Church Juice

Completely Revamping Something Successful

2012-01-24T17:35:26+00:00

I’m not sure if you know about the project management program called Basecamp. Lots of organizations, especially some we work with, use it as a way to keep things moving. It lets you share documents and keep track of who’s doing what on a project. It’s popular and has brought a lot of attention, and money, to its creator 37Signals.

Despite that success, and a 96% approval rating by customers, soon Basecamp will be completely rebuilt and redesigned.

37 Signals Co-founder Jason Fried wrote this in Inc., “The easy thing to do is nothing. But continuing on the current path is a time-tested formula for complacency.”

And compliancy isn’t where the company wants to be. For eight years, Basecamp has made incremental changes, based on user experiences, which made them successful. A year ago when the team started talking about changes they wanted, they realized the only way to make it happen is to start over -- a task they are excited about but know will come with some resistance.

“Paradoxically, that success makes it harder to change,” wrote Fried. “As time goes by, people get used to things the way they are. And the more someone is accustomed to doing something a certain way, the harder it is to ask him or her to change. When it comes to introducing ideas, the years have a way of boxing you in.”

I can’t help but think that churches find themselves “boxed in” in similar ways. They’re doing things the way they’ve always done it because it’s easier than fighting the resistance that might come from change. And in turn, they find themselves stalled in complacency. The fear of change, or the challenge of it, seems like a bigger task than just becoming stagnant. It’s even tougher when you’re looking at something that’s worked well for years. Take Basecamp for example, it’s been eight years since the launch as it’s still popular. Your church probably has successful ministries that are doing things now that they started fresh eight years ago. But it’s tough to look at something that’s worked and say it’s time change it because there is risk involved.

Jason Fried and 37Singals have a lot of credibility for vision and it’s easy to understand why. How many organizations would look at something that’s popularly working well and say it’s time to make a change? How many organizations cast such a strong vision for their product that they’re willing to reboot their most popular product? Some will say it’s radical or reckless, but I think it shows a commitment to best serving their clients.

As a church, I hope you’re finding success in the things you’re doing. I hope your church is thriving. I hope there is something you can point to as being good and innovative. The challenge becomes not to rest on that success but think of how you can build on it for the future—even if it means shaking things up when they’re on a roll. If you don’t, complacency will eventually set in and the momentum will slow down. You will “keep on keeping on” yourself into blahness. We all probably know of churches where this has happened. There’s a good chance this is the situation in our own church.

Whether your church is rolling on success or caught in a stagnant place, look at this as a nudge to rethink what you’re doing. Cast and embrace the vision for the future of your church and find ways to build your ministries to better serve your congregation and your community.

The Web is Your Church’s New Front Door [Webinar Wednesday]

2012-01-24T15:00:33+00:00

Thanks to everyone who joined in for The Network's Webinar Wednesday where I presented "The Web is Your Church's New Front Door." Some of you asked for a copy of the presentation so here it is along with the church welcome video we showed.

If you missed it, we'll be doing this webinar again next Wednesday, February 1. Or you can watch a recording of this presentation. To learn more about either option, check out this link.

Pinterest for Churches (Part 2: Strategy)

2012-01-18T20:48:44+00:00

Yesterday, we looked at the basics of how to use Pinterest. At the end of 2011, it sprung into the top ten social media sites based on usage and it seems poised to see continued growth this year. The format is simple. You share the things (pictures and videos) you think are cool by pinning them to a virtual bulletin board. And since organizations and businesses are a part of people’s lives, brands are already starting to embrace Pinterest.

OPEN Forum recently wrote about how companies are currently using Pinterest well. For example, Whole Foods uses Pinterest to show their interest in living a healthy lifestyle by pinning things including recycling, healthy eating, exercise, art projects and non-profit giving. Tech company and computer chip maker AMD pins all sorts of things for techies like cool gadgets, computer bags and workstations. As a last example, furniture maker West Elm uses Pinterest to share pictures of well designed rooms as inspiration for your own interior decorating. The content may not feature their stuff, but they fit the company’s vibe. So you see the point to these examples, right? Pushing products doesn’t work all that well on Pinterest, but sharing inspiration, culture and cool does.

By looking at some of those best practices, here are some tips I think could be helpful for churches who may want to use Pinterest.

It’s not just about what your church is doing. Like other social media, Pinterest isn’t a place to broadcast everything you’re doing and nothing else. You could, but I don’t think you’ll get the followers or interaction you’re looking for. There are plenty of other sources for getting feeds of information and it seems like folks on Pinterest aren’t using it in that way. Instead they looking for pictures and videos they think are cool. That said, this doesn’t mean you don’t share things that are going on in you church. You just have to be more creative and visual with what you choose to pin.

