April 29, 2008

Quality Church Resources for Free (or Cheap)

The folks at Muddy River Media got in touch with us to let us know about their new and free church resource site. So we got to thinking, why not compile some other church resources? But Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance thought it faster. So here is his list of great free and paid church resources.

It's a great list, and I can't think of anything to add to it. Anyone else have some favorites?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 11:02 AM
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March 14, 2008

Surveying Church

Have you ever done a church survey? We talked about them long ago, but if you still haven't jumped on the bandwagon, I wanted to give another little plug. It's a great way to get quantitative data to put certainty to your qualitative hunch. Church Central recently discussed three tips to survey development, and while they may seem a little rudimentary, they're a great starting point. I'll give you their categories and my thoughts about them.

• What do you want to know? Don't just start taking shots in the sky and hoping someone will give you some good answers. Figure out exactly what you're looking to know, and ask accordingly. You don't have to know everything right now; just stay focused, and keep it simple.
  
• Remember survey etiquette. Find a way to make your survey least intrusive and most diverse. Ask differently formatted question so number folks and grammar folks can both get their say, and make it available to people so it's not an inconvenience.
  
• Follow-up is key. This is so vital. Let people know that their votes mattered and you're looking to make changes. If the survey wasn't anonymous, get in touch with individuals to delve deeper or say "Thanks."

Church surveys are a simple way to know your congregation and give them a voice; don't miss out on a great opportunity.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:11 AM
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November 26, 2007

5 Church Marketing Mistakes

Tony Morgan just posted 5 marketing mistakes that churches make. Here's his list:

• Promoting your church instead of generating a response.
• Making a promise you can't keep.
• Trying to be all things to all people.
• Thinking other churches are your competition.
• Publicizing programs that compete with another.

We've covered some of these things before. This isn't necessarily an exhaustive list, but they are a few good guidelines to follow.

I think these and more boil down to two guidelines to follow in all of your marketing:

• Marketing must follow the ethics of Christ
• Use common sense and think things through. Twice. Maybe three times.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 1:53 PM
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November 19, 2007

Church Website Survey Results

Version 1.0 of The Art of Mission's Church Website Survey was recently released. The results of the survey are available for free, and a second version is in the works as you read this.

The first version is essentially built around the question, "How satisfied are you with your church web site's ..." As a result of this, the answers you'll get are indicators of what churches are doing, not necessarily how successful they are.

That doesn't mean, however, that you won't get valuable information from it. You'll be able to see things other churches are doing as well as things churches are doing that folks either are or aren't satisfied with.

There's only about 130 respondents in version 1.0, so don't use the stats for your water cooler debates just yet. But do head over to Art of Mission, read the results and get into version 2.0 to help churches communicate better.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:28 AM
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November 12, 2007

Lessons In Not Sucking: Cheap Marketing Ideas for Church Planters

This is part four in a series on Lessons In Not Sucking. Today we discuss cheap marketing ideas for church planters. Having been a church planter myself, I understand the disparity between "cheap" and "idea," and I also know this list is way too short. If you have other ideas, please add them here in the comments.

1. Don't do it
This is probably the best way to save money. It still amazes me how many people think that money is the answer to church growth, especially in the context of church planting. By deciding not to do your idea or ideas, not only will you save money, you'll save time and headache, too. Still convinced you want to do it? Read on.

2. Hand-write invitations
I've heard of several people doing this with remarkable results. I originally got this idea from a few people in the business world who were starting their own companies-- they wrote personal hand-written invitations to potential clients. This inexpensive and highly targeted approach may be a great place to start for your new church plant or new ministry start.

3. Go to where the people are (online and off line)
Contrary to the thousands of ads you see and hear every day, no one ever said marketing is easy. Don't rely on direct mail and other mass marketing to get the job done for you. The most effective way to reach people is to go to them. Go where they go. Do what they do. Hang where they hang.

Continue reading "Lessons In Not Sucking: Cheap Marketing Ideas for Church Planters"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:34 AM
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May 18, 2007

TagCrowd

I received an e-mail today about a new web service called TagCrowd. Many of you know that Flickr and numerous other sites use tag clouds to generate frequent topics within metadata, especially in the web 2.0 world. Some of you have no idea what at least three of the words in the last sentence mean. That's OK, too.

The reason this service is different is that it takes user-generated text and creates a tag cloud for you. While the different sizes in the midst of a tag cloud usually triggers an outbreak of obsessive compulsive disorder for me, it's still a really interesting tool. If nothing else, you can at least see a visual depiction of what you're communicating.

