A decade ago, reality TV was in its heyday, and shows like Jersey Shore, Dance Moms, The Voice, Real Housewives, Deadliest Catch, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians were dominating the ratings and the cultural conversation. But there was one beloved show that stuck out like a camo-painted thumb, in stark contrast to the shows glamorizing the glitzy lives of the rich, famous, and upper-class:

Duck Dynasty – A quirky show that followed the family behind best-selling duck hunting products, and their antics down in swampland, Louisiana.

Granted, they were rich, and after the show, they were famous too. But upper class?

Let’s just say there’s an episode where they make sausage out of swamp rats.

Viewers loved the authenticity, the silliness, the conservative values, and the down-to-earth quality of this family, the Robertsons. At its zenith, Duck Dynasty pulled in nearly 12 million viewers to break the record for the most-watched non-fiction series telecast on cable ever.

One outlet said that the show had “waddled into history.”

The Robertsons started showing up everywhere – in the political realm, in movies making cameo appearances, such as God’s Not Dead, and on the cover of numerous books at your local bookstore. The Robertsons, having already made their money in business, had suddenly made their reputation in culture.

But now, seven years after the show aired its last finale, many former fans of the show may be wondering, “Where are they now?”…

Did you know the brains behind Sent To Win run a full-service marketing and PR agency? If you need help scaling your business profitably, you need to connect with Fidelitas.

Fidelitas has been helping small businesses, churches, non-profits, publicly traded companies, and even professional sports teams win for over 16 years. Fidelitas leads by serving as a Strategic Partner and prides itself on producing measurable results for its clients.

Check them out here or email Tyler@Fidelitas.co to connect directly with the CEO.

The Daily Wire recently had its first-ever theatrical release, with Matt Walsh’s mockumentary “Am I a Racist?” The film, which opened to 1,500 theaters nationwide, cracked the top 5 in its opening weekend and hauled in $4.5M at its opening - one of the best documentary performances in a decade. A company called Fathom Events made this release possible, an organization that has allowed many faith-based and conservative films to come to the big screen via its creative distribution strategy that typically relies on…

The big news of last week is that the Fed has finally cut interest rates, with a bold drop of 50 basis points. The market jumped in response, closing on record highs last week, and as of Monday, it has remained strong. For many, the cuts are a sign that we can finally…

Donald Trump has announced more tax cut promises, as he continues his low-intervention economic pitch to voters. He has stated that his administration will not tax tips, will not tax overtime, will renew the Trump tax cuts from his previous administration, end taxes on social security benefits, and more. While some argue…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: How many books are in the New Testament, and how many authors wrote them?

Answer at the bottom

“And when I wave my maaaagic wand, these profits instantly become non-profits!”

TIPS & TRICKS

Considerations When Setting Up a Non-Profit

There are lots of helpful guides out there listing the steps you need to take to start a non-profit. Even so, there are a few big questions, a few things to keep in mind, that these types of guides sometimes leave out. Today, we’d like to talk about a few things you’ll want to consider before starting a non-profit organization.

#1 – Is This a Problem that Can Be Solved or Funded Via Traditional Business?

“Consider the alternatives” is a tried and true bit of advice in nearly every arena, and it’s especially important here. Let’s say you would like to…

• Public Square will host a live two-day event for small business owners in October: the first-ever Public Square Business Summit.

• Have the recent rate cuts come too late for commercial property developers?

• Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have officially tied the knot.

• Should you buy or lease your car? The New York Times weighs in.

• Is it time to refinance now? The Wall Street Journal analyzes interest rates in the wake of the Fed’s recent cut.

• Angel Studios announces, after earlier denials, that it is set to become a publicly traded company in the second half of 2025.

If you put your money in a savings account, you’re going to get less than half of one percent APY. Even if there was no such thing as inflation, that would still be laughable. As is, you’re losing quite a bit of money if you park a lot of cash there.

If you put your money into a high-yield online-only bank, you can do a bit better – 4 or 5%, say. This money can often be liquid, so it’s not a terrible place to hold some cash while you wait… But your money isn’t doing a whole lot of work for you there, even if it isn’t dying to inflation.

If you put your money in the stock market, it can be highly risky, depending on how you invest, but with a properly diversified portfolio or mutual fund, you can reliably make an annualized 11 or 12%.

Not bad. But there is an industry that offers its investors a 20% preferred return:

The movie business.

Yes, there is still a very real risk here, but the risk isn’t as great as you might think. Big box office bombs grab the headlines for how much money they lose, but professional powerbrokers and financiers are savvier than we like to give them credit for, no matter how bad a major studio’s showing might be. Completion bonds, performance bonds, and other forms of insurance make it difficult to lose your shorts investing in a major motion picture from one of the big studios.

The problem? Paramount isn’t taking your calls right now, and Sony only wants your money if you are buying a ticket. No matter how much you’d like to invest in the next Marvel movie, you simply can’t.

But one faith-based studio and distributor is changing all of that…

Did you know the brains behind Sent To Win run a full-service marketing and PR agency? If you need help scaling your business profitably, you need to connect with Fidelitas.

Fidelitas has been helping small businesses, churches, non-profits, publicly traded companies, and even professional sports teams win for over 16 years. Fidelitas leads by serving as a Strategic Partner and prides itself on producing measurable results for its clients.

Check them out here or email Tyler@Fidelitas.co to connect directly with the CEO.

The NFL regular season officially began on Thursday, with the Baltimore Ravens clashing with the Kansas City Chiefs, kicking off an ever more ambitious economic agenda. The NFL’s 32 teams generated a combined $20 billion last year, more than the entire MLB, and they have plans to grow those numbers. Well-recognized as a uniquely American sport, the NFL has been trying to grow its appeal among international audiences for a while now, perhaps jealous of the billions generated by the soccer market in Europe and around the world…

The stock market rebounded early this week after heavy losses late last week, driving the major indices to near-record levels once again. Strong signals of a long-awaited rate cut seem to indicate that the Fed will finally cut rates at least 25 basis points, and perhaps even 50, as Powell says “the time has come” to start changing…

A group of Christian broadcasters are suing the IRS over the “Johnson Amendment” – a tax law that prevents non-profits from endorsing or opposing political candidates. The argument says that since certain newspapers, such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, now operate as non-profits yet are allowed to endorse candidates, churches and religious organizations should be allowed to, too. Despite the Trump Administration's efforts to repeal the Johnson Amendment back in 2016-2017, it remains in effect…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Ancient Christian art associated a different creature with each of the four gospels. Do you know what they are?

Answer at the bottom

“While I think we can all agree that you gave a very compelling presentation, it is still the unanimous opinion of this board that the magic beans are a bad investment.”

TIPS & TRICKS

How to Build an Advisory Board

It’s no great shock to say that no one can be an expert in everything. But for some reason, as highly competitive entrepreneurs, sometimes we can feel like we aren’t allowed to ask for help. Or, for some, they don’t feel like they have a ready source of information and experience near at hand when it is needed. For whatever reason, the urge to do it all on our own can be very strong.

What can help overcome the awkwardness, uncertainty, and indecision of trying to find answers outside of your expertise is simply having a structure. If you haven’t done so already, build an advisory board. Far from being an imposition, if you ask the right people, they may even feel honored that you asked. This way, not only do you have access to filling in the gaps in your expertise and gaining wisdom before making big decisions – you also have a group of people that you respect who expect you to give a report and will keep you accountable.

Here’s how to set up an advisory board…

• Verizon will purchase Frontier Communications in an all-cash, $20B deal to expand their fiber network.

• Christian parents are concerned at the lack of protection on school-issued iPads.

• Support for a U.S. ban of TikTok falls; half of adults doubt it will actually happen.

• Chris Reed, CEO of Christian ministry MorningStar, has stepped down, as sexual misconduct surfaces.

• Apple has big plans to surge ahead: Incorporate AI into the next generation of iPhones.

There you are, driving down the road, listening to the Christian music station on your way to work, when all of a sudden the hosts are on, interrupting the music:

“We need your help! This radio station is a listener-supported, not-for-profit ministry, dedicated to bringing glory to God and the love of Jesus to millions of people around the world, every day. People come to know Jesus because of this channel, guys. It’s really changing lives. And we need some everyday heroes to step up and help us keep doing this important work. Listen to this testimonial…”

And then we hear someone talk about how their life has changed, usually because of listening to this radio station, or sometimes even just a story about how coming to faith has impacted them. When the testimonial is over, it’s back to the hosts:

“We need 30 more heroes, guys, just 30 more pledges of $50 a month or more. Can you be one of those 30 people? We need your help to keep on the air and keep spreading hope and life on the airways, day in and day out. Just 30 more people.”

Depending on the radio station, they’ll wait to play more music until they get those 30 monthly supporters. Later, there will be another 50 monthly supporters. Then another 25 monthly supporters. Either someone keeps miscounting, or these numbers of “needed” new monthly supporters are random. During one of the year’s multiple fundraising seasons, it can feel like you’re not supporting Christian music, but radio station fundraising.

And that’s the concern some Christians increasingly have with the business model. Are the high-pressure sales tactics and frequent fundraising drives all a necessary part of providing positive, life-giving music to the world? Or is it something more cynical, or at least profit-motivated?

The line between “non-profit” and “for-profit” seems increasingly blurred these days.

Recently, some large, Christian media conglomerates have come under fire for raking in exorbitant sums of money while giving the impression that they are struggling to get by. That money, in many cases, is then used not simply to pay the bills, but to buy up smaller, independent radio stations and T.V. channels, and to pay a lot of money to the executives.

For example, you may read this job description of a recent career posting by EMF, and be left a little cynical.

The defenders of this business model, however, will say that radio is a medium in slow, steady decline, and consolidation is inevitable at this stage of an industry’s life cycle. Maybe it’s better that stations are being purchased with Christian dollars instead of a PE firm that might use those stations for something less family-friendly?

Regardless of which interpretation appeals to you, we’ll have to start with the numbers and specific players…

 

Did you know the brains behind Sent To Win run a full-service marketing and PR agency? If you need help scaling your business profitably, you need to connect with Fidelitas.

Fidelitas has been helping small businesses, churches, non-profits, publicly traded companies, and even professional sports teams win for over 16 years. Fidelitas leads by serving as a Strategic Partner and prides itself on producing measurable results for its clients.

Check them out here or email Tyler@Fidelitas.co to connect directly with the CEO.

China’s economic woes are, at this point, well-known: massive debt, real estate falling through the floor, low consumer confidence, deflation, and a bad demographic trajectory, just to name a few. To try and jumpstart the economy, China has gone all-in on flooding the world with cheap consumer goods and materials, driving key businesses out in many nations around the world. In response, many western countries are fighting back with tariffs and import bans. China then responds more aggressively via loopholes and increased production, and tariffs are raised around the world…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit a record high this week, amid renewed expectations of Fed rate cuts. The inflation report from July had some good news and some not so good news. Rent is up 5%, auto insurance is up 18%, and though the rate of increase has slowed, groceries and energy are still increasing year over year. If you need to buy a car, however, that is getting easier. New cars are down 2%, and used cars have dropped 10%. The price of gold continues to set records, as it is now well over $2,500/oz, and a single gold bar is now worth well over $1 million…

In many Christian circles, the phrase “Evangelicals for Harris” contains an oxymoron, as many in the typically conservative-leaning Christian sect consider it impossible for a faithful Christian to support the Democrat agenda in 2024, which contains unbiblical advocacy for abortion, radical gender theory, etc. At the same time, a growing number of voices on the center-right and left are saying that Christians cannot support Donald Trump, especially as he appears to have moved left on abortion. This new group, “Evangelicals for Harris” may end up playing a decisive role in the election, however, as the nearly 200,000 person alliance makes waves in the news cycle…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Who are the Zadokim, Zadokites, or the sons of Zadok?

Answer at the bottom

TIPS & TRICKS

Meet Chandler Hallow – Mr. Beast’s Soft-Spoken, Boldly Christian Friend

Influence in media has shifted drastically over the past several years. A top-rated show on Fox or CNN is happy to garner 2-3 million viewers during primetime, while a typical Mr. Beast video on YouTube gets 150 – 250 million views.

New media is media, and there is a lot of money being made, influence being gained, and fame being chased. But one celebrity in new media is swimming in the opposite direction, and is seems to be because of a spiritual awakening. That someone is Chandler Hallow.

“When I went away to college,” Chandler says, in a recent video where he shares his testimony, “I started to stray away from God. You know – doing things I had never done before, like getting into drugs, smoking, drinking, partying…” This went on for some time until he was living on his own after school, still into drugs, feeling very lonely and lost, and yet praying every night to thank God and ask Him to do something in his life. Then one day, smoking in his kitchen and feeling like there was a “cloud of depression” in his house, he says God spoke to him.

