Pride - A Leader's Greatest Problem

Pull a 10-dollar bill from your pocket, and you will see the face of Alexander Hamilton on the front. By merit of his accomplishments, Hamilton should be one of our greatest national heroes. Consider his contributions to America:

• Revolutionary War hero
• George Washington’s chief of staff by age 22
• America’s first Secretary of the Treasury
• Co-author of The Federalist Papers
• Creator of the Coast Guard
• Designer of the nation’s banking and finance system
• Architect of a system of tax collection to bring revenue to the U.S. Government
• Builder of the infrastructure for an industrial economy

Yet, despite displaying the greatest blend of legal, political, and financial knowledge of the founding fathers, Hamilton does not rank among the foremost heroes of our country’s history. Why? Read the complete article by clicking here.

Creating Your Own Personal Financial Plan

A question we've heard countless times over the years is "What's the most common mistake people make when managing their finances?" Our answer: making spending and investment decisions apart from a personalized financial plan. No matter how good your investing choices are, if they're made outside the framework of a larger plan, you're inviting trouble.

Imagine that you're preparing to build your dream home. Over the years, you've accumulated scores of ideas that you'd like to see incorporated into it. Before construction begins, you sit down with your builder to review your design goals. You ask him how long before the blueprints will be ready, but to your surprise, he tells you he doesn't work that way. Rather than planning everything ahead of time, he prefers to develop the design as he goes along. He'll keep your ideas in mind, but "blueprints are so restricting," he says-he wants to have the freedom to be spontaneously creative as the house is being built. Read the complete article by Mark Biller.

Effective Stewardship Ministry
Developing an effective church stewardship ministry includes all of the church's financial functions; stewardship education, missions education, budgeting, and accounting. This process is a comprehensive, end to end set of activities that helps the church accomplish its mission vision and statement. Once started, it is an ongoing process that cycles back to the first phase at the beginning of each new year. More information click here.

Launch of New Online Tool for Church Websites

"Does your church's website communicate to outsiders as well as to the members?" asks a new web resource. A church site is the congregation's 'shop window' to its community. To fulfill this function well, it must be enticing, people-centered and easily understood by outsiders. Unfortunately, many churches are unsure how to achieve this vital mix.

So the Internet Evangelism Day team has launched an online self-assessment tool. It leads a church through a series of key questions, to highlight areas of their website which may need development: InternetEvangelismDay.com/design

"I think it will be very helpful to churches," comments Gene Anderson of Resurrection Lutheran Church, California.

A church site which has been prioritized for non-Christian visitors can be remarkably effective in reaching the community. "Week in, week out, more visitors turn up at our church on a Sunday because of the website, than anything else," writes one growing church in London UK that uses these principles.

The Internet Evangelism Day ('IE Day') website also explains other types of online evangelism, such as outreach sites, video clips, blogging and podcasts. There is even a free 'conversation starter' screen-saver to download.

April Church Focus Day to Increase Awareness
The IE Day team also encourages churches and other groups around the world to hold their own 'web awareness focus day' on (or near) 29 April 2007. The IE Day site provides downloadable video clips, drama sketches, posters, handouts and a PowerPoint presentation, making it easy for any church to create its own IE Day program. This can as brief as a 2-minute spot within a worship time, or an entire themed church service, seminar, or midweek meeting.

Churches that have already held their own focus day are enthusiastic. "It was a real eye-opener for many," writes one in Muncie, Indiana. "We held a midweek evening presentation of 90 minutes, for other local churches," says another from Dawlish UK.

A Canadian church leader comments, "I used a 10-minute presentation that focused on how anyone can get involved in reaching out to the Internet community. I also added a section on using our church website as an evangelism tool, as some of our members have already had great success with it."

One surprising aspect that the IE Day team emphasize: web evangelism is for anyone, not just the technically gifted. "There are many ways to share your faith online, without any technical background at all," says IE Day Coordinator Tony Whittaker.

IE Day is supported by a wide range of Christian leaders. "I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day," says John Stott.

Internet Evangelism Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, an umbrella group of major interdenominational Christian groups involved in Web ministry, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. IE Days purpose is to explain to the worldwide church the potential of the Web for effective proclamation of the Christian Good News by:- a detailed resource website: InternetEvangelismDay.com- encouraging churches and other groups to hold an annual web awareness focus day

New online self-assessment tool from Internet Evangelism Day team enables churches to develop and improve their websites. And this year's web evangelism focus day is set for 29 April 2007.

Avoid Being or Appearing Lazy in Your Ministry

Whether your laziness is real or merely perceived, your work, your witness, and your words are diluted when you appear to be lazy to others.

Three ways not to deal with the accusations.

• Do not remind people how hard you are working.
  
• Do not publish a detailed record of where you have been, what you have done, or who you have seen.
  
• Do not develop a “poor me” attitude of being overworked and under paid as God’s called servant.
  

Most church members are not responsive to these approaches. Your church members work hard as well and believe you should work hard without complaint.

Here are four steps you can take when your critics accuse you of being lazy.

The Smallest Package

The smallest package I ever saw was a man wrapped up wholly in himself.
-- Citation: Billy Graham, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2.