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August 21, 2008

Pooling Talents to Multiply Talents

Many of you are familiar with the parable of the talents. Essentially God entrusts us with things, and we diligently care for and use those things. Maybe it's a knack for making pies. Maybe it's a boatload of cash. Or maybe it's a job as a dermatologist. But we then take those things and use them faithfully. That's what Reynoldsburg United Methodist is asking its members to do. And they gave them $67,000 to do it.

Churches have given away money before. Reverse offerings have been done by plenty of churches, and at the surface, it seems like Reynoldsburg United Methodist is doing the same thing.

Continue reading "Pooling Talents to Multiply Talents"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:27 AM
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August 6, 2008

Bridge to Bikers, the Homeless and Prison Alumni

I was in Fort Wayne, Ind., this past weekend for a site survey and setup trip for an upcoming Foursquare simulcast later this fall. It's always a treat for me to meet local leaders on the front lines of ministry and this trip was no exception. On Sunday I went to a service at Life Bridge (the location for the simulcast) and went to lunch afterwards with several of the church leaders, including Pastor Bill Campbell, Mark Ellington (administrator), Aaron Jackson (worship leader), Arron Foster (tech wonder-boy) and their families. These people are the real deal and have a big heart for the community of Fort Wayne.

Life Bridge is also reaching some people that many of us don't see (sadly) in a typical church for your average Midwest suburban town. On the front row each Sunday are several women who have recently gotten out of prison. Some of them are on probation and have to wear ankle bracelets (and you're still worried about the head covering thing?). There are also a handful of bikers that are a part of the Life Bridge Community, and they're extending that invitation via a full blown biker weekend later this month called Cross N Dagger. How many times do you get to see a world champion knife thrower, a bunch of bikers, and a pentecostal congregation eating burgers and dogs together on a Sunday afternoon?

Continue reading "Bridge to Bikers, the Homeless and Prison Alumni"

Posted by Brad Abare at 9:43 AM
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June 24, 2008

Like A Good Neighbor...

One church is having a problem. Outreach magazine looks at a growing church who can't get permission from their city to move to a bigger location. Why, you ask? Well, the city, making an economic decision, knows that giving up a bigger space to a church means they miss out on the tax revenue of a for-profit business.

The article looks at the troubling question, "Would the community weep if your church were to pull out of the city? Would anybody notice if you left?" And then looks to answer how you can make that a resounding "Yes."

Marketing yourself as an opponent of the city you're in isn't going to get you much of anywhere, so check out what Outreach has to say about becoming the Church, serving your community and partnering with those around you.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:57 AM
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June 13, 2008

The Big Summer Push

This week's poll asks you, how does your church adjust its marketing efforts for summer? Why do we ask that? Well, it seems tons of churches just kind of chill out over the summer, enjoying the smaller crowds and lighter workload. Maybe they listen to an edited Jimmy Buffett CD and drink a virgin pina colada, who knows?

But what about a big outreach campaign? The church I work for, awhile back, did a campaign called "A Seat for Everyone." Lots of churches already have plenty of seats for everyone, but if you're normally crowded, turn less crowds into a big win. Maybe crank out a video poking fun at people cramming in your church normally, and then let them know that there's plenty of room over the summer. There's a thousand more possibilities, but don't give up because it's summer.

Either way, church marketers, Church Marketing Sucks challenges you to turn the summer slump into a big win for church marketing. Or, to rhyme, turn your summer fizzle into a summer sizzle. If you've done it before, let us know how you succeeded. If you're ready to try it, head to the Church Marketing Lab to get started.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:19 AM
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May 21, 2008

Share the Gospel in 140 Characters or Less

When you talk about marketing it's easy to focus on design. But writing matters. A lot.

