Church Training Center

10/06/2026

By the time a vacancy appears, succession may already be a problem.

Leadership roles carry more than a list of tasks. They accumulate judgment, relationships, history, routines, and practical knowledge that can become almost invisible while a capable person is carrying them.

Responsible succession planning begins before anyone announces a departure. It means developing people, clarifying responsibilities, making essential knowledge transferable, and preparing the ministry to function beyond any one leader.

The goal is not to choose who comes next. It is to leave the church prepared for responsible leadership beyond ourselves.

Discerning Leadership Insights Article in LinkTree in profile.

10/05/2026

Small churches may not have enough people to fully segregate every financial duty. The answer is not to pretend those staffing limitations do not exist.

Follow the money. Identify who authorizes it, who can move it, who records it, and who verifies it. Then look for the places where one person can act without anyone else meaningfully seeing or reviewing what happened.

Good financial controls can be designed around the people a church actually has.

Article in LinkTree in profile.

10/01/2026

Free e-book for churches, judicatories, and ministry settings to discern whether internal, external, outsourced, or hybrid bookkeeping best fits their needs.

09/29/2026

A minister can be a W-2 employee and still be treated as self-employed for Social Security and Medicare purposes.

That is one reason clergy payroll cannot simply be configured the same way as payroll for other church employees.

SECA, housing allowance, voluntary federal withholding, and worker classification each raise separate questions. Getting the “employee” designation right is important, but it is only the beginning.

Church Finance Insights Article in LinkTree in profile.

09/28/2026

AI can make the work better. But sometimes doing the work is also part of becoming capable of carrying it.

A newer pastor may receive a stronger sermon outline from AI. A newer treasurer may produce a clearer financial report. Those improvements can be genuinely useful. They do not necessarily tell us whether the person is developing the theological judgment, financial understanding, or professional competence the role will eventually require.

In the third article in my series on Ethical AI and Responsible Human Agency, I explore the difference between automating unnecessary burden and delegating the very practice through which human capacity develops.

Discerning Leadership Insight Articles in LinkTree on profile

09/25/2026

The better I have become at using AI, the less likely I am to assume that a polished answer deserves my trust.

Responsible AI use requires enough understanding to recognize when the system has drifted, when a claim needs verification, and when the work requires expertise or judgment the system cannot supply.

That does not make AI less useful. It makes us better able to know when to move quickly, when to slow down, and when AI should not carry the work at all.

Discerning Leadership Insights Article in LinkTree in profile.

09/24/2026

A large bank balance does not necessarily mean all of that cash is available for general operations.

Restricted and governing-body-designated funds can be tracked correctly within one account, but keeping material special-purpose cash outside operating checking adds another layer of protection. It also makes the cash available for routine operations easier to understand between reporting periods.

In this Church Finance Insights article, I explain why I recommend segregating the cash without creating a separate bank account for every fund.

Church Finance Insights Article in LinkTree in profile.

09/23/2026

A friend challenged me about my use of AI because they were concerned that using it might itself be unethical.

I decided not to simply defend what I was already doing. I researched the concerns.

What I found changed the question.

AI has real ethical issues surrounding privacy, environmental impact, human formation, authorship, reliability, labor, and more. But the research did not support treating every use of AI as the same ethical act.

A better question is: What are we asking AI to do, what could happen if it is wrong, and do human beings still understand, verify, and take responsibility for the result?

That question matters a great deal for churches.

https://churchtrainingcenter.com/2026/09/23/using-ai-is-not-the-ethical-question/

Using AI is not the ethical question. Responsible use depends on purpose, human judgment, verification, accountability, and the consequences of error.

09/17/2026

“It isn’t in the budget.”

That statement tells church leaders that a proposal was not part of the financial plan they approved. But it does not always settle the decision.

A useful church budget does more than authorize spending once a year. It records assumptions, connects resources with planned ministry, provides a basis for comparing the plan with actual results, and helps leaders respond when circumstances change.

In this Church Finance Insights article, I consider how a budget can remain a working financial plan for ministry without becoming an inflexible rule book.

https://churchtrainingcenter.com/2026/09/17/budgeting-for-the-bottom-line-in-ministry/

A church budget should guide ministry throughout the year. See how assumptions, monitoring, and proper authority keep the financial plan useful after approval.

09/16/2026

Good facilitation does not require pretending to have no opinion.

Church leaders often guide conversations about issues on which they already have strong convictions. The question is not whether those convictions exist. It is whether the leader can participate honestly without allowing the authority of the chair or facilitator to make a preferred outcome function as the board’s answer.

The hardest test may come when the board chooses differently.

**Leading the Conversation Without Owning the Answer**

https://churchtrainingcenter.com/2026/09/16/leading-the-conversation-without-owning-the-answer/

Church leaders can hold strong convictions without controlling the outcome. Explore how fair facilitation protects shared discernment and responsibility.