Church Marketing Sucks: Peer Review Archives

November 14, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Annual Reports and Quarterly Newsletters

It's not only flashy postcards, sermon slides and intro videos that can be submitted to the Church Marketing Lab. Even something as mundane as an annual church report needs good design.

It's a testament to dedication when even your yearly church report is submitted for design tips. If every church dedicated themselves to this sort of excellence in design, maybe there would be a few less giggles at the expense of church's design abilities. (Exhibit 1: What if the Church Marketed Like Starbucks?)

And there's more where that came from. Here's a little bigger taste of what we've seen this week in the Church Marketing Lab:

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:44 AM
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November 7, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Web Sites, New Shirts and More

This week in the Church Marketing Lab, we've seen a collection of great work. For those of you who aren't involved over there, here's just a glimpse of the type of things you'll see (or could even post yourself):

These invite cards are for a church's winter social.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:59 PM
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October 31, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Copyright Time

In the Church Marketing Lab, we've got a call for copyright questions. Lots of people don't really have a great understanding of copyright, from designers to pastors to volunteers, and we have the opportunity to ask some questions to copyright experts. So if you've ever had something on your mind regarding copyright, right and wrong and where to draw the line, get it in the thread over there or e-mail us. But as usual, we've seen some great work this week that hasn't been copied. Here is just a tiny taste of what we've seen this week:

These are graphics for an upcoming series called "Then and There."

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 2:31 AM
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October 24, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Discuss!

One of the most frequent requests we get is, "What do you think of [blank]?" And our reply usually is a gentler form of "Go to the Church Marketing Lab!" That's because the discussion board there is a wonderful way to discuss anything related to church marketing. It can range from sharing what different church communicators' desktops look like to technical discussions of file sizes and types.

Here's a taste of the discussions that have been going on this week:

It's a lot more than people sharing their graphic design. It's a community of over 2,500 members ready to help one another out and move towards better communication. So however you get involved in church communications, get over and discuss in the Church Marketing Lab.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:29 PM
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October 20, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Rules Slides, Series Graphics and More

We just welcomed a whole slew of new moderators to the Church Marketing Lab. What should you expect differently? More feedback, better feedback and an all-around improved Church Marketing Lab. Something that's great is getting even better. Here's a little bit of the work we've seen this week:

Here are eight possible new logos for Bridge Church.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:16 AM
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October 10, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Countdown, Golfing, Magnets and More

This week in the Church Marketig Lab, we've seen some truly great pieces. If you aren't involved over there, you're really missing out. Both in the photo pool and on the discussion board, you'll be stretched and challenged. Here's just four small samples of the great things we've seen this week.

Crossroads Church is working on a new service countdown.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:03 AM
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October 3, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Christmas Comes Early

It's about that time of year. You know, it comes in the beginning of October. Little red hats and elves start appearing on store shelves. That's right, it's the annual "What are Halloween and Thanksgiving? I'm Thinking About Christmas!" event. So here we have the first three Christmas entries of the year (that I've seen) from the Church Marketing Lab.

Here's an advertisement for The Heart of Christmas.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:41 AM
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September 26, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Logos, Shirts and More

The Church Marketing Lab is now the proud home of nearly 2,500 members and over 6,000 pieces of work. Wow! What does that mean for you? That there's a great deal of work ready to be enjoyed and commented on. Here are a few pieces we have seen this week:

Fall Festival has a magnet ready to go.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 1:12 PM
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September 15, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: All in Who You Know

The Church Marketing Lab, for those of you that don't know, has two facets: the photo pool and the discussion board. It's great to see when both get used. That was the case when abbysmithonline needed some help. She asked on the discussion board,

My church is starting a new series entitled "All in Who You Know." It's about evangelism and will focus on four weeks about 1. Knowing God 2. Knowing the Church 3. Knowing Yourself and 4. Knowing Others.
Does anyone have any thoughts as to imagery? I'm drawing a blank. Mostly because I'm not a huge fan of the non-negotiable title. We're not a particularly edgy church, but I like to push us as far as we can go. Thoughts? Can't think of a better group to help me out.

She got plenty of responses, and her question became this final work:

It's so great to see the Church Marketing Lab used to its full potential. If you need some help with your marketing, head on over and dive in.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:14 AM
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August 29, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Non-Existent to Top 90

Church Marketing Lab stories really get me fired up. At its best, it's a truly incredible tool to help churches communicate with excellence. Take the story of Park Community Church.

It all started as they were getting ready to move into a new building. They wanted to go from suburban to urban, and this was the beginning of their journey.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:17 AM
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August 26, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Group Branding, Newsletters & More

It's been awhile since we've had a standard Church Marketing Lab update, so we thought we would let you in on a little bit of what's been going on in the photo pool.

