Church Marketing Sucks

2013 has been a big year for getting things done for us at the Center for Church Communication. It’s time to look back at all we’ve accomplished this year. Here are our top stories from 2013:

Certification Lab
Our biggest news of the year was our first ever Certification Lab. We gathered a bunch of people for some in-depth learning from some big names, including Mark MacDonald, Gerry True, Stephen Brewster and Phil Bowdle. One person commented, “We’ve never used Twitter, but we know the kids in our archdiocese do use it and we know that if we want to reach them we’d better figure it out. That’s why we’re here.” Learn more about how the Certification Lab went.

Church Communication Heroes Volume 1
Just in time for All Saints’ Day, we released our second ebook of the year, Church Communication Heroes Volume 1: Lessons From Those Who Have Gone Before. It’s a collection of 15 heroes, inspiration for church communicators everywhere. You can also grab all our ebooks in a digital bundle.

Booth at Echo
We were at the Echo Conference this year, hanging out at our own booth. Did you stop by to say hello? Sadly it turned out to be the last Echo ever, which makes it even sweeter that we were there. We were selling copies of our books, meeting new people and spreading the word about our Certification Lab. Check out the recap, including a collection of tweets and pics.

Dangerous & Creative Missions
We’re always thrilled to support Creative Missions and this year we were alongside for the third annual trip, this time to Alaska. This year we partnered with Creative Missions to create the book Dangerous: A Go-to Guide for Church Communication. It features 19 essays on church communication, full of practical insights and real world strategy, written by Creative Missions participants. Hear how Creative Missions makes a difference from one of the pastors in Alaska. You can also grab all our ebooks in a digital bundle.

2013 Church Communicators Survey
Finally, this year we launched what we hope will be an annual survey of church communicators. We had more than 700 people take the survey, giving us a snapshot of the church communication world. This is some valuable data to see where we’re at and how far we’ve come. We hope to build on this survey next year and begin to see some quantifiable trends and growth in the church communication world.

Thanks for an incredible 2013. We hope you’ll join us next year as we continue to help the church communicate the greatest story ever told.