Cutting cost on staff? Staff members are an asset, not an expense by Richard Hong That time of year is approaching. I am not talking about Thanksgiving or Advent or Christmas Eve. I am talking about the annual reviews of staff. In my church, and in my presbytery, and in most churches I know,… Read more »
November 9, 2018
The Church for Today
Cutting cost on staff? Staff members are an asset, not an expense by Richard Hong That time of year is approaching. I am not talking about Thanksgiving or Advent or Christmas Eve. I am talking about the annual reviews of staff. In my church, and in my presbytery, and in most churches I know,… Read more »
Are you a Sears or an Amazon? Churches need to adapt to a changing world by Richard Hong Christmas is coming! Even though I don’t know what I’ll be buying for the people on my list, I am pretty sure I know where I’ll be buying it: Amazon. Like many other people, I have… 
Timing Emails for More Opens Detailed data helps you improve By Richard Hong Most of us communicate with our congregations using mass emails. If you are using MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Vertical Response, you can track your “open rate” to see how many people are reading your email. Crafting a gorgeous, information-filled message is… 
Getting to know you Your church is the people by Richard Hong “A church is the people, not the building.” Would anyone think of this as a controversial statement? Yet we need to explore fully what this means at a practical level in our churches. Sure, a common complaint is that there are some… 
Summer Projects Use the summer to make improvements by Richard Hong We are almost at summer. Time to exhale, right? Relax – a little. But September is coming, and now is when we should start making the changes we want to have in place for the new program year. I don’t know where I… 
Not Yet Do you have a ‘growth mindset’? by Richard Hong I’m seeing a lot of decisions made at all levels of the denomination, as we struggle with negative overall trends. What distresses me about the decisions are that so many of them seem to presume that continued decline is inevitable. I don’t…