It was a globe-trotting summer for 2022 PTS Valentour Scholar Hannah Ostlund, who traversed to Peru, Malawi, and the U.S./Mexico border over 10 weeks. During her journeys, she studied the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on short-term missions and what it means for the future of God’s mission in our world. Here are a few…
Creating a Narrative Budget
This is part 2 of 2 in a series about church budgeting. Read Part 1, “Budgets Tell a Story” A mentor once taught me that no one has ever been inspired to give by looking at a line item budget. Yet year after year, I hear of churches passing around the budget so congregants can…
Budgets Tell a Story
For many churches, fall is budgeting season. In the best case scenario, the process is excruciatingly boring. The worst case? Anxiety, conflict, and division. Budgeting may be necessary, but few clergy or laity enjoy it. Endure might be the more fitting word. But ideally, the church budgeting process should be more than filling out numbers…