“It was one million percent God’s voice,” he says. “He goes, ‘What are you doing?’ and I froze… At that moment, I like snapped out of some trance I was in, and it’s like God just peeled the scales off my eyes.”

Chandler immediately went through his things, and threw away two garbage bags of “stuff,” that he now knew was an impediment to living for God…

• BCA Research says a U.S. recession is coming.

• Christianity Today offers suggestions on how Christians can support their local public school.

• City of Dreams, an Angel Studios movie showing how children are trafficked across the US border, hits theaters on Friday, August 30th. 

• Who’s the newest competitor in the streaming space? Chick-fil-A. (Really.)

• Faith-based tech solutions company “Gloo” raised $110 million in capital.

• Inspiring or insulting? Christians split on Intel CEO’s decision to post a Bible verse alongside a layoffs announcement.

Harrison Butker, the top-tier NFL kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs (and something of a Christian celebrity), has just secured a record-breaking 4-year contract extension worth $25.6 million, making him the highest-paid kicker in history.

Yet that isn’t what is most amazing about the story.

Harrison Butker represented himself in the negotiations. He had no agent negotiate the contract for him, and he will be paying no agent fees.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that Harisson Butker still has a booking agent for speaking engagements, and it seems that he also has an agent who handles brand endorsements - something sports agents in particular often do. But with his historic salary agreement, Butker decided to go it alone.

Far from being suckered, Butker secured an enviable deal. 70% of the salary is guaranteed, under the terms of the contract, and he’s saved himself a good deal of money by forgoing the agent.

But it isn’t just football, it seems. Across industries, some are questioning the formerly unquestioned value of using an agent, which is having real-world effects as we speak. But is it wise to do away with your agent?

Read on…

Did you know the brains behind Sent To Win run a full-service marketing and PR agency? If you need help scaling your business profitably, you need to connect with Fidelitas.

Fidelitas has been helping small businesses, churches, non-profits, publicly traded companies, and even professional sports teams win for over 16 years. Fidelitas leads by serving as a Strategic Partner and prides itself on producing measurable results for its clients.

Check them out here or email Tyler@Fidelitas.co to connect directly with the CEO.

Last week, the stock market fell 5% over 5 days, including a 1,000 point drop on August 5th alone. Though numerous forces are in play, the immediate cause is understood to be the increase in interest rates from the Japanese central bank, triggering a selloff from traders that have come to rely on the yen-carry trade. This was compounded by a weak economic report in the U.S. as well, as markets tumbled last Monday. The Dow was fairly quick to recover much of the losses, but for some analysts, fears remain that this may be the first shock of a coming global recession. Others disagree, citing freight demand and possible future rate cuts. Nevertheless, the Sahm rule indicates that we are already in a recession, though some analysts maintain that the rule may not be accurate in the current economic climate…

The average 30-year fixed mortgage fell below 6.5% for the first time in over a year, amidst a weak jobs report and volatility in the stock market, with many investors renewing expectations for a Fed rate cut. Nevertheless, the housing market remains at a record-high valuation, climbing ever-nearer to $50 trillion in value as prices continue their upward trajectory. Though rates have come down some, they remain significantly higher than they were just a few years ago, which locks many homeowners into their properties, which shrinks the available supply, driving prices up. There are competing narratives on real wage growth, but however you slice it, growth has either been very slow or negative…

We’ve featured Christian influencer Coffeezilla in Sent to Win on more than one occasion, and now, the popular YouTuber is facing a defamation lawsuit for his (truthful) reporting. Logan Paul, an online personality/WWE performer recently filed a lawsuit against Stephen Findeisen, A.K.A. Coffeezilla, for his reporting on Paul’s “Crypto Zoo” scam that fleeced his fans of millions of dollars, and gave them nearly nothing in return. The lawsuit comes on the heels of Coffeezilla beginning to look into another one of Paul’s companies, “Liquid Marketplace,” a fractional asset ownership platform, that has recently been the subject of a fraud investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Where does the first “Song of Moses” appear in the Bible?

Answer at the bottom

“Now I know we have some differences of opinion in the congregation, so I’d like to introduce today’s guest speaker as both the greatest, most honest, and bravest man serving in ministry today, and as a liar, a thief, and a menace to society. Give him a hand!”

TIPS & TRICKS

Are the Shepherds for Sale or Not? New Book Creates Conflict Among Christians

Megan Basham, a contributor for the Daily Wire and a former contributor to World, released a book last week, which quickly became a whirlwind of controversy. The book, titled Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, purports to show widespread corruption among evangelical elites at the hands of ideological capture and, allegedly, bribery.

Conservative Christian influencers have tended to celebrate the book, calling it a much-needed tell-all and a balance against the slew of left-leaning critiques of evangelicalism that have come out in recent years. The book, according to Clear Truth Media, “[chronicles] the growing chasm between many evangelical leaders and those they are supposed to shepherd.” Others, such as Ministry Watch’s Warren Cole Smith, write that Megan Basham has it all wrong. He says, in his review at The Dispatch, “Corrupting money is not on the evangelical left… but on the populist right.”

On X (formerly Twitter), Christian personalities have been arguing incessantly over whether the book is accurate or not. Pro-life activist Seth Gruber writes, “The fight happening over Meg Basham is far more important than anything happening in the GOP right now. Her book explains why we shouldn’t be surprised that a party launched to end slavery has become so weak and stupid. It’s because many [of] our evangelical bettors are hirelings.”

Others, such as Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, refer to Megan Basham being called “a bad journalist” and says her book has “a host of factual issues.” Christian investigative journalist Julie Roys has also been highly critical of the book. She says that Megan Basham “knows how to throw red meat to rile up her base. But she does so at the expense of truth.” Roys adds to her comments that objecting to dishonesty does not make her woke.

For her part, Megan Basham says all of the backlash is a circling of the wagons of the corrupt elite that have been able to keep what’s really going on under wraps, until now…

• Sony will no longer seek to acquire Paramount Pictures, according to CNBC.

• Christianity Today highlights the top moments of Paris 2024 where Christian athletes were able to share their faith.

• Disney posted a small profit from streaming and films last quarter, but parks profitability wanes.

• Shopify outperforms Q2 expectations and looks to continue growth.

• A Chik-fil-A in Virginia is now open on Sundays… for church services to accommodate a displaced congregation. They are not, however, serving food, and drinks, or operating the restaurant on Sundays, as the fast food chain remains firmly committed to a six-day workweek. 

• Starbucks swaps out its CEO for Chipotle’s top exec, Brian Niccol.

I have some good news for you – there are some good people on the internet.

I know, I know… Scrolling on social media can be a depressing experience, even in self-proclaimed Christian circles. There is a lot of needless division, immaturity, greed, and attention-seeking, and when you stamp the name of Jesus on that, it can leave you with a sick feeling in your stomach. Social media is such an incredible opportunity to speak to the masses, but sometimes the loudest people wearing the badge of “Christian” don’t behave much like Christ.

Thankfully, however, some people are using their influence well, acting like Christians should act, and bringing real value to the world.

Today, we want to highlight some great accounts on various social media platforms of open Christians, doing their thing in an open-hearted and yet uncompromising way.

We’ll start off with a member of the largest YouTube account in the world, Chandler Hallow.

Chandler Hallow

15.5M on TikTok: @chandlerhallow
5M on IG: @chandlerhallow
1.1M on X: @ChandlerHallow

If you’ve ever seen the enormously popular YouTube channel, Mr. Beast, then you know it’s a big deal. This channel essentially invented “entertainment philanthropy” as a genre, in which Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson) gives away houses, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and cars to people who really need them…

Ruslan KD

600k on YouTube: @RuslanKD
31.5k on X: @RuslanKD
78k on TikTok: @RuslanKD

If you’re ever wondering what it would be like to see a reasonable Christian worldview interacting with and commenting on current events and culture, San Diego YouTube star Ruslan may be the man for you. A musician, businessman, and open Christian, Ruslan’s mission is to engage with the world in a respectful, thoughtful way through a biblical perspective…

SPONSORED

Modernize your marketing with AdQuick

AdQuick unlocks the benefits of Out Of Home (OOH) advertising in a way no one else has. Approaching the problem with eyes to performance, created for marketers with the engineering excellence you’ve come to expect for the internet.

Marketers agree OOH is one of the best ways for building brand awareness, reaching new customers, and reinforcing your brand message. It’s just been difficult to scale. But with AdQuick, you can easily plan, deploy and measure campaigns just as easily as digital ads, making them a no-brainer to add to your team’s toolbox.

Learn more now.

It’s been a pretty interesting month for frequent fliers, and for those who invest in major U.S. airlines. First, thousands of flights were delayed and canceled last week, as an error in a critical software update grounded flights across the nation. (It also crippled, hospitals, banks, and businesses). Many travelers were stranded in airports for days. This comes during a time of an oversupply of demand for air travel, which has not translated into increased profits for most carriers, due to rising costs of labor, fuel, and continued supply chain issues. Southwest Air, for its part, has seen a 46% drop in its profit and is now scrambling to adjust its business model to bring in additional revenue, such as ending the open seating policy, selling extra legroom, and adding overnight flights…

U.S. GDP growth increased sharply in Q2, to 2.8%, when adjusting for inflation and seasonality. Tech stocks and crypto slid last week, though Bitcoin rallied significantly after Trump spoke at a Bitcoin rally and promised to make the US the “crypto capital of the world.” The average 30 year fixed mortgage rate sat at around 6.9% as of Monday, according to BankRate…

The 2024 Summer Olympics officially kicked off last week in Paris, in a massive spectacle that has been called the most ambitious opening ceremony ever as well as “shocking and insulting” and “a bad start.” France’s budget for the games this year is $10 billion, which is, amazingly, far lower than the budget of recent Summer Games. (Tokyo 2020 cost $13 billion; Rio 2016 cost $13.6 billion; London 2012 cost $15 billion.) Some estimates of Paris 2024 suggest it could yield between 7 and 12 billion dollars, which represents a huge loss, but some argue that there are positive, lasting economic effects of hosting the games which are difficult to measure…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: In which book of the Bible does the “Valley of Dry Bones” appear?

Answer at the bottom

“So you’re saying there’s a chance…?”

TIPS & TRICKS

One Minor Change to Increase Your Closing Rate

You may or may not be “in sales,” but if you are a business owner or even a high-powered employee, chances are, the success of your company does in fact rely, to some extent, on people saying yes to your pitch. For those of us who are natural salespeople, this is great news. To those of us who aren’t… Well, thankfully there is a lot of good material out there that we can learn from. In this short article today, we want to highlight an extremely helpful little tactic that you can start employing right away, and be sure to let us know if it improves your close rate!

So what is this magical technique?

Let the customer say no. A lot.

Try to Get a “No.”

“Hold on,” you might be thinking. “Isn’t the idea of sales to get a ‘yes’?”

Sure. Sometimes. But here’s the problem with trying to get someone to say yes to “Want to buy this car?” or “Will you sign up for a membership?” or “Can I be your next VP of Marketing?” - If they say “No,” you’re kind of cooked. This is usually the final ask of the conversation, the only “yes” that really matters, and if you blow it, you’re done.

Sure, persistence can pay off, but it can also be annoying and off-putting, if a “No” has already been said with finality, like in the examples above. Conventional wisdom says that you want to get your target saying “Yes” a lot so that it’s easy to say the final “Yes” - the one that actually matters. So a lot of scripts go like this:…

SPONSORED

Content collaboration has never been this easy

Navigating the fast-paced agency world is always a hassle when it comes to efficiency and scaling. That’s why you need the right platform to speed up all your processes.

And Planable is the content collaboration tool that makes teamwork a breeze. You can create, plan, review, and approve all your clients’ content in one place: social media, blogs, newsletters, press releases, briefs — you name it! One workspace for each client.

Content marketing should be about creating impact, not getting lost in a labyrinth of tools, tabs, and spreadsheets. That’s why you can now explore your data at ease with our analytics features and create beautiful reports for your clients.

Because we love organized content. And so do you. More time, more clients.

Try Planable for free

• Elevation Church is accused of “high tech sheep-stealing” - using location-based ads to specifically target members of smaller churches. 

• In a bizarre series of events, Brent Leatherwood, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics and public policy arm, was fired and then reinstated in the span of 24 hours.

• Christianity Today reports that Christian rescue missions are strained for resources as homelessness reaches record highs.

• Arson attacks in France caused massive travel disruption ahead of the Olympic opener last week.