Here's a chance to sharpen your writing skills. Brian Baute has thrown down the first ever Tweet the Gospel challenge. The idea is to share the gospel message within the confines of the 140-character limit of Twitter. (What's Twitter? It's a mini-blog application. We've talked about how Twitter can be used for churches and Josh shared a great example earlier today with We The Church)

So check out Brian's blog for more details and see if you can share the gospel in 140 characters or less. It's kind of like trying to be the Billy Graham of the Twitter age. And hopefully one step smarter than bumper sticker slogans.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:48 PM
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May 13, 2008

Community Organizing vs. Community Building

I mentioned last week about the conversation my wife and I are a part of with a handful of churches in Northeast Los Angeles discussing issues of poverty, homelessness, education, etc. One of the models we were looking at for engaging our community is developed by an organization called Pico. The model is built around "one-to-one's" which is exactly what it sounds like--one person conversing with another person. (It's a little more complex than this so you can watch an overview on their site). Pico points to significant social movements in history (i.e., Civil Rights) and traces their roots not to dynamic personalities but to grassroots community building.

This got me thinking about "community building" vs. "community organizing" and how often church leaders--myself included--tend to go for organizing groups before figuring out what to organize around. It seems so much easier to do a big splash in the community around a trendy cause and hope everybody notices. But what would happen if we let causes surface on their own and let our focus instead be on making sure every voice is heard?

In the Pico model, individuals go to other individuals (neighbors, shopkeepers, government workers, you name it) and do interviews. One-on-one interviews to get to know what's going on in their world. What are their concerns? What do they want to see change? Would they consider being a part of that change?

I'll admit, this approach is much slower and it lacks the stimulating immediacy of our give-it-to-me-now mindset, but I think it has some merit.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:48 AM
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April 22, 2008

What To Do When Someone Steals Your Church

2008_04_10stolenbillboard.jpgKinetic Church got in touch with us to tell us a story about themselves, which you may or may not have heard about.

One weekend in early March, our portable church trailer containing about 75% of Kinetic Church's equipment was stolen; leaving our church with virtually nothing.

As a result, Kinetic Church created five billboards and multiple web banners in hopes of grabbing the attention of the thieves (and everyone else for that matter).

You think church marketing sucks? Well getting everything your church owns stolen sucks way more. So they ended up getting some billboards loaned to them, and they leveraged the Internet in a couple more ways to try to get their trailer

Continue reading "What To Do When Someone Steals Your Church"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:49 AM
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March 18, 2008

Churches as a Media Platform

Veggie Tales founder Phil Vischer has been blogging about his big dreams for his new company, Jellyfish (if you're not familiar with Vischer's departure from Big Idea, you should read his book, Me, Myself & Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables). So far he's blogged about two problems:

  • "Problem #1 – we need to raise a generation of Christians who know what it means to live out the Gospel."
  • "Problem #2 – Christian kids media is dying for lack of a platform."

He's gone on to talk about a platform to address these problems, which he called the "world's smallest TV network." God speed, Phil.

But I've got another idea: Why can't the church be the platform?

Continue reading "Churches as a Media Platform"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:49 PM
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March 13, 2008

Erwin McManus Touches (Lightly) on Church Marketing

Erwin McManus has his thoughts about why churches are in decline. And it's not bad design, bad web sites or poor use of technology.

"My primary assessment would be because American Christians tend to be incredibly self-indulgent so they see the church as a place there for them to meet their needs and to express faith in a way that is meaningful for them ... I think the bottom line really is our own spiritual narcissism. There are methods and you can talk about style, structure and music, but in the end it really comes down to your heart and what you care about."

You don't market country clubs. You don't market your secret society. And you can't market your church if the attitude within is one of self-indulgence and only caring about what works best for your members. Simply put, you can't market your church if your church isn't ready to sacrifice. (link via MMI)

Posted by Joshua Cody at 1:36 PM
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February 28, 2008

Lent as the Christian Ramadan

We're playing telephone today: we got a link from the Cheapertising blog who highlighted the Get Religion blog who covered a story from the Telegraph. It takes a timely look at the season of Lent in the Netherlands, and a current re-branding that's under way. I'll quote:

"Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the 'Christian Ramadan' in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity."

