Church Marketing Sucks: March 2007 Archives

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March 30, 2007

How Do You Do Plan a Sermon Series?

(Filed under: Peer Review)

A lot of helpful and interesting discussion happens in the Church Marketing Lab--it's not all fancy designs and comments. We'd like to start highlighting some of those discussions and allow people to help people (since we don't know everything).

Rob Alexander is looking to revamp the creative meetings for his church's sermon series. He's "starting from scratch" and looking for some answers to the questions he has. I know you guys are a creative bunch, and you love to make changes, so head on over and help him and his church create better storms with their brains.

Help plan a creative series meeting >>

Posted by Joshua Cody at 2:03 PM
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It Came From the Lab!

(Filed under: Peer Review)

While we wrap up another successful week over at the Church Marketing Lab, we wanted to plug everyone here at Church Marketing Sucks into what's been going on. Recently, we reached 750 members, and we all celebrated by doing what we do best--submitting and reviewing design. So here it is (drumroll, of course), this week's Church Marketing Lab Roundup...

An Easter invitation from Sequoia church.

Continue reading "It Came From the Lab!"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 1:15 PM
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March 29, 2007

Buzz Reminder, April 3 Deadline

(Filed under: Events)

Just a reminder that the April 3 deadline to take advantage of the $70 discount for the second annual Buzz Conference is a few days away.

Mark and team are offering the CFCC community a special reduced registration price of just $119. That's $70 off the regular rate, but it only lasts until April 3. To get in on the deal, just drop an e-mail with the subject line "Buzz CFCC" to Juliet [at] theaterchurch [dot] com.

Posted by Brad Abare at 8:46 PM
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Remarkable

(Filed under: Philosophy)

I was watching a talk delivered by Seth Godin at Google, and he said something that was profoundly self evident.

"[Remarkable] doesn't mean beautiful or ideal or perfect. It only means one thing: Worth making a remark about."

Fundamentally, Christianity is viral. Aside from some extraordinary conversion experiences, it's Jesus Christ doing something that was worth talking about. Then His disciples were exposed to Him, and they did things worth talking about.

Is your church presenting Christ in a remarkable way? You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be ideal. You don't have to be beautiful. But are you doing things that get the community talking? The world? Or are you just running aimlessly or yelling upwards into the sky?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:58 AM
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March 28, 2007

The Problem with Potlucks

(Filed under: First Impressions & Beyond)

The potluck dinner is a staple in many churches, but that doesn't mean it's good. A longtime friend of mine (we bonded over Petra) has been blogging about food and condemned the potluck, pointing to the message it sends:

If food is relational what are we saying to our friends and neighbors when we invite them to church and offer them overdone Mostacholi à la bland with a side of 15 layer Jell-o dessert? Are there no cooks in the House, are we without culinary prowess?

Check out his entries on food being relational and spiritual for a little more context.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:38 AM
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Beg, Borrow and Steal

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Last week, we asked what your church's philosophy is on borrowing materials. 252 of you weighed in, and after a week at the polls ...

37% of you took the high road. You borrow materials, but you give credit where credit is due. I think when anybody has their materials used by another church, this is all they'd ask for.

23% of you employ what optimists would call "The Acts Model." They met together, and shared all things in common. Make sure the one you borrow from is all right with this, or unfortunately, Joe Schmo's Law Firm might come knocking at your altar.

13% of you hold a monopoly on new ideas, and you don't need to borrow. Congratulations. While the other 13%--well, blessed are the poor in ideas, or something like that. You only steal.

9% just don't have the creative prowess to make it happen, but cheers to you for recognizing a problem. While the final 4% believe it's acceptable to steal, situationally (Christian pirates in denial).

As always, we'd love to hear from you in the comments. How do you effectively get credit? Need to beg for some design help? What do you think ethically about the issue?

This time around, we gear up for Passion Week by asking just what your church is up to. Don't forget to weigh in!

