Resource Browser Page
Date |
Average Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| February 4, 2012 |
Texting - A Churchly ActivitySocial Media Do any of you use texting in your church? I think it’s a promising idea. Some churches encourage texting during church services, some use it for sending news, encouragement, prayer requests, whatever information they wish to share. What’s going on out there in your world? |
|
| January 15, 2012 |
Craigslist - It's For Churches, TooHow-To Do you use craigslist, eBay or other similar sites to buy or sell things? Or perhaps to find employees or services? Have you used it on behalf of your church? Craigslist can be a useful tool for your church -- a way to save money and find good people. |
|
| January 2, 2012 |
Top 10 in the Church & Web NetworkHow-To Happy new year! Top 10 lists are all over the place right now. I figured, why not join in? Below is a list of the articles or blogs that I consider some of our “Church and Web” top entries. What do you think are important topics we have or should discuss? |
|
| November 8, 2011 |
Why Give a Tweet?Social Media Ever wonder why using Facebook and/or Twitter for your church would be a good idea? Or what in the world would you write about if you set up a Facebook page? Or what if I start using Twitter and someone posts something negative? There’s a webinar on The Network that will help you ... |
|
| October 25, 2011 |
Online File StorageCommunication, Getting Started We’ve talked a little in the past about back-up, but there’s another side to file storage - just plain storing files in order to share them with others. How do you easily share large files among yourselves in the church, and others with whom you interact? |
|
| October 16, 2011 |
Wi-Fi - Make it SecureHow-To Does your church use a wireless network? Many do, and it’s a useful tool. But, like pretty much any technology, wi-fi can be used for good or bad so it’s a good idea to protect your church as much as possible. |
|
| September 20, 2011 |
Art & Design - Solving Problems, Looking Good for GodMedia “What is the end goal of...design? Make sure you look good for God.” That's a quote from an article I recently read. How are you using technology at your church to “look good for God?” Many artists say that design should solve a problem, not just look good. What problems are you solving with the art in your church? |
|
| August 15, 2011 |
I Can't Open That Attachment!Communication, How-To More and more committees, businesses, and organizations are going paperless. This is great for many reasons such as: using less resources (paper, postage, and staff), great portability, and faster distribution. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as your church disseminates information via email, their website or any other electronic means. |
|
| July 12, 2011 |
Twitter and the Church - Just Another Internet Site or a New Way to Engage?Social Media We are constantly in conversation with people. We love having the opportunity to talk to people about our interests, our faith, or even how our day went. Guess what? You can do this online as well...it's this "little" site called Twitter. |
|
| June 26, 2011 |
YouTube BasicsGetting Started Why might your church use YouTube? Like a photo sharing site, it’s a central place for storing and sharing video files, but beyond that, with its millions of visitors, YouTube is another potential avenue for spreading the good news to the world. |
|
| June 6, 2011 |
Creative Commons - ImagesChurch Websites, Media Creative Commons--have you heard of it? I first read about it on the back cover of a Reformed Worship magazine, and I’ve been glad to know of it ever since. One place I use it frequently is on Flickr. It’s a great way to find images you can use with no worries about copyrights. |
|
| May 31, 2011 |
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by BackupHow-To Backup - Bewitched because I know it’s necessary. Bothered because it can be a bother to set up and maintain. Bewildered because there are so many choices! How do I know which method, software, server...whatever...to use? |
|
| May 16, 2011 |
Welcome VideosChurch Websites, Marketing Does your church website have a welcome video? An engaging video can be an effective way to invite people to your church, answer questions they might have and take away the natural fear of the unknown they are probably feeling. |
|
| May 2, 2011 |
Easiest Prayer Chain EverCommunication, How-To Do you remember phone trees? Perhaps your church used a phone tree to let the members know when there was a prayer request. Now technology gives us tools for a much more reliable, efficient way to communicate our concerns and joys with our church family. |
|
| April 18, 2011 |
(Church) Family PhotosChurch Websites, How-To What would you save if your house was on fire? Many people answer, “My family photos.” Family photos are precious. Our church is a family, too, and it is good to figure out the best way to store our church family photos. |
