Communication

I am not a naturally gifted speaker. I have worked really hard to improve as a communicator. One of the areas I had struggled in for a long time was speaking directly to a camera. If you have spent many years speaking to a live audience, then speaking straight to a camera in an empty room is quite different. When the congregation laughs at a joke or is audibly engaged in the message, it builds my confidence as a communicator. It also gives me momentum as the sermon progresses. This all goes away when preaching directly at a camera.

God’s love is unequaled in all creation and in all created beings. Here are five sermon illustrations that you might be able to use for a message.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had to contend with a new normal. Phrases like 'social distancing' and 'contact tracing' weren’t familiar terms until a few weeks ago. Large gatherings aren’t safe anymore, so we’re all turning to online forms of meeting and communication. This, of course, includes weekly church services. With state governors ordering people to shelter in place, church leaders were left scrambling in recent weeks to ramp up or start from scratch with online streaming services and more.

Many churches are beginning to prepare to reopen for in-person services as their local authorities permit. As you consider how to safely welcome people back to church services, there are several components for which to plan.

Historically, church databases have been systems that require a lot of manual upkeep. In addition to making sure contact records are up-to-date, they also had to keep track of which members were active with their church, and which ones were not. But in a growing church with multiple campuses and a diverse community, having just two category ‘buckets’ doesn’t provide the level of detail a church needs to effectively communicate with its community. And, it goes without saying that manually tracking churches with hundreds or thousands of members is nearly impossible. The good news is, church databases have become much more sophisticated and able to do much of this tracking and sorting automatically.  

Church facilities are important resources that churches must steward well. Between building construction, lighting, seating, stage design, HVAC, energy efficiency, and LED screens, there's much to consider. Below is a list of eight church facilities conferences to consider attending either in person or virtually to better your church facility.

Whether your church is small and shares one administrative assistant, or large with each pastor having their own assistant, one thing is true: church administrative assistants make the business of church more productive, more organized, and more able to reach ministry goals. Administrative Professionals Day is April 22.

Basketball analogies are common among people growing up in Indiana, myself included. We compare most everything to a full-court press, slam dunk, or a variety of basketball terms. The Coronavirus is no exception and is certainly a game-changer for the American Church. Suddenly we find ourselves without the comfortable lead we have always enjoyed. The preparations we make over the next few weeks will have a great impact on the outcome for our church and its congregation.