3 Questions on Integrity
Few search for wisdom and integrity from God's unfathomable reserves to establish who they are. Franklin Graham, President of Samaritan's Purse and The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, examines three questions on integrity: Who has integrity? How does one obtain integrity? What does integrity exhibit?
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5 Reflections of an Imperfect Leader
When leaders strive for perfection, they rob their followers and themselves of joy while preventing genuine connections. ECFA President Michael Martin shares insight into how to lead from a place of greater joy and confidence while cultivating the trust of others.
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Accountability for All the Wrong Reasons
A look at two aspects of accountability: submitting to accountability and holding others accountable
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Achieving Appropriate Transparency
Facing an insatiable desire for transparency, trusted ministries find the balance between being appropriately transparent while measuring privacy concerns and administrative burdens.
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Center Stage
When ministries lack trust, the issue that created the lack of trust is on center stage and Christ shifts to the wings.
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Christ-Centered
Trusted governance starts with spiritual leaders who deeply know God,
seek to find God’s will, and delight to obey God.
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Evaluation of Marketing Programs
Recommends principles and guidelines to consider when evaluating potential marketing programs for a ministry
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God Is First
Wayne Pederson shares valuable reminders to leaders of Christ-centered organizations. He shares the wonderful quote from A.W. Tozer: “A true and safe leader has no desire to lead but is forced into a position by inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of circumstances.”
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Honoring Giver Intent
How a ministry fulfills a giver’s intent regarding specified gifts sends a strong message about whether a ministry can be trusted.
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Leader Care Resources
Those in leadership roles, particularly ministry leadership, can easily fall into isolation. We believe boards and leadership teams who develop intentional plans for leader care and accountability create environments where leaders can thrive in their relationship with the Lord and others.
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Leadership During Crisis: Guiding the Ship through the Storm
No one could have imagined as we began the new year the challenges we would be facing in our ministries, in our relationships, our finances, and our personal lives caused by the “invisible enemy”—Covid-19. However, all the news is not bad news. There is a silver lining in the midst of all of the confusion and anxiety in our culture.
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Ministry Disrupted: How do we respond spiritually in troubled times?
A spiritual core—a call to connect with God to discover what he is wanting you to do.
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Navigating Gray Areas
Trusted ministries recognize that some potential gift transactions are fraught with significant complexities and must be treated with appropriate caution.
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Not Blurring the Lines
Trusted ministries build and maintain their relationships with givers through truthfulness, transparency, and clarity.
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Peacemaking: Preserving Staff, Money and Mission
Conflict is a thief. Each year it robs ministries of valuable staff and thousands of dollars in wasted time, turnover, and legal expenses.
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Perceptions
Trusted ministries inspire positive perceptions, creating the power of a rolling ocean wave—building a tsunami of trust—and, more importantly, give the right impression of Christ our Savior!
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Reinforcing the Foundation of Trust
The tone of integrity set by an organization’s top leader is a critical, foundational element in promoting a healthy culture and environment. Equally, one of the greatest risks to a nonprofit or church today is a moral failure by its leader, as we’ve unfortunately seen in all too many instances recently. Not only are the financial and other operations of an organization significantly impacted by the leader’s integrity, but the public’s trust and the very mission of an organization can be at risk when there is a breakdown in leadership integrity.
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Rules
Just as individuals need a personal rule of life, so trusted ministries need biblical rules, guideposts, or railings to ensure consistent practices which glorify God.
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Seven Recent Trends in Leadership Succession
In today’s celebrity era, it’s easy to assume that unique and strategic positions like these cannot find a viable successor. Not true. Also today as Baby Boomers move on from ministries they’ve founded or significantly grown, the common stereotype is that new generations lack interest in continuing an organization that operates on such a large scale. Not true either.
In fact, the opposite is often the case. While news media tend to highlight succession disasters (it’s rare to find a headline titled “Smooth, Seamless Succession Here”), the good news is that healthy succession planning is on the rise. Looking back over the last decade or so, the science of succession is being honed among evangelical churches and ministries.
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Success Measurement
Trusted ministries are not in a race with other ministries to see who can be the greatest.
Conversely, servants keep getting bigger and bigger in God’s eyes.
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The Growing Hunger for Authenticity: Let It Fuel Your Ministry’s Mission
In an age of filtered photos and “fake news,” people are desperate for authenticity. Even so-called reality TV is not real (no shocker there!).
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The Ultimate Test of Leadership
Our actions impact the ministry decades or even centuries in the future. The ultimate tests of leadership include maintaining mission integrity, assuring visionary flexibility, building a cohesive climate, facilitating communal morale, insisting on financial discipline, encouraging institutional loyalty, and investing in organizational momentum.
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Trouble Avoidance
Trusted ministries do not borrow trouble with related-party transactions.
These transactions are minimized to avoid even the slightest appearance of impropriety.
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Verifiable Accountability
The biblical pattern for Christ-centered ministries and their leaders is based on verifiable accountability.
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Why ECFA Does Not Rate Ministries
Prospective donors occasionally ask ECFA which member organization is the "best" one to support. Our response is that ECFA does not compare, rate, or rank member organizations, but rather measures each against an independently established benchmark—the ECFA Seven Standards of Responsible StewardshipTM. Attaining and maintaining ECFA membership means an organization measures up to all of ECFA’s Standards.
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