Resources

The last decade has seen both an avalanche of digital innovation and a responding flood of discussion about the ways that innovation is improving—or degrading—our lives. You've probably read or participated in plenty of discussions about whether or not ebooks are "better" than print books. As an employee of a book publishing company, I've seen publishers struggle, not always successfully, to identify which book-related behaviors can be replicated (or even improved) in a digital context.

The multisite church model is all about reproducing healthy growing churches in surrounding local communities. One of the largest communities at our fingertips is the online community of the internet where millions of people reside virtually. The next logical step for multisite churches with technical savvy is to extend their reach into this community with an online campus. It is one of the innovations spawned by the multisite movement.

You know the scene. You succumb to your elementary-aged child begging to play Candy Crush on your phone. Ten minutes later, your phone is down to 50% and it's only 11:00 am. You're rushing to a lunch meeting and as you hand your child back to your spouse to take an urgent call from a church member in need on the way there, you discover that your phone is suddenly down to 25% by the time you get to Panera. It's only lunchtime and you have visits and errands before making it back to your desk where you can plug in. You could join a support group for pastors with old smartphones that don't hold a charge well, or you could employ some of these helpful smartphone battery-saving tips:

'Tis the time of year for churches far and wide to facilitate Vacation Bible School, commonly know in 'churchese' as VBS. VBS can have a huge impact both within your church community and in your larger community. Because there are so many different sized churches, and so many different styles, formats, and sizes of VBS, we polled about 15 churches to take a closer look at the facilities costs related to VBS programs.

Just last month, there was a surge of ransomware attacks all over Europe that affected businesses far and wide. Church websites are also subject to these types of attacks, and so we're sharing with you this helpful infographic. For some churches, having website tech support is vital to ensure that backups are done regularly and someone is there in the event that there is a security breach.

Churches use many apps for presenting media, tracking membership, helping with budgets, and even updating their websites. However, some churches also offer a church app primarily for people who attend the church. They contract with a church app provider to make an app that's branded for their church focused on the needs of people in the pews instead of staff and ministers.

It’s common knowledge that smartphone ownership and mobile internet usage are skyrocketing globally. It’s also common knowledge that, on average, people attend church less frequently and that people tend to write very few checks or carry much cash.

Your pastor is always juggling his time. Pastoring is a thankless job with hundreds of people vying for his precious little time. It is challenging to have so many people in need; setting priorities and boundaries can be difficult. He wants to make everyone happy but he still needs to prepare for Sunday and lead the church.