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May 31, 2005

Church Sign Trivia

Just when you thought church signs couldn't get any weirder, two churches in Stillwater, Minn. are facing off in a church sign trivia contest. Rev. Steve Molin of Our Savior's Lutheran Church, jokingly challenged Rev. Roland "Rollie" Mossberg of Bethany Evangelical Covenant Church to play a little church sign trivia in a recent newspaper article. Mossberg accepted the challenge via church sign: "Sign Guy: Ya, you betcha. We'll play sign trivia."

The contest is under way, with the first question posted on the sign at Our Savior's Lutheran Church: "Church Sign Trivia: List the 10 Commandments, in no particular order. Answer in one mile."

A mile southwest is the answer on Bethany's sign: "Trivia Answer: 3 6 5 9 10 4 2 7 8 1."

Of course church sign trivia is only the latest in Mollin's church sign efforts. He's been doing quips from his church's sign for years, earning himself the nickname Church Sign Guy. His first message appeared four years ago when Mollin went on vacation: "Now is a good time to visit. Our pastor is on vacation!" A local filmmaker even produced a short documentary and companion book, If there were no Lutherans... Would there still be green Jell-O?.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:04 AM
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Drive-Thru Church

The Metropolitan Church of the Quad Cities in Davenport, Iowa offered drive-thru church this weekend, offering visitors communion, the day's scripture, a take-home homily and a free gift.

"People will be busy doing any number of activities but we want to allow folks to have a moment or two, if that's what they can spare, to think about worship," said Loretta Gamble.

In keeping with a fish theme, a few members were dressed as anglers, and clowns were stationed on the street to attract attention and bring in the cars.

A drive thru church is nothing new, but offering the service on a holiday weekend when many families will be tempted to skip church is a good idea.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:50 AM
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May 27, 2005

Graphic Design Resources

Nick Ciske over at Creative Church has been posting tons of free resources for designers:

• Briar Press - A collection of free wood cuts and initial caps to add a touch of style to your next project.
• Blue Vertigo - A site that offers links to tons of free stock photography and font sites.
• Beginner's Guide to Creative Arts - A PDF guide to creating a full and artistic worship service. It's not strictly for graphic designers, but anyone designing a church service should check it out.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:33 AM
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May 26, 2005

Street Teams for the Church

Stephen Brewster of Calvary Christian Center in Ormond Beach, Fla. e-mailed us about the promotional teams their churches uses to get the word out.

The voluntary "street teams" are given cards, posters, flyers, yard signs or whatever collateral they're using that particular month to promote their church and the promotional team hits the streets, plastering the info in the local community. Restaurants, gas stations, gyms, community centers, where ever people gather (posted with permission, of course).

It's the same street team approach many bands use to get the word out about a new album or a concert tour. And it seems like it could be even more effective with a church as your street team develops relationships by being out in the community.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:26 AM
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Creating Passionate Users

This is more of a business-type blog, but Creating Passionate Users has plenty of lessons for the church as well. Jonathan Blundell points us to and expands on their entries on people not caring if you're the best and reverse-engineering passion (I also love Jonathan's rant on Burger King's "Have it your way" slogan).

Also, effective web minstry notes points to their entry on skateboard design, encouraging people to check out skateboard shops for inspiring design. I'm a little hesitant to encourage churches to check out skateboard shops, as I think youth groups borrow more than enough of that imagery, but the idea is there: Find sources of inspiration and learn from them, and know your audience.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:01 AM
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May 25, 2005

How Blogging Can Help the Church

We've said it before, but sometimes it helps to hear it from someone else: Lifeway offers four ways blogging can help the church, based on the BusinessWeek article, "Blogs Will Change Your Business" from a few weeks back. (link via effective web ministry notes)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 2:41 PM
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Pastor Says Quran Should Be Flushed

The Rev. Creighton Lovelace of Danieltown Baptist Church in Forest City, N.C. says the Muslim Quran should be flushed. And a sign in front of the church broadcasts that message to the entire community.

It's all in response to a Newsweek story that falsely accused the U.S. military of desecrating the Quran. Newsweek later retracted the story, but not before at least 15 people died in riots sparked by the article.

"I cannot change my position just because it may offend someone else," Lovelace said. "Our position is that we stand on the Bible—God's word—and that any other book that teaches a way to God that is not scripture is false. It is wrong. It is not correct,"

Oh boy. I think it's possible, and probably even beneficial, to stand up for Biblical truth without offending people. Certainly there are times when that may not be possible, but just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean you need to slap them in the face. Especially if you're actually hoping to share the Gospel with them, which we're all called to do. (link via Mike Atkinson)

Update: Mike Atkinson comes through with the story in the first place, and now with the update. Lovelace has apologized for saying the Quran should be flushed.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:54 AM
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May 24, 2005

Flowers in the Churchyard

This isn't strictly church marketing, but I think it eventually gets around to marketing implications. Pat Kahnke, the pastor of St. Paul Fellowship Church in St. Paul, Minn., blogged about how a few members of his congregation and their kids turned a weedy section of grass in the church's yard into a flower garden.