As the season of Lent has become less important for the Dutch over the past years, they feel something must be done. Martin Van der Kull, director of Vastenaktie, a Catholic charity, had this to say:

"The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent."

Defining a Christian event in Muslim terms is a foreign concept, especially here in Protestant America. But thinking deeper, is it really so bad to explain Lent as a "Christian Ramadan?" It seems like at least a good way to communicate what happens during Lent to a non-Christian listener. Either way, it's sure an interesting way to market your church in a Muslim location, and it keeps with our international theme of late.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:07 AM
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February 26, 2008

NFL Gives in to Churches

Woohoo! Victory!

Reports are surfacing (via my investigative reporting of the espn.com main page) that the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is giving up the fight against religious organizations holding live showings of the Super Bowl.

If you keep up with us, you've probably know of the church-NFL tension stemming from last year's Super Bowl. Essentially, churches were having Super Bowl parties and the NFL was getting mad because, unless you're a bar, you aren't allowed to have game screenings when the display is larger than 55".

We've talked about this again and again. And again. And again.

Comments on the original article show there's a possible hullabaloo coming up with the NFL exempting "religious organizations." (Although they already exempt bars.) Some folks aren't too happy about this exception to the rule. What about community centers? What about non-religious folks? It will be interesting to see how churches respond to getting this special status.

As for me, I only know of Jesus discussing football or the Super Bowl once...

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:31 AM
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February 2, 2008

The NFL vs. Church

I guess tomorrow there's some big game--the Super Bowl or something. They're talking about it in the Church Marketing Lab and churches across the country are having parties--though perhaps warily.

Last year we talked about the NFL's crackdown on church Super Bowl parties. It seems this year it's more of the same. If your church's Super Bowl party involves a screen larger than 55 inches, you could run afoul of the NFL.

And it all seems kind of stupid. Churches want to get a bunch of people together to have a good time (and tell them about Jesus, hope they come back to church, etc.), the NFL wants people to watch the Super Bowl (and the super commercials). Why can't they come up with some kind of solution where everybody can win? We suggested a solution last year, but apparently nobody listened. Can't we all just get along?

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 9:53 AM
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January 5, 2008

Underpromise and Overdeliver

Seth Godin, one of our favorite marketing gurus, had some good advice recently. Underpromise and overdeliver.

This is a little different but particularly pertinent for the church. We can't overpromise. We have life change, world change and miracles to offer. But sometimes we self-promote rather than message promote.

When we promise big and huge and spectacular and over-the-top events, but we underdeliver, the message suffers. So when it comes to your church, underpromise and overdeliver, but when it comes to your message, remember: no promise is too big.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 2:00 PM
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January 3, 2008

Christmas is Broken

Now that the Christmas season is over (unless you celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, in which case keep on rockin'!) I think it's fair to say that Christmas is broken. And by that I mean our cultural celebration of Christmas in the 21st century America.

In my family Christmas is over a month long, stretching from Thanksgiving to New Year's as we visit family scattered across the country and exchange gifts. Lots of gifts. You haven't seen lots of gifts until you've seen multiple grandbabies.

Some of our family doesn't believe in the spiritual celebration of Christmas and the holiday becomes simply about gifts and food and family. There's nothing wrong with those things, but it's missing the point. And as we continue to celebrate Christmas year after year with the same massive pile of gifts, it's easy for us to miss the point as well, even though we whole-heartedly believe in the reason for the season.

I don't think I'm alone in this feeling and I see evidence of that as more and more people are coming up with alternative ways to celebrate Christmas than a pile of stuff. People are reimagining Christmas.

Continue reading "Christmas is Broken"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 2:11 PM
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December 14, 2007

Marketing Via Christmas Carolers

2007_12_14_Carolers.jpgI love Christmas carols. Every year it seems like the words become more and more meaningful to me. It's amazing how much the gospel is sung in these songs!

So why have we stopped caroling in our neighborhoods? What other time of the year is it considered culturally OK to go to people's doors, stand outside and sing the gospel to them?

