CAP are again award-winners in The Sunday Times' 2010 'Best Small Companies To Work For'

CAP (national debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty) took first place in these awards in 2008 and 2009. This year they took second place, but received one of the Special Awards, for Best Leaders.

The Sunday Times has some great coverage for Chief Exec Matt Barlow and his team, including:

''Visionary Leadership at CAP enables the 131 staff to help transform the lives of thousands of people struggling with debt...... The management style combines humility and integrity with open communication."

Well done again, CAP!

What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church? A Parable!

My thanks to Anthony Delaney of Ivy Church Manchester for flagging this hilarious video. Alas it's far too near what actually happens in many churches......

Multi-Site Churches Spreading in Post-Christian Europe

'The Christian Post' quotes from a report by the Leadership Network which describes the spread of 'multi-site' churches in a number of European countries. One such is Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in London:

'On any one Sunday, Holy Trinity
Brompton (HTB) (www.htb.org.uk) in
London, UK, will have about 4,500 people
through its doors, attending one of eight
services held in two locations less than a
mile from each other, and drawn from a
pool of about 10,000 attendees.'

Multi-site churches differ to church plants, in that they normally present themselves as one church in several locations, overseen by a single leadership, albeit with dedicated leaders for each site or campus. These began in the US, and have spread to Australia and more recently the UK and other European countries.

New book by Tim Keller later this year

Tim Keller's new book, Generous Justice, will be released this October.

From the publisher...

It is commonly thought in our secular culture that the Bible is one of the great hindrances to doing justice. In Generous Justice, Tim Keller illuminates a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice.

Generous Justice is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide, as well as for those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world. Keller calls upon life-long Christians to deepen their faith by understanding that justice for the poor and marginalized is central to the Scripture’s message and challenges sceptics to recognize that the Bible is actually the basis for the modern understanding of justice.

Giving to UK charities fell in 2009 - were churches similarly affected?

A recent poll by Investec Private Bank indicated a drop in donations to UK Charities of more than £500m on previous year, 10% down on 2008.

At Funding for the Future in Westminster earlier this week, a conference attended by 1,200 charity etc leaders and managers, I heard Dr John Low of the Charities Aid Foundation talk of a £1.3 billion decrease in 2009, 11% on 2008.

Although the figures differ, both are flagging a similar percentage reduction. However our experience in LifeChurch Manchester was that in financial 08/09 our income grew by 6%, and in 09/10 we're hopeful of hitting our budget of another 6% increase. So we're very glad to be bucking the national trend. 

Is this the experience also of other churches?