ECCU Blog

“Over the past several years, many churches made the mistake of borrowing everything a bank was willing to lend them. As a result, many ministries are facing the strangling hold of lenders and interest payments. Seek to restructure the debt…and resolve to never again borrow an amount of money that would jeopardize the ministry.” – Joseph  Sangl, Top 10 Financial Mistakes Churches Make

Yeah, that hits a nerve for me. So I would add this to Sangl’s advice: Along with resolving to never allow debt to jeopardize your ministry, align your ministry with a financial partner who cares about your vision as much as you do and will help protect you from such decisions.

Check out the rest of the list at Top 10 Financial Mistakes Churches Make. Has your church bounced back from making any of these common mistakes? How did you recover?

God’s glory is the manifestation of all that God is—His divine attributes of holiness, grace, judgment, eternality, omniscience, and love, to name a few. To acknowledge God’s glory is to come to a greater understanding of who He is, to grasp a glimpse of His beauty, brilliance, effulgence, and radiance. 

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints… (Ephesians 1:18)

To glorify God is to reflect on and give back the glory He has revealed to us—in His Word, in His creation, and in our own hearts. At its core, giving God glory must start with ascribing to God all that He is.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

1 Chronicles 16 gives us a beautiful tutorial, a worship guide, of how we give God glory. It is by no means exhaustive—it will take eternity and beyond to give God all the glory due his name—but it’s a wonderful start, and the essential foundation for the fulfillment of the Pauline command: Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

How do we give God glory?

Sing. Beautiful, worshipful songs are a gift of God. Music fills heaven today and will be an all-encompassing part of our heavenly experience. Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day (v. 23). 

Tell. Giving God glory means we tell of His divine attributes and the immeasurable sacrifice of His Son to all who will listen. If you are Tim Tebow or Albert Pujols, you tell everyone on national television of God’s grace and faithfulness every chance you get. The rest of us may not have a celebrity spotlight on us, but others are watching. And we can speak of His love, His faithfulness in our lives, at every opportunity. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples (v. 24). 

Praise. We give God glory by praising Him for all He is and that He has done. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place (vv. 25–27). 

Sacrificial Giving. Beyond our weekly offerings at church, giving calls for sacrificing to God things that we would, in our honest moments, rather keep for ourselves. (Like taking credit for things God is actually doing—pretty much every good thing.) At the heart of what “glory” means is this principle: We glorify God by giving Him all the credit due Him. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him(vv. 28-29b). 

Worship. God tells us that even His inanimate creation worships Him. If inanimate rocks and oceans and trees glorify God, how much more must those created in His image? Worship the Lord in holy array. Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved(vv. 29c–30). 

Thanks. We glorify God by giving thanks to Him. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Then say, “Save us, O God of our salvation, And gather us and deliver us from the nations, To give thanks to Your holy name, And glory in Your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting (vv. 34–36a). 

Finally, we glorify God by doing all these things together. Then all the people said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord (v. 36b).

We had a Nehemiah event at our church several weeks ago. No, we didn’t rebuild any walls. We did something more enduring with far more impact. We read Scripture aloud for three hours. It was an amazing and moving event inspired by the recounting in Nehemiah 8 of the Scriptures being read for the first time in 70 years. 

The passage says that “all the people gathered as one man.” The high priest Ezra, standing on a raised platform, read to “all who could understand” from morning until midday—about six hours! The reaction of the people upon hearing the Word—most for the first time—was dramatic. The account says “all the people stood up” as the reading began, then all the people answered “Amen, Amen!” They then lifted their hands, bowed low, and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. It must have been a profound, holy sight. 

Our gathering began late Sunday afternoon, not even 7 hours after the Scriptures were last opened in our church, let alone 70 years. We started with a simple hymn accompanied by a lone guitar. Then the reading began. Two lecterns were placed on the platform several feet apart. Each reader read a chapter from the book of Matthew. Qualifications? Ability to read (or at least really good at memorizing!). Readers ranged from Junior high age to really old (my generation). As one reader completed a chapter, the next was ready at the other lectern. No commentary. No interpretation. No one even snuck in a little exegesis! 