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:56 AM
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March 27, 2007

Church Marketing Lab LIVE!

(Filed under: Events)

by Michael Buckingham, Guest Blogger

Just received some exciting news from the folks at MinistryCOM, I will be hosting the first ever Church Marketing Lab LIVE! at the conference in Nashville, Tenn. Sept. 13-14. It's a chance to put some flesh on the Church Marketing Lab.

Church Marketing Lab LIVE! is an interactive forum/workshop that allows attendees to bring in current and past marketing communications for critique and comment by both a panel of some of the Church Marketing Lab's brightest and encourage a group discussion with the purpose of bettering the communication piece. Church Marketing Lab LIVE! will give attendees something to implement immediately upon returning from MinistryCOM.

I'm hoping this will be a great time of extending the lab into face to face conversation and dig a bit deeper into some of your marketing communications. As we've not done this with the lab before, I'd love to get your input and thoughts on the event.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 6:45 PM
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Puns, Revisited

(Filed under: Off the Wall)

Reuters is bring worldwide attention to the crucial issue of church puns. Initially, I thought this was becoming a pundemic (I know. It's not even funny anymore). Now, churches seem to be embracing the idea of puns and using them to raise awareness about bigger issues. For example:

"Fight truth decay"
"Come in for a free faith lift."
"Chxxch -- Have you guessed what's missing. UR!"

Amen. Relevant and literarily beautiful. Not to mention health-conscious. Now, the UK church property specialists Congregational & General Insurance is looking for the best church puns ever. So get your thinking cap on and let them know! Or not.

When marketing for your church, maybe puns deserve more credit than they get. Or maybe Reuters is poking fun. That's for you to decide.

Long ago, we asked you about puns. The enlightened 44% of you championed their cause. Some of you have just missed the boat. As for me, I too missed the boat. And I'm staying off.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:58 AM
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RSS For Your Church

(Filed under: Technology)

So today, I was thinking to myself, "Self, those guys over at the Barna Group have some pretty neat statistics, why don't you subscribe to their RSS feed?"

Problem.

I searched. And I searched. And I searched. Almost frantically, in fact. Where was the little orange button with the white circly things? You know, this one:

Continue reading "RSS For Your Church"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:42 AM
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March 22, 2007

Squidoo Likes Us!

(Filed under: News & Updates)

Squidoo thinks we deserve to be on its user-ranked Lens of the Year list. For the moment the Church Marketing Sucks lens is sitting at #16, between Tea Junkie and Make Your Own Fairy Wings.

For those of you unsure of how Squidoo works, check it out on Wikipedia. Essentially, you create a lens that gives people a view into, well, whatever you want. For us, it's Church Marketing Sucks (and innovative churches). For others, its fairy wings. We've also covered how you can use Squidoo for your church and you can also support CMS with Squidoo.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:40 AM
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March 21, 2007

100 Ways To Kill A Concept

(Filed under: Resources)

Michael Iva writes an interesting PDF on the death of an idea. I don't think it will change your life dramatically, but I do think it's worth a quick read. Effectively running an organization where ideas can prosper, people can thrive and the world can be changed is no easy task. Here, he gives a few strategies for doing this simply by not not doing it. Confused yet? Ten highlights from his little PDF ...

Everyone has an idea, and creating ideas is a form of creating art.
It's always easier to say no than yes to an idea. Don't succumb!
Be bold with your ideas, don't let people talk you out of them!
When people do talk you out of them, remember that "no" means "not right now."
Remember that your concept should be beneficial to you and all involved.
For crying out loud, do not do what everyone else is doing.
Be willing to make mistakes, they give birth to great ideas.
"A great concept passes through three stages when it is now: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently oppressed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Being too safe is too risky.
Don't try to write poems to creativity. Please.

(link via Gary McElyea)

Posted by Joshua Cody at 1:00 PM
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Demographically Speaking Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

How does your church work to minister to multiple demographics? Last week, we asked how your church responds to the issue of ministering to an increasingly diverse society. Where I come from, this means offering something more than NASCAR parties, Left Behind movie nights and revivals. For you, that means ...

