Weekly Review
Evaluating and Hiring Executive Talent, Introducing the “Ministry Spotlight,” and Changes to the ECFA and MinistryWatch Databases
Hiring Executive Talent For Your Ministry. If you are a regular reader of the MinistryWatch emails, you know that we have a distressingly large number of stories about pastors and other ministry leaders caught in scandal. These scandals often cost these leaders their jobs, and sometimes their careers and their families as well. These scandals also wreak havoc on the churches and ministries they led. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Choosing the right leader, and creating systems of accountability and transparency around them, can save leaders, their families, and the ministries they serve a great deal of heartache – and enhance their effectiveness for Kingdom work. Bruce Dingman is an expert in these issues. As an executive search professional, he has led the search for senior leaders in some of the nation’s largest Christian ministries and churches. He knows how to evaluate executive talent not only for professional competence, but for godly character as well. He can help organizations make good choices, and he can help executives prepare for the “next level” in their professional and ministry careers. Bruce and I will be discussing these issues – and more – on a FREE webinar next week. It takes place next Friday, Jan. 15, at 2 pm ET. It will be just 1 hour long, and you will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to Bruce and to me. If you would like to join us, register here. Even if you don’t think you can attend live, you might want to register, because everyone who does will receive a link afterward with a recording of our presentation. To register, click here.
Introducing The Ministry Spotlight. It’s a new year, and we have a new weekly feature on the MinistryWatch website. Beginning this week, we will spotlight a particular Christian ministry. This week it’s Jack Van Impe Ministries. We’ll take some of the information in our database and make it easy to read, more visible, by putting it right on the front page of our website, along with links to find out even more about the ministry. We are doing this because with 750 ministries in our database, it’s easy to get lost. We want these Ministry Spotlights to be a guide to make our database a bit less intimidating to MinistryWatch users. Rod Pitzer, who was on the MinistryWatch staff for many years, is compiling these Ministry Spotlights for us. Rod is a Certified Fraud Examiner and an experienced hand with our database, and I’m pleased to have him back on our team in this role. Read our first Ministry Spotlight, on Jack Van Impe Ministries, by clicking here.
On Today’s MinistryWatch Podcast. Each week, MinistryWatch brings you news about Christian ministries, as well as the latest in charity and philanthropy, news that we examine from a Christian worldview perspective. Our goal is to help us become better stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us. Each week, MinistryWatch brings you news about Christian ministries, as well as the latest in charity and philanthropy, news that we examine from a Christian worldview perspective. Our goal is to help us become better stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us. On today’s program, updates regarding Hillsong and Ravi Zacharias, as well as a discussion of MinistryWatch’s list of Highly Paid Ministry Executives. We begin today with the riot in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. Specifically, with the reaction of faith leaders to the violence. You can hear the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast apps, or you can simply click here.
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MinistryWatch Extra with Michael Reneau. On this week’s MinistryWatch Extra episode: WORLD Magazine’s Michael Reneau. We discuss a couple of religious liberty cases that will impact Christian ministries in the year ahead. We also unpack the recent Georgia Senate runoff races. You can hear that conversation here.
ECFA Changes. The following organizations have had membership status changes in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. ADDITIONS: Green Bay Community Church (Green Bay, Wisc.), Pregnancy Care Center of Chandler (Chandler, Ariz.), Braveheart Ministries (Dallas, Tex.), The Champion Center of Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nev.), Element3 Church (Tallahassee, Fla.), Garden Gate Ranch (Des Moines, Iowa), Medical Missions Outreach (Baltimore, Md.), Metro Hope Ministries (Minneapolis, Minn.), Beautiful Feet Ministries of Tanzania (Conway, S.C.), Restoration House Ministries (Manchester, N.H.) REMOVALS: NONE
MinistryWatch Database Changes. MinistryWatch now has more than 750 ministries in its database. These ministries represent more than $30-billion in total revenue, most of that donor revenue from evangelicals. The following ministries have their profiles updated with the most recent year’s financial data. The Financial Efficiency rating of each ministry is in parenthesis. If this rating represents a change from the previous year, that change is noted: Children’s Hunger Fund (4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A), Ligonier Ministries (2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A), Music for Life Institute (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: C).
