We have heard from several regions, congregations, and even our own general ministries, about a high number of e-mail “spoofing” incidents. At first glance, the e-mail you receive from a trusted leader appears to be legitimate. Here are some tell-tale signs that an email is spam: The actual e-mail address and the name do not match […]
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by Rev. April Johnson, Reconciliation Minister In October of 1967, members of the Christian Church gathered in St. Louis, Missouri at the annual International Convention of Christian Churches where a group of those members brought up the distress urban areas across the country were experiencing regarding w issues of racism and poverty. Participants at the […]
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Submitted by Green Chalice In his book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip Heath suggests that people who are seeking change may slip into ideas about others like, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” Instead, he suggests that we lead by setting up situations that […]
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For Rev. Kim Gage Ryan, Director of Bethany Fellows, the more ministry has changed over the last two decades, the more the program’s work matters. Bethany Fellows was founded 19 years ago, through Transition in Ministry grants from the Lilly Endowment, and administered through Higher Education and Leadership Ministries (HELM), to address the unique challenges […]
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By Bruce A. Barkhauer, Minister for Faith and Giving, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) This article is not about stewardship success. The title is intentional because stewardship is about more than your annual campaign. If you don’t realize that fact, it may be one of the reasons you are not succeeding at the level of potential […]
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For Fairfax Christian Church, listening is an important part of worshiping in community. To solicit suggestions for improvements, the church office conducted a congregational survey in 2017. One congregant’s response immediately captured the attention of the church’s leaders. That member missed listening to something more specific at church: the sounds of children. Three years earlier, […]
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The donuts, boiled eggs, and bagels were out on the table just outside the room in which a group of people were starting to gather. And, of course, the coffee was there – as always, an indispensable ingredient of these early morning meetings. Also present was a representative of the Disciples Center for Public Witness (DC4PW), a […]
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The Center For Faith and Giving is happy to announce that the Reverend Linda McKiernan-Allen has joined the team of contributing partners at CFG. Linda will begin writing the very popular lectionary-based worship resources that have become favorites for congregations within, and beyond, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). “It’s the number one landing spot on […]
Read moreWill last year’s new tax legislation impact the giving of Disciples to your ministry? Will it impact your own giving? The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 made significant changes to the federal tax code. Many of us are anxious to see what this will mean for charitable giving, especially where our congregations are […]
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Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. In a project that has spanned over 25 years of cultural and technological changes, the Oldtimers’ Grapevine has, in many ways, remained unchanged. This newsletter, published three times a year and sent to nearly 1,000 subscribers, still exists in only one form – print. […]
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