Staffing from various demographics. Poor question writing and an inability for deeper conversations leads to one of two conclusions:

Only 16% of us attend churches where more than one demographic is represented on staff ...
Or, only 16% of us have churches who intentionally staff to match local diversity.

Holding services with different music types. I think we've all seen this. An 8:00 a.m. "early bird" (read: old person) service and a later "contemporary" service. Advantage: Avoiding an AARP coup d'etat. Disadvantage: Huge disconnect between the younger and older generations, with big losses for both. 17% currently wage war on culture clashes in this manner.

Continue reading "Demographically Speaking Results"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:54 PM
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March 20, 2007

Where We're Missing

(Filed under: Evangelism & Outreach)

I was reading my good friends (I've never met them, but it sounds better, and I like them) over at Church Relevance, and they posted some interesting statistics from the Barna Group. They define being unchurched as not having attended church in the last six months. And using that definition, Barna and friends came up with the following statistics of unchurched demographics:

63% of Asians are unchurched
49% of homosexuals
47% of political liberals
37% of single adults
34% of Hispanics
31% of heterosexuals
29% of married adults
25% of African Americans
19% of political conservatives

To me, the numbers in and of themselves aren't scary. When you group them, it gets different. Look at liberals vs. conservatives. Heterosexuals vs. homosexuals. Hispanics vs. Asians vs. African Americans. Married vs. single. It's easy to say that the problem is on the attendee's end. But is it right?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 4:34 PM
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Growing, Buzzing Churches: Save $70

(Filed under: Events)

I'm not quite sure when I first drank of it, but the Mark Batterson Kool-Aid is still having an affect on me. I met Mark in the flesh at last year's Buzz Conference when I had the privilege of being one of the presenters. We've crossed paths a few times over the last year and I've also been a big fan of his blog for a while. If you didn't see his Gut Check For Growing Churches post today, you're missing out. Mark oozes fresh wisdom.

Lest the Kool-Aid loosen its grip, you also need to know about the second annual Buzz Conference coming this June 28-29 in Washington, D.C. With LifeChurch.tv's Craig Groeschel, Simply Strategic boys Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan, and of course Mark, you can't go wrong.

Juliet Main (one of the real brains behind the NCC operation) dropped me an e-mail yesterday and let me know that they're offering the CFCC community a special reduced registration price of just $119. That's $70 off the regular rate. But it only lasts for two weeks. To get it, just drop an e-mail with the subject line "Buzz CFCC" to Juliet [at] theaterchurch [dot] com. This deal is only available to the CFCC community. That means you!

Can't wait until June to hear Mark live? Join me at this year's National New Church Conference where Mark and I will be tag-teaming a pre-conference track about creative communications.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:02 AM
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March 17, 2007

The Anti-Welcoming Church

(Filed under: Evangelism & Outreach)

No matter how welcoming churches think they are, they usually aren't. Why does it have to be so hard to find and connect with a church? I don't know, but you might want to check out 10 Ways to Keep Me from Discovering Your Church. And then make sure this list isn't describing your church.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:37 AM
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March 16, 2007

Design Matters: Creating Powerful Imagery for Worship

(Filed under: Reviews)

by Greg Atkinson, Guest Blogger

For anyone involved in the world of church design, marketing and branding (whether new or a seasoned pro), I'd like to recommend a book for you to check out called Design Matters: Creating Powerful Imagery for Worship by Len Wilson and Jason Moore of Midnight Oil Productions. In my class at MinistryCOM last year, I talked about "leading up" and being proactive to pass on good reads to your pastors so they can better appreciate what you do. This book is well written resource for designers, but also great for a pastor to more fully understand and appreciate design, designers and the work that goes into what you do.

