I speak with Eric Syfrett about the basics of finances for churches. After earning degrees in economics and accounting, Eric became the children's and an accountant at his church. He now serves as the Executive Pastor of Kings Park International Church.

Many pastors and church leaders have little-to-no training in the specifics of church finances and are required to learn on the job. Managing church finances not only requires biblical wisdom and financial practices, it also requires conformity to legal requirements.

Eric talks about how churches are stewards of the gifts God has given them, and thus are called to handled their money well. This requires communicating with our congregations about our needs and how the finances will be used; it requires protocols and accountability for handling money as it comes it so that we are above reproach; it requires careful budgeting and continual expense control.

In a day when we continually hear about church financial scandals, Pastor Syfrett offers refreshing, biblical wisdom on effective church financial management.

You can find out more about Waiting Tables at waiting-tables.com.

In this episode, I talk with Seth Houser ways in which ministry projects can be effectively managed. Seth’s serves as a summer camp director for a Christian camp in the Smoky Mountains, and he also serves as an elder in his local church body.

Seth shares how the leadership of his church adopted Basecamp as a tool for organization, communication, and collaboration.

Using software can help you delegate projects, keep track of projects once delegated, and remind those who've taken them on of their responsibility. Having a way to keep track of what has been decided in meetings and what thought processes you went through to get to that point is invaluable. If someone in your congregation comes to you asking about a specific topic that has been debated and decided upon, you can draw on those records to walk them through explaining the thought process behind the decision.

You can find links mentioned in this episode and all our other episodes at waiting-tables.com.

In this episode, I speak with Josh Navey, children's pastor at Summit. He is involved in ministering to the children of Summit, from birth to the fourth grade level.

Three different kinds of child safety are discussed in this episode:

Child abuse is the #1 reason that churches are taken to court.

Having a child safety policy in place, even if you are a small church, is important. Look online for child safety policies. In some cases, if insurance companies see that you have a policy in place, it could affect your rates positively, depending on what that policy is.

Two important things to enforce when allowing workers to interact with the children:

Consider the design of your building and how it affects child safety. Some recommendations include:

Also, have a secure system for making sure each child is reunited with the correct adult.

How can parents work to keep their children safe?

To prepare for an emergency situation like an active shooter intruding, a natural disaster, or a fire, make sure that each room is equipped with a map detailing an exit plan. Make sure that the workers know that it is there.

I speak with Tim Challies, author and pastor, about his book Do More Better. Tim helpful frames productivity in a Christian worldview, and his little book is very helpful for church leaders who have to juggle a breadth of responsibilities and priorities.

Tim Challies defines productivity as

I talk with Tim about how he has found it helpful to write mission statements for the various areas of responsibility in his life: church, family, work, etc. These mission statements help him prioritize his time and focus on doing the right things. He's written a brief "productivity worksheet" that you can use to help organize your responsibilities and missions.

In Do More Better, Tim talks about the three essential tools for his productivity workflow:

We discuss the value of those tools and why it's worth paying money for good tools.

In 2017, nearly everyone is using email in all parts of their life. Many (if not most) churches use email for decision making among leadership leaders, for coordination of volunteers, for updating the congregation.

Tim's book has a helpful appendix on taming your email. In this episode, we have a brief discussion of email. We review Tim's 4 step workflow for handling new emails, and we talk about why email makes a bad todo list.

All of this will only be valuable if you apply it consistently. After listening to the interview, take some time to read carefully through Do More Better.

I talk with Josh Byers about his recent blog post Church Video on a Budget of $1000. Josh explains how to use a DSLR camera, a microphone, and basic lighting for recording "basic interviews, testimonies, life stories and other video productions your church may have."

Here's a video from Josh's team:

A few years ago, it would've required a huge budget and a professional team to produce a video like that. Josh talks about how you can get the basic equipment for just over $1000.

Three point lighting is a standard technique for illuminating a subject in video or photos. This technique is one of the best things you can do to give video a professional look.

Here's a tutorial explaining three point lighting:

In this episode, I speak with Todd Messer, teacher and technology coordinator at a Christian school in New Jersey. Todd is also an active member of his local church, where he volunteers his skills serving in audio. We delve into the nitty gritty of church audio equipment and recommend some ways you can determine what sort of system best fits your church’s audio needs.

In order to determine what type of audio equipment would best fit your church’s needs, consider the goals you have for your audio equipment:

Show notes for this episode are available at waiting-tables.com/episode/basics-of-church-audio-equipment/.

I speak with Joe Gallant of churchtrain.uk, a consultant agency for "Equipping UK churches and volunteers to communicate effectively".

Joe helps church leaders think about improving their communications, especially focused on church communications in a digital age.

Joe suggests that churches should ask three basic questions about all their communications:

These seem basic and straightforward, yet many church leaders don't step back to reflect on them. This can result in communications being ineffective and confusing.

Listen to Joe and I talk about what these questions can help you direct your church communications efforts to help you effectively present yourself to your desired audience and represent your church in an authentic way.

Show notes for this episode are available at waiting-tables.com/episode/church-communications-with-churchtrain-uk/.

Show notes for this episode are available at waiting-tables.com/episode/graphic-design-with-matt-heerema/.