It is about sharing your church culture. Your voice on Pinterest comes from what you’re sharing. You can say a lot about who you are and what you stand for as a church based on the things you find to pin. Not all the content has to come from you as the source, but it should look and feel like the personality of your church.

Help with spiritual growth. Use a board to post resources that are interesting or useful for discipleship. Maybe it’s a study Bible, daily devotional website, inspirational quotes or whatever.

Create various boards for different interests in your church. Think of the various ministry groups in your church and create boards that are interesting to them. Women’s groups, youth ministry, worship team, etc. I think the more specialized you are with the boards, the better chance you have of connecting with people who have similar interests.

Be a community resource. Pinterest is about niche interests. Can you find cool or interesting stuff happening in your community that you could put on a board? What kind of things can you pin that you community would find interesting? This could be an easy way to share your vision and reach out to your community in a non-confrontational way.

Learn more about your members and create boards for them. Your people help form your culture. As they engage and follow you on Pinterest, check out their boards and pins, too. See what they’re finding. It will be helpful for you to know what your audience likes.

By no means is this a comprehensive list, but just some initial thoughts that came to mind. Are you using Pinterest in your church? If so, what are you doing? If not, how could you envision using it?

(If you missed the first post in the series, “Pinterest for Churches (Part 1: The Basics),” you can read it here.)

Pinterest for Churches (Part 1: The Basics)

2012-01-18T18:29:08+00:00

Social media newbie Pinterest ended 2011 strong. Rapid growth pushed it into the top 10 social media sites based on usage. And now, like anything popular the business and non-profit world is trying to figure out how to use Pinterest as a marketing tool. Since Pinterest wants to connect people based on their similar interests, brands and organizations, who are interesting to a lot of people, want to be in the fold.

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, here’s a basic rundown. The idea is simple and easy to use. The company describes itself as a virtual bulletin board where you can share your favorite images and videos from the internet and pin them to your board. You can create multiple boards to separate and organize your stuff by interest. Others on Pinterest can follow you and share (repin) what you’ve posted.

Confused by some of those terms? Here’s a little more detail.

Pin: It’s the image (or video) that you post. It’s like a virtual version of you takes a push pin and attaches something to a bulletin board. (Below we’ll talk about how to pin something.) Once you pin something, it always links back to its original source or webpage.

Board: This is where your pins go. You can create and name multiple boards to organize your pins by interest.

Repin: Once you’ve pinned something your board, other people can look at it. If they like it, they can repin it onto their won board to share with their followers. Just hover over the pin to get this option.

So now that you know all the basic terminology, here are the ways you can pin stuff:

Download the “Pin It” web browser extension. This puts a little button at the top of your browser. If you see something you like on the in web, click the Pin It button. It will show you all the images on the page. Pick which one you want, write a quick description and pick which one of your boards you want it on. Your pin will link back to this page.

Smartphone app. See something you like, take picture with the app and add it to a board. You can also browse other content and repin stuff you find interesting.

Upload pins on your computer. Click “add in” the top right corner of the Pinterest site. You can add a pin, upload your own stuff or create a new board.

Here are some other basics to know for using Pinterest.

Follow: Like other social media sites, you can follow other users and their pins appear on your Pinterest homepage. You can follow everything a person pins or just a particular board.

Mention: When you’re writing a description for something you pin, you can mention someone you follow. Similar to other sites, just put the @ symbol right in front of their username.

Comment: Like almost everything on the internet, you can comment on any pin.

Follow Button: You can add Pinterest buttons to your website to direct people to your Pinterest page.

Getting an account: Pinterest is technically still available by invite only. When I signed up, I got an email almost immediately. Others say it could take a couple of days.

I’ve been casually using Pinterest for the last few months and can say it really is a simple way of visually sharing things you find cool. My very general observations, along with what I read, tell me the audience on Pinterest is heavily female and the most popular interests revolve around crafts, fashion and food. Again, there is much more to find on Pinterest, but this seems to be the trend right now.

Here’s what I like about Pinterest: It’s different than the other major social media players like Facebook and Twitter. For an organization, it’s less about pushing your own stuff and more about sharing your culture. What makes your church unique in who it is? Or as Pinterest Co-founder Evan Sharp says, "For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest." And it’s also why this social media outlet could be useful for your church. It’s your chance to not just share yourself but share things you agree with or things that will be useful to your members or your community.

Now that you know the basics, explore Pinterest more by looking at ways churches can use it. Here's a link to Pinterest for Churches (Part 2: Strategy).

7 Tips for a Better Website

2012-01-12T17:59:20+00:00

A new year means many of may be looking to do something new with your church’s website. If you’re starting from scratch or tweaking what you already have, here are a few things to keep in mind.