Turnover is expensive.

It can easily cost 1/3 of an employee’s annual salary to replace them, and some estimates quote much higher figures. This is to say nothing of the lost productivity, bad performance, and lost clients that can result from having the wrong person in a given role.

Every business owner and executive knows that hiring is a high-stakes activity, and it’s important to get it right the first time.

However, the numbers are not encouraging here. According to a new book by Bart McCollum and Dr. Gerald Hannah, Ph.D., hair care company L’Oreal tracked the efficacy of their hiring methods and was not pleased with the results. Using traditional interview and vetting techniques, they hired several salespeople and then ended up having to fire 41% of them. The good news, however, is they shifted tactics and tested a Behavioral Event Interview style (BEI) for their hiring decisions, and they had much greater success. With employees selected using BEI, a method based on the research of Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, L’Oreal only had to fire 15% of its salespeople hired.

I sat down with Mr. McCollum – a CEO and cultural turnaround expert – and Dr. Hannah – a longtime business consultant and researcher – to understand how we can shift our understanding of the interview process and come out with successful outcomes again and again.

After all, the best way to reduce turnover is to pick the right candidate as much as possible.

“It’s really hard to interview well,” Bart explains, “and most people are really bad at it. There’s only so much you can know about a person and how they’ll behave and perform based on a conversation.”

Dr. Hannah nodded his agreement.

“Yes, but thankfully Dr. McClelland’s work on ‘behavioral competencies’ led to a whole methodology on selecting top talent. When put into practice, it doubles the effectiveness of the selection process.”

When I asked how this was possible, they explained that typical interview questions are designed to draw correlations from hobbies, attitudes, and answers to hypothetical questions with future performance. It doesn’t really work, because people are going to tell you what they think you want to hear. So what should you be asking a candidate instead?

“Targeted questions,” Dr. Hannah replies. “You’re looking for examples of specific behaviors they’ve displayed in the past. So tell them, ‘Use the pronoun “I,” not “we,” and have them keep their answers to things that have happened in the last two or three years. You might ask, ‘Tell me a time in the last 2 or 3 years in which you experienced failure.’ Then I count to about ten. If they don’t answer by then, I add, ‘Or when you experienced a major, major disappointment at work.’ They’ll come up with something. But what’s interesting is a very talented person will say, ‘I can think of 3 or 4. Which one do you want?’ This shows self-confidence, achievement orientation, and humility, which correlate to emotional intelligence behaviors.”…

“See? I knew you were absolutely the right man for the job when I said, ‘What is your biggest weakness?’ and you said, ‘I work too hard.’ That’s just what we’re looking for!”

If the old adage rings true for your business, it's time you had a conversation with Fidelitas. Fidelitas, the like-minded marketing and PR agency that executes this newsletter, is a results-focused agency that has helped large, 9-figure public companies and pre-revenue startups alike grow with measurable results.

Fidelitas focuses on KPIs that actually impact your bottom line and integrates single channel and full-service solutions for a wide variety of B2B and BC brands as well as non-profits and professional sports teams.

Take advantage of a free strategic audit for qualified businesses when you email info@fidelitas.co and mention Sent To Win.

Your P&L will be glad you did.

Feed store and retail chain Tractor Supply stepped in manure last month when internal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) priorities were exposed by conservative activist Robby Starbuck. The store, which caters largely to rural, conservative-leaning Americans, watched in horror as the backlash grew over a few weeks, tanking their stock 10%. On June 27th, Tractor Supply released a statement backing away from DEI initiatives, promising to eliminate DEI jobs at the company and to stop donating to pride parades, among other things…

The Dow Jones continues its historic bull run, sitting now well above 40k after a jump of 500 points, a jump that has seen more than just tech stocks benefiting. The NASDAQ, for its part, is up about 3% on the month. Gold hit an all-time high Tuesday, possibly in expectation to future volatility in the stock, real estate, and currency markets. In other commodities news, Bloomberg a list of “5 Key Charts” to keep an eye on in the global commodities market…

Picture this: seats at a baseball stadium for the whole family, meals and concessions included, wild antics in the game, baby races between innings (yes, baby races. It’s adorable), and all of this for just $35 a ticket. Well, you don’t have to imagine it, because this is the actual price for a ticket to a banana-ball game - sort of a Harlem Globetrotters but with baseball instead of basketball and slightly more of an actual game going on. There’s a reason Savannah Banana games have quickly become a family favorite for entertainment - but there’s a problem. The games are so popular that you simply cannot get tickets, and scalpers are taking advantage of the sport’s growing popularity by buying up the limited seats and jacking up the price to hundreds of dollars each, a practice the Savannah Bananas are cracking down on…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: In which book of the Bible does “Onesimus” appear?

Answer at the bottom

TIPS & TRICKS

Dolly Parton: Business Mogul and Country Music Star on Walking in Faith

She might be best known for legendary country hits such as “Jolene,” “Yellow Roses,” or “I Will Always Love You,” but many people are unaware of just what a business mastermind Dolly Parton really is. Her net worth is a jaw-dropping $650 million – which is all the more impressive when you consider how much money this woman has given away through her foundations and charitable giving. Early on in her music career, Parton realized that she needed to own the rights up and down the process, so she started her own record label, bought the tour buses, etc. As a recording artist, she realized the need for vertical integration in an era when this was rarely, if ever, done. She has made quite a career out of television and film, as well, always sharp in her business dealings on the back end of these endeavors, and she owns and operates multiple entertainment venues, hospitality services, and restaurants. 

One of the key elements of her success is Dolly’s penchant for buying up the entire process in a given enterprise. Therefore, if you want to go to her theme park Dollywood, you’ll likely end up staying at her hotel, eating at her dinner-theater business, and buying her merchandise. In everything that she does, Dolly has been consistently able to control the supply chain and the value-added process in every link of the chain.

Dolly Parton is a real operator…

SPONSORED

Keep up with AI

How do you keep up with the insane pace of AI? Join The Rundown — the world’s largest AI newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with everything happening in AI, and why it actually matters in just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up with one click

• CNBC offers 5 budgeting strategies to combat the challenges of inflation.

• Christian billionaire and philanthropist Bill Hwang found guilty of market manipulation, and defrauding banks.

• A slowdown in consumer price increases in June has some investors optimistic for a future interest rate cut.

• Christian research group Barna releases results of their “Faith and AI” survey, chronicling Christians’ attitudes toward the ethics of artificial intelligence technology.

Decision 2024 is just around the corner, and the American people have two very different visions of the future to choose from. In the second part of a two-newsletter series, we are examining what the economy will likely look like if shaped by a second term President Joe Biden from 2024-2028.

You can read the previous installment on how a second term for President Trump would likely impact the economy here.

The Track Record

As in all statistics, everything is a matter of when you start measuring, and when you stop measuring.

The White House continues to use words like “historic,” “successful,” “booming,” and “growth” to describe President Biden’s economy, yet Gallup reports that the people’s confidence in Biden’s economic stewardship is “historically low,” the lowest of any president since they began asking the question in 2001. So how is it that only 26% of Americans regard the economy as “good” (and a plain majority calls it “poor”) while the Biden administration claims that it has created 15 million jobs?

It’s a matter of when you measure.

Because the economy went into an artificial coma during the COVID lockdowns just before Biden took office, essentially, Joe Biden took credit for all of the businesses opening back up, calling it “creating jobs.” This is in spite of the fact that Biden’s administration fiercely opposed states choosing to open up for business and bring those jobs back online.

Unfortunately, this is a pattern in the White House’s reporting on the economy during President Biden’s tenure. Many of the numbers sound great but wither under scrutiny. In order to get a real idea of Biden’s economic track record, we need to exclude the re-opening after COVID, and look at other material conditions.

Inflation is up over 20% since Biden took office. Real wages have decreased by over 2.5%. The Biden admin touts average GDP growth of 3.4% during his tenure, but again, this is somewhat dishonest. COVID lockdowns put the GDP to artificial nadirs during 2020, so average growth should have, in this writer’s opinion, actually have been far higher, to offset the losses. The GDP numbers begin looking anemic when we account for the artificially low benchmark at the beginning, and the incredible amount of government spending driving the GDP figures up. (Check out this chart to see how dramatically COVID’s lockdowns influenced the averages.) Even with the government spending like there is no tomorrow, GDP came in at just 1.3% in Q1 of this year, while inflation was nearly three times that figure over the same period of time.

To be fair, neither Trump nor Biden seem to have serious plans to combat the ballooning national debt, but as we are discussing Biden in this week’s issue, it’s worth pointing out that Joe Biden has spent and borrowed recklessly, sprinting towards the fiscal cliff. U.S. interest payments on debt, under Biden, surpassed defense spending and Medicare, respectively.

Joe Biden’s economic track record has not been great.

That’s an understatement. His track record has been abysmal. The only silver lining, perhaps, is that unemployment has remained low – though there is some number-fudging going on in the White House’s jobs reports. Some sources say the real unemployment rate is not 3.9% but more likely between 6.5 and 7.7%.

The Agenda

President Biden’s reelection campaign presents November’s contest as a battle between two very different economic futures. Here are the President’s stated priorities for a possible second term: …

If your marketing results weren't where you wanted them to be last quarter, don't just default to blaming the economy- because it's not going to magically improve in Q3, either. Instead, consider the following:

1) Are you pulling in diverse traffic across both paid and organic? If a channel's missing, that's a great place to start.

2) When was the last time you optimized your retention campaigns? If those flows a freelancer built for you in 2021 are still running, it's time to give your email strategy a facelift.

3) Are you sharing real numbers and margins with your in-house marketing team and agency partners? If the pros steering your marketing operation aren't clear on your numbers and profit margin, your results won't be clear, either.

4) What's your conversion rate on your site / landing pages? If it's significantly below average, even achieving mediocrity could double sales!

5) Who's driving your strategy? If you're reacting to every shiny object instead of following a well-constructed game plan, you'll be right where you are now (or worse) at the end of the third quarter. Be intentional with every campaign element, channel, and dollar of your marketing.

If you could use more strategic guidance like what you just read, and/or perhaps some marketing muscle to execute your marketing game plan with excellence, you need to connect with Fidelitas. Fidelitas is a full-service marketing and PR agency that happens to power Sent To Win and loves helping like-minded businesses win. We got the greenlight to include the CEO’s email here- email him directly at tyler@fidelitas.co.

China’s economy is in serious trouble. Foreign investment has fled, their demographics are turning upside down, their debt is becoming unsustainable, and ongoing deflation is making the debt burden even more difficult. So what would you do if your business faced similar challenges? You’d probably have a fire sale, to offload anything you have lying around, at rock bottom prices, just to get some cash flow. On the international scene, this is called “dumping,” and it has very real effects for producers in the U.S. and worldwide – who aren’t too happy about it. The U.S., for its part, has raised tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel, batteries, solar cells, and other goods that threaten to undermine U.S. producers due to China’s artificially low prices made possible via government subsidies and a manipulated currency…

President Biden and former president Trump went on CNN last week to debate, and by polling, Trump was the very clear winner, with 68% of independents saying Trump won, and only 22% of independents saying Biden won. Trump’s performance was energetic, emphatic, and more reserved than we’re used to seeing him in a public debate: he left the name-calling and shouting at home this time. Biden, for his part, was a disaster during the debate, and democrats are openly calling for him to drop out of the race. Biden appeared extremely feeble, rambled, trailed off, sometimes spoke incoherently, and often stared off into space in a bizarre fashion…

Pew Research released a report recently outlining the political affiliations of various Christian denominations, as well as other religions. According to voter registration records, Protestants in general support the Republican Party over the Democratic Party 59-38. Catholics likewise now lean Republican at 52-44, and the Mormon voting block is heavily Republican, at 75-23. Jewish Americans lean heavily Democratic, at 69-29, as do Muslim Americans, at 66-32 for the Democrat Party. Atheists tend to vote Democratic, at 84-13, and religiously unaffiliated Americans as a whole vote Democrat, at a ratio of 70-27…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Where do we find the “Seven Deadly Sins” in the Bible?

Answer at the bottom

TIPS & TRICKS

Defining Faith in Life and Business

When the multitudes came to John the Baptist in Luke 3, and he preached a message of repentance, it is telling what John did and did not tell them to do.

He told them not to rest upon their associations, saying, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”

He did not tell them to recite a creed or to put the Star of David on their clothes. He told them to repent – to change their thinking, change their direction, and to bear actual good fruits from this change.

Then, the people ask him, “What shall we do then?”

He first tells them to give from their excess to those who are in need.

He tells tax collectors not to collect any more than they are supposed to collect for themselves.

