Our entire understanding of funding and sustainability must change. Tithes and offerings alone are no longer enough to provide for the needs of the local church, enable pastors to pursue opportunities, or sustain long-term ministry impact. Growing financial burdens on the middle class, marginal increases in contributions to religious organizations, shifting generational attitudes toward giving, and changing demographics are having a negative impact on church budgets. Given that someday local churches may be required to pay taxes on the property they own and/or lose the benefit of soliciting tax-deductible gifts, the time to pivot is now. What's needed is disruptive innovation in church economics. For churches to not only survive but thrive in the future, leaders must learn to leverage assets, bless the community, empower entrepreneurs, and create multiple streams of income to effectively fund mission. You'll learn why you should and how to do so in The Coming Revolution in Church Economics.

Approximately 85% of working Christians spend the majority of their waking hours working in a for-profit company. We are marketplace Christians called to transform the marketplace for the glory of God.In The Marketplace Christian, Darren Shearer provides practical and personalized strategies to help you fulfill your specific transformational ministry to the world of business. In this book, you will learn...- The specific spiritual gifts God has entrusted to you for ministry in the marketplace- Strategies for using your spiritual gifts in a business setting- Examples of 23 marketplace Christians who have (and are) using their spiritual gifts in businessYou will also learn...- How the author, Darren Shearer, went from Bible school to running his own business for the glory of God- How to identify your God-given marketplace ministry assignment- 9 reasons why the marketplace is a great place for Christians to serve God- How business can be your "full-time ministry"How to transform your industry for the glory of GodThe Marketplace Christian includes the "Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment" that will help you to discover the unique abilities God has entrusted to you for fulfilling His purposes in your sphere of influence in business. You will also learn about other marketplace Christians who have used each of the 23 spiritual gifts discussed in this book as well as specific suggestions for how you can use your own gifts for marketplace ministry.

In a powerful challenge to conventional wisdom, Philip Hamburger argues that the separation of church and state has no historical foundation in the First Amendment. The detailed evidence assembled here shows that eighteenth-century Americans almost never invoked this principle. Although Thomas Jefferson and others retrospectively claimed that the First Amendment separated church and state, separation became part of American constitutional law only much later. Hamburger shows that separation became a constitutional freedom largely through fear and prejudice. Jefferson supported separation out of hostility to the Federalist clergy of New England. Nativist Protestants (ranging from nineteenth-century Know Nothings to twentieth-century members of the K.K.K.) adopted the principle of separation to restrict the role of Catholics in public life. Gradually, these Protestants were joined by theologically liberal, anti-Christian secularists, who hoped that separation would limit Christianity and all other distinct religions. Eventually, a wide range of men and women called for separation. Almost all of these Americans feared ecclesiastical authority, particularly that of the Catholic Church, and, in response to their fears, they increasingly perceived religious liberty to require a separation of church from state. American religious liberty was thus redefined and even transformed. In the process, the First Amendment was often used as an instrument of intolerance and discrimination.