The Coming Revolution in Church Economics : Why Tithes and Offerings Are No Longer Enough, and What You Can Do about It
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Our entire understanding of funding and sustainability must change. Tithes and offerings alone are no longer enough to provide for the needs of the local church, enable pastors to pursue opportunities, or sustain long-term ministry impact. Growing financial burdens on the middle class, marginal increases in contributions to religious organizations, shifting generational attitudes toward giving, and changing demographics are having a negative impact on church budgets. Given that someday local churches may be required to pay taxes on the property they own and/or lose the benefit of soliciting tax-deductible gifts, the time to pivot is now. What's needed is disruptive innovation in church economics. For churches to not only survive but thrive in the future, leaders must learn to leverage assets, bless the community, empower entrepreneurs, and create multiple streams of income to effectively fund mission. You'll learn why you should and how to do so in The Coming Revolution in Church Economics.
Bivocational and Beyond: Educating for Thriving Multivocational Ministry
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Bivocational ministry presents both challenge and opportunity for the church in North America. What do pastors, lay leaders, judicatory leaders, and theological educators needs to know about this common, though misunderstood and under-researched, form of pastoral leadership? In this volume, diverse researchers, educators, and practitioners provide contemporary analyses, new data, and theological reflections on issues facing bivocational pastors, congregations, and those persons who resource and teach them. With a combination of scholarly and practical writings, this book equips the church and graduate theological education to thrive in multivocational ministry.
Part-Time Is Plenty : Thriving without Full-time Clergy
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Churches experiencing numerical and financial decline may dread the day when they can no longer afford a full-time pastor. Freeing up funds that would go to a full-time salary sure would help the budgetmaybe even enough to turn things aroundbut is it even possible to run effective ministries with just a half- or quarter-time professional? Journalist and part-time pastor Jeffrey MacDonald says yeschurches can grow more vibrant than ever, tapping into latent energy and undiscovered gifts, revitalizing worship, and engaging in more effective ministry with the community.Readers get a much-needed playbook forhelping congregations to thrive with a part-time ministry model. They learn to see the model in a new light: to stop viewing part-time as a problem to be eradicated and to instead embrace it as a divine gift that facilitates a higher level of lay engagement, responsibility, playfulness, and creativity.
Ministry Makeover : Recovering a Theology for Bi-vocational Service in the Church
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Ministry Makeover examines the decline within the church, especially the United Methodist Church (UMC), and some causes for this decline. It calls for a reforming of United Methodist structure and polity by drawing more attention to the value of the bi-vocational model of ministry and a re-visitation of the Wesleyan/United Brethren view and historical perspective. This book establishes a solid theological foundation upon which to build this shift and it goes a step beyond typical ecclesiology (the study of the church) to identify Trinitarian theology as the basis for the practice of the church. In turn, this text reveals bi-vocational ministry and support of new congregations as not only a viable option, but also arguably the model towards which the church is heading. These insights will transform the church and lead to more effective church ministry with respect to resources, structure, and reach in a post-Christendom world context. Picardo uses Embrace Church (Lexington, KY) as a case study, and incorporates his experiences into this text in order to show how these implications have played out in a true bi-vocational, church-plant context.
Funding Forward: A Pathway to More Sustainable Models for Ministry
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"Bivocationalism has historical roots - and modern benefits,” by Leslie Quander Wooldridge, Faith & Leadership, October 18, 2022
"Jesus Won’t Abandon You If You Don’t Have a Full-time Pastor,”u by Lesle Scanlon, in The Presbyterian Outlook, September 12, 2022
“How to Get Started in the Mixed Ecology in a Local Church with Roz Picardo” podcast by Roz Picardo, Pivot Podcast, Season 4, episode 43, Faith+Lead, May 9, 2023
"Free Range Priest:It's time to create the future of church", by Fr. Cathie Caimano.