The economy is having a hard time rebooting itself. . .
Everyone is struggling more than ever. . .
Does the church have any responsibility to address these economic issues?
It’s one thing to promote better financial planning but what about when the church starts to hand out cold hard cash each week, right?

Check out this story where one pastor has decided to reverse the offering plate in order to bring more people into the sanctuary:

Now, while this church is relying on this tactic as a fundamental church marketing tactic, some other churches do one-time giveaways while trying to tie it into a Biblical message.

But what if the size of the church giveaway becomes outrageous? Does this make a difference?

QUESTION: WHAT MAKES GIVING AWAY FREE STUFF AT A WORSHIP SERVICE OK OR NOT?

I’m sure that your church was a welcome committee or team. . . A group of folks that keep an eye out for new visitors that walk in the door on Sunday mornings.  Greeters, ushers, connection card collectors, etc.

Some churches just wait for people to come, relying upon the building to do all the work as people drive by and take note that the church exists.

But some churches do intentional work to attract new visitors.  While that subject is large enough for a blog post series on its own, this post is about sharing the way(s) in which your church attracts new visitors . . . to your website.

What are some of the methods you use to get new people to visit your website?

. . .which paid resources are worth it?

. . .which were filled with hopes and promises but were a complete waste of money (not to mention time)?

. . .do you have any free / unpaid suggestions for churches to attract more church website visitors?

QUESTION: Would you share one idea or tactic that you have used to gain more church website visitors? Please share your ideas below in the comments section.

If you’re in the midst of planting a church you’re probably:

A) in need of sleep

B) in need of funds

C) in need of a website to tell the world

Sorry pastors, I can’t do anything about your dreams for being able to actually find time to have dream aren’t real just yet! haha!

But here’s a generous offer to help you with the the last item on this list above — a free website to spread the word about your new ministry in town. . .

One of the better known church website companies is Site Organic, which offers a very dynamic content management system for church websites.  They ain’t super cheap if you are looking at absolute dollar figures, so most church plants can’t benefit from services from companies like SiteOrganic.  For example, their pricing ranges from $1,200 — $3,000 per year on a recurring basis.  That’s A BIG CHECK to write for most new church plants.

But what you do get is a very rich content management system that is capable of all the bells and whistles you see on the largest church and ministry websites on the web today.  Even their most affordable packages provide aesthetically pleasing designs — ones where you certainly won’t be embarrassed about in representing your church to the community you are investing in.

The GOOD NEWS here is that Site Oragnic is giving away their services for free to church planters.

As long as you have less than 300 people adults attending your church to date, and it’s been less than a year (or even before you launch your official first worship gathering), you’re all set to benefit from the free offer.

The fine print is that it’s technically not completely free.  You do have to pay a $99 start-up fee, which is basically aimed to weed out the freewheelers and anyone that isn’t seriously planting a church right now.  But the rest is really free.  You’ll get over $2,500 in free services with no obligation to continue at that package rate, nor at all period after the first year.

If you’re planting a church, this gives you some breathing room to establish your core community.

Assumably, if you’re church plant is even semi-successful, you will have gotten some sort of financial stability after another year of existence — at least enough to to have the beginnings of financial options so that you can decide what to do about your web presence.  If you’re church plant’s time is not meant to be in the here and now, you’ll know that too after another year from now and you won’t be in need of web services much longer at that point.

Having personally seen SiteOrganic being used live in the church website setting, I can say that you won’t be disappointed by this offer.  It’s one less thing to think about so you can focus on the more important tasks at hand in launching your ministry.  Enjoy!

QUESTION: Does your church currently use a 3rd party website service like Site Organic, or do an internally owned and managed website?

Please share your experience with other ministry leaders and leave a comment below!

It’s Easter weekend!

…Kind of like the Superbowl of Christian faith.

Holy Week. Lent. Good Friday. . . Easter. This is ground zero.

Some ministries plan elaborate spectacles and turn the sanctuary into an open house environment this one time each year.

This is definitely the easiest weekend all church members can invite a friend from work, school, family or even those strangers you have regular relationships with such as the security guard, bus driver, mail carrier, etc.

Why not take advantage of Easter claiming to be the happiest day of the year for Americans? Everything is in your favor.

Besides using the major US holiday as an easy conversation starter, do your people have easy ways to describe your church?  What style would you characterize the worship service to people who haven’t been to church in ages (or ever!)?  How can people describe the lead pastor or the sermon messages?  And are you aware of anything else people routinely have trouble with when bringing up church with friends or co-workers? It’s the little things that many people need help with — For example, the logistics of explaining service times, location, directions, etc can be daunting to bring up.

