See what Joni has to say about long-term care here.

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It's the parent's responsibility to prepare their children for adulthood. Moving out of the house is a major step in that direction.

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When life gets messy, and our relationships seem all tangled up … how do we get untangled?  That’s the message today on BOLD STEPS. We’ve all had the frustration of dealing with things that are tangled in a mess. Just like that cord in your backpack that always finds a way to get tangled up. But when it comes to our relationships, entanglement can cause frustration, pain and even a losing of our joy.  Pastor Mark is going to help us face our issues today and take steps to UN-tangle them, while still holding on to our peace.

Bold Step Gift: Lies Boys Believe: And The Epic Quest For Truth

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Our teacher, John Mathews, explores Paul’s guidance to Timothy regarding false teachings. Paul emphasizes the importance of maintaining pure doctrine and a sincere faith. He also reflects on his past as a persecutor of Christians and celebrates the mercy and grace he received from Christ.

Warren

Hello, everyone. I’m Warren Smith and I’d like to welcome you to the MinistryWatch podcast.

On today’s episode, I’m pleased to have Kim Roberts on the program. If you are a regular reader of MinistryWatch, you know Kim’s name. She is MinistryWatch’s most prolific contributor, and – more to the point today – she is also the manager of MinistryWatch’s quarterly survey of Christian ministry executives.

Kim, welcome to the program, and let’s begin with some basic mechanics about the survey.

Kim

We have more than 1000 ministries in our database, and we send our survey mostly to the CEOs of those organizations. How that we’ve been at this a while, we typically get more than 100 responses, which we feel like is enough to give us a flavor for what these ministry executives are thinking.

We’ve been conducting this quarterly survey since October 2022, so nearly three years.

Warren

We ask a lot of the same questions quarter after quarter, so we can see if sentiment is changing on issues like the state of the economy and the financial health of their own organizations. But we also usually ask one or two new questions each quarter. One of the questions we’ve been asking for the past quarter or two has been about Donald Trump.

We asked the ministry executives if they thought President Trump’s policies would have a positive or negative impact on their work. What did you learn?

Kim

About 27% of Christian ministry leaders told MinistryWatch they believe the Trump administration’s policies will have a negative impact on the organization they lead or the work they do. This is an increase from 19% who gave the same answer in our January survey.

Warren

OK, so that’s an 8 percent increase. Significant, but not huge.

Kim

Not huge, but you get a more complete picture when you look at the percentage of executives who are optimistic about Trump’s policies.

In January, nearly 55% of respondents were optimistic that the new administration’s policies would have a positive impact. That has dropped to 38% in this month’s survey. That’s a 17 percent drop, which is much more significant.

Warren

One of the questions we ask every quarter is one about revenue. Any changes?

Kim

According to the survey respondents, revenue has not increased over the last 12 months as much as it had previously. Only about 16% saw an increase of at least 10% or more in revenue — down from about 21% of respondents in January.

Warren

About 21% saw their revenue remain flat in that same period. That result is similar to the survey results from July.

Kim

We also asked a related question about whether ministry leaders believe a recession is on the horizon for the U.S. economy. Leaders are not as optimistic about the state of the nation’s economy as they were in January, with 49% responding that they do not think the U.S. will enter a recession in the next year, down from 62% in January. A majority of leaders — 51% — believe the economy is already in a recession or will enter one in the next six months to a year.

Warren

Despite their predictions of a recession, ministry leaders are optimistic their revenue will

In his 2024 address to 1,200 university graduates, billionaire businessman Robert Hale, Jr. said: “These trying times have heightened the need for sharing, caring and giving. [My wife and I] want to give you two gifts: the first is our gift to you, the second is the gift of giving.” His words were followed by the distribution of two envelopes each to the unexpectant graduates—five hundred dollars to keep and five hundred to give away to a person in need.

Though Robert Hale’s wealth has allowed him to share like this on more than one occasion, generosity isn’t reserved for those with great means. Believers in Jesus in ancient Macedonia gave out of their poverty so the needs of believers in Jerusalem could be met. Paul said of the Macedonians, “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:2). He commends them because “they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people” (vv. 3-4).

Those who recognize that they’ve been given much grace from God through Jesus can respond with generous hands to the needs of others. With God’s help, let’s give after the example of the One who said, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).