He tells soldiers not to intimidate anyone, not to bring false accusations against anyone, and to be content with their paychecks.

Then, he calls their attention to the coming Messiah.

You see, we often make “faith” a more complicated topic than it really is. Faith is difficult, but it isn’t complicated when we take it as a whole. It doesn’t mean an abstract intellectual assent to a list of ideas. In the original language, belief and faith are not really separate concepts. Believing a truth moves you to act upon it, or it isn’t really belief or faith.

Faith is faithful. It means holding to the way, to that which is tested, loyally carrying out God’s plan for mankind.

It’s surprisingly simple, most of the time.

• Christianity Today calls for more churches to support their local crisis pregnancy care centers.

• After a week of volatile trading and a precipitous drop, CNN Business declares that “The Nvidia Spell Is Broken.”

• Is television drying up? Forbes explains the shrinking rewards for creating a hit T.V. show.

• Trying to get in touch with the IRS? Good luck. The Wall Street Journal reports that 2/3 of taxpayers who reach out for help can’t get on the phone with a human being.

• Business Insider reports that the U.S. Housing market is heading for a correction.

Decision 2024 is just around the corner, and the American people have two very different visions of the future to choose from. In this two-newsletter series, we will be examining what the economy will likely look like if shaped by President Donald Trump or by President Joe Biden from 2024-2028.

Today, we begin with Former President Donald Trump.

The Track Record

The first three years of Donald Trump’s presidency boasted a roaring economy. Taxes were slashed, making everyday life easier on the middle class, corporate profits were up (in part due to a corporate tax rate cut from 35% to 21%), wages rose, the stock market rose a lot, and GDP grew at a rate of over 3%.

Business was booming, and economic confidence was very high.

Trump was not afraid to use tariffs as a bargaining tool against foreign players such as China and Mexico, and in most cases, that approach paid off. Illegal immigration slowed down, unemployment dropped, and 65% of Americans today call the Trump economy “good.”

Then… there was that pesky fourth year.

During COVID-19, President Trump shut down the economy and then extended the shutdown again.

The numbers, naturally, were excruciating. Because workers were told to stay home, massive stimulus payments were sent out, which sent our already-over-leveraged currency down an inflationary tumble that we are still seeing the effects of today, four years later.

Some argue that the numbers for 2019-2020 were not totally a result of Trump’s policies, because individual states, in many cases, instituted even harsher regulations on economic activity. Others say that as the executive, he is responsible.

What is uncontroversial, however, is that the stats were impressive for the first three years – Larry Kudlow called it “an economic boom most folks thought was impossible.” And that fourth year, wherever you lay the blame, had terrible, terrible numbers.

The Agenda

Nevertheless, it’s a new day, and the Trump campaign has made a series of promises regarding what Donald Trump will do, if elected, for another term. Here are the highlights:…

The price of fast food has skyrocketed in the past few years, as 40% of Americans report cutting back on restaurant spending in general, and many say that fast food just isn’t worth it anymore. The numbers are shocking: Inflation was 31% from 2014-2024 (that in itself is a problem…), but major fast food chains increased prices well above that figure. Taco Bell, for example, increased menu prices by 81% over this time period, and Popeyes increased prices by 86%. Topping the list is McDonald’s, which doubled its menu prices in the last ten years…

The Nasdaq is up nearly 20% YTD and 6% just this month, as its futures increase while Dow futures fall. The Dow lost about half a point in the past week, as of Monday. Chocolate prices remain very elevated, and over-speculation may now be contributing to the valuation. Bitcoin has been trending downward this week, settling around $65k as of Monday. There was some good news in the May inflation report, which showed flat month-to-month inflation in the CPI, though year-over-year inflation was still at 3.3%. Energy, in particular, dropped 0.2%, but was still up 4.7% YoY…

It’s well known that the once common Bible bookstore took a beating in the 2010s, with at least hundreds of brick and mortars closing – but suddenly, things don’t look so grim for the ones that are still standing. The Parable Group recently found that 79% of surveyed Christian stores experienced a rise in sales from 2022-2023. Sales rose 8%, to $84 million across 200 Christian bookstores, with gifts generating the most revenue, and adult books coming in at a close second…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Who is known as “The Weeping Prophet”?

Answer at the bottom

“ Jenny was initially appreciative about Todd trying to find a church for them to attend, until she discovered his criteria for choosing was the coffee shop reviews on Yelp.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Three Signs of a Healthy Church

Fish don’t know that they’re in water, as the saying goes, and when you’ve been inside a church or an organization for a long time, it can be difficult to see it objectively. As laypeople, we have a crucial role in the life of the church to help keep our corporate body accountable, healthy, and strong. Here are some key indicators of a healthy church, and some ideas on what to do if your community needs to make some reforms:

A Healthy Church Is Financially Prudent, Generous, and Transparent

A church isn’t a company selling a product, like Apple or Walmart. It is a body. Whether your church has formal membership or not, it is a voluntary association, and the people who participate have a right to know what’s going on with the finances. This certainly doesn’t mean that everyone has a key to the tithe box or a book of checks, but it does mean that the numbers are not a secret. A healthy church is open about its expenses, facilities costs, and other overhead, as well as missional giving, benevolence, and total revenue that comes in each year. Many faithful givers sacrifice greatly in order to support the local church, and that money needs to be apportioned wisely. Transparency helps ensure that frivolous or wasteful spending will not be the norm, and it increases trust between congregations and their leadership. Unfortunately, ecclesial theft, fraud, and outright foolish financial behavior is not uncommon, but the good news is that sunlight is the best disinfectant…

SPONSORED

Quit sending emails like a dinosaur.

It’s the year 2024 and all the top newsletters are using beehiiv.

beehiiv was created by the same early Morning Brew employees who scaled their daily email to over 4 million subscribers. And now every newsletter on beehiiv has access to the same tools and winning formula.

So what exactly does beehiiv offer?

• World-class growth tools like the referral program and recommendation network

• Monetization via the beehiiv Ad Network and premium subscriptions (i.e. beehiiv helps you get paid)

• Seamless content creation with a sleek collaborative editor

• Best-in-class inbox deliverability of 98.7%

• Oh and it’s the most affordable by a mile…

Take your newsletter to the next level — get started for free.

• Influential evangelical megachurch pastor Tony Evans steps down, citing unnamed sin as reason.

• CNN releases a list of the top 10 “impossibly unaffordable” cities.

• The Economist gives Donald Trump a 2 in 3 chance of winning the presidency in November, according a new statistical forecast.

• Housing expert Kirsten Jordan warns that housing prices could fall 10% in some areas this summer.

The music industry is worth just shy of $27 billion per year. Global box office for in-theater movies was $34 billion last year. The book publishing industry makes about $44 billion per year, as a whole. The global sports industry is a cut above, pulling in approximately $159 billion dollars a year.

But even sports, with its mass appeal across cultures, is not the king of entertainment in 2024.

That title goes to video games, a $184 billion industry last year (or even $250 billion, according to some sources), and projected to grow substantially by the end of the decade.

Video games, whether you play them or not, are big business.

Consider that the most expensive movie ever made was Disney’s 2015 release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with an eye-popping $447 million budget. Only two other films have ever cracked the $400 million mark, and only a handful have ever passed $300 million. On average, a big Hollywood blockbuster is going to cost around $100 million to make.

Grand Theft Auto VI, a highly anticipated video game from Rockstar Games, reportedly has a budget of $2 billion.

Yes, you read that right, and no, that isn’t a typo.

Billion. With a “B.”

As crazy as the numbers sound, it’s money well spent when you consider that the previous installment in the series brought in $8 billion in revenue on a budget of $265 million. Some experts expect GTA VI to earn $1.5 billion in its first 24 hours on the market.

People like video games, and they’re willing to shell out the cash to play the latest and greatest.

So the industry looks different from other segments of entertainment in terms of absolute economic value, but perhaps it differs in another way, too.

You think of the music industry, and it’s easy to think about CCM, gospel music, the Dove Awards, etc. You think about movies, and Christian media has the Erwin brothers of Kingdom Story Company, Pureflix, Angel Studios, etc. Christians dominate entire categories of the publishing industry, bringing in big revenue from self-help books, devotionals, Christian fiction, etc. But when we get to video games… What is there? Are there any Christian video games? And do there need to be?

We talked with some experts to find out…

The dating scene has changed quite a bit in the last decade or two, with demographic data now stating that 12% of currently married couples met their spouses online, and nearly 3 in 10 adults report having used online dating apps - and over 50% of US adults under 30 have used them. It’s no wonder, then, that this trend on online matchmaking has spawned such a robust industry. In 2022, the online dating industry brought in $7.2 billion in revenue, with $3.4 billion of that coming from just one entity: Match Group (which owns Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyofFish, Match.com, and more). These apps, which naturally involve a transitory customer base, typically employ a “freemium” monetization strategy, and at present, it is estimated that roughly 35% of all dating app users have paid for premium features, usually in the form of a weekly or monthly subscription fee…

The commodities market has seen some shake-ups recently, as OPEC extends oil production cuts into 2025, cryptocurrency Ethereum may soon be treated as a commodity by the SEC, and we face a massive copper shortage in the near future. Chocolate prices continue to soar (over 300% in the last three months), leaving some to ask if chocolate could soon become a luxury good. Corn futures, on the other hand, have been falling steadily for the past week, down about 6% as of Monday…

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “A.I. Revolution” is already losing steam. The technological capabilities of many of these A.I. have, in many cases, been faked in order to convince investors that they were more advanced than they really were. The true usefulness of these technologies has now been called into question, since it is clear that A.I. still needs knowledgeable humans to, at minimum, check their work and make corrections. WSJ points out that the pace of innovation and improvement in existing A.I. has slowed tremendously, the technology is incredibly costly in terms of energy and money, and the relatively small amount of revenue produced thus far makes you wonder if the massive investment will ever pay off…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Did You Know?

The Bible is FULL of deliberate parallelism, often telling stories that repeat one another to give the reader another perspective or to further reveal the heart of the matter. So in Genesis, for example, The Flood story is a sort of retelling of the story of Creation. Noah’s Injury and Cursing of Canaan parallels Cain and Abel. The Tower of Babel is like the Flood story again. Isaac’s story is like Abraham’s story, but Isaac is able to overcome temptation where Abraham fell to it. Keep an eye out for similarities between stories – they are on purpose!

“Dear Lord, today I’m seeking 3 years of financial prosperity, favor with my boss, and a smokin’ hot wife in exchange for 10% of my earnings”

TIPS & TRICKS

Book Recommendation

Christian Living
Living with Wealth without Losing Your Soul
By: Steve Perry

Pastor Steve Perry found himself in a pickle.

He had always considered it more virtuous to be poor than wealthy. He thought that people who were materially rich were an affront to God, and he, in all of his piety, would dedicate his life to ministry, not filthy lucre.

But God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He?

Steve fell in love with a wonderful woman and married her… only to find out that they were extremely, extremely wealthy. Suddenly, Steve was facing an identity crisis, a doctrinal crisis, and very real questions of faithful stewardship and financial management that had never anticipated before…

SPONSORED

Get value stock insights free.

PayPal, Disney, and Nike recently dropped 50-80%.

• Are they undervalued?

• Can they recover?

• Read Value Investor Daily to find out.

We read hundreds of value stock ideas daily and send you the best.

Subscribe with one click.

• Former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York on charges that have been called spurious by many legal efforts. In the 24 hours following his conviction, the Trump campaign raised over $50 million. As of Monday, he had raised over $200 million.

• Big news in entertainment, as Paramount and Skydance have agreed to terms in a merger deal.

• The Gospel Coalition points to voice-enabled Chat GPT and the 2013 movie Her to remind Christians of the creative, society-shaping role of art and storytelling.

• The Reddit Traders are back: Gamestop stock soared 60% Monday, and other meme stocks rallied as well, such as AMC, Blackberry, and Reddit.

• Pew Research reports that the middle class is shrinking.

It took Amazon 9 years to turn a profit. It took Twitter 2 years to reach 1 million users.

We understand that tech companies take time to build their infrastructure and user base. Starting something new is a hefty undertaking, and investors are wise to be patient with exciting new companies that disrupt the status quo, even if it seems like a longshot at first.

So, it’s worth mentioning that Michael Siefert’s ecommerce platform, PublicSquare (sic), may very well be on its way to joining the ranks of very successful tech startups. It reached 1 million active users in only a year. It could very well turn a profit in half the time it took Amazon. Time will tell, but there are reasons for both optimism and caution as we examine the strengths, hype, and upward trajectory of PublicSquare.