The question of the day is: Are you doing everything you can to make it easy enough for people to invite a friend?

Here’s a great mailer I received from Liquid Church which has always been consumed with being an outward-facing ministry:

It was a great reminder to invite someone to church. And the message on the back reinforced the simple message I can use to convey when doing so — which is aimed at helping to set expectations in an easy 1-2-3 format.

But the best part of this postcard invite-a-friend mailer was in the simple detail:

The card itself was perforated on one side with a pass-along mini-invitation card with all the basic information anyone would need to know about visiting Liquid.

This is a 5-star example of making it easy for church members to go out and invite a friend to church. Successful outreach follows the classic word of mouth marketing strategies — and this church marketing piece serves to provide tools to make it easier for people to share the message with others.

QUESTION: What does your ministry do to make it easier for members to invite others to church on Sunday?

This year’s SuperBowl became the laboratory for a church experiment without many people know about it.

The Doritos crowd-sourcing platform enabled Mosaic Church to gain an instantly wider audience because of broadcast TV’s reach.

Mosaic is not your regular local church — they have access to resources and funding which most other churches don’t.

You can get your church onto TV — even national TV — for as little as $150.00. SERIOUSLY.

But this video reveals something which got me pretty excited — because it really marries both worlds that I have been living in — online marketing via Google Adwords and church ministry.

Because of the targeting and control that enables you to select specific TV programs, this is going to become an increasingly interesting tool that could be an efficient means to spread awareness about your ministry or church to your greater local region.

Google Adwords allows advertisers to control geographic targeting right now to the point where I have been able to restrict exposure of my church advertising campaigns on Google to within 50 miles of our zip code.  If you are located outside of the target zone, you see our ads at all — and I won’t be charged at all.  The same type of geographic control when it is applied to TV ad buying over the Google Ad Network should make it even more enticing for churches.

Watch this video below to see the results of an experiment where they created a single 30-second ad and ran with a $150 ad spot budget:

QUESTION:  Does this make you MORE or LESS interested in church marketing to include TV ad campaigns for local churches?

As many of the readers here at Godvertiser.com know, a big part of my background over the past decade has been in the strategic marketing / e-marketing arena.

I am currently in the midst of refining a new offering within Big Click Syndicate LLC, my consulting and coaching business — aimed at pastors, churches, ministries and non-profit organizations.

While I tinker with how the specific offering will be structured, I have decided to offer some free professional website audits to this target audience.

The twist with the website audit is that I would record it via a video screencast (which is a fancy term for a video recording of my narration while the computer activity on the monitor is recorded for the video) and publish it here on Godvertiser.com for others to benefit from some of the things I choose to highlight.  If will offer specific critique and a wide range of suggestions regarding user experience, branding, online marketing and website search engine optimization.

So here’s where I need your help: Would you be willing to let your ministry/organization website be a quick video case study for online church marketing?

Just fill out this free professional website audit request form.

QUESTION: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT WEBSITE?  Yes or No?

There’s tons of stuff that you should be doing with your church website.

But at the base of it all, one of the most important things that matter are the 3 C’s for church websites:

1. CONTENT
2. CONTENT
3. CONTENT

Pastors and church webmasters are always struggling on how to churn out relevant content that will pull current church members back to the site more than the first week after announcing the website was revamped, relaunched, etc.

Surveys and polls are a great way, but most implementations to date have been awkward and non-optimal.  Here’s one that someone how gets people to answer multiple questions - it strangely works to get people to answer even looooooonnnnnng surveys with over 100+ questions.

What is the first survey you are going to set-up on your site after reading this post? Please feel free to link to the page on your website that includes a survey or poll to we can see examples in action.

Do you pray?

Mosaic Church has made the finalists in this year’s television commercial showdown sponsored by Doritos:

The church, led by Erwin McManus, has already won $25,000 for becoming one of the 6 finalists. The masses were invited to vote for their favorite over at www.crashthesuperbowl.com. And the winning tv commercial will not be announced until the actual Superbowl commercial is run during the Superbowl.

Erwin McManus explains in this video clip a little about their tv project, and why they want you to support their cause over at www.VoteForCasket.com

The 30-second spot is bringing a lot of attention to Mosiac Church. The big question of course is if this type of engagement with secular culture is worth it for the church and the Church (with a capital “C”). Of course, any church pursuing this sort of mass-media tactic to gain attention will garner a lot of support and criticism at the same time.

