Tag: money

  • Life After Debt

    Americans borrowed less for an 11th consecutive month in December, paying off credit cards while increasing borrowing for cars and other products. link This is great news. For 11 months in 2009 the American people not only covered their bills, but they paid down debt. The irony of that is clear. 2009 was a horrible…

  • Things are looking up

    It may not look like it yet where you live, but there are signs of life in America that things are looking better. As the chart above shows- stocks have been rebounding for basically 12 months. The unemployment rate, while still horribly high, has begun to turn… following the comeback of Wall Street. As church…

  • A visual guide to giving

    HT to Mint

  • The money crunch

    We’re having a crunch month. It seems like during every calendar year there is one time when the vacuum cleaner has been attached to our accounts and we suddenly find ourselves going from “feeling comfortable” to “How much do they give for blood these days?” That’s about how things are for our family right now.…

  • 3 Musketeers of Church Staff

    There’s a lot of smack talk about church staffing these days. Senior pastors rightfully elevate the role of various staff members and do their best to put all staff on the same “level” as themselves in people’s eyes. There are even a few places where church leaders will acknowledge that the childrens ministry professional, youth…

  • The Internet is Not Flat

    Every time I go to a networking event with social media types I hear the hopeful phrase, “The World is Flat.“ The premise with the world is flat is that in the internet age the start-up entrepreneur has an equal shot at making it against the powerhouse media conglomerates or the big company on top…

  • Funding the Dream

    Like any person who comes up with a lot of ideas… I’m used to getting shot down. The pill of reality I swallow every day is that only about 1 in 20 of my ideas are worth seeing to fruition. Thankfully, God has put people with the gift of discernment in my path so I…

  • 3 Positive Effects of Recession on the Church

    Nearly every day I encounter someone who tells me their churches budget was cut, people at their church are about to lose their jobs, or otherwise their church is encountering hard financial times. That’s not purely a bad thing. Here are three positive things that a lack of money bring to a church. 1. A…

  • When the lowest common denominator matters

    I often live in a lofty world of ideals, philosophy, whimsy, and sweeping generalizations. Phrases like “vision drives decision” and “you need to find a place where your dreams, skills, and income converge” all sound well and good. People like those phrases. They share them on Facebook and Twitter. They quote them in blogs posts.…

  • Getting Started in Investing, part 3

    “Hey honey, are you spending more money at the grocery store or something?“ This was something I found myself saying to Kristen over and over again in our tenure in youth ministry. With a growing family it just seemed like every month we made a little less money. We had a budget. We did our…