I saw a great article over the weekend highlighting the ministry of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. You should check out the entire article, but this particular paragraph grabbed my attention:

“The church sets its annual budget as 90 percent of the previous year’s income, to leave a 10 percent cushion in case of an economic downturn, and limits salaries to 35 percent of the total budget.”

Though I’m familiar with other churches that are pushing to lower staff salaries as a percentage of the total budget, Church of the Highlands is the only church I’m aware of that sets their budget based on 90 percent of the previous year’s income.

I’m familiar with many, many churches who take a look at the previous year’s income and then add a percentage based on their projections, prayers and hopes for what the future will look like. That may be described as the “faith factor”. I’m a man of faith as well, but I’d rather deal with the the problem of determining how to invest the extra money that exceeds a disciplined budget than deal with the challenges, stress and frustration that results when our “faith” exceeds God’s provision. (See Luke 14:28-30.)

This kind of approach to budgeting does takes discipline. What’s always amazing to me, though, is that when we create boundaries and live within those boundaries, it leads to more freedom. Church of the Highlands has been able to experience significant ministry impact because of their wise financial planning. They can do more because they’ve learned to live with less.

Are you familiar with other churches who have implemented this type of budgeting strategy? Do you agree that it has the potential of allowing a church to make a bigger impact? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

Almost Isn’t Good Enough – the new book from Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of Soles4Souls – reveals what is possible when one person resolves to make a measurable impact in the world after looking directly into the eyes of the suffering, hopeless and forgotten. This book doesn’t read like a typical collection of leadership thoughts, but rather like an invitation to intercede on behalf of others because the human connection changes everything. Whether it’s a simple act of kindness or the idea to start an international relief organization, everyone can do something to make a positive difference in the life of someone else. Promises, plans and good intentions are a waste of time and a fruitless exercise absent of action. We must demand more from ourselves because almost simply isn’t good enough.

This book captures the philosophy and practice of a successful corporate executive turned philanthropist and activist who founded Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization whose captivating culture and clarity of mission has fostered unprecedented growth and impact in a very short time. “Almost Isn’t Good Enough” will allow others to see the success of Soles4Souls through the eyes of its founder and leader, Wayne Elsey.

Grounded in the language and practice that exhibits a fundamental difference between Soles4Souls and charity or nonprofit work in general, you will see that the ingredient to success is action. Wayne’s intent is to inspire others to do something (i.e. take action) to improve the world is some positive way. Whether such action be a small act of kindness to another person or creating an entire enterprise around solving world problems, change doesn’t take place until someone takes action.

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You may be interested in checking out some of the ministry resources that are available. Here are the folks that are making things happen at TonyMorganLive.com in February:

TheCommon.org – offers a simple way for people to get and give help to their community

faithHighway – provides total marketing solutions to attract visitors to churches

Brian Doerksen – listen to “Level Ground”, Brian’s new album from Integrity Music

dc – design and communication solutions that create raving fans, inspire people, and honor Christ

Bellevue Church Management System – the free, web-based and open source church management suite

Clover – provides websites for growing churches and ministries

Orange – a premier conference for church leaders hosted in Atlanta in April 2011

Outreach Events – specializes in dynamic, outreach-oriented events with people like Scott Rigsby that create opportunities for sharing faith

Refuge – a prayer gathering for pastors, staff and lay people near Gatlinburg, Tennessee in April 2011

Standard Theme – the best-coded WordPress theme ever (My site is built on this theme.)

StreamingChurch.tv – provides everything you need to broadcast your services live

I had a couple of advertising spots open within the last week. If you are interested, email me for more details. I’d love to have you join our team!

The “Man Up” series started this past Sunday at the Dallas and West Paulding campuses of West Ridge Church. Brian opened the series laying the foundation for where we’ll be heading. He mentioned that a lot of the teaching will be shaped by Raising a Modern Day Knight by Robert Lewis. Here are some of the highlights from Brian’s message:

Will Willimon

It might be hard for you to tell from some of my writing, but I’m actually pulling for denominations to succeed. I want them to be healthy. Why? Just to be blunt, many of them have financial resources that, if used effectively, could make a huge impact for the Kingdom. Unfortunately, many denominations are also floundering and facing decline.

That’s why I’m so encouraged when I find someone in denominational leadership that gets it. Will Willimon is one of those people. I’ve never met him. I’ve not followed all of his writing, but I’ve read enough of it to know that he’s a visionary leader in a denomination that has been in decline for decades. Willimon is a bishop in the United Methodist Church and currently serves the North Alabama Conference.

