In terms of spending, the more control the board exerts, the less a ministry can respond immediately to current needs. The more freedom ministries have, the harder it is for the board to monitor exactly what’s going on. Each church has to find the middle ground.
via Who Spends the Church’s Money? | Free Article Funds Budget Pay Income Expense.
Arlin Rothauge’s “Sizing Up a Congregation” (pdf) is a great overview of the dynamics found in different sized churches.
It addresses the Family Church (0-50), The Pastoral Church (50-150), The Program Church (150-350), and The Corporation Church (350-500+). From the perspective of the pastor, the issues are different in each of those. The smallest one calls the pastor to be innovative and finding things to do, but at the same time be available. The Family church is all about being reactive, there is not a lot of room for innovation, the pastor often seems to have favorites (those that have initiative to be in contact). When we move into the program church, the root of complaints towards the pastor is that he is not available for all groups, and does not participate in all programs. The issues in the largest church group are seldom about the pastor, more about lack of space for various tasks (lets build something together).
Rothauge does not address what we might call mega churches or multisite variations.
PREP (Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program) is one of the most comprehensive and well respected divorce-prevention/marriage enhancing programs in the world. PREP is a skills and principles-building curriculum designed to help partners say what they need to say, get to the heart of problems, and increase their connection with each other.
On their website are various resources about marriage, cohabitation, and divorces. It has a bend towards traditional understanding of the family, but valuable nonetheless.
Prep, Inc – Articles. – Of special interest is Marriage in the 90s: A Nationwide Random Phone Survey (PDF).
Various links to resources and researches about Religious life in US.
This is a link to an interesting GALLUP poll about religion, done in 2009.
I have been thinking about it for a while to write about few of the most heartbreaking reasons and consequences of the Icelandic Financial Collapse. Here I will not look at the victims, but more at the devastating pitfalls the “elite” stepped into on the way. Continue reading The Financial Collapse in Iceland
The Icelandic Church went through an interesting process, creating a vision and mission document for the years 2004-2010. It was both interesting to see who participated in the creation of this overall document and who did not.
I have not spent a lot of time in Iceland since this document was formed and I wonder about its impact, but in 2010 it will be re-assessed and hopefully in an honest way.
As soon as we start writing ecclesiology we begin objectifying the church, it is unavoidable. When we start applying managament models on top of that, the crime is perfect.
Search Institute’s research on spiritual development is providing groundbreaking insights into the importance this understudied side of human development. Read more about this innovative research below.
This is a list of articles from Harvard Business about BSC/BSR material. Continue reading BSC/BSR material from Harvard Business
Israel Galindo mentions marks of spiritual growth.
the bookshelves in their study contained books more recent than those they bought in seminary (it’s amazing how many pastors seem to stop reading once they finish seminary)
Evidence of working on spiritual growth | G.R.A.C.E. Writes.
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary has developed a new online leadership assessment instrument called the Lewis Pastoral Leadership Inventory™ (LPLI). Specifically designed for clergy, the LPLI helps pastoral leaders identify individual strengths and weaknesses to improve their ministry effectiveness. The LPLI uses a three-fold understanding of fruitful leadership encompassing Character,Competence, and Contribution. LPLI users receive a personalized leadership profile report that can be used for self-discovery, gathering feedback from others, setting goals for improvement, identifying continuing education needs, and tracking progress over time.
Think about that for a moment. Make a list of the people and groups in your community outside your membership who would miss your church. What would they miss? Repeat the exercise a year later. Is the list longer or shorter?
Random thoughts about Balanced Scorecard in the church.
—
(Added 5/17/2011: My STM thesis, Ecclesiology and Evaluation written at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio addresses the Balanced Scorecard in the Church based on a certain Ecclesiology that is formed in the text of the thesis. The thesis is accessible here: http://www.tren.com/e-docs/search.cfm?p035-0113.)
— Continue reading The Customer – Using Balanced Scorecard in the church
Is it possible to use BSC to evaluate life in a congregation and stay at the same time strong in the Lutheran understanding of Church?
To figure it out I would need to look at various Theologies about the nature of the Church. Attempt to compare and contrast them and spell out a usable Ecclesiology for the beginning of 21st Century. I will then address contemporary leadership theories and evaluate whether the one I chose to look at are helpful in building up a church based on the Ecclesiology I spelled out in the first part.
Looking at BSC and Ecclesiology.
Úttekt Eduniversal er á engan hátt fræðileg, þó e.t.v. sé hún óháð. Þannig eru deildarforsetar Háskóla beðnir um að mæla með skólum í öðrum löndum en sínum eigin (en þó ekki meira en helmingi allra skóla í viðkomandi landi). Út frá meðmælum deildarforsetana er síðan listinn útbúin. Hér er því mun fremur um að ræða fegurðarsamkeppni en úttekt.
Spurningin sem lögð var fyrir var eitthvað á þessa leið. Ef nemandi væri á leið til Íslands í nám í viðskiptafræðum með hvaða skóla mælirðu? Rétt er að taka fram að HR var eini íslenski skólinn á listanum.
En það er samt þörf á að óska HR til hamingju með að vera sætur.
Eitt af áhugasviðum mínum er árangursmat hvers konar, en ég á allt eins von á að taka lesnámskeið eða tvö á því sviði á komandi ári. Þessi frétt er skemmtilega uppfull af “standard” BSC fordómum sem e.t.v. hafa rétt á sér.