Continue reading "TagCrowd"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:50 AM
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April 25, 2007

Theater Church Movies

Just wanted to pass the word along to everyone that National Community Church has begun making their video efforts public and open source. Make sure you check them out and be inspired, but don't copy!

Update 1: Perhaps open source isn't the best term. As you'll read in the comments, that's the direction NCC is looking to head, but these videos aren't quite there. They're just for the public to see and learn from and critique.

Update 2: "...but don't copy!" OK, so maybe copying is a good alternative to not creating at all. But at least do your best to tailor everything you do to your own environment, and move towards a greater understanding of creativity and contribution.

Still go check out their videos, they're well-planned and well-executed. We can all at least use them as a creative resource.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:38 AM
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March 21, 2007

100 Ways To Kill A Concept

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 ...

1. Everyone has an idea, and creating ideas is a form of creating art.
   
2. It's always easier to say no than yes to an idea. Don't succumb!
   
3. Be bold with your ideas, don't let people talk you out of them!
   
4. When people do talk you out of them, remember that "no" means "not right now."
   
5. Remember that your concept should be beneficial to you and all involved.
   
6. For crying out loud, do not do what everyone else is doing.
   
7. Be willing to make mistakes, they give birth to great ideas.
   
8. "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."
   
9. Being too safe is too risky.
   
10. 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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December 15, 2006

Rappin' Pastors, Renamin' Churches, Sharin' Graphics

• Rapping Pastors - When we did our Christmas marketing poll we forgot all about full-on rap videos. I bet that would have beaten out extra services. Who wants extra church when you can have rapping pastors? The creative promotion has landed the church in the newspaper, TV and Hannity & Colmes. Pastor Gary Lamb also offers some encouragement to his church in the face of some criticism. That's right--forget the haters and shake it, Santa!
• Shared Worship Background Graphics - Inspired by the Church Marketing Lab, this group is all about, well, sharing worship background graphics. Rather than critique, this is about sharing and using.
• Hog Church No More - Hog Mountain Baptist Church is voting to change its name (they're dropping the hog, not the Baptist), mainly because much of the area has dropped the name, but also because "in the Bible, hogs are associated with sin." Huh? In other church name change news (somebody should start a blog dedicated to church name changes), History Church in Reston, Va. is considering a name change. Pastor Ben Arment is blogging about the process, and keeping us updated. So far he's learned that people want "Reston" in the name, as well as words like "hope" and "new". I think it's settled then--Reston New Hope Not-a-Baptist Church. Or maybe they could take Brad's much-maligned recent post in an ugly new direction and sell off naming rights: Crest White Strips Church of Reston has a nice ring to it, just like your smile when you use Crest White Strips™.
• Lighted Cross Sparks Controversy - "It's right smack dab in the middle of my view. It looks like a beer sign." Wow, apparently the Jesus in a pint and King of Jews/King of Beers ads are working.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:11 AM
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May 25, 2006

Relevance, Tech Matters & -onomics, Church

In the recent weeks I've stumbled across a few more church resources you may want to add to your list.

Church Relevance
Written by Kent Schaffer of Bombay Creative, Church Relevance covers all kinds of marketing, communication and leadership issues as they relate to churches and ministries. Some interesting recent posts include make your own M&Ms and how to give a gift.

Church Tech Matters
It's all things techie from Jim Walton, though it has a very personal blog feel. Recent entries include 10 dumb things you can do to mess up your computer and a nice overview of his experience dumping his landline and going with Skype.

Churchonomics
Written by Brad Hinman, Churchonomics covers ideas and solutions for the local church. They've got a section with cool name tag ideas (though I also love these) and you have to love their props to the Church Marketing Lab.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:30 AM
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May 17, 2006

Seacoast All Access

Seacoast Church in South Carolina is adopting an open-source policy for their resources and making them available online. Seacoast All Access is where you can get messages, bulletin covers, e-vites, video and more.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:02 PM
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April 4, 2006

More Downloadable Church Resources

LifeChurch.tv isn't the only church giving away their sermon series resources--The Vine, the young adult service of Southeast Christian church in Louisville, Ky., has also made their sermon series resources available for free download. You can get videos, backgrounds and graphic files.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:49 PM
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LifeChurch.tv Downloadable Resources

LifeChurch.tv, a multi-location church with sites in Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona, is making their sermon series resources available to other churches for free. You can download video, layered graphics files and sermon outlines. Check out their blog for continuing updates.