“Phil Cooke, a Christian producer, filmmaker and author has commented about Mosaic’s tv commercial:

Nobody’s going to fall on their knees and accept Jesus as a result of this spot. But advertisers on Madison Avenue spend millions on a Super Bowl spot because they know it influences people,” said Cooke, the producer. “It might not get someone converted, but I think it will get someone to say, ‘Maybe there is something I ought to investigate.“‘

source:FoxNews

I leave you with TWO QUESTIONS:

• What do you think of the actual tv commercial?
• Did Mosaic cross the line by spending their time, money and energy toward this contest?

Please share your reaction and thoughts in a blog comment below.

I have recently been mulling over a few concepts in order to publish a book over this next year and recently met Jeff through Twitter and blog. For many reasons, I believe self-publishing is a great option for those wishing to further their reach and influence. I asked Jeff if he could help introduce the concept of publishing a book to the pastors and ministry leaders who haven’t even considered it to begin with. Here’s his guest post — I’m interested in your thoughts regarding pastors publishing books…please read this post and then leave a comment below!

With the start of the new year, agents and publishers alike are being deluged with record numbers of query letters and book proposal packages. But while publishing dreams are at an all-time high, the cold, hard truth is that not everyone will make the cut into the ranks of the commercially published. But that’s no reason to give up hope, keeping your message under wraps.

The self-publishing model is nothing new. From Martin Luther to Joyce Meyer, writers of all stripes have stepped up to take matters into their own hands in sharing their work with the world. And with the current array of technology to help both produce and promote their books, aspiring novelists, business owners, and yes, pastors too, are increasingly seizing upon a quick, efficient, and cost-effective way to reach their target markets.

While there’s no question that taking the traditional route over the self-publishing route garners an added level of prestige — no matter how imagined — the lines between approaches are increasingly blurred. In fact, there’s really only one core question separating the two: who fronts the money?

Here’s how it works: with the traditional model, the publisher, e.g. Thomas Nelson, commissions a team to have a book written, edited, designed, printed — and to some extent — marketed. The publisher pays an advance to the author on estimated future book sales, and in return, the publisher reaps 85-90% of the profit. And when you think about it, why shouldn’t they – it’s their investment!

In the self-publishing model, however, authors come up with their own funding for book production, promotion, and distribution, and as a result, stand to make 100% of the profit – depending on the company and services being utilized.

Granted, we’ve all seen material on the racks that we consider “not ready for primetime.” But that’s certainly a matter of opinion. With respect to your own work, you’re now empowered to make that call for yourself. If you believe in your message, and you invest the proper energy and resources to do it right, the self-publishing path can be a tremendously rewarding experience. And it’s especially true with pastors.

Here’s an introductory Q and A that may help you understand the process:

Is self-publishing expensive?
Not really. Any legitimate self-publishing service provider will offer reasonable rates for their services and expertise. In fact, we offer a special discount to pastors to help defray the costs.

Can pastors use existing sermons as source material for their books?
Absolutely. Many pastors are excellent orators, and we highly recommend playing to those strengths. We offer a transcription service to capture the message from a recorded sermon, which we then use to repurpose the content into book form.

Where is the best place to sell my book?
Congregations are often a great source of initial book sales. The book can also be used as an entryway to guest speaking engagements at other churches. Many large churches even have in-house bookstores that will carry a pastor’s book.

Bottom line: If you’re a pastor interested in spreading your message in 2010, self-publishing a book should be among the top methods on your list of considerations.

Have you ever thought about publishing a book? Leave a comment and share what you are thinking of doing next!

Todd Rutherford and Ryan Sheehan of Yorkshire Publishing (www.yorkshirepublishing.com) also contributed to this article.

In the age of Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other digital modes of expression, the new Google generation is comfortable with blurring the lines between offline and online worlds.

“Doing church online” is not a big stretch for the up and coming digerati crowd. I’ve been attending the Internet Campus live worship experiences at LifeChurch.tv recently and feel connected to Pastor Brandon or some other brothers and sisters that I’ve met repeatedly during the iCampus worship experiences.

During the week, I trade Twitter tweets and post comments on blogs which explore tangential issues on a deeper level.

Just as in offline churches, the next step is building relationships that invest in each other’s lives based on trust, genuine love and fellowship. LifeChurch.tv is going about forming these LifeGroups amongst the hundreds and hundreds of worship experience participants who show up each week online.

Here’s one example of an Internet ministry that gets it right in reaching out. . . (more…)