I'm all for singing carols inside the church walls but let's also remember to take advantage of opportunities we have to take the church to people. I can't think of a better idea this time of the year!

This photo is from Desert Carolers in Redlands, Calif. I have no idea who they are (thanks Google Image search) but maybe they could help you out.

Posted by Brad Abare at 9:04 AM
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November 7, 2007

Fall Church Shopping

USA Today seems to feel that autumn is the perfect time to find a new church. I guess when we asked you what would make you leave your church, we should have included "Autumnal Equinox" as an answer.

USA Today is catching on to what other premier news organizations (Read: us) have been saying for a while now: Church web sites are vital.

"Having a web site allows the religious consumer to be a much more informed consumer. (If people) can find can a congregation that fits their needs and their interests, they're more likely to make a long-term commitment and to be a serious participant in the life of that church."

Continue reading "Fall Church Shopping"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:43 AM
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August 27, 2007

The Free Gift of God is ... iPhones and Disneyland Trips?

The free gift of God is an iPhone and a trip to Disneyland.

OK, so that's not the whole story.

We've talked here before about churches partnering with local business. Perhaps it was just due to the title of "Your Church, Sponsored by Crest White Strips," but the idea didn't go over well. This time we wanted to talk about churches using similar tactics, but with a twist.

Continue reading "The Free Gift of God is ... iPhones and Disneyland Trips?"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:52 AM
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August 20, 2007

Batterson on Marketing

Mark Batterson, a CMS favorite and annual interviewee, had a little to say about marketing last week in his Evotional blog. He said a few things I wanted to point out and share here.

He lets us in on the lens through which his church views marketing:

"The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing ... we don't want anybody in the metro DC area to be able to deny our existence!"

Continue reading "Batterson on Marketing"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:15 AM
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July 27, 2007

Building A Network

by Kevin Peterson, Guest Blogger

Call it church marketing if you want, but Southeast Christian in Louisville, Ky. (my own church) is taking a unique approach to reaching the community.

Kyle Idleman has taken a three-part sermon series and turned it on its ear. The series is focused on prayer, not so much how to pray, but why we should pray. In an effort to connect the community to prayer, 25 small ballot boxes were placed around town.

You’ll find them in restaurants, doctor’s offices, bus stations, stores and even a prison. Each box has a simple sign letting people know they can write their prayer request on a slip of paper and a church in their community will pray for them. Or if they would like they can visit www.prayerboxnetwork.com (Ed. note: Link no longer working as of June 15th, 2008) and enter their request or praise online.

Continue reading "Building A Network"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:48 AM
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July 23, 2007

Embracing Online Video

According to comScore, 75% of Internet users watched online video in May 2007, averaging 158 minutes per viewer. Nearly 8.4 billion videos were streamed online in the month of May. That's a lot.

Online video isn't a market that's too saturated to succeed in, either. It's not even a market that can become too saturated to succeed. If you missed the boat on the whole web 2.0 craze, you should read up on it. No matter how many videos stream online (in our case, 8,357,000,000), if you have a solid message and something fresh to offer, you can succeed.

Continue reading "Embracing Online Video"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 3:56 PM
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July 18, 2007

Grow Your Church By Asking People to Leave

Craig Groeschel at LifeChurch.tv has an interesting series of blog posts on getting people to leave your church. It seems completely counter-intuitive, but it makes sense. If people aren't moving your church forward, they're dead weight (which is kind of scary--am I dead weight?). And it's not just about helping your church, it's also about helping those people find the church for them.

Craig gives an example where he preached on the church's vision trying to get everybody on board. If people weren't on board with the vision, he asked them to find another church. He even offered brochures from 10 other churches he knew and recommended. It was a serious challenge and 500 people ended up leaving. Most people would freak out at that thought. Not Craig:

The next week, we had about 500 new seats for people who could get excited about the vision. Within a short period of time, God filled those seats with passionate people. Many of those who left our church found great, biblical churches where they could worship and use their gifts.

Everybody won!

