Author Archives

redemptive entrepreneur, leader in church property & finance, cultural philosopher

• The Bug

  By Joel Plotnek on August 20, 2021 • ( 1 )

  

  a poem to wake the soul

• Church Economics 104 – The myth that we have always paid for our church buildings

  By Joel Plotnek on August 6, 2021 • ( 3 )

  

  We didn’t always pay for our church buildings through private funding. And our churches have changed a lot since Christ commissioned the disciples. What can we learn from church history to fund future church mission? 6 minutes read

• Church Economics 103: What funds mission – market scarcity or redemptive abundance?

  By Joel Plotnek on July 30, 2021 • ( 2 )

  

  Church giving is dropping as attendance continues to decline. How can we turn the tide and move from scarcity to abundance in church mission and finance? 5 minute read

• Church Economics 102: The gospel of the consumer church market

  By Joel Plotnek on July 23, 2021 • ( 2 )

  

  Is our evangelism growing the church or are we competing to attract the same religious consumers in a shrinking market for souls?

• Church Economics 101: The myth that tithes and offerings can continue to sustain church stability and growth

  By Joel Plotnek on July 16, 2021 • ( 3 )

  

  Are tithes & offerings enough to sustain our church buildings & operations? Or do we need something more? A revolution in church economics! 5 minutes read

• Are You A Christian Gnostic? Why we need to get back to the planet before it’s too late!

  By Joel Plotnek on July 9, 2021 • ( 8 )

  

  Is the church only visiting this planet? Or are we called to change the world? What does Larry Norman and Eugene Peterson have to say about this? 8 minutes read

• Has the Church Lost its Mission? Part II – How Jürgen Moltmann can help expand our mission horizons

  By Joel Plotnek on July 2, 2021 • ( 2 )

  

  Is our theology hampering our mission and use of church buildings? How might we lift our vision to reach our world? 5 minutes read

• Has the Church Lost its Mission? Part I – How church buildings cause mission drift

  By Joel Plotnek on June 25, 2021 • ( 4 )

  

  Church growth and Christian mission are seen as synonymous in the 21st century. But the western church is loosing ground rapidly. We have lost our mission because we are asking the wrong questions! 4 minutes read

• When the Church Left the Building – reflections on COVID-19 and the digital streamed church from Bonhoeffer’s Gestapo “lock down”

  By Joel Plotnek on June 11, 2021 • ( 5 )

  

  What happened to the church when we left the building in COVID-19 lockdown? Are we still the church when we meet online fragmented by time and space? Dietrich Bonhoeffer helps us think through these questions writing under Nazi persecution of the Confessing Church in Germany. 7 minutes read