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July 31, 2008

Creating a Church Style Guide, Part 2

(Filed under: Writing & Editing)

This is part two of an irregular and indefinite journey. Follow Associate Editor Joshua Cody as he works to get a style guide together for his church.

Last time we talked, we were in the early planning phases of getting together a church style guide. This is how I see the whole process playing out:

• Early planning: Getting the team on board for the process.
  
• Mid-planning: Getting feedback on what a style guide should include and how you can help your team.
  
• Final planning: Determining the final content of the style guide.
  
• Implementation: Delivering the final style guide to your team by whatever avenues work best for them.

Continue reading "Creating a Church Style Guide, Part 2"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:58 AM
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July 30, 2008

Bastards with Bibles, Part 3

(Filed under: Brand & Identity)

This is part three in a series about how our impending identity crisis is funking our souls. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 to catch up.

Organization as Soul Provider
When our identity is no longer found in who we are and how God sees us, we look to organizations to shape who we are and give meaning to our lives. From phones and fashion to politics and causes, our identity is being formed by who we buy from and who we belong to. This process of organization as soul provider has been gaining serious momentum. Consider these four reasons:

1. Globalization: We’re connected to everyone, everything, everywhere. We Digg our Face-My-Twitter-Blog-elcious-LinkedIn-Wiki-world. Because we’re connected to everything, we’ve forgotten what it means to be connected to the right things. People are more lonely and isolated than ever before. Today, 1 out of every 4 households in the U.S. has just one person living there. In 1950, it was 1 out of every 10.

Continue reading "Bastards with Bibles, Part 3"

Posted by Brad Abare at 8:37 AM
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July 29, 2008

Top Tweeting Church Leaders

(Filed under: Technology)

Today the Catalyst blog shares a list of Top Tweeters & Church Leaders. So if you're on Twitter and want to see what church leaders are saying, check out the list. Be sure to check the comments for even more folks.

Oh, and I suppose it's worth mentioning that our very own Brad Abare made the list.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:30 AM
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Feliz Cumpleanos Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Church Marketing Sucks launched four years ago last week, and so last week's poll asked how long you've been along for the ride.

Out front are the 46% who've been around for a few years, veterans but not charter members. Next are the newbies with 28% who just found out this place existed. After that are the 18% who've been around less than a year. And finally come the 8% who've been around since the beginning--thanks for sticking with us.

So in the end a majority have been with us a few years or longer, but 46% have found us in the last year. It's cool to see that kind of growth still happening.

Thanks to everybody--no matter how long you've been reading--for joining us in this effort to help churches communicate better. This week's poll asks what your church does for visitors.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:20 AM
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July 28, 2008

Bastards with Bibles, Part 2

(Filed under: Brand & Identity)

This is part two in a series about how our impending identity crisis is funking our souls. Part one was the story of CGE/Vivendi and their struggle to figure out who they are.

Soul Supplier
In their book The Soul of the Corporation, Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly conclude “that we are in the midst of a transition on a global scale from an era in which the vast majority of people lived with a sense of clarity, continuity, and consistency about their identity--their notion of who they are and how others view them--to an era in which identity is increasingly problematic across all levels of human organization, from the individual person to entire nations or civilizations. The result of this identity crisis is that companies and organizations have now become suppliers of individual and collective identity.”

In traditional societies, individuals inherited much of their own identity from the social milieu (family, place of birth, tribe, religion) into which they were born. In an organizational society, individuals are defined by the companies and organizations in which they participate. Today, people are developing much of their sense of self from belonging to, or buying from, companies and organizations.

Continue reading "Bastards with Bibles, Part 2"

Posted by Brad Abare at 8:34 AM
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July 25, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Extreme Makeover Edition

(Filed under: Peer Review)

One thing that makes us proud in a big way is when the Church Marketing Lab is all that it can be. One place we really see that is with designs that come through, get feedback, grow up and come through again. Here's some examples of that this week.

Unleash version one, two and three.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Extreme Makeover Edition"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:13 AM
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July 24, 2008

Bastards with Bibles, Part 1

(Filed under: Brand & Identity)

This is part one in a series about how our impending identity crisis is funking our souls. I'm really fired up about this subject of identity and soul and I'm planning to use this for some upcoming speaking engagements I have later this fall.

In 1853, Napoleon III issued an Imperial decree for a new company to be established in France called Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE). CGE was a utility company providing water to several French cities. By 1880, they would be an international water supplier extending their services to Venice, Istanbul, Portugal and beyond.

One hundred years later, CGE would have 2,100 subsidiaries employing over 250,000 people. In addition to the water business, CGE had diversified into waste management, electricity, transportation, education, health care, catering, communications, real estate, entertainment and casinos.