That's why I sometimes say, "You can grow your church by asking people to leave."

Craig focuses on making leaving a church a graceful option and a positive thing and not the bitter experience it often is.

Or for a, uh, slightly different perspective, there's Mark Driscoll from his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev:

"The church is a body, and one of the most important parts is the colon. Like the human body, any church body without a colon is destined for sickness that leads to death." (page 131)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:24 AM
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June 4, 2007

Gee, I Should Go To Church Today

It's time to go back to the basics.

I don't know any non-Christian who wakes up and thinks, "Gee, I should go to church today." Churches need to find ways to make people think that very thought--whether it's through billboards or outreach events or the incredible example of their members (or all three and more--my point, don't get hung up on the method). If churches aren't getting people to think that, then what are they doing?

Unfortunately, too many churches have settled for the status quo, the steady stream of Christians who do wake up thinking they should go to church, and for some churches that's good enough. Those churches are social clubs, and useless. Sadly, many Christians are that way too.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:05 PM
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May 4, 2007

Christians vs. Atheists on Nightline

Grab the popcorn and call your friends--ABC's Nightline is staging a smackdown confrontation with eternal consequences. It's a debate between Christians and atheists. In the atheists' corner we have Brian Sapient and Kelly (last name withheld) of the Rational Response Squad, an atheist group best known for their Blasphemy Challenge. In the Christians' corner we have Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort of Way of the Master.

Anybody sense a coming train wreck? Check this out:

Comfort--who claims he can prove the existence of God, scientifically, without mentioning faith or the Bible--stated, "The network originally offered me only four minutes to present my case. After speaking with Kirk and conferring with the atheists, they settled on 13 minutes. I'm ecstatic. I can prove the existence of God in that amount of time.

Comfort also told Nightline, "We cannot only prove that God exists, but we can prove that the atheist doesn't."

Wow. The single question humanity has wrestled with since the dawn of time--does God exist?--will be answered by a former sitcom star and a preacher with no theological training in a mere 13 minutes. Let's just hope they leave the banana out of it.

Continue reading "Christians vs. Atheists on Nightline"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:00 PM
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May 3, 2007

Rate a Church

Just stumbled across the unique and somewhat tongue-in-cheek site ChurchRater from Off the Map (the guys who bought an atheist on eBay). It's exactly what it sounds like, a site to rate churches. It reminds me of much less serious and more open source version of Guest Reflections.

It also seems like a promotional after-thought for the book Jim & Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation About Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians. (link via Knightopia)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:49 PM
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May 1, 2007

What Makes a Church Grow?

Wanting your church to grow isn't enough. You have to take intentional action to make it happen. (Disclaimer: Yes, God makes it grow, not us. But God uses us to make it grow--by inviting our neighbors, living out our faith, etc. OK? Put the stones down.) And now we have stats to back that up. The Facts on Growth report from Hartford Seminary explores key factors in making a church grow. And it comes down to planning for growth. Among the common factors for churches that have grown:

  • Multiple services.
  • Launching or maintaining a web site in the past year.
  • Racial diversity.
  • Involving children in worship.
  • Avoiding major conflict.

It's important to note that none of these are clear paths to bringing more people into your church to hear about Jesus. They're all indicators that these are mission-minded churches doing what it takes to draw people in. And as we all know, the number of butts in pews means nothing if you're not also seeing Christ in hearts. (link via Turtle Interactive, which also shares some best practices for church web sites)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:11 AM
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April 27, 2007

Taking Outreach Lessons From Denny's

by Brenton Balvin, Guest Blogger

I love what Denny's restaurant is doing to try and attract the college crowd, via Nation's Restaurant News (subscription required):

Denny's plan is to become a "social gathering" place for students who want to study for exams or meet with friends over a sit-down meal instead of grabbing a quick burger at a fast-food drive-thru, Polydoroff said.

To lure them in during the promotion, Denny's is offering meal deals because students are on a budget, he said, and using free Wi-Fi , text messages and banner ads on Facebook to communicate with students because they are heavy users of those media.

