Balancing Money & Mission Archives

Planting Churches Bivocationally by Phil Claycomb (1 of 2)

I’ve not given bivocational church planting the respect it deserves. I’ve thought of it as an unsavory and occasionally unavoidable method-of-last-resort. I’ve seen it as a strategy to be employed only when absolutely necessary, or once all other methods have failed. I don’t think I’m alone in my aversion to bivocational… most of us think…

Airport Adaptations

The new airport clubrooms are amazing. It seems that the COVID break helped them analyze how to better serve their customers. Having spent too many hours inhabiting these spaces, I’m glad for the renewal. Last week en route home from New York, I found myself in a super-confined space—and I enjoyed it. The…

Time: The Fourth Dimension of Space

Buildings come with limitations—then again, they bring options we often overlook. Time and its implications for your church campus is a more significant issue than you may realize. Retail stores understand time better than we do, while online support services sometimes don’t. What am I getting at? Well, we all think in three dimensions when…

Churches and Spaces

We’re seeing a land transfer within the “big-C” church. I saw it in Holland. My friend, an attorney-turned-pastor, was excited that a tiny church began meeting in the local cathedral-turned museum, though it was one percent his congregation’s size. I mused over it for many years in Hawaii. We had people. The older congregations lacked…

If We Knew Then What We Know Now…

“If we knew then what we know now, what would we do differently?” Don Stewart left a large aerospace firm to join our staff. A friend and mentor, he taught me much about leadership. The question was his most significant contribution to my leadership ability. Whatever the answer to that question became what we should…

Prevailing Through a Pandendemic: An interview with Myron Pierce

Myron Pierce struggled to become the biggest drug dealer in North Omaha, Nebraska. Both his parents were deep into drugs, but his grandmother was a strong spiritual influence. An influence he would need upon finding himself in prison for a very long time. In prison, he surrendered his life to the Lord. That day he…

Pastoring Through a Pandemic

This feels like we’re experiencing a biblical plague. Well, maybe it’s not a plague, but it is a difficult time for church members and leaders alike. I awoke this morning to emails from a restaurant that I frequent and a mall I’ve visited. Both assured me that they are stepping up efforts to sanitize bathrooms,…

Church Planter, Jervie Windom

Jervie was just 47 days into this church plant when I interviewed him at an Exponential event. However, he had been able to do some serious groundwork due to his retirment after a career in the United States Army. What makes Jervie so special is his deep engagement with the community. Some of this is…

Supply and Innovation

Ever have a time when you felt God had let you down, completely? I have. Shortly after planting the first church we had gone through all the money our previous church had given us as a departing gift along with the money we had saved for a down payment on a house. We emptied the…

Liberating Finances in a Church Plant (actually, in any congregation)

Some of what we’re learning about money and churches is confounding. However, much is also liberating. I spent much of today with pastors of both newly planted churches and thriving congregations who are learning to tame the money monster thru carefully chosen jobs, businesses and/or careers. The benefits to churches and their pastors are obvious.…