In 1996, after posting record losses of $723 million and racking up $10.5 billion in debt, Jean-Marie Messier is appointed the role of chairman and chief executive. Over the next several years Messier attempted to streamline CGE by selling off several business units, including the original water utility service. The company name was changed from CGE to Vivendi and later Vivendi Universal after recognizing its major entertainment emphasis including the acquisition of Universal Studios.

Continue reading "Bastards with Bibles, Part 1"

Posted by Brad Abare at 8:22 AM
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July 23, 2008

9 Must Reads Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Long, long ago, we gave you nine must-read books on the road to not sucking. So did you heed our advice and read the books?

1 in 5 of you (in our self-sampled and highly statistically accurate poll) said you have read Good to Great. That's our most popular book, followed by The Tipping Point, which 19% of poll respondents have read.

A couple more books sit at 13%--Purple Cow and Church Marketing 101. But after that, it's pretty much a dead heat in the 1-3% range for the rest of the books.

The biggest portion of you are missing out on nine great reads by skipping them. You can go ahead and e-mail this entry to your friends and family so they'll be able to snag these for you for Christmas in July. They'll be a huge help to both you and your church.

We're huge fans of each of these books, and buying them through our links is a great way to support Church Marketing Sucks and the mission.

This week, as we celebrate our 4th birthday, let us know, how long have you been along for the ride?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:58 AM
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July 22, 2008

Church Marketing Sucks Turns 4

(Filed under: News & Updates)

Four years ago today the first post appeared on Church Marketing Sucks. It's been a wild ride trying to frustrate, educate and motivate churches to communicate the greatest story ever told. Thanks for joining us on that ride, whether you've been with us since the beginning or you've come along more recently.

And in four years we've been pretty busy ...

• Center for Church Communication - Our non-profit parent has helped us spread our wings and do more than just blog (including everything below).
• Church Marketing Lab - Our little community on Flickr has grown to well over 2,000 people eager to give feedback and help improve church communications.
• Events Lab - Listing the latest and greatest church marketing events.
• Job Lab/Freelance lab - Helping churches find creative professionals and creative professionals find churches to help.
• Local Lab - Connecting local church communicators to share ideas, encouragement and horror stories.
• CFCC Advertising Network - A chance for you to reach the community of church communicators and for us to pay the bills.
• Heart & Soul Series - For our two-year anniversary we put together a little series explaining our heart and soul.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Sucks Turns 4"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:36 AM
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Jesus Goes Marketing

(Filed under: Off the Wall)

If you're interested in spending a few minutes checking out some funny photos, you might want to see the blog at NEOchurch. Essentially, they dressed up like Jesus and took their message to the streets. It's good fun and offers a little off the wall inspiration.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:52 AM
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July 21, 2008

Skills and Bills: Working with Churches & Contractors

(Filed under: Church Business)

A recent comment about churches paying their bills prompted my post today, although this has been a pet peeve of mine for as long as I can remember. Having worked on both sides--both as the church paying the bill and as the person looking to be paid from the church, I'm keenly aware of the systemic issue this is.

I've been ripped off and taken advantage of more than I care to even remember when it comes to "working for the Lord." Although it's easy to slip into bitterness-mode, I've always found more harm than help doing that. Perhaps a few of the following lessons can help you--whether you're paying or being paid.

Continue reading "Skills and Bills: Working with Churches & Contractors"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:05 AM
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July 18, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Worship Albums, Christianese and Logos

(Filed under: Peer Review)

Want to discuss the top 10 fonts? Know what font is used for The Deadliest Catch? Keep up with designers and church marketers who are using Twitter? You can do all of those things in the Church Marketing Lab, or you can just check out great designs like these:

This motion graphic is for Christianese, an upcoming sermon series.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Worship Albums, Christianese and Logos"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:52 AM
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Well Hello, Integrity Music!

(Filed under: News & Updates)

If you're checking us out via RSS, we don't want you to miss out on the newest member of the CFCC Ad Network, Integrity Music and Canadian worship leader Joel Auge's new album, On The Blue.

We're glad to have you and your not sucking, Integrity Music. You're in good company with our other Ad Network members:

• Splat Print
• FellowshipOne
• faithHighway

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:40 AM
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July 17, 2008

Nit-Picking Marketing Motivation

(Filed under: Philosophy)

All right, the practical ramifications of this article aren't huge. Christianity Today's Our of Ur blog examines the theological basis for felt-needs marketing. It's a well-thought out post that looks at marketing from a perspective most of us overlook, and at Church Marketing Sucks, we aren't afraid to ask if marketing is in the Bible.

Here's the bare bones of it all, and make sure to head over for a more eloquent version:

Jesus addressed felt-needs through miracles. If someone was blind, he spat on them. If someone was dead, he prayed for them. They felt a need, and he addressed it. But why?

