By Teri Ong In Part One of this essay, I introduced the “Planned Giving Toolkit,” a new program recently rolled out Regular Baptist Ministries. It is being promoted as a means for revitalizing church ministries by getting people excited (or should I say “energized”?) about tithing on their retirement plans and/or net worth so that God will have enough money in ten years for the spread of the Gospel. Evidently, the prospect of millions of dollars coming in as the troublesome (a.k.a. “change resistant”) oldsters go out, is enough to make any congregation jump for joy as they envision having […]

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By Teri Ong The current big deal in our national church association is “planned giving.” I think that term might fit G. K. Chesterton’s profile of an “evil euphemism.” It amounts to giving to a financial institution now what you might have planned to still have left at the end of retirement (which is a euphemism for “when you die”). The program is being touted as a great boon to the church over the next decade as we oldsters leave the vale of tears, and leave behind what we can’t take with us. Money, especially lots of money, is a […]

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By Teri Ong Something very unexpected came in the mail this week– a Montgomery Ward mail order catalog. The brick-and-mortar Montgomery Ward store at the Greeley Mall closed its doors about 20 years ago. I didn’t know the company was still in existence. Back in the day, Wards, Sears, and Penney’s sent out two enormous seasonal catalogs, plus the famous Christmas “wish books.” The only one of the “big three” left at our mall is J.C. Penney. Sears shut down a year or two ago. Every week it seems that some retail icon is down-sizing, re-organizing, consolidating, or quitting. But […]

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By Teri Ong Church revitalization ministries are intent on getting churches down to business– the business of getting people in their doors and money in their financial accounts. Some Revitalizers base their theories and their work on the model (or variations of it) propounded in the book To Dream Again. The writer charts the life cycle of the average church through to its ultimate death. In order to put off the inevitable, churches need to have “vitality” and “sustainability.” Those are code words for “people” and “money” by his own admission. Having a lot of people around provides a social […]

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