What Is PublicSquare?

PublicSquare was born out of a desire to see a “parallel economy” – a marketplace that rewarded local small businesses, American-made products, and pro-family, pro-faith institutions, rather than a marketplace that rewards huge multinational corporations with harsh working conditions overseas that give money to abortion providers and radical LGBTQ+ initiatives for children. The idea is to connect consumers with conservative, grassroots values with sellers who share (and exemplify) those values.

“We’re actually trying to shift who wins in our economy,” says CEO Michael Siefert. “This is a long game. The left understands that, by the way. They know it’s a long game, and they’ve been planning for this for thirty, forty years. We have to have the same mentality… I’m doing this for my daughter.”

PublicSquare has an Amazon or Etsy-like UI that allows people to search for products they’d like to buy (from over 75,000 businesses), an easy check-out system, and it’s free for both consumers and businesses to use. PublicSquare vets each business that applies to be part of their ecosystem according to 5 key values:…

The price of American trucks has finally started to fall after rising sharply in the last few years. Many full-size pickup trucks now bear a sticker price of over $100k (even amidst quality control issues), and the inventory has started to pile up. The all-electric F-150 Lightning, which can cost upwards of $95k, will see reduced production amidst a lack of consumer interest, even as other brands have begun promising consumers bargain prices for future models…

Last week, the Dow Jones closed above 40,000 for the first time ever, triggering a spike in futures to start this week. The Dow first crossed the 10,000 mark in 1999 before crashing in the dot com collapse, first hit 20,000 in 2017, and first hit 30,000 just four years ago, in 2020. Some say the rapid milestones don’t matter and roll their eyes at the methodology employed by the index. Others see it as a significant effect of increased corporate earnings, increased company size (centralization?), and increased speculation via much higher P/E ratios – trends that some say could continue and cause a 5.5% annualized real returns over the long haul…

Gen Z adults aged 22-24 make less money today than their Millennial counterparts made ten years ago (inflation-adjusted), and they carry more debt as well. Fortune cites research on macroeconomic conditions to conclude that Gen Z really does “have it worse financially” than earlier generations, leading to a lot of economic anxiety and a widespread doubt that they can ever own a home of their own. Barely more than 50% of Gen Z adults identify as Christians, with 34% being entirely unaffiliated with a religion. Fewer Gen Zers approve of President Biden compared with other age groups, Gen Z adults drink far less alcohol than other generations, and they are actually less likely to report “not planning to get married” than Millennials, though a strong majority feels that it is too expensive to get married right now, in the current economy…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What book is traditionally the final book of the Old Testament?

Answer at the bottom

“Look, I agree that it’s a bold strategy… But I still don’t think you should tell the boss your process for deciding on these kinds of things.”

TIPS & TRICKS

How to Track What’s Working – You Need an M.I.S.

This is your sign to thoroughly track your marketing efforts and customer analytics.

Far too often, we shoot from the hip when we are trying to rustle up new business for our enterprises. In a way, this makes sense. For all of the talk about customer avatars, analysis, and advertising principles, practically speaking, it can be very difficult to know what is going to work. At times, it’s not the worst idea to throw some spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.

This is how creativity functions, after all. When we are tackling a new challenge, we have to be careful not to be overly critical of ourselves so that we can find out which ideas really have room to run.

The key, however, is not staying in this space forever. “Spaghetti at the wall” is fine for a new venture, but for a mature endeavor, it is crucial that we analyze what has been done before, extract the parts that are working, discard the parts that aren’t, and iterate to a fine-tuned, sophisticated strategy.

Creativity is good; “shiny object syndrome” is not.       

One of the primary ways we can make sure to capitalize off of past success and avoid repeating our mistakes as we iterate to better and better marketing is by implementing a Marketing Information System (M.I.S.)

What Is an M.I.S.?

An M.I.S. is essentially a database and data-tracking system where you keep tabs on the results of your marketing efforts. If you’ve ever seen a “How did you hear about us?” box at checkout in an online store, this is one example of a process that would belong under a Marketing Information System.

In order to set up your own M.I.S., there are a few key things to keep in mind:…

SPONSORED

Keep up with AI

How do you keep up with the insane pace of AI? Join The Rundown — the world’s largest AI newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with everything happening in AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up with one click.

• Inflation was down slightly from last month, but still coming in at a 3.4% annualized rate, or 75% above the Fed’s target.

• The NFL sold out of women’s Harrison Butker jerseys after he upset liberals with a pro-family graduation speech at Benedictine College.

• 12,000 Baptisms across California in 48 hours is just the first step for this growing movement.

•  “All You Can Eat Shrimp” promo takes popular seafood chain Red Lobster into bankruptcy.

• Sorry, kids - Goofy's on his union-mandated break. Disneyland characters vote to unionize.

• Christianity Today analyzes the shifting and loosening cultural taboos within evangelical churches.

It’s complicated.

College enrollment has been steadily declining for over a decade, down 8.5% since 2010, especially among males. However, this decline is not evenly distributed. Many 4-year public colleges have managed to increase their undergraduate enrollment by about 15% from 2010-2021, while enrollment at private for-profit colleges fell 54% over the same period of time. Private non-profit colleges increased enrollment modestly, at about 2.7%. Full-time, first-time undergraduate enrollment market share for Christian institutions grew from 5% in 2011 to 9% in 2021, and the total number of students enrolled in Christian colleges nearly doubled over this same time period.

Notice, however, that these numbers come from datasets that end in 2021. It’s been rough since then.

The pandemic lockdowns, which hit hardest after 2021, had an outsized effect on Christian colleges, however, with over 40% of the institutions that closed or consolidated being Christian.

“The market for students interested in a Christian education… is small,” says Johanna Trovato, principal analyst at Encoura.

 “Many Christian universities,” explains Matthew Smith from The Gospel Coalition, “have become overpriced, ineffective, and increasingly secular… Private Christian universities are bleeding students and losing money. Some colleges have closed permanently.”

CNN recently did a story reporting that “Small private colleges are struggling to keep their doors open as declining enrollment leads to financial instability.” Their first example? A small, Christian, liberal arts college in Pennsylvania that will close its doors for good this summer.

So who are the winners and losers in this constantly shifting environment, marred by a generalized decline of interest in going to college, a generalized decline in faith, an ongoing ideological war between students, faculty, and donors, and sharply rising tuition rates? And what can we learn from those who have managed to thrive?…

Streaming services now account for 18% of total advertising spending in the U.S. as traditional TV continues to lose traction and relevance with both viewers and advertisers. Streaming alone doesn’t make up for the loss of what was once a monolith of viewers watching cable TV. Companies “have to build reach across multiple platforms,” according to one expert cited by the Wall Street Journal. Nearly $1 trillion has been spent on social media advertising since 2017, and the category is expected to reach $255 billion/year in just the next few years…

The Dow Jones rallied with over a week of consecutive gains, and the S&P 500 is close to an all-time high. There is a lot of movement in the markets anticipating Wednesday’s CPI report. Among consumers, inflation outlook is rising, driven mostly by expected increases in housing costs. 30-year fixed interest rates were down slightly last week to about 7.5%. J.P. Morgan, Citi, U.S. Bank, and others have begun testing a blockchain-inspired system called “the regulated settlement network” that could legitimize cryptocurrency if the dollar shows instability…

According to a shocking, comprehensive report by the Wall Street Journal, the world is now reproducing at below replacement rate. In the U.S., there was a very small bump in birth rates in the wake of the pandemic, but 2023 saw the lowest rate on record: 1.62. The World Bank has already warned that the 2020s are likely to be a “lost decade” in terms of economic growth, and the demographic decline isn’t helping any. Efforts have been made in various regions around the globe to reverse the falling birth rates, but “no country has really got it right,” says some experts, and policy efforts do not seem to be producing significant fruit in Japan, Hungary, etc…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What is the Greek word used in the New Testament for “save”?

Answer at the bottom

“Listen, Terry – I want to believe that you have a passion for the U.S. Tax Code… But some of the others are starting to think you just carry it around for exercise.”

TIPS & TRICKS

The Tax Code is Going to Change – Tips on How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

Big changes are coming.

The Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is sunsetting in 2025, and we don’t yet fully know what (if anything) will replace it. What we do know, however, is that tax liability for medium-sized businesses and especially for small-businesses is very likely to sharply increase.

“With the [government’s] growing debt, you can expect our discounted tax rates to increase. Most of my clients have seen an increase of 2.2-2.8% in the last year, and after these provisions lapse, you’re going to see a 5-8% liability increase for small businesses,” says W. Jack Sells, an enrolled agent who represents small businesses before the IRS.

“It’s logical to see that the debt ceiling is rising, the government needs to pay for the wars [in Ukraine and the Middle East], the crumbling infrastructure needs to be addressed… There is a need for cash in our government, so you’ve got to be focused on tax as the taxes are rising.”

It’s hard to argue with his logic. The New York Times, in a recent report, agrees, stating:…

SPONSORED

Learn from investing legends.

Warren Buffett reads for 8 hours a day. What if you only have 5 minutes a day? Then, read Value Investor Daily. We scour the portfolios of top value investors and bring you all their best ideas.

Subscribe with one click.

• Website Builder Squarespace will no longer be a publically traded company, after $7 billion private equity purchase.

• In another blow to the record labels, Oliver Anthony of “Rich Men North of Richmond” fame recently released an independent album, titled “Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind.” Oliver previously turned down an $8 million contract.

• “The Chosen” is now the most-translated T.V. show in the world, available in 50 languages.

• Open AI revealed their newest AI model on Monday, GPT-40.

“Have you ever had someone ask you to pray for something so stupid you think, ‘I’m not praying for that’?” asks John Crist, famous clean/Christian comedian. “They pray before NASCAR races. Did you know that? What’s the prayer? ‘Jesus, we have engineered these cars to go 250 miles per hour. We will race them for six hours, three inches from each other. We just pray that you would help us not to die.’ …God’s like, ‘Just don’t race!’”

John has excellent timing, vibrant expression, and subtle changes to his voice that make it all the funnier in person. He’s on top of his game, selling out shows across the country, being featured on large, mainstream platforms such as ESPN, Good Morning America, and more. But it was not always this way – and as business leaders, there are a few lessons we can take from the tumultuous history of John Crist’s career.

In 2019, when Crist had finally established himself as an A-list comedian, with nearly 200,000 tickets sold for his global tour (making Pollstar’s top 100 tours list), a book deal, and comedy specials on the way, an extensive exposé by Charisma News broke that momentum, hard. Crist issued an apology, suspended his tour dates, and disappeared from public view for almost a year. Why? Because of numerous allegations of sexual harassment, manipulation, and the sending of explicit images. Crist responded quickly, saying that while not all of the accusations against him were true, many of them were, and he called his behavior “destructive,” “sinful,” and a violation of his Christian beliefs. He then said that he had been receiving regular professional treatment for his sexual sins and his addictions and that he was committed to getting healthy and free, so he would be stepping away for a while.

And then he did. He was gone from the limelight. Zero posts on social media. No interviews. No op-eds.

Eight months later, he came back from his very public cancellation with an apology video explaining what he had been up to. The short answer is rehab, taking a break, and taking ownership. He reiterated his remorse, blamed no one but himself, and thanked people for their kindness amidst his hypocrisy and sin…

No one is seriously disputing that advances in large language models and the AI theory have incredible potential for wealth creation, productivity, and innovation. That said, according to some, the rush to market AI products has engineers appeasing investors rather than users, leading to burnout, bugs, and fraud. For instance, Google has been scrambling to catch up to Open AI ever since Chat GPT was released, and despite the hype, what has resulted has been mired by brazenly faked demos, a strangely woke bias into its operating procedure, and negative reviews that insist the claims of its capability were rather overblown…

Optimism seemed to define premarket action Monday, as Dow Jones and Nasdaq gained nearly half a point, and Warren Buffet says his own stock should outperform the S&P 500. Nevertheless, some are now saying the Fed cannot avoid a hard landing for the economy, as the Fed has been unable to completely rid us of persistent inflation. The Bitcoin halving took place last month, but revenues, at least for now, are up significantly for Bitcoin miners, largely because of the release of the Rune protocol, which allows developers to mint new coins on the BTC chain like Ethereum does…

If you’ve ever wondered what the most expensive stock in the US is, look no further than legendary investor Warren Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway. Their class A stock trades for over $600,000 per share, but believe it or not, this is not a wildly inflated number – the P/E ratio is just 9. Despite Warren Buffet’s love of dividend-paying stocks, Hathaway does not pay a dividend to its investors. Nevertheless, Buffet has consistently grown the company at around 20% year…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Where is the “Hall of Fame of Faith” in the Bible?