Continue reading "Nit-Picking Marketing Motivation"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:14 AM
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July 16, 2008

Semiautomatic Assault Rifle--Free at Church!

(Filed under: Examples)

Only one thing comes to mind when I heard this story: Uh oh.

I don't want to be sensationalist or over-report this. It's pretty tough, though. From KOCO in Oklahoma City:

Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.

The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.

In the church's defense, I'm sure this giveaway is much more relevant, practical and functional in their own town in Oklahoma and loses a lot in the translation to the national stage. Also, I feel fairly confident that they're only giving the gun away to someone responsible and legal.

All that considered, what on earth are they thinking? if this gun giveaway were to go sour, the consequences would be grave. The moral of the story is you have to think one step ahead in your marketing, and be prepared to deal with the repercussions of any way you market yourself.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:17 AM
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July 15, 2008

Clothing Your Flock Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Long, long ago, I told you a story of a jerk in his corporate shirt who made his company look like a fool. So what about when your church staff are bad tippers, rowdy complainers or law breakers? Are you using them as a billboard so your church's image takes the heat?

8% of you have a church staff that proudly sports your logo day-in and day-out. You're a bold minority who isn't afraid of the way your own people will act in public. Another 10% of you make the option available, but they don't have to if they don't want to.

Over a quarter of you that responded think you're opening Pandora's box by letting your staff wear church shirts. Surely they'll cut someone off in traffic, stub their toe and curse aloud or be spotted dancing in public on their lunch break.

Oh yeah, and there's nearly half of you who don't have room in the budget for church staff shirts. Here's to you, average church staff who is too broke to face these problems.

Want to solve this problem? Never hire someone who would act in a way to muddy your church's name. And hire staff that if they ever do, aren't afraid to apologize for their actions.

This week, we have a question for all our bibliophiles out there. Which of Church Marketing Sucks' 9 must-read books have you read already?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 4:40 PM
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How the Catholic Church Markets World Youth Day

(Filed under: Examples)

Sometimes it's fun to see what others say about church marketing. Here's a blog entry talking about how the Catholic church is marketing World Youth Day 2008. The initial thought is that the Catholic church isn't very good at marketing, but then the author explores some of the strategies for World Youth Day and points out that they're pretty smart. And they're simple things, like:

• Handing out orange and yellow jackets and backpacks to visitors so they can both be seen and find one another.
• Each visitor's badge includes the flag of their country and
• each visitor is encouraged to wave their country's flag.

The author concludes:

"If nothing else, World Youth Day demonstrates the power and global reach of a church that many perceive to be in decline. The gathering of youth will reinforce the faith of everyone involved and convince them that they are a part of something much larger than themselves--something that, because of the diversity and number of participants, must surely be worthwhile. And that’s good marketing."

It's amazing how such simple ideas can create much larger perceptions.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:56 AM
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July 10, 2008

Job Lab and Freelance Lab Roundup

(Filed under: News & Updates)

We've been having great success in the Job Lab and Freelance Lab lately. Take Kyle Baker of Skillful Productions. It's success stories like his that make these labs worthwhile:

I had been looking for a video collaborator for about 2 months, asking friends, then friends of friends, then friends of friends if they knew anyone. It was going nowhere. I posted my listing on the Freelance Lab at 11:00 pm on a Sunday night and went to bed. I woke up with 3 responses in my inbox. I was completely blown away by the quality of the portfolios. After only 2 days I had more than enough responses and was able to make my decision.

Kyle didn't have the budget or an assurance that the project would move forward at his church, but he did add this:

... If I actually had capital and a surefire eager market, it would have been a no-brainer to go with these guys, I needed a video professional to work with me on a scripture-based product and your network was pretty much the only way to canvas the country.

So if you're a freelancer, and you're looking for some more work, why not help with ...

• Logo design for Senior High ministry at Lincoln Hills Christian Church.
  
• Logo Design at Living Way Church.
  
• Branding for Everland Christian Ministries.

Or if you're looking for full-time work, how about becoming a ...

• Art Director at Group Publishing.
  
• Video Director at Chandler Christian Church.
  
• Creative Arts Assistant at Schweitzer United Methodist Church.
  
• Graphic Designer - Print Media at Fellowship of The Woodlands.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:00 AM
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July 8, 2008

Stolen Church Trailer Smack Down

(Filed under: Examples)

We talked before about what to do when someone steals your church trailer. Gary Lamb would beg to differ, however. His church trailer was stolen (perhaps we have a serial church trailer thief on our hands?), and his reaction was a little bit different. From his blog:

First let me say, God loves you. Second let me say we forgive you. We really don’t want to forgive you, but God says we should so we do.