"It's pretty new and significant for us," Polydoroff said. "We never did text messaging before."

Marketing support also includes direct mail, coupons and ads in college newspapers.

Continue reading "Taking Outreach Lessons From Denny's"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:05 AM
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April 19, 2007

Church For Men

by Michael Buckingham, Guest Blogger

Most of you have heard the debate that church doesn't speak the language of men, that the church with its tears and emotion doesn't cater to men. There have been books written, and now there's a church taking on the challenge. The goal of Church for Men is to "help churches create an environment where men can thrive in every aspect of church life. Instead of creating a little outpost of masculinity called men's ministry, we help churches unleash the masculine spirit throughout the organization."

I like a lot about this; they meet on Saturday evenings, so this isn't about replacing the family church. It's so relevant that even the press is taking notice. They're doing more than talking about a problem in the church--they're doing something!

What do you see in the church that maybe you could not just talk about but begin to take action on?

Posted by Guest Blogger at 7:46 AM
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April 16, 2007

How To Achieve 277% Growth

OK, so the title isn't fully accurate. But it is how one church did it. Eastpoint Community Church in Middletown, Del. had an incredibly simple, strategic and successful marketing campaign, detailed by Marketing Sherpa (membership required). Here's a quick summary of their story:

A small, young church, they were looking to reach a community saturated by a younger generation with a general disquietude towards the idea of church. They knew that an unobtrusive web site would bring just the proper message--we don't merely want to tally converts, but we want you to discover us. Thus the brainstorming began.

Continue reading "How To Achieve 277% Growth"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:28 AM
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April 13, 2007

Andy Crouch on Culture

Andy Crouch of The Christian Vision Project was recently interviewed on the Catalyst podcast. He made some interesting points which I'll summarize for our loyal CMS readers. Essentially, Andy presents a picture of the way we, the church, relate with the world around us (keep in mind that these are his ideas in my words).

There are two basic ways we present ourselves to the world as believers: gestures and postures. Gestures are the things we do, and postures are the way we carry ourselves. For example, bending over might be an appropriate gesture, but it's not an appropriate posture, as it's not good for everything.

Continue reading "Andy Crouch on Culture"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:14 AM
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April 12, 2007

Where's the Church's Ask a Ninja?

Online entertainment has been taking the world by storm. Homestar Runner. Ask a Ninja. lonelygirl15. ZeFrank. For the most part these were projects started by small groups of people with small amounts of money. They are media empires on shoestring budgets. They can be created by folks in their pajamas and they have incredible impact.

While watching Ask a Ninja co-founder Kent Nichols talk about his rules for success in this new entertianment world in a video from Pop!Tech, I wondered where the church is in this new online entertainment phenomenon.

Continue reading "Where's the Church's Ask a Ninja?"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:23 AM
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April 4, 2007

Church "Mascots" for Children's Ministry?

by Brenton Balvin, Guest Blogger

Recently I was part of a team of people that used a store mascot to do some local marketing. OK, I was the guy dressed up as a giant A&W Root Beer Bear. My team visited an elementary school in the community that was having a family carnival night. From the nasal perspective of my costume (I see out of the nose), the evening was a massive success for the school, the families and our store. In fact, I even overheard a few kids talking about when the Bear mascot had refereed their hockey game a few months ago.

It reinforced an idea I have been thinking about for awhile. Why don't children's ministries in church utilize some kind of mascot or character to connect with kids? I have seen how much my own kids love going to Chuck E. Cheese and singing and dancing with the mouse mascot there. And my experiences in the Root Beer Bear suit have given me first hand, experiential knowledge of the fact that most kids really enjoy interacting with an over-sized animal. I think churches need to get on board with this and use it as a way to get kids excited about visiting church each week.

Continue reading "Church "Mascots" for Children's Ministry?"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 7:09 AM
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March 20, 2007

Where We're Missing

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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March 17, 2007

The Anti-Welcoming Church

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 <