Rest is not weakness! The first thing we need to recognize is the potential within all of us to burn out. We aren’t superhuman. We all have our limitations, and it’s not lack of faith to take an occasional sabbath. Pastors, if you don’t make an intentional effort to rest, it will take you. Watch […]
Category Archives: Health & Vitality
Five-Second Decisions that Change Your Ministry
We’re all five seconds away from a decision that could change our lives. I read a book called “The Five Second Rule”, and it talks about the reality that we are all just five seconds away from a decision that could drastically change our lives, sometimes forever. Maybe it’s something like swerving left instead of […]
Where I Want to Be vs. Where God Wants Me to Be
New seasons in ministry always have church leaders thinking about their future. At least they do for me. Just about every church leader I know says he/she feels called to ministry. But each person describes that call differently. Some people had a very dramatic time, moment, even second when they knew that God had called […]
When to Leave…
How to know when it’s time to go, before you stay too long Over the last six weeks, I have been surprised by the number of conversations that I have had with pastors regarding succession. While every conversation has been slightly different, they have all been similar to “I had a ten-year plan, but this […]
Before You Go…
The questions you’d rather not ask yourself With all the change that has happened in churches over the last six months, I am having a number of conversations with pastors about transitioning to a new church, a new position, or into retirement. Before heading into a new role, we need to be walking with someone […]
Staying Humble. It’s Harder than it Seems.
When we believe our own press, we’re in trouble. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a growing number of church leaders meet their ultimate demise. Some have been very public and humiliating. Some have been for sexual or financial sins (or both), but there is a growing trend of pastors losing their jobs because […]
When the Church Damages You
Ministry is crazy. Churches are crazy. And I love them both. But sometimes, usually at least once in your ministry career, you’ll find yourself at a really difficult point in your ministry. Things aren’t going well. There is conflict. It seems like you’re treading water, or worse yet, on a sinking ship. I found that […]
Churches Can Once Again Reimburse Employee Health Care Costs
New rules issued by the US Department of Labor, US Department of Health and Human Services, and US Department of the Treasury in 2019 (collectively, the Departments) may fundamentally transform the way many employers assist employees with their health care costs.
This significant development will again allow employers to:
reimburse employees for some or all of the premium expenses they pay for an individual health insurance policy, and
use their funds to directly pay the premiums for individual health insurance policy covering an employee.
Employers commonly used these methods to provide health insurance for employees for over half a century, but they had been made unlawful by the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare).
Background
The Affordable Care Act contains several reforms of the insurance market (market reforms) that apply to group health plans, including the following:
Annual dollar limit prohibition. A group health plan may not establish any annual limit on the dollar amount of benefits for any individual.
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