Continue reading "Design Matters: Creating Powerful Imagery for Worship"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 7:40 AM
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Church Doesn't Suck Billboard

(Filed under: Advertising)

Apparently it's church billboard week. First it was "Satan " in the copy, and now it's "Sucks." GracePoint Church in Wichita, Kan. has launched a billboard campaign that's drawing criticism, thanks to the headline, "Church Doesn't Suck."

"We wanted to speak directly to the people who have maybe given up on the church, maybe they've given up on god," says pastor Bryson Butts. "I believe the church has got to get in the game and to speak a message that will be relevant to this culture. The message doesn't change but the methods have to change."

That's a familiar refrain we're happy to see spreading. Of course not everybody is ~~happy~~ completely on board with the campaign. (link via CT's Weblog)

Update: Kirk Longhofer (of the 'not everybody' link above) wants to correct us: "I in no way say I'm not happy about it. In fact, my post says I hope they're successful. I simply question whether they're going to be effective. I agree entirely that we have to 'get in the game' as Bryson says. I don't think this is a very effective way to do that."

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:16 AM
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March 15, 2007

Yahoo! Real Estate and The Church

(Filed under: Demographics/Research)

Yahoo! Real Estate's new tool, Neighborhood Profile, provides an interesting tool for an often overlooked necessity in the church--cross-cultural ministry. The tool lists factors such as average income, average family size, cost of living and more. Keep in mind it isn't a tool designed for ministry, but rather for real estate, so there are deficiencies. For example, unfortunately, it would be helpful to know a little more about race, age or job fields. I think from the strengths and weaknesses of this tool, we can make a few observations and draw a few principles:

America is too big a place for real estate or churches--break it down, and begin ministering there.
Being sensitive to your surroundings should not be an option but a necessity.
This tool is incomplete, and nothing will ever be as effective as living as a community member before a church member.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:51 AM
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Satan Hates Life

(Filed under: Advertising)

Lifechurch.tv launched a new billboard campaign recently that's pretty creative. I've seen billboards for churches before and I've liked, well, none of them. This might change my mind. The time spent behind the wheel is definitely a great time to try and set people's mind on Christ, as they drive (hopefully) without too many distractions. I've just never seen it done in a way that was either thought-provoking or non-threatening. Check out the whole campaign.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:50 AM
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March 14, 2007

Grade Your Church Poll

(Filed under: Poll Results)

How would you grade you church's marketing efforts? Last week, we asked you, scholarly CMS reader, to grade your churches on their marketing efforts. Upon receiving the grades and entering them into our computers, the averages were less than we had hoped for.

50% of you went with a grade of D or lower. That's troublesome. If your church were a marketing major, they would be that guy--you know, the one who is 35 and still trying to pass.

28% of the remainder went with a grade of C, described as "average." If we're grading on a curve, however, you're in good shape. Kudos to you, but keep it up.

A remaining 13% assigned a B and 9% an A. We'll go with three gold stars for each of you.

Big lesson at the end of the day: We live in a world that needs to hear our story, and we have to keep reinventing and improving how we tell it. If your church isn't passing, teach them how. If your church is passing, teach them how to get closer to that elusive perfect score.

Now, we turn to how your church ministers to various demographics. In the mean time, however, utilize our comment section and talk to one another about your grades. Don't be ashamed. Here's the question to get you started: What grade did you assign your church and why?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 4:59 PM
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March 7, 2007

Parade of Churches

(Filed under: Events)

Emergent Village is coordinating the Twin Cities Parade of Churches. It's mostly focusing on those wacky emergent churches, but what a great idea to get people together to experience, discuss and digest different ways of doing church. Since it's in my own backyard I might just be checking it out. (link via Tony Jones)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:44 PM
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Church Staff Split Over 'Sucks'

(Filed under: Off the Wall)

Oh, LarkNews, a site after my own heart. You know our pain and you let us chuckle together: Staff Split Over 'Sucks'

(link via Mike Atkinson)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:14 AM
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Churches Talk About Sex (Gasp!)