Answer at the bottom

“He’s either extremely devout or he’s sleeping. It could go either way at this point.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Not Sure How to Do Morning Prayer and Meditation? Here are 3 Formulas to Help You

As businesspeople, most of us have heard about how important mindfulness is and how a high-capacity worker needs to start the day with prayer or meditation. As Christians, we know the importance of these things as well. But as everyday, busy, distracted people… it can be a struggle.

If you aren’t sure how to go about prayer and meditation to start your day, try these three time-tested ideas:

A.C.T.S. Prayer

The A.C.T.S. method is simple, easy to remember, and a great option for someone who is trying to get regular about prayer each day. It is intended as a guide, but you shouldn’t feel restricted by it if you feel the need to go deeper into one area of prayer on any given day, or to pray about something else entirely.

Here’s how it works…

SPONSORED

Keep up with AI

How do you keep up with the insane pace of AI? Join The Rundown — the world’s largest AI newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with everything happening in AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up with one click.

• Gas prices to rise as stations switch to more expensive “summer blend.”

• Forget rate cuts – the Fed may have to raise interest rates again if persistent inflation keeps up.

• Relevant Magazine suggests that Gen Z might just be like the young people of the Jesus Movement fifty years ago.

• Kendrick Lamar confuses Joel Osteen with Haley Joel Osment in a newly released diss track, and the internet is having a field day.

• Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says what customers have known for a long time: Starbucks needs to refocus on its in-store experience to win customers after recent earnings miss.

Amazon has recently gotten itself in a little bit of hot water.

And by “hot water,” I mean their elaborate, decade-long corporate espionage project was blown wide open by The Wall Street Journal in the middle of a massive antitrust lawsuit against the company.

To make a long story short, Amazon ran an international shell company called “Big River Services International” that created brands, purchased discount products, and sold said products through various rival platforms and logistics services, in order to gain access to private information, benchmarks, and rival innovations before these things became publicly available.

It isn’t a fabulous look for the e-commerce giant.

Yes, all serious brands do research on their competitors. Walmart executives take a spin through Target on occasion, and they pay close attention to press releases, real estate purchases, etc. This is legal, prudent, and no problem. The line between research and corporate espionage gets crossed when a company intentionally misrepresents itself in order to gain access to not-publicly-available information. Anyone can log onto eBay and see how the process works to buy a product; not everyone can attend eBay’s Las Vegas seller’s convention, where top vendors are rewarded for the business they bring in with information about coming changes to the platform and have the opportunity to ask top executives about eBay’s strategy and proprietary numbers.

It brings up two important questions for Christian business owners:…

Elon Musk might have the most stressful job(s) on the planet. He is presently serving as founder, chairman, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla; owner, executive chairman, and CTO of X; founder of Boring Company; co-founder of Nueralink (which puts computer chips in people’s brains), and co-founder of Open AI (though he walked away from his position at Open AI and is currently suing them)…

Bitcoin continues a general downward trend since its high in mid-March of this year, currently selling for about $62k. Still, even with the $11k loss in the last six weeks, BTC is up 40% this year. Ethereum’s price chart looks similar to Bitcoin’s, as usual, and has also been sliding downward from its high of over $4k in mid-March to its current price of $3,100. Still, it is up 33% YTD. Mortgage rates continue to rise, hitting a new high for the current year above 7.6%…

Last week, President Biden signed a large spending bill that included a provision giving ByteDance, the Chinese-backed company that owns TikTok, nine months to sell the company to a non-Chinese buyer, or the app will be banned. TikTok is viewed by many politicians on both sides of the aisle as being a dangerous domestic spying and propaganda op perpetrated by the Chinese government…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Which books of the Bible are known as the “pastoral epistles”?

Answer at the bottom

“​​Negotiations broke down after that. Apparently, she had, in fact, inherited the building.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Opening Your First Storefront? Here’s What You Need to Know

We do a lot of business in the digital world on platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, or even our own websites and apps. Nevertheless, we live in the real world, and the need for a physical presence, in many industries, is a necessity that is never going to go away.

If you are opening a brick and mortar location, there are a few things it’s helpful to know before you take the plunge.

Different Types of Commercial Leases

The first thing you need to know is that not all leases look the same, and you should familiarize yourself with the possibilities. Today, Triple Net (NNN) and Modified Gross may be the most common types of commercial leases currently available, though this will depend on what kind of building you are looking to rent, as well as the area where you are doing business.

Rent is usually calculated on the basis of cost per square foot per year. So, if the cost per square foot is $25 and the unit is 2,000 sq. ft., you would be paying $50,000/year to lease the space, or just over $4k a month. This is simple enough, but there is the matter of insurance, utilities, repairs, tenant improvement (T.I.) and common area maintenance (C.A.M.) that can cause that monthly bill to sharply increase.

Here’s what that can look like in two common lease agreements:…

• If inflation has you down already, just skip this article on the average impact of inflation on your income.

• Amazon has successfully increased its delivery speed for Prime customers in 60 key metro areas after a heavy investment in fulfillment.

• Relevant Magazine urges Christian workers and businesspeople to take the command to rest on the Sabbath seriously.

• The Wall Street Journal reports, “The Dream of Fed Rate Cuts Is Slipping Away.”

• Walmart is removing self-checkout from two of its stores due to theft. This is the most recent generalized trend of retail brands scaling back on self-checkout for the sake of security.

We all know what we’d like to see in a nonprofit organization:

• A culture of innovation, quality, and compassion

• Effective work on the issue at hand

• Conservative financial stewardship

That’s the idea, anyway. Unfortunately, this is a rare combination, and nonprofits are as prone to mission drift as any other institution. Last week's edition studying non-profit executive compensation revealed as much. So, whenever we find a 501(c)(3) that is able to consistently fulfill the three criteria listed above, it is worth paying attention.

Today, we’re going to look at one of the best-run crisis pregnancy care clinics in the country: Choices.

A Culture of Innovation, Quality, and Compassion

At first blush, the name “Choices” and its marketing might seem out of place – but this is part of their brilliance. Long ago, this Chattanooga, Tennessee-based ministry decided that they wanted to reclaim the term “choice,” empower the people they intended to serve and use an outside-in mentality to effectively reach people. That means some of their billboards don’t come across as very conservative or pro-life in their messaging, such as a sign that depicts a positive pregnancy test with text that reads “Back to School Blues?” It then lists their information.

“We look at it as a search and rescue mission instead of waiting for them to come to us,” says Michele Cheresnick, the client services director for the organization. “We have to be so much more innovative than we’ve ever been, because you have all of the answers on your phone, and you can get a pregnancy test at the dollar store, so why should people come to us if they didn’t need someone to walk the journey with them?”

Whatever one thinks of the approach, the marketing works. Many abortion-minded women searching for hope, resources, and help come to Choices rather than finding an abortion clinic. The humility and wisdom of speaking the clients’ language in advertisements has taken some out of their comfort zones, but it’s necessary for being true to what they feel is the call of God on their organization.

“Part of being obedient is being willing to be stretched and go outside the typical boundaries of a pregnancy resource center,” Jennie Landreth, the developmental director, says…

According to a former Google recruiter, there are some things you don’t want to put in your resume. According to experts, many recruiters spend just 3-5 seconds on a resume before deciding to read it through or to toss it, so avoiding red flags is crucial. Don’t list every job you’ve ever had, every skill you possess, or every volunteering stint you’ve done – keep it relevant to the job you’re applying to. Don’t share ‘responsibilities’ (and never say ‘coordinated meetings with X’); instead, share accomplishments…

The Dow Jones rebounded somewhat this week after a recent correction, now sitting around 38 and a half, while the Nasdaq and S&P have both recovered their losses as well. Boeing reports a better quarter than expected, and their share price has finally leveled out after a long slide. The embattled Tesla rallied somewhat after Musk announced their more affordable model would in fact begin production in early 2025…

Existing home sales dropped 4.3% in March, marking the steepest decline in over a year. This comes as the 30-year-fixed mortgage rate averaged over 7%, and experts say the rates are not likely to fall anytime soon. Many are priced out of the market, and experts say that homebuyers must make an additional $50,000 a year in order to be able to afford a house when compared to pre-pandemic. The housing market is in a recession now, and commercial real estate shows some turbulent signs as well, including a 117% increase in commercial real estate foreclosures in March…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: Which New Testament book references the Old Testament the most?

Answer at the bottom

4 AM: Wake Up, 4:05-5AM: Meditation + Prayer, 5AM-6:30AM Cold Plunge and Outdoor Workout, 6:30-7 AM: Breakfast, 7 - 10 AM: Aimless Panicking, 10 AM - Noon: Questioning Whether I Should Be an Entrepreneur, Noon: Lunch, 1 - 3 PM: Existential Crisis, 3 - 4 PM: Sales Calls

“Hmm… I finished my whole list today, but revenue is still down. Weird.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Book Recommendation

Psychology
Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
By: James Clear

“The quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits,” James Clear writes. “With better habits, anything is possible.”

When we are feeling encouraged, determined, and inspired, we can get onboard with this kind of a thing – yet far too many times, January’s New Year’s resolutions turn into February’s obligations and March’s regrets. It isn’t just resolutions, either. It is far too easy to recognize an area where we need to make improvements, but it’s hard, and the natural thing to do is beat ourselves up over our lack of self-discipline.

James Clear asks the question, ‘What if we are looking at the problem all wrong?’

“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits,” Clear writes. “Habits often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level of performance.” He likens the early stages of habit-formation to changing the temperature in a frigid room with an ice cube on the table. If the room is 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and you successfully raise the temperature to 25 degrees, the ice cube will appear unchanged, and yet you have made significant progress toward your goal. Once it hits 33 degrees, that ice will melt. You’re on your way, even if there aren’t impressive visible signs of that fact just yet.

“You should be far more concerned with your trajectory than with your current results,” Clear says. “Mastery requires patience.”…

• A case before the Oklahoma Supreme Court could pave the way for religious charter schools.

• The NBA bans a player for life over a sports-betting scandal. The Wall Street Journal suspects this is just the beginning of the burgeoning field of legal sports gambling debasing the sports industry as a whole. Oh, and his brother is routinely name-dropped by Christian hip-hop artist Andy Mineo. 

• High school teens will need to find a new supplier of church clothes:  Express has filed for bankruptcy and will close nearly one hundred stores.

How much do executives at large ministries and Christian non-profits make?

More than you might think, according to a recent report by Ministry Watch.

The report is, by nature of our tax code, only able to report organizations that have not successfully applied to be treated as a church by the government, and the definition of “church” is famously quite loose. Therefore, we have situations where many ministries, such as Joyce Meyer Ministries, the Navigators, Willow Creek Association, etc., are not required to report a form 990 to the IRS, and thus, their internal financials are unavailable.

However, from what is publically available, there is plenty to raise eyebrows.

The Educational Media Foundation (K-Love’s parent company) is one of the organizations that appears most frequently on the list, with their president Jon Reeves earning well over $600,000 from the donation-reliant ministry. Numerous other executives appear on the list as well, and it seems that corporate positions at K-Love commonly pay in excess of $400,000. Over 50 positions in the company pay six figures.

K-Love, a network of Christian radio stations notorious for their high-pressure fundraising, is what some have called emotionally manipulative, where hosts have praised such behavior for giving money to K-Love rather than paying your bills. K-Love pulled in $231 million in donations, of which nearly 1/3 ($73 million) was profit during 2022. Last year, form 990 was publically available…

The U.S. dollar had its strongest week since 2022, as the market starts to accept that rate cuts are unlikely to happen in June, and inflation continues to increase, with some even beginning to ask if the Euro could soon reach parity with the dollar. While there is demand for dollars, U.S. bonds are getting harder to sell, as the U.S.’s excessive government debt has begun to cause lackluster enthusiasm for T-bond sales. The Dow Jones rose on Monday as corporate earnings and retail sales figures overshadowed fears of the Iran-Israel conflict…

Last week, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and suicide drones at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s killing of one of Iran’s top generals in charge of relations with Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist proxy group that Iran often uses to attack Israel. Israel was able to shoot down the vast majority of the missiles and drones with the help of the U.S. and other allies. This represents a significant escalation in the region, as Iran typically does not attack Israel directly. Iran says that the matter is now finished, but Israel has vowed a swift and deadly response to the provocation…

In 2021, Tesla had a stock price of over $400 and a market cap of $1.23 trillion, putting it on the short list of “most valuable companies in the world.” At present, however, Tesla is the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 and has seen tremendous loss of value as its stock price has fallen nearly 1/3 this year alone, and analysts say it may still fall further…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What is a “remez,” and what does it have to do with reading the Bible?

