subject: best Christian Churches location in Etobicoke [print this page] Great pointGreat point. Many fraud incidents could be avoided by churches if they placed a higher priority on managing their finances carefully and utilized, as you mentioned, inexpensive and simple methods. often members of a church are too trusting, choosing to deny that someone in their midst could be merely posing as one of their own in order to reach into their pockets. There are a great deal of churches who sincerely want to manage their finances wisely and in turn help those in need, but then find that a lot of their funds have disappeared or been stolen. There is a great book, Weeds in the Garden, that aims to educate church leaders and members on how to better manage and protect their finances. Weeds in the Garden also has a website which offers services to churches to help them see how protected their finances are from fraud and mismanagement.
In the last decade, more churches have increased their visibility further by partnering with design and media firms. Many have assembled their own in-house marketing teams who collaborate with outside designers to produce contemporary and distinctive church branding. A new breed of pastors like Mark Driscoll and magazines like Relevant have achieved pop culture success with an emphasis on youth, visibility, and a carefully designed public image.
Yet the recent image makeover of churches is unpalatable for some. In 2006, Pastor John MacArthur published a popular article ("Grunge Christianity?") condemning modern churches that trade sanctity for "cultural relevancy." MacArthur and his supporters disagree with so-called pragmatists who seek bigger, more worldly congregations. Nathan Smith (GodBit.com) counters, "we are naive if we try to take an isolationist approach. God wants a direct relationship with each person, so weas facilitators of that callinghave to meet people through what they know, and if that is pop culture, then so be it."
Seeing grungy design elements on a church web site might surprise a non-churchgoer, but churches are just as susceptible to trends as businesses are to changing markets. And, for designers, the organic, handmade style can be plain fun. "Grunge is probably our specialty right now," says Matt Adams (Factor 1 Studios). "I really enjoy the work we put into these projects. Sometimes we will age our own paper in the sun or tear up some cardboard, rust some nails and staples ... we really have a good time on these projects. The hard part is when the church is just looking for the trend, rather than looking to show their true culture."
