by DCEF | Aug 31, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, COVID-19, Featured
Was this you during the first few weeks of starting your church’s online presence in mid-to-late March? Were you ecstatic that your online viewership far exceeded your average, in-person worship attendance? Stop! Now that most churches have settled into how they...
by Jim Michel | Aug 18, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, COVID-19, Featured
What next? I’m sure those words have been uttered in the halls of every church building in use at one time or another. It seems that for every project we take off the ‘workday’ list, we add two more. As our worship facilities get older, our project lists get longer...
by DCEF | Aug 4, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, COVID-19, Featured
Conversations about potential church mergers are always complicated. Often, they begin when a congregation, or two congregations, face the painful reality that they can no longer afford their buildings or their ministries at the level they’ve been accustomed to....
by DCEF | Jul 30, 2020 | COVID-19, Featured, News
The offices of Disciples Church Extension Fund (DCEF) and New Church Ministry will be closed on Thursday, August 6 and Friday, August 7 to provide a period of rest and reflection for our staff. We want to give our employees the opportunity to step away from their work...
by Rosario Ibarra | Jul 20, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, COVID-19, Featured
Dr. Seuss invites us to open our minds to new possibilities when he says, “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.” Since March, our way of ‘doing church’ has changed, and having talked with...
by DCEF | Jul 13, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, COVID-19, Featured
Nowadays, we hear a lot about ‘the new normal.’ The question many people are asking right now is, “Why would I conduct a capital fundraising campaign during a time of pandemic?” It’s a good question, but an even better answer is, “Why wouldn’t you?” Today, our work is...
by Jim Michel | Jul 6, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, COVID-19, Featured
I went to my dentist’s office the other day. Normally this is not a place I enjoy going to, but this time was different. I didn’t expect it to be, as I left the house, and I didn’t know it was going to be different when I pulled into the parking lot. But as soon...
by DCEF | Jun 30, 2020 | Ask the Advisors, Featured
I have a strange fascination with church buildings. I grew up attending worship in a very traditional looking church modeled after one in colonial Williamsburg. Community Christian Church in North Canton, Ohio, was breathtakingly beautiful. This Norman Rockwell-like...
by Nadine Compton | Jun 25, 2020 | Stories
Parkway Christian Church prides itself as a multigenerational family of faith. “We have little babies to 95-year-olds,” explains Arnold Ramos, Parkway Christian’s treasurer, financial director, and one of its elders. But it’s the children served by Parkway CC that...
by Nadine Compton | Jun 25, 2020 | Stories
Superheroes: They are the flashy, caped crusaders who show up in the nick of time to save the day… Right? Not in the real world. Take Jim Michel for example. A soft-spoken professional with 35 years of experience in civil engineering and land surveying, Jim...