Now obviously there are implications to creating a pleasing environment and planting flowers can go a long way towards achieving that. But what I like about this example is that it's not a building committee deciding the church needs to be spruced up and hiring some random florist to come in and plant a few annuals. It's a some random church members banding together and deciding to beautify their church. Not only that, but they also had a positive interaction with their church's neighbor.

There's nothing wrong with having the building committee hire a florist, but if I had to pick between the two options, I'd go with what happened at St. Paul Fellowship. That's cool.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:53 PM
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May 23, 2005

Jesus Talks to Me Every Sunday Morning

Every Sunday morning here in Los Angeles, Jesus Christ gets behind a microphone. He takes calls and answers questions about his divinity, humanity and everything in between. More often than not, callers are looking more for spiritual comfort in the midst of life's pain than answers to theological ponderings.

The genius of this show is that it truly does position itself to be Jesus Christ doing a radio appearance on a Sunday morning. "Good morning southern California, this is the day I have made..." The Jesus Christ Show has been broadcasting for a couple years, and runs on one of the top Arbitron rated talk stations in the country—not a "Christian" station. (I am surprised it has not caught on quicker in syndication.)

Continue reading "Jesus Talks to Me Every Sunday Morning"

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:26 AM
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May 17, 2005

MinistryCOM Church Communications Conference

Last month we asked about getting church marketers together, and there was a lot of interest. One possible opportunity might be MinistryCOM. It's a ministry communications conference put on by Main Street and held Sept. 15-16 in Houston.

It is put on by Main Street, a company that specializes in web sites for churches, though they've assured us that they're not presenting or promoting their own products. Interestingly, the web site notes that registration is open to church communications professionals and volunteers only—no vendors.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:28 PM
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May 14, 2005

BusinessWeek Goes to Church

Evangelicals landed on the cover of BusinessWeek as they explore the booming business of church. But before you get too excited it's more an overview of megachurches and Christianity in pop culture, with hardly anything new to report. They cover the usual suspects, including Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and Joel Osteen.

The piece had a few interesting details, including the fact that Willow Creek supposedly ranks in the top 5% of 250 major brands, sharing space with companies like Nike and John Deere. Also the Willow Creek Association, the consulting arm that hopes to spread the Willow Creek charm, raked in $17 million last year from its 10,500 member churches and the 110,000 leaders who attended their conferences.

Aside from that it's your typical megachurch philosophy: no pews, no crosses, positive preaching and in the case of Osteen and Creflo A. Dollar, the prosperity gospel.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:51 AM
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May 13, 2005

Church Blogging

Brian Bailey, the Internet Manager for Fellowship Church in Dallas, was interviewed by Shel Israel for the forthcoming business blogging book by Israel and Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble (chapter 5 includes a section on Fellowship). Bailey talked about Fellowship's blogging efforts, which include the recent launch of their church blog (see Bailey's FAQ), executive Terry Storch's blog (you may remember we wrote a piece for Terry's blog) and 20 staff members who blog.

There's plenty of gold in the above links, but I did find a few choice bits.

Continue reading "Church Blogging"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:25 AM
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Evangelism & IT Lessons by Robert Scoble

Not sure how we missed this (probably because it pre-dates us), but last year Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble visited Fellowship Church in Dallas and wrote the Ten Evangelism and IT Lessons from one of America's Biggest Churches. It's heavy on the techie side, but there's plenty of interesting gems:

1. Make it easy for everyone to learn about you—on their terms. Scoble notes that the only thing visible from the freeway is the church's url.
2. Make it easy to experience your product's special attributes. Scoble was given a DVD with an overview of the church.
3. To get word-of-mouth advertising you need to be remarkable. 50 manned computer registration stations, all-digtal sound system, plasma screens everywhere, etc.
4. Use IT to efficiently get close to your customers and take care of their needs. A high-tech system to register kids quickly and easily.
5. If you want to be better, make sure you're better from the first minutes of someone's experience. The church makes a sports fan feel at home.
6. If you want to be seen as bleeding edge, invest to be bleeding edge and do so throughout your company. They are the first church to film all their services in HDTV.
7. Extend the usefulness of your plant. They make WiFi available to their congregation during the week.
8. Design your systems so they never go down and can expand for future growth. they've got redundancy all over the place.
9. Don't be religious about technology, choose what gets the job done best for the least amount of money and staff time. While they heavily rely on Microsoft's technology, they also use Macs and Linux when those platforms work better.
10. When you become successful, bottle up what got you there and sell it to others. They sell their own software: FellowshipOne.