For more on LifeChurch.tv, check out the recent video podcast from Blogging Church.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:33 AM
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March 22, 2006

More Church Cartoons

Church Cartoons is another site that offers comics for church newsletters and publications.

Some may question the place of church humor in a church publication, but if it makes me laugh (or at least smile), it's got my vote. I especially like the Not So Good Samaritan about halfway down on this page.

You need to be careful that religious humor won't leave visitors scratching their heads, but if you've got that covered I see bigtime value in showing that your church has a sense of humor.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:38 AM
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January 30, 2006

Favorite Marketing Book

I was sitting down to write some new polls today and I had a good one about favorite marketing books. But then I realized a poll listing four books wouldn't be a very good poll. It'd be much more helpful to just ask people about their favorite marketing books. So what are your favorite marketing books? And bonus question: How have they helped you with church marketing?

For my part, I was thinking the poll might include something by Seth Godin, something from the Simply Strategic series, something by Malcolm Gladwell and Church Marketing 101 (which is kind of cheating since it's not out yet). Of course that leaves out Freakonomics, The Cluetrain Manifesto, anything by Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, Jim Collins or George Barna... and now you're beginning to see why this would have made such a bad poll.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:11 AM
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January 13, 2006

Simply Strategic Podcast

I like themes so this week is going to be Simply Strategic week. Or at least Simply Strategic couple of days. Pretty strategic, huh?

Yesterday we reviewed the book Simply Strategic Growth and today I want to tell you about the Simply Strategic Show podcast.

It seems like everybody's jumping on the podcast bandwagon (which is odd since podcasting is just the pairing of audio files and RSS--amazing how the right pairing can make everyone want to be an audio geek) and now the Simply Strategic guys have joined the wagon. They've written three books in the Simply Strategic series (Stuff, Volunteers and Growth) and now they have their own podcast.

The Simply Strategic Show started just before Christmas and they have four episodes up already. They talk about general church issues, including the whole closed on Christmas controversy, how to put together a series, and dealing with growing pains. I think my favorite part about the podcast is that rather than just talk they have several gimmicky segments like "Intimate Moments with the Simply Strategic Guys" or "The Lightning Round," all of which makes it a lot more interesting than two guys talking (and reminds me quite a bit of my college radio DJ days when we did "Randomally Selected Hallway Person" and "Storytime with Andy Fast").

At any rate, check out the Simply Strategic Show podcast.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:04 PM
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January 6, 2006

Free Pyromarketing

We'd be remiss if we didn't tell you about this little gift: a free audio download of the book Pyromarketing: The Four-Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them For Life by Greg Stielstra. As with everything free, there is a price: you need to register on his site and offer up an e-mail address, though you don't have to enter your mailing address.

This is the same book that caused a stir because the book talks about the marketing of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life and Warren supposedly tried to stop Pyromarketing from being published. The book covers marketing phenomena like The Purpose Driven Life and The Passion of the Christ and was written by a former marketing director at Zondervan who oversaw The Purpose Driven Life.

And if that's not specific enough for you, Stielstra himself even talks about how to apply the pyromarketing concept to churches, which should connect all the dots for you. (link via Scott Aughtmon)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 2:20 PM
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November 29, 2005

Web Standards Junkies Rejoice

If you dream of a world where every web site uses CSS and tables are relegated to the Smithsonian, then Godbit.com is for you. If you're scratching your head, it's all about web standards.

Godbit is a site dedicated to helping the church learn how to use and make the most of web standards. It may seem like techno-speak to some of us, but using proper web standards can mean the difference between hand-coding a few hundred pages to change the font and making the change in one single motion with CSS. That can translate to big money savings, and that's only part of the reason why you should care.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:38 AM
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November 2, 2005

Worship House Media

Check out a new resource for creative churches: Worship House Media.

It's basically an iTunes for worship media products. You can purchase all kinds of resources, including software, video, motion graphics, still photos and editable files. A number of products are available ala carte or as part of a larger volume, so you can buy just what you need. They also offer some helpful reviews and articles.

I love the church sign countdown, though it'd be really cool if you could customize the text on the sign. And don't forget the freebie download on the home page.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:20 PM
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May 27, 2005

Graphic Design Resources

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

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

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

Creating Passionate Users

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

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

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:01 AM
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May 10, 2005

Cartoon Church: Comics for Church Use

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

One of my favorites is The Congregation Assumed.

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

A Few Resources

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

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

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

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:29 PM
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