Communication

So you want to connect with your church online. It seems so easy, just about everyone is already there, and you’d really love to feel engaged with your congregation. There’s just one problem… creating and maintaining an online community can be very tricky, not to mention overwhelming. Here are a few rules for you to follow to create a thriving community that wants to engage with you:

The church bulletin is far from dead, in fact, it's alive and well at most churches. It holds treasured information including weekly announcements, budget details and attendance records, in addition to upcoming events, contact details for church staff, and maybe even a handy "new guest" tear off form or half a dozen inserts. While some churches have moved away from print-centric communication, others rely on it greatly. If you’re still creating a weekly bulletin, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Here are some ways to be strategic and ensure you have a successful church bulletin.

Leadership styles can vary greatly from person to person, depending on the organization and its structure. Churches are not exempt from the leadership styles of the senior pastor and leadership team. The best organizations smoothly guide their church staff and volunteers; the worst organizations have disgruntled pastors and leaders who aren't so happy about the leadership under which they work. Here are five leadership styles along with an insightful infographic to help educate you about leadership styles that exist:

We all know that volunteers are the lifeblood of any church. If churches had to pay each of their children's ministry teachers, small group leaders, women's and men's ministry leaders, and vacation bible school teachers, they'd be up a creek, fast. Some churches keep their staff incredibly lean and rely predominantly on volunteers while other churches have more robust staff members and fewer volunteers; either way, volunteers need to be screened, training, and thanked. Below are five resources aimed at helping your church lean in to the volunteer management process.

It's increasingly hard to keep track of all the social media trends. For churches, keeping ahead of trends isn't perhaps the number one goal; however, keeping a pulse on what's going on in the world of social media can be helpful both to connect with church members through the most popular networks as well as keep current in overall church communication. While most still think of social media in terms of Facebook, Twitter, and all the other networks, the infographic below delves into other technologies that are easily leveraged by social media.

When I launched the first video-based satellite campus of Willow Creek in 2001 the primary question was, “Can this work?” Hundreds of multisite churches later, the question has shifted to, “Should my church go multisite?” What started out as a “Band-Aid” for space and zoning problems of megachurches has developed into a viable option for every local church regardless of size. Multisite is no longer a question of feasibility for a church, but more of a question of strategy, “Is it right for my church?”

Getting ready to run a vacation bible school, or VBS, is no small task. There are many steps involved in pulling together a successful program that reaches kids effectively. While there are many tasks involved in pulling together volunteers, designing curriculum, and setting up music and activities, it's equally important to have a system in place for managing the technology side: registration and payments. It’s a necessary evil for hosting a successful VBS, and when done correctly, can help make the whole process simple, straightforward, and headache-free.

The future of online schools is exciting. Technology growth and internet speed has made it easier then ever to trade the traditional classroom for a virtual one. No longer confined by location, you can obtain a degree from the school of your choice in almost any topic. This opens great possibilities of continued education for church staff and volunteers. As you look over the following infographic, consider how far education has come. Note the trends toward interactive education and how the church could approach ministry with this type of focus.