Answer at the bottom

“You were one of those kids who just shoved homework and papers directly into your backpack, weren’t you?”

TIPS & TRICKS

Cultivating Discipline

“Self-control” is one of the fruits of the spirit, and it is also quite possibly one of the most practical and helpful attributes that a businessperson can obtain in his pursuits. As we rise through the ranks in our respective businesses, or as we obtain more and more success, something strange happens:

We have more responsibility, and yet we also have more freedom.

When you were a low-level employee, you couldn’t just cancel a meeting, but now – you could. When you worked for someone else, you had to be in the office by a certain time, or you might get fired, but now – the boss makes the rules, and the boss is you.

As we ascend in our careers and personal lives, order is less imposed on us and more required from us if we want our companies, families, communities, and others who depend on us to thrive. For that, we require self-control, which is made up of discipline.

Here are two classic tips from psychologist and (Christian?) Jordan Peterson…

• Pastor Mark Driscoll was kicked off stage at a Christian men’s conference after criticizing the strange Las Vegas style performance that opened the event and reportedly featured a male stripper, drawing praise and criticism online.

• Fox News Reports the top Christian colleges and Universities in the U.S., featuring Wheaton, Biola, and others.

•  iPhone sales slump and Samsung regains the top slot in smartphone sales.

• The Wall Street Journal reports a big contraction in the residential solar panel industry.

Famed reformer Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

This is a feel-good, popular sentiment, and it gives us hope. The problem is, this goes in both directions: the world can be changed for good or for evil. When we look at what a subverted education system – or simply a poor education system – does to the next generation, should we be hopeful? Or should we think that something’s got to give?

Christy-Faith, in her popular book Homeschool Rising, describes the growing skepticism of the current public school system in this way:

“It’s having the courage to truly ask ourselves, ‘This may be normal, but is this “normal” good?’”

Increasingly, the Christian community in America looks at the 200-year-old public school system and says, “No. This is not good.”

The ever-declining test scores, increasingly unhinged political and philosophical agendas, and the behavior and crime problems in public schools are now well attested and documented. But where does that leave the future leaders of our churches, businesses, and governments?

If we abandon the public school system as a failed model, where are parents to turn?

Increasingly, the answer is:…

Rental property owners, beware – squatting is on the rise. Strange as that sounds, it is, unfortunately, true, and causing havoc in many states, such as California, which has a specific set of “squatter’s rights,” making it difficult, expensive, and sometimes impossible to remove an unlawful resident from your property, whether this is a former tenant who stopped paying rent and refuses to leave, or simply a random person who shows up and takes up residence without permission. Often, unlawful tenants can damage the property once the eviction process has begun, and in some states, property owners are not allowed to cut off utilities…

Amid persistent “sideways” inflation, employment data, and a still-hot economy, economists are less certain of Fed rate cuts this year. Gold continued its record-breaking bull market early this week, but experts warn that it is likely to contract soon. In Oil, Brent Crude has climbed past $90/barrel (and West Texas is sitting at just above $86), but it seems to be decreasing now, in part due to a potential ceasefire in Gaza, though Israel’s heightened tensions with Iran and a still-tight supply suggest that prices likely won’t go too low any time soon…

The United States is poised to award Samsung $6.6 billion to expand its chip-making capabilities in Tyler, Texas. It’s a large sum, but still only one-eighth of the amount earmarked for companies to produce computer chips in the United States in the 2022 bipartisan spending package called the “Chips and Science Act.” As tensions continue to mount in the Taiwan Strait, with China always threatening to invade, it has become a priority for the United States to decentralize its semiconductor sourcing – because Taiwan currently produces 60% of the world’s semiconductors and 90% of the advanced semiconductors (the type that is used in our top-secret military technology)…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What does the Hebrew word “Shema” (שְׁמַע) mean?

Answer at the bottom

“After learning how much free advertising she had been giving to various apparel companies, Cheyenne decided to really lean into it.”

TIPS & TRICKS

MBA Lessons from an NBA Christian: Jonathan Isaac’s Unique Take on a Lifestyle Brand

Here’s the unfortunate reality – a lot of the time, when a celebrity starts a consumer products brand, the “lifestyle” they try to tie in with its merchandise is something less than admirable. You have Kanye’s Yeezy brand, which historically promotes a sort of aloof solipsism (and now open anti-semitism, such as the infamous “Adidas” shirt they sell). Gweneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand “Goop” is wasteful and just plain weird (click on that link at your own risk – we did say they were weird). A lot of rapper brands encourage infidelity and promiscuity. A lot of athlete brands encourage arrogance.

Is the concept of “lifestyle marketing” even savable?

Jonathan Isaac,a Christian and a fine defensive player in the NBA, plays forward for the Orlando Magic. Outside of basketball, he is outspoken in his thoughts on politics, culture, and faith, and he is most known for his decision to stand during the National Anthem at a time when every single other player in the league knelt, amidst the BLM protests. He even wrote a bestselling book about the experience titled Why I Stand…

• Blackstone President Jonathan Gray says, “We can see the pillars of a real-estate recovery coming into place, specifically in regards to the multifamily/rental market.

• The Wall Street Journal traces several shifting narratives on the stock market and encourages investors to be clear-headed and eyes-open when placing bets.

• Pew Research Center offers “6 Facts about Americans and TikTok” for those wanting to understand the reach of the social media platform in our country.

• Church Leaders encourages pastors and elders to “fight the urge to make your small church look big,” instead valuing the intimacy and connectedness of a smaller body.

Some see emerging technology, changing social norms, or cultural shifts as a threat.

Not Craig Groeschel, and the not the megachurch that he founded nearly 30 years ago in a two-car garage in Oklahoma. They have always seen technology and shifting cultural habits as opportunities, to be jumped on as soon as humanly possible.

In other words, they’re something of the ecclesiastical equivalent of “first to market.”

Life.Church (yes, you read that right – Life dot Church) is the largest megachurch in the country, with 44 satellite campuses in 12 states, totaling somewhere around 85,000 in attendance each weekend. How did they grow so large, and in a relatively short span of time?

Mergers, strategic partnerships, and leveraging technology early and often, whenever the opportunity arises.

The Multi-Site Innovation

Life.Church never struggled for attendance. After only 5 years of existence, Life.Church (then called LifeChurch.tv) had already reached a steady weekly attendance of 5,500 between their two locations (having merged with another church early in the year). One Saturday evening, after church, head pastor Craig Groeschel had to run off to the hospital to watch his wife give birth, and so instead of preaching in person Sunday, a recording of his sermon was shown at both campuses.

And a lightbulb went off over Groeschel’s head.

Getting the technology and tactics right took a couple of years, but by 2003, Life.Church was simulcasting their services across four different campuses, so that each congregation was watching the same sermon, at the same time, in different locations.

And a lightbulb went off over a number of other megachurch pastors’ heads.

Today, approximately 91% of churches livestream their worship services, and the “online congregation” is a common topic of discussion in church offices across America.

It is unclear if Life.Church was actually the first church to simulcast across multiple campuses – but if they were not, they were very early in the game, and certainly the most influential.

Groeschel did not want to be limited by geography, the size of a building, or the number of parking spaces. His vision was to be able to send live video feed of his speaking anywhere in the world, and the team at Life.Church made that dream a reality.

Many others followed suit…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average halted its earlier rally, backing off slightly after once again flirting with 40,000. The Nasdaq has remained relatively flat over the past couple of weeks, and the S&P 500 remains well-entrenched above 5,000. BTC continues to rise and fall daily, oscillating between around $62,000 and $73,000, which is nevertheless up over 50% YTD. Oil continues to climb slowly upward, to $84.15 for a West Texas barrel and $87.68 for Brent crude…

CNBC declares, for good reason, that ESPN’s business model is “eroding.” Cable TV has lost millions of subscribers per year for the last several years, a trend that is expected to continue as technology and consumption habits shift – creating a problem for ESPN, which has built a company off of high-dollar carriage fees. In response, ESPN will launch its own streaming service in 2025, which will include a personalized user experience and integration with ESPN Bet – an online sports gambling book that ESPN has licensed its name and network to…

Christians have been at odds this past week over a few, unrelated events in the popular culture, sparking debate and conversation as to the best way to express our faith in the public square. First, political commentator Candace Owens parted ways with conservative outlet The Daily Wire amid accusations of antisemitism. She has made the words “Christ is King” her catchphrase, sometimes attaching the phrase as a clapback in debates with Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro and others, and once her firing became public, the phrase trended heavily on X, often paired with vile, blatantly anti-semitic images and rhetoric…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What are the three kinds of salvation identified by protestant theology?

Answer at the bottom

“Back in my day, we didn’t have voice commands and AI search engines… We had to click on things, and type in words, with our hands! It was painful, backbreaking. Millions of people ended up with carpal tunnel. Yes, they were tough times – but we were tougher.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Is SEO Going Away? What’s Next for Marketing Products and Services Online?

For two decades, Google has been far and away the go-to source for finding products, services, and information on the web, largely due to their “traffic directing” that finds relevant links to websites that can help the user. As such, their SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) guidelines are closely watched by digital marketers, all for the purpose of ranking highly on page 1 when a potential customer types something in the search bar.

But the times, they are a changin’.

Arguably, the first really significant change came in 2000, when Google started selling the top few slots as “paid search results.” This did two things: 1) It made it easier for marketers to get their website to the top of the listings now. 2) It made it so that Page 1 of the search results had 3 fewer slots for organic results.

No big deal. We adapted. But with Google’s imminent inclusion of their AI model “Bard,” the search page is about to change drastically once again.

Changes to the Internet Search Results Page

Google is shifting from a purely link-based result and moving towards a more conversational approach that feels less like “Ask Jeeves” and more like “Chat GPT.” This has a lot of implications for digital marketers, but the first is immediately apparent:

There will now be even less real estate on a search results page for links.

The AI-powered answers that Google is moving towards pull from multiple sources online and present the user with information in an attempt to directly answer their query. This large block of text is prioritized at the top of the results, and does not necessarily drive users to your site the way the old system does.

This means a few things for ecommerce:..

• A shocking 95% of Americans report plans to look for a new job in 2024, according to a new survey.

• Amidst an ongoing legal battle, Google is on the hook to delete illegally acquired user data.

• Planet Fitness is the latest brand to have a Bud Light “hold my beer” moment and is ripe for backlash after canceling a Christian woman’s membership over its trans policy.

• UK Grocer Iceland is feeling the heat after removing the “cross” from its hot crossed buns.

• The Supreme Court heard arguments last week concerning the legality of abortion pills.

It started ten years ago.

Troubled by the direction of American/Western Christianity, an award-winning documentary filmmaker named Nathan Apffel teamed up with successful businessman and former military officer Chris Ayoub to do extensive research, interviews, and creative work to produce something that might make a difference. The result is “The Religion Business,” a 7-part docuseries that will be released in just a few months, aimed at exposing the rampant fraud, theft, and mission drift running through our religious institutions.

“I am not on this journey with Nate to be a critic,” Chris says, “I am here to use the skillset God blessed me with to do the work necessary to bring positive change by providing religious institutions and donors the tools necessary to execute their intended purpose.”

The Religion Business’s Instagram account, which launched only in October of last year and has gained 100,000 followers in just five months, focuses on the need for financial accountability, transparency, and what happens when we do not address rampant hypocrisy and abuse inside the church. A lot of the talk is about the money.

“If you repurposed 27 cents of every dollar that the Western Christian church has, it could radically transform the face of the world – and be the light of the world – literally tomorrow,” Nate says in a conversation with the host of the popular social media account PreachersNSneakers. “So then all the people who are hating on Christianity as Christianity is declining are gonna say, ‘You know what? They’re actually doing some cool stuff. I don’t mind going back.’ And that’s what we see on TikTok and on our social media channels – especially TikTok – is there are so many people out there angry at the institution. They aren’t angry at God or their faith; they’re angry at the institution, and they have every right to be.”

According to the numbers, he may have a point:

$890 billion dollars is donated to the Western Christian church every year. “Where does all that money go?” one person asked online.