It all starts with vision. What is the purpose of your website? Who is it supposed to serve? How does it fit it with all the other communication things you do? Casting vision is a step that people like to skip mainly because it can lead to difficult decisions. Yet if you fly past vision, your website will never reach its full potential. Every church seems to have a vision statement, but challenge yourself to go beyond saying your website is just an online expression of that statement.
Keep the homepage clean by creating navigational paths for various users. You may have a lot of stuff to share, but it doesn’t all have to go on the front page. Organize your information in chunks and create various navigational paths for the various users that may come to your site. For example, the popular trend is to simply have a button on the front page that says, “I’m new here” for visitors. Once someone clicks on that, they go to a page with a lot more basic information about the church. Create similar paths for people to get to other information.
Don’t make people click to find worship times and location. The ultimate goal is to get people to actually come to your church, right? Why make it hard for them to find you?
Give visitors a sample of who you are. Give first timers a feel for your church from the parking lot to the pew. Let them see your church in action. Let them know your passions. Give them a sample of what a typical Sunday is like. How? Welcome videos are an awesome option. You could accomplish something similar with a picture slideshow. Real pictures trump stock photography. And pictures with the people of your church will always be more compelling than empty building shots.
Create something you can actually maintain. You can have grandiose plans for a full-featured website, but it will be completely ineffective in the long run if no one can keep it maintained. If you have limited resources, keep it simple. A smaller website that’s up to date will always be more effective than a larger one that’s full of old information.
Think mobile. What does your website look like on an iPhone, Android or any other mobile devices? Increasingly, people are using their phones more as a primary web serving device. If your website uses Flash, iPhone users will never see it. There are various ways to be mobile-friendly that range from having a separate mobile version or creating one website that functions across all platforms. Do what’s right for you. Giving your website a mobile-friendly makeover is probably one of the best things you can do online this year.
Tell stories. Your website is your chance to tell the story of your church and invite people to be a part of it. Think about how all the individual elements of your website melt together to tell one bigger narrative. Also use stories of life change from people in your congregation. Don’t say you have a recovery program, but tell the story of that ministry through someone who was a part of it.

Looking for more tips? Check out this post or our free resource, Website 101.

3 Communications Thoughts for 2012

2012-01-03T18:47:58+00:00

As we jump in to 2012, it can be a time to look ahead at some big picture things we can do during the upcoming calendar year. And for me there are a few ideas that are really stuck in my head of ways churches can become stronger communicators in 2012.

Narrow your communication stream and simplify your message. Too often, church communication is scattered and uncoordinated. Instead of using a medium that makes sense for a congregation, churches try to use everything. That leads to emails, bulletins, posters, worship slides, Facebook pages, newsletters and more inundating your congregation. It can lead to a range of problems from massive duplication to having to search through tons of stuff to find the one thing you’re looking for. Instead, look at how you best communicate with your congregation. What works? Get rid of everything else. Force yourself to do it. Centralize what you need to say using those tools and don’t let ministries go rogue by doing their own thing outside the system you set up.

Beyond consolidating your communication, challenge yourself to say more in fewer words. Simplify how you talk about your church’s vision and the message your preaching from week to week. People can consume information much better in smaller chunks. It also makes it easier for them to share.

Take action. Be in your community. As churches, we’ve gotten good at creating and hosting events aimed at reaching our community. But in reality, how well are these events really working? Sure they’re easy to measure and it’s great to see a large group of people in our buildings, but are these events truly serving us more than our community?

What would it say about a church if it went in to the community to serve? What if it worked with other organizations in its community to identify needs to address? Wouldn’t that really show we care about our community and not ourselves?

Look at the events you do and really decide how effective they are. If you’re reaching new people and bring people into a closer relationship with Christ, they are working. If you’re doing them just because that’s what’s you’ve always done, it’s probably time for change.

Stop putting off developing your church’s online presence. Too many church websites and social media decisions are stuck in committee. Increasingly, people are searching for your church online before ever walking into your physical building. Plus they’re not just looking at you but up to a dozen other churches, too. Does your online presence (or lack thereof) represent you well?

I understand that web and social media may be a foreign language for many of your churches. But so is HVAC. If the heat goes out, do you ignore it or get it fixed? You find people who know what they’re doing to help you. Whether it’s a professional or someone in your church, find the people who understand the technology to help you and guide you. We’re here to try and help, too.

I don’t care as much about the medium as I do about you doing it well. If you’re best option is to use Facebook as your primary website, that’s fine. If Twitter isn’t for your congregation, that’s cool. But here’s the truth -- people expect to see you online and they’re comparing you not just to other churches but other organizations. Don’t miss an opportunity to reach people just because new technology may not be your thing.

If your website is good to go, look at your social media presence to see if there are areas you can improve. I think 2012 will continue to see growth in social sharing. Again, the medium doesn’t matter as much the content you’re providing. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instragram or something else, use it the best that you can.

