Right now everyone’s making their Christmas week plans. So here’s my question for you… How are you ensuring that they remember your church services among all the last minute shopping and family get-togethers? Social Media is the one place you can be sure people will be still be checking in. So make sure your church has got its Facebook points of contact covered. This includes: Graphics if you have them. We post these as well as send them out via email. Here’s an example of the one we’re using right now at Calvary. Co-opting Staff and Key leaders to boost … Read More
#1 Absolute of Christmas Follow Up
Christmas Eve is this Thursday and lots of first time guests will be at your church. Also, many will make decisions to follow Jesus in your services. Here’s my question: how will you help them come back next week? Rule #1 for effective follow up : Get contact information so you can follow up with them and help them take their first few spiritual steps. I’m always surprised to see churches fail in this simplest of keys to follow up. I mean: how are you going to contact them if you have no contact information? Our church has at least … Read More
What Star Wars Can Teach Us About Church
It’s hard to avoid the buzz about the new Star Wars movie coming out today. Everybody’s talking about it. Disney’s done their share of advertising but right now, they are getting more free promotion than they know what to do with. I think there’s a lesson in this for us as Church leaders. I remember years ago when getting the word out about our church was hard. We would spend $10,000 on direct mail and see only a handful of people attend. It was like surgery with no anesthesia. I finally understood what cruel and unusual punishment was. Then we … Read More
Church Staffing For 2016
A great goal for some churches as we start 2016 is to hire the right people. When it comes to staffing, most leaders start with a person they’re looking to hire. I believe that’s the wrong approach. When you’re looking to add someone to your team, the place to begin is with a job description. This is important when staff come to you and say, “I need help. Can you hire me an assistant?” The first thing that should should happen is for that staff member to write a job description of the position. The key here is to answer … Read More
1 Surefire Way to Sink Your Christmas Outreach
I love reaching people at Christmas-time. It’s the only time of year that people are singing songs about Jesus in the mall. The truth is that Christmas is one of the easiest times to reach people with the Gospel in our culture. This year we’re doing Christmas services AND we’re doing a separate Christmas Concert. Our social media and direct mail efforts are in full effect and this is where I see so many churches go wrong. I see their ads to reach people and the biggest problem is this: Clarity. Unclear ads and mailers are dead on arrival. Talk … Read More
6 Free Church Flyers
I get a lot of questions about how to promote events, especially on social media. And since I’m excited about the new year… I want to share some free church flyers that you can use to reach your community: • Church Cookout Flyer: This is an event that you can do when it’s warm outside. It doesn’t have to be a holiday to create a big day with good food! • Guest Speaker Flyer: It’s crazy but just announcing a guest speaker at your church can become an event that draws people. Your congregation has an excuse to invite friends … Read More