And it continues ...

I am curious what kind of lowlife you must be? Trust me, I have been around some pretty low ones before but never one that would be so low as to steal from a church. I understand you probably need some crack or something like that but stealing from a church would scare me. It would scare me more once I realized which church I stole it from. We are probably the only church you have ever heard of that will honestly break your legs once you are found.

So what do you think, are you a church trailer forgiver or a church trailer leg breaker?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 4:40 PM
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Most Important Marketing Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Last week, we wanted to know which aspect of your marketing was most important. We provided plenty of choices, so let's see what you had to say:

45% of you say the most important part is actually communicating something. Too many folks are talking just to talk, and you think you'd better have the guts to have some meat behind your marketing. One out of five of you think keeping your marketing straightforward and simple is most important.

Apart from those two biggies, there are just a smattering of the rest of you who feel each other choice is most important for you. Whether it be tuning in with popular culture, name recognition, creating buzz or focusing internally, less than 10% of you feel these are the most important parts of your marketing.

Oh yes, and there are 6% of you who feel none of these are the most important--the gospel markets itself.

This week, we're asking, does your church team wear staff shirts?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:05 AM
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July 7, 2008

Your Church Web Site, 320x480

(Filed under: Web Sites)

In case you live under a rock (or just aren't a slave to technology), an iPhone is about to set you back 199 George Washingtons. And they're predicting a whole bunch are going to sell.

So for all your webmasters out there, it's time to start seriously considering mobile versions of your site. But not volunteer webmasters, because we've already said that you should quit.

Heal Your Church Web Site has a guide up on how you can leverage the mobile web for the good of your church.

I personally love the idea of mobile church web sites. I'd love to be able to dial up my church's site on my phone to figure out what time the whatchamacallit was at. (link via Think Christian)

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:38 AM
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July 4, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: New Sites, a Green God and More

(Filed under: Peer Review)

The Church Marketing Lab never fails to disappoint if you're in the mood for great church design work. Here's a small something from the past week to whet your appetite:

Is God green? This direct mail piece asks that question to promote an upcoming series.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: New Sites, a Green God and More"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:07 AM
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July 3, 2008

10 Commandments of Web Design

(Filed under: Technology)

We've learned about church web sites from John McCain and Barack Obama. But the lessons don't stop there.

Kem Meyer quotes a Business Week article, The 10 Commandments of Web Design. Here are four of the great bits:

• Thou shalt not abuse Flash. The technology can easily be abused--excessive, extemporaneous animations confuse usability and bog down users' web browsers.
  
• Thou shalt not clutter. The web may be the greatest archive of all time, but sites that lack a coherent structure make it impossible to wade through information.
  
• Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections. Some experts say Apple's habit of creating glassy reflections under photos of its products has been far too commonly copied, turning the style element into a cliché.
  
• Thou shalt worship at the altar of typography. Designers say that despite the increase in broadband penetration, plain text has gotten a second wind in cutting-edge web design.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:28 AM
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July 1, 2008

Phone Booking Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

According to Wikipedia, the first telephone book was issued in 1878. So can an idea from 130 years ago still help your church today?

Almost a quarter of you say yes. You still advertise in the local phone book, and it is a big win for you. But the same number of you say that phone book advertising just isn't worth it for you. Not enough people are seeing you in your local phone book to justify the cost.

Over half of you don't bother buying ads in the local phone book, but you are proud to be listed there, right between Jane Doe and Joe Schmo. Probably even those of you who purposely don't advertise are still listed--seems like a silly marketing move to go out of your way to be unlisted in your local area.

Phone book success story? Or a good reason to file to be unlisted? Let us know in the comments.

This week, we'd like to know, what do you think is most important in your marketing?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:04 PM
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Barack Obama & John McCain's Lessons for Church Web Sites

(Filed under: Web Sites)

While you can't endorse a presidential candidate as a church, you are allowed to learn from them. And there's plenty to learn from the communications practices of candidates. Let's start with their web sites (I've blogged about these issues elsewhere, but let's apply them to the church):

Web 2.0 Friendly
Both John McCain and Barack Obama are embracing the web 2.0 wave. They've got MySpace profiles, Facebook friends, YouTube videos and Twitter tweets (they also both have their own social networking sites, my.BarackObama.com and McCainSpace). The real question is if they'll make the most out of them. More channels can just be more noise unless you take advantage of the unique strengths of each new channel. And if you ignore the rules like John McCain did last year, you'll end up looking ridiculous.
For Churches: Twitter, YouTube and Facebook can be great tools, but know how to use them. Don't just jump on the latest bandwagon.

Continue reading "Barack Obama & John McCain's Lessons for Church Web Sites"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:47 AM
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