Palm Valley Church is working on the branding for their small groups.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:59 AM
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August 14, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Capturing Great Ideas

We take a break from our typical Church Marketing Lab updates to show you a different way you can use the Flickr group. Usually, folks post their designs, and other folks come alongside them to help them out. As we've chronicled many times before. But ryan.sworth had a different idea. How about using the Church Marketing Lab to put faces to church marketing wins? That's what we see here:

Here's how he described the experience:

We did Spontaneous Baptisms at our church this past Sunday, to kick off our new series "Awakening"--we baptized over 600 people, and provided all the essentials (shirt, shorts, flip flops, towels, hair care stuff, personal photograph, etc.) to leave people without an excuse.

This is why we do what we do. These are 600 of the faces of church marketing--whether that marketing came in the form of word-of-mouth, great design, strong communication or something else, we won't ever know, but the Church Marketing Lab serves as a great place to display the wins of church marketing.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:34 AM
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July 25, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Extreme Makeover Edition

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.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:13 AM
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July 18, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Worship Albums, Christianese and Logos

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.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:52 AM
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July 4, 2008

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

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.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:07 AM
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June 27, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Compact Discs to E-mail Campaigns

This week in the Church Marketing Lab there's been no shortage of great submissions. All sorts of media from shirts to compact discs to HTML e-mails have sported everything from logos to series brands. Here's just a bit of what we've seen:

An e-mail campaign for a survey about domestic outreach.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:01 AM
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June 20, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Soak Posters to Prayer Cards

Some churches slow down their marketing for the summer. About half actually. But the Church Marketing Lab is there for those who just get hotter as the summer heats up. Here's some of what we've seen lately.

A prayer card going out to 200,000 folks.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:17 AM
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June 13, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Summer Fun

Summers at church mean a few things ... less crowds, sweating pastors, bulletins as fans, sweet trips and cookouts. All of these things are way better when they're promoted (except sweating pastors). And that's what the Church Marketing Lab is for. Here's a little of the summer fun we've seen there lately.

Here's a promo for a Texas Youth Camp.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:07 AM
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May 30, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Here's to the Next 5,000

The Church Marketing Lab has officially neared, reached and surpassed both 2,000 members and 5,000 posts. That's a heckuva lot of folks helping one another sharpen their skills. Here's just a taste of what we've seen lately:

This is the one, the only, submission number 5,000. Congratulations studiomuntz!

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Here's to the Next 5,000"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:42 AM
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May 13, 2008

Earth Day Poll Results

It's a hot topic right now, the relationship between Father God and Mother Earth. With everyone and their brother describing everything they do as "green," whether or not it's good for the earth, we wanted to know if your church was jumping on the chance to celebrate Earth Day.

The vast majority of you treated Earth Day the same way you treat Pi Day or National Weimaraner Appreciation Day--you don't. 29% of you didn't even realize Earth Day passed on April 22. At least now you can go ahead and pencil it in for next year! Another 64% of you knew about it, but you didn't care to give the planet a gift.

A small 6% of folks celebrated. Your marketing is seven shades of green, and you walk the lonely road of speaking up for our voiceless blue sphere. Did you go paper-free for a day? Turn the lights out? Walk barefoot? Let us know in the comments.

And for now, tell us, what do you think of CFCC's partnership with HOW?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 3:54 PM
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May 12, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Because You Love Your Mother

Don't you owe it to moms all over the world to give them the best designs ever? Head to the Church Marketing Lab and give some feedback for these Mother's Day designs, because it's never too late for feedback. There's always next year.

Here's a poster to promote a "Celebrate Mom" service.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Because You Love Your Mother"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:20 AM
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May 2, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Stages, Shirts and Summer Fun

Let's talk numbers here for a minute. We're only 52 members away from the 2,000 mark in the Church Marketing Lab, and the conversations just get better and better. Last June we hit member 1,000, and now we're already at 2,000! In October, we were looking at the 3,000th posting. Now, we're almost at 5,000! So if you aren't in the conversation, head over and join in. Here's some of what we've been seeing lately:

Here's a smorgasbord of ideas for a vision-casting print.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Stages, Shirts and Summer Fun"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:43 AM
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April 24, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Flickr Gets Video

If you're familiar with our Church Marketing Lab, you know it runs as a Flickr group. And if you're familiar with Flickr, you know they recently started allowing the upload of videos up to ninety seconds. Folks in the lab have used the occasion to upload videos containing unicorns, gnomes, peeing dogs, moving heads and the numbers one through thirty. Here's what I mean.

