Communication

Often, pastors are asked to speak and officiate events such as weddings and funerals. Musicians and worship leaders are also asked to perform and lead congregations at such events. Often, people are afraid to officially 'charge' for their services even though no one would ever expect someone to perform these events for free.

Social media is a tool. It is a neutral device that can be used for good or ill depending on the person wielding it. Unfortunately, we are more often interested in the negative stories about social media: how Facebook leads to divorce, how teens use Snapchat to send inappropriate pictures, and how trolls harass people on Twitter.

If you want to extend your church’s reach, you need to go where people are. In this day and age, that means getting comfortable with the world of social media. Adults spend an average of five-and-a-half hours per week engaging on social media. That number has jumped by 36% since 2015.

Graphics design and social media go hand-in-hand. For the church communicator and pastor who need to have all social media channels firing at all times, knowing what sized images and graphics to use both for personal accounts as well as for church social media channels is very important to appear professional and engaged. 

Twitter search is a virtually unknown tool by many with the Church. If your desire is to connect organically via social media to know what's going on in your community, or to reach out to seekers right under your nose, using Twitter search can help point your church social media efforts in the right direction. 

Social media is both a blessing and a curse. If you've spoken with anyone recently about Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, I'm sure you've...

As we soak in the sunshine and enjoy summer, we can’t lose sight of what is just around the corner--fall and the various events that come along with that season. From kids heading back to school to gearing up for the holidays, fall is the on-ramp to the busiest time of year for churches. To ensure successful events that don’t wear out your staff and volunteers, here are seven tips to make planning events a bit easier:

What does a healthy Small Church look like? It looks like a healthy big church – in all the ways that matter, anyway. No, a healthy Small Church is not just a miniaturized version of a healthy big church. Pastors who try to do that are usually concentrating on the externals. And it never works out well when we do that.