The answer is not terribly impressive…

Home foreclosures have risen sharply in the last month amid continuing inflation, a rising supply, and the worst tech layoffs since the dot-com collapse of 2001. After settling an antitrust lawsuit, the realtors association has agreed to end the standard 6% commission on buying and selling a house. As a result, commissions are projected to fall 25-50%, lowering home prices by perhaps $6-12k on average, according to TD Cowen Insights. Despite the commission reduction and the increased supply, experts say homes will not likely become affordable in the near future…

Investors are keeping a close eye on Bitcoin (BTC) in the wake of a tremendous rally this month and then a sudden sell-off that has seen the digital asset go from $52k to a high of $73k before quickly correcting down to about $62k. Despite all of this, some say that Bitcoin could soon lose its reputation as a volatile asset, as they see recent price corrections (sizeable though they are) as less dramatic than in times past. We may see much greater movement in the price of BTC soon, however, as more cash floods into the digital currency from the recently sanctioned spot ETFs…

The current demographic decline of Christianity, and religion generally, in America is now well-known, with 80% of Americans reporting that religion is losing its influence on daily life, and Pew Research reports a long, steady decline in Christian identification, which will likely result in minority status for Christians in the near future (according to some, that status has already been achieved). One strangely pragmatic but important question is being asked by Mark Elsdon, executive director of a campus ministry called Pres House: What will we do with all of these church buildings?…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: How many “minor prophets” are there in the Old Testament?

Answer at the bottom

Realizing that there simply were not enough hours in the day to do everything he had volunteered to do, Jeremy thought he'd try the "Moses Method" to hold the sun still.

TIPS & TRICKS

Book Recommendation

Management & Leadership
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
By: Greg McKeown

More isn’t always better. Hustle culture, paying your dues, and going the extra mile are all good, but there does come a point where one more responsibility really starts to cost you. You realize you’ve double-booked; you missed a crucial deadline; there just isn’t enough time in the day, and yet the tasks continue to mount. We generally take on more and more responsibilities as we get older, even though we can’t imagine how we’ll pull it all off. We know that we need to trim down what’s on our plates so that we can focus on what is most important, but it never seems to work out when we try to reduce what we’re doing every week.

This is, according to Greg McKeown, in part due to the fact that we are not consciously employing a system to evaluate opportunities, requests, and tasks as they come in. It is because we do not stop to determine what is and is not essential…

• Christianity Today asks: Are Christian influencers on social media having a greater effect on congregations than pastors?

• A federal probe investigates whether Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) facilitated the sale of illegal drugs.

• A Boeing 737 lost an external panel during a flight last week amid ongoing investigations into Boeing’s allegedly negligent quality control and manufacturing practices. No passengers were harmed in the incident.

• Inflation remained elevated in February, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Concluding an 18-month investigation, the DOJ has not filed any charges against the Southern Baptist Convention.

• The CDC reports the marriage rate has returned to pre-COVID levels.

It’s been just over a month since Apple’s Vision Pro went on sale, and the market wants to know:

Is this the future? Or is it a repeat of Google Glass’ disastrous performance ten years ago?

The tech world is moving at lightning speed, and in the midst of generative AI and an onshore semiconductor boom, Apple tossed in its own name as a major player in the revolution with its launch of an immersive augmented reality (AR) headset – the company’s first truly new product line since Airpods, nearly ten years ago. 

AR, as opposed to VR (virtual reality), is a technology that allows people to interact with the real world, albeit in an enhanced way. The idea is to see the temperature when you look outside, to see a little “connect” button hovering over Bluetooth-enabled devices in your home, or to play games like Pokémon Go, where characters are tied to real-world locations. Apple’s newest product allows the user to wear a two-pound set of goggles with an external battery pack, featuring state-of-the-art hand and eye-sensing technology that uses “pass-through screens” to show the user video what is right in front of them while allowing them to pull up windows, apps, and documents as well. “I think it’s something that doesn’t isolate people,” Tim Cook, CEO of Apple says. “We can use it to enhance our discussion, not substitute it for human connection, which I’ve always deeply worried about in some other technologies.”

To some, it seems as though he “doth protest too much,” as many reviewers report that the awe-inspiring technology is, in fact, deeply isolating.

“Using the Vision Pro is such a lonely experience,” Nilay Patel, editor and chief of The Verge, reports in an in-depth review of the device. “You’re in there, having experiences all by yourself that no one else can take part in.”

It’s an odd situation, for a CEO deeply worried about the isolating effects of technology, to release an immersive headset that crowds out the real world, giving you an inner solipsist reality instead. But this is just the beginning of seeming contradictions brought about by the Apple Vision Pro…

Boeing is still under scrutiny and now facing a criminal inquiry after an Alaska Airlines flight experienced a door blowing off, terrifying passengers in January of this year. As more eyes settle on the aerospace giant, their manufacturing has been ruled as unsafe in many ways by the Federal Aviation Administration. One practice in particular has received criticism, called “traveled work,” where manufacturing is done out of order, often leading to opportunities for failure and overlooking known flaws…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trending downward this week, though the gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq seem somewhat more durable. Some experts warn of the possibility of a market top after Nvidia’s incredible gains fell into a sharp slide this past week, losing 10% of its value in just a single day. 5-year T-Bills are still giving yields above 4%. However, yields have been slipping since the last week of February…

Top intelligence senators push a bill that would force ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, to either divest its ownership or be banned in the U.S. The social media app, which has been labeled a “powerful propaganda tool” and a “national security issue” because it gives the Chinese Communist Party tremendous cultural influence in America, is facing a strongly bipartisan effort to eliminate it. The bill is set to be voted on this week, and President Biden says he will sign the bill if it passes. For his part, Donald Trump is against a TikTok ban, saying that losing TikTok will only increase the power of Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), which he calls the “enemy of the people…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What are the seven churches in Asia that receive a short letter in the Book of Revelation? Can you name them all?

Answer at the bottom

“I get that you want to schedule prayer into your day, but do you see how calling it “Big Meeting with the Boss” might be confusing for me?”

TIPS & TRICKS

The Science of Prayer and Meditation

“Mindfulness” has been a big buzzword in the business world over the last few years, a catchall term that includes things like reading for pleasure, attentive interpersonal behaviors, mental health, and, notably, meditation. It’s not just a fad, however; research suggests that investing in mindfulness can quickly improve performance across an organization, and some of the world’s most recognizable high performers practice some form of mindfulness. As a Christian leader, you ought to do so as well – especially prayer and meditation.

“Meditation” is a word that some Christians are uncomfortable with, but it shouldn’t be. The Lord tells Joshua to meditate on the Book of the Law. We see Isaac heading out to the field to meditate in Genesis 24. Psalms tells us that the man who meditates on God’s law is blessed.

Actually, Psalms talks about meditation quite a bit.

The point is, though we often think about meditation as solely in the purview of Buddhist monks on top of a mountain somewhere in Nepal, meditation comes in many forms and is, in fact, a deeply Christian practice, whether it be the more formalized monastic practice of Lectio Divina or simply quieting one’s heart, focusing on scripture, or listening for God in prayer. Meditation is about cutting out the distractions and busyness of life, slowing down, and being fully present in the moment, usually in silence or at least in quiet.

What is interesting is that this practice, though primarily a spiritual activity, also has measurable, real-world effects. And if you want to be healthy, productive, and creative, you shouldn’t skip out on your morning prayers and meditation. You just don’t perform well in your business when you’re stressed out, scattered, or unsettled. Thankfully, there are tried and true ways to regulate yourself so you can consistently walk into the office ready to do your best…

• Americans are increasingly using their 401(k)s as emergency cash.

• Elon Musk set to release a SmartTV app to rival YouTube TV.

• National Review’s Andrew T. Walker describes the media’s “religion problem.”

• The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that it was fining evangelical college Liberty University $14 million for failure to report campus crime and for its treatment of sexual assault victims.

• CNN reports that more Americans than ever do not believe in God or a higher power, but many are still reluctant to call themselves atheists.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two controversial bills last year, which raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour, effective April of this year (up from $16 currently), and which raise the minimum wage for workers in the healthcare industry to $18, $21, or $23 per hour in June (this includes support staff, such as maintenance workers, hospital gift shop employees, etc.).

While these new developments naturally affect Californians first and foremost, there are implications for the rest of the country as well. California is politically and economically influential, and often, the laws that pass in CA are not far behind in other states. Beyond this, California supplies an impressive amount of the food, entertainment, and services of the country at large, and disruptions in the California economy can have larger implications.

Advocates of these bills stress compassion for the common worker, the difficulty of making a living on the current minimum wage considering the high prices in the state, and the profits of major companies employing workers at minimum wage. Opponents of these bills stress that they aim to defy reality – which never ends well – resulting in a loss of jobs and wages for the most vulnerable in society.

The economic impact is likely to be rather devastating.

The situation highlights a common tension Christians in business experience – a balance between interests of compassion and prudent stewardship. To that end, we are going to do a quick dive into the costs of these bills, the reality they brush up against, and the corruption that has members of both parties fuming. Compassion does not have to be at odds with prudence, and even if compassion is indeed the higher good – fantasy is not a virtue. Denying reality always hurts people in both the long and short run.

The Costs of Minimum Wage

At first blush, minimum wage laws seem like a no-brainer to the Christian leader. The Epistle of James is full of condemnations for the wealthy who oppress their workers and hold back payment. The Old Testament has plenty to say about oppressing laborers who are worthy of their wages. Christians throughout history have fought for the dignity and good of the poor and downtrodden. Worker exploitation laws, in general, are, therefore, a worthy cause, and we can get behind the core idea here.

The problem is that the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head when we act rashly.

Thomas Sowell, the brilliant economist, has this to say about minimum wage laws in his seminal work Basic Economics:

Alef Aeronautics, a “flying car firm,” has taken nearly 3,000 preorders for its 8-rotor Model A, a $300,000 vehicle of the future, targeted for a 2025 release. The Model A, which looks and drives like a regular car, is, in fact, capable of vertical takeoff and flight and seats two people. A 4-seat version (Model Z) is also in the works. Alef is backed by SpaceX and is not, as of yet, publicly traded. A number of other startups are also working on legal, commercially available flying cars for consumers, but many of these do not look like cars, have jet-like wings, or resemble more of a helicopter…

The Dow Jones continues to hover around 39,000, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both saw gains this week. AI continues to drive investment, as evidenced by Nvidia’s impressive rally. The chip maker now commands a $2 trillion market cap and a stock price that has more than tripled since last year, though some fear over-speculation. Bitcoin has risen sharply in the last month, setting a new record valuation at north of $65k each. Ethereum, likewise, is up about 50% since last month…

Calls for accountability and transparent financial reporting are mounting, as key statistics are being highlighted online by accounts such as “religionbusiness.” According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, non-profits (including churches) lose between 5-7% of donations each year to fraud and theft – more than is spent on global missions, and a survey by Lifeway Research suggests that at least 1 in 10 churches experience some sort of embezzlement…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What was Noah’s ark made out of?

Answer at the bottom

“Pyramid scheme?! Jack, don’t be ridiculous. I don’t like the word ‘scheme,’ and anyway it’s more like a triangle.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Justice Wears Suspenders: YouTuber Coffeezilla Exposes Financial Fraud, Crypto Schemes

Investing is hard, particularly for those who are newcomers to the world of ROI, P/E, capital gains, blockchain technology, yield vs. face value, etc. It can be difficult to know if you’re getting into something promising and legitimate or being hoodwinked by a flashy scam.

Enter Stephen Findeisen, AKA Coffeezilla, an independent investigative journalist uncovering the truth behind popular grifts, advocating for restitution to victims, and occasionally even getting a bad guy arrested. According to the bio on Findeisen’s YouTube page, which boasts nearly 3.5 million subscribers, “I uncover scams, fraudsters, and fake gurus that are preying on desperate people with deceptive advertising. If you have to ask… it’s probably too good to be true.” From his “ten million dollar studio” (a tongue-in-cheek appellation for what is obviously a green-screen location, boasting a Blade Runner aesthetic and a hovering Lamborghini), 

Coffeezilla meticulously investigates the claims, financial records, and results of scammers big and small for the purpose of saving people from losing their hard-earned cash.

Best of all, it’s pretty entertaining.

Stephen styles himself “the internet detective,” and he dresses the part, wearing suspenders and adopting the persona of an old-time private investigator in a film noir. An excellent storyteller, he is able to hold the attention of the average viewer even while documenting complicated financial data. The result? He’s been threatened with lawsuits and death threats and has received plenty of slander/libel online. But he is undeterred. Scammers beware – Coffeezilla is out there…

• Walgreens and CVS to begin selling abortion pills, in a move that has drawn sharp criticism and outrage from Christian and conservative voices.

• The Wall Street Journal offers expert tips on how to invest in a bull market.

• The merger between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue is officially off.

• A federal judge has ruled that Christian companies do not have to pay for transgender surgeries.

• Google co-founder admits that the company "messed up" with its rollout of AI product Gemini.

• For the first time since 2016, Target's sales declined.