, changed how I
Using AI Is Not the Ethical Question Read More »
A church can spend months developing a budget. Ministry teams submit requests. Staff estimate expenses. Giving and other income are projected. The finance committee works through the numbers, and eventually the appropriate body approves the plan. Then, a few months later, someone proposes something that was not anticipated. “It isn’t in the budget.” That statement
Budgeting for the Bottom Line in Ministry: A Mission Plan, Not a Rule Book Read More »
Imagine a board chair who has already made up her mind. For months, she had watched the congregation invest significant volunteer energy and money in one large annual community event. A new proposal would redirect much of that effort toward several smaller neighborhood partnerships throughout the year, and she believed the change was worth making.
Imagine a pastor who, by Wednesday afternoon, has already been pulled into three situations that are not quite crises. Two members who are frustrated with each other want the pastor to carry messages back and forth rather than speak directly. A ministry leader has discovered that a volunteer did not complete an assignment and wonders
Servant Leadership Does Not Mean Absorbing Every Demand Read More »