(Filed under: Evangelism & Outreach)

That incredibly illicit image of two pairs of naked feet hanging off the edge of a bed from Granger Community Church's My Lame Sex Life campaign is getting around. Lately they showed up on the web site of a church in Rochester Hills, Mich. and they're not making everybody happy. The Granger campaign has prompted tons of other churches to use the same approach, some with the same imagery available from Granger and others with their own unique twist.

I think it's cool to see churches trying to approach difficult topics where people want and need to hear a biblical perspective. What I think is amazing is when the complaints come from within the church.

"Instead of using scripture, he's using fads," said Gene Koessel, 70, a retired Lutheran pastor from Roseville, about [Epic Church Pastor Tim] Kade. "What's next?"

What's next indeed? Because we all know sex is just a fad.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:51 AM
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March 6, 2007

End of the Series on Innovative Churches

(Filed under: Philosophy)

Today we've officially wrapped up our series on Innovative Churches, featuring the Squidoo-powered and user-submitted list of innovative churches (currently at 65 churches) and our own Brad Abare's responses to questions on innovation from Outreach and Tony Morgan. Not everybody likes the lists, and admittedly they won't get you very far, but it is an opportunity to explore what it means to be innovative and how that can help the church.

So check out the past entries, keep on adding churches to the list (something tells me there are a lot more than 65 innovative churches in the world) and learn a thing or two about innovation.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:33 AM
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Innovative Churches: Measures & the Future

(Filed under: Philosophy)

Part 10 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

How will we know if innovation is working? How should we measure the impact? What does success look like?

Our impact should be measured against becoming the Church that Jesus is returning for. Is my church increasing with people who look more like Christ? Are more people being drawn unto Jesus through the church? Are families strengthened? Are marriages stronger? Are people passionately pursuing their purpose? This is what success looks like.

Continue reading "Innovative Churches: Measures & the Future"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:32 AM
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Awards Poll

(Filed under: Poll Results)

How many awards has your church won for church marketing Last week we ran a story about an Amarillo, Texas church that won a best in show Addy Award. Not too shabby. So we wondered how many other churches were going up against the big boys.

The answer? Not too many. 9% claim to have more awards than us (come now, how hard is it to beat more than zero?) and 1% said they entered and lost. Another 10% are thinking about entering now and 80% were clueless. So perhaps this is the education you needed. Get out there and strut your marketing stuff. And if you need some help, turn to the Church Marketing Lab.

This week we go back to school and ask you to grade your church's marketing.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:17 AM
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March 5, 2007

Cute, Clever and Cool

(Filed under: Graphic Design)

One of my daily blog reads is Signal vs. Noise from the folks behind 37signals. Not only do I use a few of their products (personally and professionally), I really appreciate their perspective as it relates to significant simplicity.

One of their posts today was about being cute, clever and cool as it relates to design. The idea is to make sure that these 3 C's should be viewed as ingredients to our design, not as ends of themselves. Pow!

It's the difference between driving toward the three C's, and bringing the three C's along for the journey. The next time I start a project, I want to season in the three C's, not attempt to accomplish or conquer them.

Posted by Brad Abare at 2:49 PM
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Presentation Matters

(Filed under: Philosophy)

Relevant has an interesting online article on The Commercial Church. It argues for pretty much the opposite of what we say here, but I always find these articles interesting and valuable.

Part of me wants to agree. Yes, Sunday morning should not be "show-time". Churches shouldn't be focused on fluff and mere entertainment. But they're not. The author is blowing things out of proportion, much like those who say all megachurches have sold out.

The gospel should be the church's central and most powerful draw. But how you present the gospel still matters, and that means paying attention to the world around us. If presentation didn't matter I could just stand on the corner and read the Bible and everyone would come to Jesus. It might happen--God does some crazy stuff. But it's not likely.

In the end it's always balance. The church must care about presentation, but not to the point that we lose the message for all the wrappings.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:32 AM
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