We stopped halfway through—after chapter 14—for a short dinner break on the patio. We were prepared to feed about 100 people but quickly ran out of food as almost twice that number showed up. While we had just read about Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes, we apparently lacked sufficient faith to add even one tuna fish sandwich. No one complained. 

As our Nehemiah moment continued, the ambient noise in the auditorium seemed to fade further and further away. I don’t know for sure whether people just stopped their usual fidgeting and fussing or if I simply stopped noticing as we were drawn more and more deeply into the Scripture. Probably a little of both. Nehemiah 8:3 says “all the people were attentive to the book of the law.” So were the people at Grace Church that evening. 

Going in, I was a little nervous about sitting for three hours just listening to someone read, even Scripture. By the time we got to about chapter 18 or so, I was so focused on the power of the spoken Word that I was mostly unaware of the time, and less concerned about how well someone read. I found myself growing disappointed that the reading would soon end. Three hours? It went by faster than some 30-minute sermons I’ve heard (not from our pastor, of course). 

Somehow, the public reading of Scripture—in this case an entire gospel—moved our people in ways that even a Spirit-inspired sermon seldom does. I don’t know how other people responded, but I was drawn into the Scripture unlike ever before. It was certainly a Hebrews 4 kind of experience—For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

A lot of this happened at Grace Church on that Sunday. We will definitely do it again, and we’ll make a lot more sandwiches.

With recent news about debit card fees and “Bank Transfer Day” just a couple days away, a lot of people have been talking about banking lately. (If you’ve missed all the hype about the grassroots Bank Transfer Day event, there’s a good explanation of how it got started in an online article titled “Can Credit Unions Make a Success of Bank Transfer Day?”) 

Some churches have even been in the news lately, promoting to their people the idea of switching banks. What about your church or ministry? Have these events prompted your people to think and talk more about banking? What have they been saying? 

(We talked about it more in a post on our blog for missionaries titled “What to Say about Bank Transfer Day?“)

When I first heard about Orphan Sunday, I pictured a church pep-rally of sorts—complete with adoption cheerleading and success-story goose bumps.

As a foster parent myself, I was leery of an emotionally charged event that tugged at people’s heartstrings. This business of caring for orphans is hard. But as I learned more, it became clear that the folks at the Christian Alliance for Orphans (who oversee Orphan Sunday) understand both the beauty and the tremendous cost of caring for those with deep wounds.

And so Orphan Sunday—nationally recognized on November 6 this year—is intended to go beyond pulling the heartstrings of your congregation to understanding God’s heart for the fatherless, to experience both the joy and pain of caring for his orphans.

“Orphan care is not just one more good cause,” says Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. “Ultimately, it’s about God’s people understanding his heart more deeply. When we truly understand how our God cares for the most destitute, we begin to grasp how deeply he cares for us as well. And, as we mirror his love of the fatherless in our actions, we reveal his heart to a watching world.” (And, I might add, we understand the gospel like never before—for our adoption came at great cost as well.)

And it’s not just about adoption, either. While every believer is not called to adopt, everyone can be involved in caring for the orphaned or distressed. It may be as uncomplicated as mentoring the kid next door who never knew his dad.

Here’s just a few simple ways your church can participate in Orphan Sunday on November 6:

• Show the two-minute Orphan Sunday video and devote a few minutes to prayer for orphans near and far.
• Gather your church or family on Sunday evening for the one-hour live web-cast of guided prayer and global worship for the fatherless.  
• Ask a few families from your church currently involved in orphan care to share how their understanding of the gospel has changed as they’ve sponsored, adopted, or fostered a child.
• Invite your small groups or families to participate in The Orphan’s Table—a simple meal made up of the same food provided to orphans worldwide.
• Ask families who’ve fostered or adopted to share how others in the church can offer support and encouragement.

 Be sure to visit the official Orphan Sunday website for more ideas and easy resources to get involved.

Plan to participate? Leave a comment to let us know what your church is doing!