Videos
Strengthen Your Integrity as a Pastor and a Church
It’s an ancient concept and the word integrity entered the English language in the 1400’s. Integrity is an unimpaired condition, a soundness of mind and action. The goal is to strengthen pastors and churches in soundness of mind and action.
Can Your Church Be Trusted? These 7 Standards Can Help
Michael Martin
President, ECFA
Jake Lapp
Vice President of Member Accountability, ECFA
Tone at the Top
Mike Batts
Managing Partner, BMWL
5 Curious and Little Explored Questions that Link Integrity, Biblical Stewardship and Leadership
Brad Leeper
Executive Vice President,
Generis
Financial Reporting to Enhance Integrity
Chris Lewis
Senior Relationship Manager
Thrivent Church Financing
Integrity is Revealed (not created) in a Sexual Abuse Crisis
Gregory S. Love
Attorney at Love & Norris
Founder of MinistrySafe
Resources: MinistrySafe XPastor page
What It Means to Live with Integrity
David Middlebrook
Attorney, The Church Lawyers
The Role of Your Church Board in Providing Financial Oversight
Rob Faulk
Partner and Church and Denomination Services Director, CapinCrouse
Featured Guest
Guardrails for Integrity
Bobby Schuller
Lead pastor, Shepherd’s Grove Presbyterian Church and host and preaching pastor of Hour of Power
Leadership Integrity Has Never Been More Important: What’s Your Plan to Care for and Support Your Leader?
Michael Martin
President, ECFA
Mindy Caliguire
Co-Founder & President, Soul Care
Warren Bird
Senior Vice President for Research and Equipping, ECFA
Interviewing for Integrity and Assessing a Candidate’s Recovery from a Fall
William Vanderbloemen
CEO & Founder, Vanderbloemen
Technology and the Influence on Church Business Integrity
Greg Wilhelm
Product Operations Coordinator, Tithe.ly
Maintaining Discipleship Integrity in the Hybrid Church World
Chris Sharpe
CRO, Subsplash
Be the 20
Mark Ashcraft
Senior Architectural Project Manager, Parkhill
Nick Cooper
Faith-Based Practice Leader, Parkhill
Lead with Intent—Integrity Lessons from South Africa and the African Continent
Hermann Du Plessis
Director & Founder, Themba Thandeka Leadership Institute
Resources: Lead with Intent – Integrity
Bonus Material
Integrity in Finances: Preventing Fraud
Vonna Laue
Senior Editorial Advisor, ChurchLaw&Tax
A nationwide survey of more than 700 church leaders conducted by Church Law & Tax shows nearly one-third serve in congregations that have suffered from some form of financial misconduct. Half occurred within the past 10 years. And Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates church fraud globally will total $70 billion a year by 2025.
Most forms of fraud occur because of easy opportunities, notes CPA Vonna Laue, a senior editorial advisor for Church Law & Tax who helped lead the research project. In this video interview, Laue further unpacks the survey findings, what leaders can learn from these findings, and several steps churches can take to immediately reduce vulnerabilities.
Church leaders must evaluate fraud prevention as part of a larger commitment to integrity for their operations. Toward that end, Laue also shares more about “Safeguarding Your Church’s Finances,” an online video training course she developed with Church Law & Tax to help boards, senior leaders, and staff members and volunteers get smarter and savvier about fraud prevention.
Strengthen Integrity by Delegating to Others!
Brooke Cecil
Director of Client Relations, BELAY
Integrity in Financial Counsel from Your Bank
Steve Hron
Vice President in the Faith and Ministry Financial Services, Cass Commercial Bank
Articles to Strength Church & Pastoral Integrity
Learning from Leadership Failures
One of my recent ECFA research projects involves leadership integrity. For David Fletcher’s in-person XP-Seminar in February, I surveyed [...]
Report Abuse: A Biblical Counseling Perspective
O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear [...]
Internal Controls From 30,000 Feet
Internal controls are vital in the life of a church’s finances. But, what are they? How can they help [...]
Why Implement a Written Integrity Plan?
Public confidence in nonprofits is declining to dangerous lows. Consider, for example, Gallup’s 2022 study on Confidence in Institutions, [...]
9 Resources on Financial Integrity
A nationwide survey of more than 700 church leaders conducted by Church Law & Tax showed that nearly one-third [...]
Guardrails to Strengthen Pastoral Integrity
My title may seem a little off-putting, perhaps even negative. Why do I need a guardrail? Or better, what [...]
The Power of a Restorative Sabbatical
Pastor, could God use a sabbatical to re-energize your passion, realign you with His direction for you and your [...]
Letting Your Pastor Go: Without Destroying the Pastor or Your Church
Church transitions are difficult, but they don't have to be destructive. No one gets into church leadership to scatter [...]
Elder Boards That Work, Pastors Who Thrive: A New Vision for Church Governance
At some point, every lead pastor asks this question: How do we govern this church? Often with little background on [...]
4 Reasons You Don’t Delegate
I don’t have time to teach someone else how to do it. It will be quicker if I just do [...]
Healthy Venting as a Staff
We’ve all inappropriately handled our emotions at work. We’ve either stuffed our emotions when we should have shared them [...]
Roles, Responsibilities and Decision Making in 2022
for a Staff Led and Elder Oversight Church Polity This article is from 2022 and expands on Bob's article from [...]
SBC Churches and Child Sexual Abuse: Reasons for Encouragement and Optimism
Many Baptist leaders and congregation members were discouraged after the release of the Guidepost Solutions Report on May 25th, [...]
Church Membership and Discipline
A church leader read XPastor’s article, Why Church Membership, and submitted the following thoughts on the topic. The individual [...]
How Not to Take on Undelegated Responsibility
Some personality types, like mine, simply love taking on a challenge and taking on responsibility. It comes naturally, especially [...]
Burnout in Your Church: Recognize the Signs
As someone who has been burned out, I know it’s not a question of if your staff is experiencing [...]