ChurchTechToday.com

I really, really love Twitter, here’s why:

1. It’s super easy to connect with people without red tape, without filters, or without someone asking you if you already know someone.
2. It’s simple to search for people and follow them, whether or not they ever follow you back. You can still stay connected by reading their Tweets.
3. I’ve found a plethora of great people out their sharing valuable information that I would never have found without following them on Twitter.
4. I learn from and am encouraged by many people out there, especially pastors and other churches.
5. It fosters a “partnership mentality” and reminds me that we are all in this together, many of us working toward similar goals. The world is not so large.

Today I’d like to highlight a great resource that’s free and is a great resource to help bring people to your church: Google Local Business Center. In about five minutes, you can easily list your church or other business on Google to make sure that when people search for churches in their area, yours comes up in their search along with your address, phone, website, email, and Google Map.

1. Visit google.com/lbc Create a Google account if you don’t have one, or sign in with your account.
2. Enter information about your church or business, including address & phone, hours & more: You can even add photos of your church and YouTube video content if you have it.
3. Verify that you own or run the church/business: Follow the instructions and enter a PIN code when you receive it, to complete the process.
4. Now you’re all set. You can log in daily to see how your business listing performs on Google, including how many times people found it, and what actions they took.

To get started today, visit the Local Business Center.

It is essential to list your church on Google and search engines such as Yahoo! and other local business directories. Even listing your church service on Craig’s List can be an effective way to market your church locally by posting community outreach events.

If you know of any other effective marketing strategies that have helped bring traffic to your website and foot traffic to your church, please leave a comment to encourage others!

My heart continues to cry out for the people of Haiti as yet another powerful aftershock rocked them yesterday morning. Would you have hope if you didn’t know of God’s love for you and his care for His people even as you travel “through the valley of the shadow of death?”

Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), the world’s foremost Audio Bible ministry, is responding to this crisis by providing faith, hope and love through God’s Word in audio.

“Haitians will need that long-term hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy,” says Jon Wilke, FCBH Ministry Spokesperson.

FCBH has already sent 600 of their Proclaimers – portable, solar-powered Audio Bibles – through their ministry partner, Convoy of Hope. Their aim is to provide them to local Haitian pastors so that people can hear God’s Word in their own language—Haitian Creole.

About FCBH Proclaimers

• An installed microchip contains Scriptures in the heart language; the chip will not erase or wear out from frequent playing.
• The battery will play for 15 hours and can be recharged enough times to play the entire New Testament more than 1,000 times.
• The Proclaimer has a built-in generator and solar panel to charge the battery.
• The solar panel, in addition to charging the battery, will run the Proclaimer even without battery power as long as there is sunlight.
• The sound is digital quality and loud enough to be heard clearly by groups as large as 300.

There is an immediate need for 3,000 Proclaimers and FCBH has announced that it can provide any missions groups or short term teams with Proclaimers to take and give to local pastors as they see fit. Interested groups should email FCBH at info@faithcomesbyhearing.com directly to coordinate. (Each Proclaimer has a retail value of $157)

Wilke continues, “We want to equip short-term groups, disaster relief teams, church teams and other ministries with the Word of God in a format the people can use.”

Peoples’ houses are crumbled, their families are shattered and they are living in ruins. Haitians will need that long-term hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy.

If you know of anyone going to Haiti that would like to obtain Proclaimers to take with them, please pass along this information or repost this article on your blog as needed.

To help Faith Comes By Hearing’s efforts, please click here to give securely and help Haitians hear the Word of God.

You can also join FCBH’s Facebook Cause here to stay connected to what they are doing in Haiti and other areas of the world.

Stay tuned for more about FCBH’s ministry as I will be posting again about some of their successful relief efforts in the new few days.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when churches don’t take the time to adequately communicate events, services, and needs as best they can. Even my own church is at fault. For whatever reason, many churches still think that word of mouth – along with a mention in the Sunday bulletin – is enough to get the job done.

Case in point: last Friday, our Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group paid for Kathi Lipp, a nationally renown Christian speaker and author, to come a speak to our Friday morning group of women. Our MOPS coordinators mentioned once that Kathi would be coming and that we could bring friends or anyone inside or outside the church to hear her speak. ONCE. We even have a Facebook group and no one mentioned the invite again.

So what happened? Kathi came and delivered a great talk to about 30 people. There are over 300 women in our church. While we all enjoyed Kathi’s talk about her new book, The Marriage Project, so many more women could have benefited. It made me sad.

Communications is (nearly) everything. What you say and how you say it is critical to how your church is perceived both in your church community and beyond.

So don’t be bashful. Say it, then say it again and again and again so that people hear you.

Here are a few tips:

• Put someone at your church in charge of church communications, even if it’s only on a part-time basis. Train staff and lay leaders to always keep them in the loop on upcoming events.
• Utilize social media to reach out with event invitations. I’m friends with 60+ year old church members on Facebook as well as twenty somethings. This is a great channel to promote your events and needs.
• Use email, text messaging, and phone calls to get the word out. Some churches use PhoneTree to make automated phone calls, text messages, and even emails to members of their congregation. Others use their church management software (such as CCB) to keep track of who is interested in hearing about what events, which makes it easier to inform people.
• Use your church website to its fullest potential. Most church management and events management software solutions (like ServiceU) make it possible to feed your events calendar to your church website in real time. As you enter and update events and classes, your church website is automatically updated with current events. Take it a step further and even offer online registration to make things super easy for your congregation.

I hope these tips are helpful! If you have any specific questions, feel free to post a comment or email me directly: lauren@churchtechtoday.com.