This is probably news to you, but I actually have strong connections to the United Methodist denomination. The very first church I was connected with after accepting Christ was a Methodist church. I worked for a Methodist church for over 8 years. My brother is almost (after a 10-year process) ordained in the United Methodist church. Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several Methodist churches. Somewhere I think I actually have a mug with the cross and flame.

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In case you missed it on Friday, I shared “9 Twitter Strategies to Engage Your Audience“. That may have been helpful to the Twitter aficionados. Let me hit a few basics for those of you who haven’t given Twitter a try yet.

Here’s a great overview of the Twitter basics. This will help you get a sense of what it’s all about. After you’ve read the overview you should…

1. Sign up for an account. Go ahead. Test it out. It’s free so you aren’t obligated to continue using it.
2. Find and follow some friends…like me. That’s the real value of Twitter. It’s about connecting with other people.
3. Don’t tell us what your eating for lunch all the time. Give us the highlights of what your learning and experiencing. Share what your friends are saying. Use the “reply” and “retweet” features.
4. Try subscribing to a list…like this one. Use it as a way to keep up with what’s happening around us. It’s better than a newspaper because it’s instant news, you can easily scan the headlines, it’s being filtered through trusted resources and it’s free.

Any other words of advice for Twitter newbies? Join the conversation by leaving your comment.

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Pastor Gene Wolfenbarger and the ministry team at The Gathering near Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Pastor Gene is very passionate about his calling and the impact the local church can have across the world. With that, it’s no surprise that he has taken the initiative to begin with a foundation of prayer.

The Gathering will be hosting Refuge, a prayer gathering for pastors, ministry staff and lay people at churches across the country. There is no registration fee to attend the event. Refuge will feature talks by pastors including Jonathan Falwell, Steven Furtick and Bil Cornelius.

If you would like to attend this free event on April 12 – 14, please register so they can prepare for you and your team. And, by the way, since this event is in Gatlinburg, this would make an ideal excuse for your team to take a retreat together. You’ll love the area, and I think you’ll really appreciate seeing The Gathering’s beautiful facility.

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I’m honored to have Refuge as an advertising partner. Knowing Pastor Gene, I think you’ll both be challenged and encouraged by this experience.

The new “Man Up” series launches this Sunday at the Dallas and West Paulding campuses of West Ridge Church. The guys released this teaser video yesterday:

That cracks me up. (I’m pretty sure I know who that guy is in the spandex suit.)

If you live in northwest ATL, I hope to see you on Sunday.

It’s been about two years since I really got intentional about using Twitter as part of my ministry strategy. I did it because my primary audience (other church leaders) is very engaged on that platform. Your audience (people in your church) may not be. In fact, my guess is they aren’t. For you, Facebook is probably the place you need to be more intentional. However, for those of you who find the folks you connect with hanging out on Twitter, here are…

9 Twitter Strategies to Engage Your Audience

1. Tell your story rather than hiding behind your organization. Not that your business or church shouldn’t have its own Twitter profile, but most folks would rather follow a person than an entity. For example, @WestRidgeChurch has just over 800 followers while @BrianBloye has 3,500. People want to hear Brian’s story more than the organization he serves.
2. Follow everyone. The goal here isn’t to prove you can build a bigger Twitter following than someone else. The goal is to improve communications with your network. The way Twitter works is that when you follow someone, they are able to “direct message” you. You want that. I can’t tell you how many coaching and consulting connections I’ve made through direct messages. (Just had another one today.) And, to be honest, I’d rather communicate using Twitter over email. With only 140 characters, conversations are to the point and more efficient. I use Tweet Adder to automate this.
3. Use “lists” to follow your true friends. Right now I’m following over 48,000 people, but I’m only really tracking 100 folks. I can filter through all that potential noise by using a Twitter list. Here’s the list of folks I’m truly following right now. (more…)

Last month was a great month. Really enjoyed reading the thoughts on church trends, several of which made this “Top 10″ list. That said, it appears the questions grabbed your attention. Here are the top ten posts that generated the most traffic in order of popularity:

1. 11 Questions Church Leaders Should be Asking
2. Bellevue Church Management System
3. Church Trends with Sam Chand
4. Church Trends with Mel McGowan
5. Hiring Campus Pastor at Oak Leaf
6. Church Trends with William Vanderbloemen
7. Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” Cello Duet?
8. Are You Embracing These Church Trends?
9. Breaking the 100 Barrier
10. Church Trends with Jenni Catron

By the way, the most popular post from one year ago was this random list of thoughts related to your platform.

Which one of these posts stretched your thinking last month? Join the conversation by leaving your comment.