This is a promo for a series inspired by Napoleon Dynamite.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:59 AM
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April 11, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Try, Try Again

The Church Marketing Lab is all about peer review. It's good to post your designs and ideas after you've executed them. It's better to share them before go time so the brilliant minds that hang out over there can help you out. That's what paulcarson did. Check out how the Church Marketing Lab can help a great design to be:

The design is born for the series "Pure," looking at trends in worldviews.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:01 PM
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April 4, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Worship Guides to Breakfast Designs

Church Marketing Lab time. If you're not getting involved over there, you're missing out on a ton. There's discussions on church directories, Local Labs, purpose statements and more, as well as some great graphics. It's where the church marketing rubber meets the road. Here's some of the work we've seen submitted this week.

Check out this take on infusing sermon graphics in your bulletin.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:58 AM
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March 28, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Welcome Displays, Bulletins and More

As the Church Marketing Lab nears 2,000 members, we want to remind you that anyone can take part. Whether you're a designer, a person with a question or someone with an opinion, it's the perfect place for you. And if you prefer the non-cyber world, check out the Local Labs. Here's a taste of what's been going on in our Church Marketing Lab this week.

Miami Harvest Church has a new welcome display banner.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:29 AM
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March 21, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: A Bright Idea

This week, we take a break from our regularly-scheduled Church Marketing Lab roundup. I couldn't help but highlight a single entry this week -- a poignant and humorous submission that might just be a good idea for all churches.

To quote Church Marketing Lab member reslifephoto, this is ...

"A guide to caring for volunteers at church. Internal communication to help staff work with volunteers. I chose to use cartoons examples to keep people's attention. It seemed to work, for months after I handed these out, people still had them posted at their desks!"

Three cheers to you, reslifephoto, for a great idea and putting your priorities on treating volunteers well. And another two cheers for you, Church Marketing Lab, for being a place where ideas like this can come to get around.

Done something creative? Want to do something creative? Head over and get your creative glass filled up.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:38 AM
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March 7, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: From Logos to Postcards

Last week, we took a week off from letting you know what was going on in the Church Marketing Lab. But now, we're back in the full swing of things, and here's a taste of what we've seen in the past couple of weeks:

This is a series concept for "Generations."

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:04 AM
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February 23, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Easter Countdown

There's only one month and two days until Easter. Are all your graphics ready? If not, head to the Church Marketing Lab, get some inspiration and submit your designs. The folks there will help you work out the kinks in all of your Easter plans.

We won't Christmas-fy Easter and make the whole Lenten season about pastels, fake eggs and cute rabbits. So here's a little of what's been going on in the Church Marketing Lab, with just a hint of Easter work.

Next Step is rebranding their program to go from visiting to membership to serving.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Easter Countdown"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:08 AM
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February 18, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Logos and Provocative Posters

We've had a great round of our typically beautiful and provocative designs in the Church Marketing Lab this week, and we're here to show you a little bit of that, so check it out:

This is a cover, born of a collaboration between two Church Marketing Lab members, for a student guide on issues in Africa.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:42 AM
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February 7, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Drawing Board to Final Product

In the Church Marketing Lab, it makes us proud to see a project go from concept to completion. We get to watch the entire process and even have the chance to help out a little bit. Here's what I mean. Hopefully it will inspire you to be a part of what goes on over there every day.

Here are some original, hand-drawn concepts for a ministry, "Serve Erie."

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:18 AM
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February 1, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: New Web Sites and Beyond

The Church Marketing Lab is growing leaps and bounds--over 1,600 members and over 3,700 submissions now. And that's not even counting all of the phenomenal discussion topics. If you just check out our updates here, make sure you actually head over and see what's up. These are just a few samples of all the great things actually in the Church Marketing Lab:

Imago Dei is working on a new web site.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:08 AM
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January 25, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Banners, Logos and More

It's time for your once-weekly dose of Church Marketing Lab. Here's a little snippet of what's been going on, but make sure to get over there and check out the great work people have been submitting.

Bethel Baptist Church has a new Easter promo banner.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 8:07 AM
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January 18, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Waffle Thermals to Revolutions

The Church Marketing Lab has been bustling with activity as people get ready for everything from Valentine's Day to Easter. Here's a taste of what we've seen this week:

Here's a new Elevation waffle thermal for you to check out.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:47 AM
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January 11, 2008

Church Marketing Lab: Financial Freedom to New T-Shirts

We thought you might be interested to know what's been going on in the Church Marketing Lab over the past week and a half, so here's a little taste for you:

Here's a background graphic for a series on financial freedom.

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Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:42 AM
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January 2, 2008

Church Marketing Lab in the New Year

Why not start your New Year right and help chur