Brian Bailey, Fellowship's Internet Manager and the one who originally invited Scoble, blogs about the experience as well.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:03 AM
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May 12, 2005

Church Marketing Plans & Costs from Major Denominations

Tim Bednar tips us off to a post at Harbinger quoting the Washington Post (follow all that?) about church marketing plans and costs from the major denominations:

Denomination: United Methodist Church Slogan or name of ad campaign: "Open Hearts. Open Minds, Open Doors." Expenditures: $43 million from 2000 to 2008

United Church of Christ
"God is Still Speaking"
$30 million from 2004 to 2007

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
"Living in God's Amazing Grace"
$7 milllion in 1999-2000, smaller sums since

Presbyterian Church (USA)
"Here and Now"
$1.5 million by the national church in 2005-2006

Episcopal Church USA
"We're Here for You"
$750,000 by the national church in 2004-2005

Roman Catholic Church
"It Starts With Faith"
$350,000 for public service announcements in 2004

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:38 PM
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Church Stolen

Point Hope United Methodist Church in Mount Pleasant, S.C. faced a unique challenge when their church was stolen. Their church was housed in a trailer which they parked and locked up until Sunday morning. Come last Sunday when church member Bill Yaeger went to pick up the church, it was gone.

"It was kind of shocking, at first were as a congregation were mad, but then we realize that we just have to pull through," said Yaeger.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:48 AM
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Choosing a Church Name

What's in a name? Everything. More and more churches are considering a name change, often dropping denominational affiliations that no longer connect with people (though the denominational ties remain intact) or dropping language that's no longer relevant.

"My feeling is that we will improve our ability for someone who drives by to say, 'I might try them someday,'" said Rev. Bruce Stryd of Thornton Avenue Baptist Church in Fremont, Calif., which is considering changing its name and dropping the 'Baptist' title because their church doesn't fit the Baptist stereotype.

A name change can be costly as everything from signs to web sites to business cards to checks will need to be redone. Harbor Light—formerly First Assembly of God—in Fremont, Calif. has found a way to cut some of the costs: "We're not changing the legal name. We will retain the corporate name of First Assembly of God, but it's more like we're also doing business as Harbor Light," said pastor Terry Inman.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:32 AM
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May 11, 2005

The Crowds Want In

There is certainly no shortage of conversations on the topic of community, particularly how it relates to the health and vitality of a church. Without a doubt, this concept of connectedness, of sharing, participation and fellowship, is a key ingredient to the Christian life. It is no wonder why so many churches have the word "community" in their very name.

However, this element of community that we are so quick to use in our promotion and commotion, leaves me wondering if we're really getting it.

Sometimes I think the people promoting the church (pastor, associate pastor, administrator, designer, etc.) are living too close to what they think or hope their church is like, that they forget they are several layers removed from the first time visitor, casual attender, and often the regular member. In our effort to tell our communities who we are, we're forgetting about who we are not.

Continue reading "The Crowds Want In"

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:38 AM
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May 10, 2005

Should Churches Fly the U.S. Flag?

Should churches in the U.S. fly the American flag, and if they do, what position should it have in relation to other Christian symbols? It's an interesting debate and sums up how the smallest decisions say a lot about your church's identity.

"By God's grace we live in freedom in a wonderful country. We don't want to ignore the blessing and benefits of being located in a country where we experience such freedoms," said the Rev. M. Susan Peterson [of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn. (coincidentally, only a few blocks from my church)]. "However, we gather in the sanctuary to worship Jesus Christ. And as a result, our focus and all of our symbols in the church reflect the one to whom we give honor and praise."

Of course others disagree:

"If we do not display the flag or indulge ourselves in the freedoms that flag stands for, then what's our faith really worth?" said Rev. John Darlington [of Minnehaha United Methodist Church in Minneapolis]. "We go by James [2:14]: 'Faith without works is dead.'"
(link via CT's weblog)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:11 PM
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Cartoon Church: Comics for Church Use

CartoonChurch has gone live, offering single comics and syndication for church newsletters and publications. There's not currently a huge offering, but it appears to be growing.

One of my favorites is The Congregation Assumed.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:52 AM
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May 4, 2005

A Few Resources

In case you haven't checked the Don't Suck list lately, we've added a few new resources including BetaChurch and Blank.

BetaChurch is a blog covering design and technology from the folks at the Noah Institute.

Blank is another blog, this time focusing on design from a Christian perspective, brought to you by the Christian design company, Drawing on the Promises.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:29 PM
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Ministries Today Article

We recently wrote an article for Ministries Today on church marketing that appeared in the May/June issue. Turn to page 32 for the article, "Marketing Your Church Without Diluting Your Message" (unfortunately the whole article is not online, so you'll have to find a print copy).

The piece covers the basics of church marketing and includes a few helpful sidebars: "8 Ideas Worth Borrowing," "7 Ways to Market Without Money" and a list of church marketing companies. Of course if you read the blog you've seen much of this before.

Welcome to anyone who followed the ChurchMarketingStinks.com link that appeared in the magazine (check out 'Sucks? Stinks? What?' for an explanation).

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:26 AM
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