In the July RMD Newsletter it was announced that Rev. Jens (Monika) Sundem had resigned as Senior Pastor of Real Life (Alliance) Church in Bigfork, MT to lead a microchurch plant project in Kalispell, MT. This month, I sat down with Jens and asked him a few questions. Why did you leave a healthy full…
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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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Last September we had a “water event” at the District Office that basically necessitated remodeling 85% of the inside of the building. Beautiful wood floors were ruined, carpet was destroyed and all kinds of disruption took place in the office. Decisions were made regarding re-modeling, upgrading and re-fitting the office in terms of carpets, cabinets…
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Just 28 days ago, many of you sent your high school students off to Orlando, FL, for LIFE Conference 2022. This triennial gathering of C&MA students is crafted to be a time of worship, teaching, and encouragement. For many of our students, this last aspect is vitally important. The Kingdom life has always been, and…
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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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Last month, I wrote about how easy it is to be more dependent on ourselves than on the Lord. We can get so proficient at “ministry” that we can, over time, find ourselves estranged from the One we serve. This usually happens through any number of small steps that move us away from God rather…
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This week the 4th of July was celebrated — a day to remember the founding of the United States of America. Many have been saying that we, as a nation, are less than united, in these days. Shootings — like the one in the Chicago area on the 4th, and many others large and small…
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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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Missions Partnerships are one of the best vehicles a church can use to engage fully in missions. A healthy partnership will contain five elements, and the third element is Doing Our Share. Even though financial support is the first thing many people’s mind jumps to when they consider missions partnership, we’ve intentionally placed it third…
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Perhaps, like me, many of you were taught early in ministry that the way to multiply something is to divide it in half. If you want to multiply a small group, develop another leader and divide the group into two groups. If you want to multiply your youth group, find another leader and divide the…
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