As we move through the holiday season and approach year-end, it is common for churches and congregants to recognize pastors and staff with a love offering or some other type of gift. The gift could be a small amount of cash in a Christmas card or an organized collection taken during the worship service. It is important…
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I imagine church fraud is not a high priority discussion item at most of our church board meetings. The thinking is, “This will never happen at our church.” Given the daily duties and demands of church leaders it is not easy to focus on factors that can protect or diminish integrity and reduce the risk…
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A few months ago, I wrote an article about the importance of cybersecurity for churches. By way of review, my article included the following common threats you should understand and a few best practices to reduce the risk of an attack. Common Threats You Should Understand Malware: Malware is malicious software installed without a user’s knowledge, typically…
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Now more than ever churches should consider investing in planned giving. Over the next 25 years an estimated $68 trillion will be passed on as the Baby Boomer generation ages. This will be the largest wealth transfer in human history and an unprecedented opportunity for generous giving. Another interesting fact is this is that people have been more…
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Risk management is a topic that should be addressed at a minimum annually by your church. Risk is defined as an uncertain event that may have positive or negative consequences. A risk management plan identifies risks and action steps for dealing with those risks. There are basically four actions for handling risk: Avoid the risk completely. Transfer…
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If you are a newly elected church treasurer or already performing the role for your church, I encourage you to check out the resources available for treasurers on the RMD website. Access rmdcma.com and log into the member’s page. Scroll to the Administration section and note the column called treasurer’s resources. Here you will find several very helpful sources of…
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You’re out on vacation and it’s dinner time. You don’t want to go to a chain restaurant, but you also don’t know anyone to tell you where they’d recommend, so what do you do? Most likely, you’ll either ask a local or pull out your phone and do a search of restaurants near you –…
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Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. These cyberattacks are normally aimed at accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive information; extorting money from users; or interrupting normal processes and procedures. Churches may believe they are too small to be at risk of a cyberattack or that they don’t have data a…
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Chances are you didn’t become a pastor so that you could think about church insurance all the time – and that’s good; don’t change that about yourself. However, just because it’s not in the top 10 things you’d choose to do on a Friday night does not mean that you can completely ignore it. Even…
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This past week as I was leaving the house to run some errands, I rounded a corner one block from our house and thought, “Did I close the garage door?” While it was tempting to assume that I did and just keep driving, I just couldn’t shake the thought of my tools sitting there with an…
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