It may be daunting for you to try to take some of this on. I understand that. But I want to encourage you. 2012 can be the year you take a step in a new direction with one or all of these things. And maybe the needs of your church fall beyond this list. But I believe the local church has a place to provide real answers and service in our communities. You can be that agent of change that leads your church to great things in 2012. We have the best story in the world to share so let’s get going!

Year to Year Consistency

2011-12-29T17:19:34+00:00

As a post holiday haze floats around the office, I was talking with a friend about his experience at his church this Christmas. While his review of the events was positive (saying the services were a great mix of songs, scripture, tradition and dance) there was one thing he said really stood out.

“If I knew it was going to be this good, I would have invited more people. It’s just hard to know from year to year what my church will do.”

Word of mouth and personal invites are the greatest sort of marketing you can get. People love to share the good things going on in their church, but don’t want to be embarrassed if they invite their friends to a service that ends up being something weird or different.

There is great power and comfort in consistency. That doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing every year. Consistency isn’t the killer of creativity, but it is the foundation you build on. Christmas and Easter as busy times for churches and there’s an urge by staffs to do something different. Many times that leads to something that doesn’t feel right for the church. It doesn’t meet the quality people are used to or it might abandon the traditions people in the congregation love and look forward to celebrating.

It’s okay, and even encouraged, to do new things, but stay consistent. Realize what you can do within the vision and values of your church while also keeping the quality high. When consistency meets creativity your church is thriving. And when your church is thriving your congregation can’t help but share it.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T20:00:26+00:00

I hope you find time during the busyness of Christmas to take a breath, relax and celebrate. As you reflect on the season, my prayer is you realize all the work you’ve done to get ready for Christmas at your church makes a difference. You play a part in communicating the good news of great joy that Jesus Christ is born. And His birth was just the beginning to a radical life that changes people's lives forever. Merry Christmas from all of us at Church Juice and thanks for the faithful work you do.

Reverse Coveting 2.0

2011-12-20T16:00:36+00:00

Jon Acuff had a great post at Stuff Christians Like this month about how we covet the lives people share though social media. He gives some great conclusions about the effects of doing so. You can’t love the friends you covet and we often forget that social media gives us only a best-life-possible snapshot of someone. The post really is a great read. Check it out—if for no other reason than a real, but crazy, story of a crazed Cabbage Patch Kids employee who wouldn’t let a family put a doll in the trunk because the baby couldn’t breathe. (Trust me. It makes sense. That’s why Jon is a brilliant writer.)

Anyway, the post got me thinking about how I covet in a social media age. I fall into the same trap Jon talks about. I see people, especially those who I and others look up to, and wish I had some of their success. Yet I find myself in a reverse coveting situation, too. There are times I want people to like what I’m doing.

I think it’s an easy hole for us to fall into—especially on a professional level. We want to be accepted. We defiantly want those who we covet to covet us back. We believe that in some way THAT is what gives us success in what we’re doing. And in a mad rush to get that acceptance, we may even end up doing or saying things we don’t really believe just because we know it could help us in some way get closer to that acceptance.

It’s the same problem we face in our online and offline church worlds, too. We covet what we see down the street or from big churches that are popular online. And in an effort to get success similar to theirs, we become copycats instead of being ourselves. Coveting doesn’t make us the best churches or workers we can be.

When you really look at the churches or people you covet, and the ones you secretly wish coveted you back, you realize they have something in common. They’re unique in their own way. They’re doing something or saying something that makes people want to hear more. They’re people and organizations that have their unique voice in the world.

So, what would it look like if we did less coveting and more creative thinking? What if we challenged ourselves to stop trying so hard to get people to covet us and instead used the unique skills God’s given us to do something great for His kingdom?

A Modern Christmas Pageant

2011-12-15T17:33:56+00:00

There is something great about videos where a simple story is told in a new, different and sincere way. Last year, St. Paul’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand, did this great modern take on kids doing a traditional Christmas pageant.

This year, they followed up that video with one done in a very similar manner.

There a few things we can learn from these videos that are worth thinking about before we jump into shooting our own video projects.

Find a new or interesting perspective. We all know the stories told in these videos and we may have even heard kids telling them. But these videos are great because they try to give a visual to what this might look like if kids were in charge of trying to show the stories. It’s like we’re traveling into their minds.
Don’t be afraid to be truly funny. There are quirky moments in these videos that just make you smile – angry kids slamming the door on Mary and Joseph and kids dressed up like furry sheep. It’s not forced. It’s not cheesy. It’s naturally funny.
You can tell a story without using text on the screen. It’s really popular right now to use a lot of typeface in videos—and that’s not necessarily as bad thing. (In fact, here’s a Christmas video we like that uses that technique.) But we always need to analyze the best method for storytelling instead of trying to force ourselves into a particular style.