|
| April 12, 2011 |
Grants for TechnologyHow-To, Media Did you know that our denomination provides grants for smaller churches to use to purchase new technology? The grants are provided by the Sustaining Congregational Excellence (SCE) program, which “is predominantly for smaller congregations in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. |
|
| March 22, 2011 |
Recording, Streaming, and Podcasting Worship ServicesHow-To, Media Questions about how to record or stream worship services have come up several times in our Church and Web network. Many churches make audio recordings of their services. Cassette tapes were a common media for this for quite a few years, but now that technology is pretty much obsolete. Churches now... |
|
| August 19, 2010 |
Salesforce for Church - Part IICommunication, Getting Started, How-To, Marketing Let me explain right away: This article is not about how to use Salesforce to sell anything. Sounds kind of like those telemarketers, doesn't it? "I'm not trying to sell you anything, I'm just taking a survey." Right. Salesforce, like Google Apps, is available to non-profits for free, so I truly am not selling anything. I am writing this article to tell you about how I've set up Salesforce for our church to track membership and our offerings. This is part two of a two part series on Salesforce. To read part I, click here. |
|
| August 10, 2010 |
Salesforce for Church - Part ICommunication, Getting Started, How-To, Marketing Let me explain right away: This article is not about how to use Salesforce to sell anything. Sounds kind of like those telemarketers, doesn't it? "I'm not trying to sell you anything, I'm just taking a survey." Right. Salesforce, like Google Apps, is available to non-profits for free. I am writing this article to tell you about how I've set up Salesforce for our church to track membership and our offerings. This is part one of a two part series on Salesforce. |
|
| April 12, 2010 |
How to Choose a Domain Name and Guidelines for RegistrationChurch Websites, Getting Started, How-To Location, location, location. Everyone knows that choosing a great location is crucial when buying real estate. The same is true in the digital world: choosing a domain name is an important choice for a church's online presence. If your church is just starting a website, this is one of the first decisions that you will need to make. |
|
Date |
Average Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| December 21, 2010 |
How to use Google Voice in Your ChurchCommunication, Getting Started, How-To If you are part of a small church or even run one, there's many ways that you can leverage technology to save money, be more efficient and provide consistent service at the church. This is part one of a two part blog post focusing on telephones and telephone service to help your church. This first part provides tips to using Google Voice at your church. |
|
| December 8, 2010 |
What's Going on? Using Google Calendar on Your Church WebsiteChurch Websites, Feature Focus There is a feature that almost every church has on their website, is difficult to navigate and doesn’t integrate into other services easily. This feature is a calendar or listing of events. Services like Google Calendar allow you to embed a calendar easily into your website. .. |
|
| November 22, 2010 |
Other Great Resources and Posts on the NetworkChurch Websites, Communication, Getting Started I'm sure at some point various titles of blog posts or articles on different networks have piqued your curiosity and caused you to click to read the full post; it has for me. Even though this Network focuses on your church's website and online presence there are some posts on different networks that involve areas relevant here. I'd like to point out several different posts that would be valuable for you to read, or would be great areas for you to provide your insight and experience. |
|
| November 16, 2010 |
Feature Focus: Site SearchChurch Websites, Feature Focus Do you expect your website visitors to know how to do Boolean searches? What about expecting them to search your site using the built-in search tool of your CMS? To help visitors search your site, you can use the power of the big search engines (Google and Bing) to provide custom search boxes for your site. |
|
| October 25, 2010 |
Feature Focus: Online Local ListingsFeature Focus, Getting Started, How-To, Marketing One of the most common reasons to visit a church's website is to find the church's address, worship times, or phone number. In fact, it is probably on the home page of your website so that it is easy and quick to find. It should not only be listed on your website but on Bing Local Listings, Google Places and Yahoo! Local as well. |
|
| October 6, 2010 |
How to Record Sermons DigitallyHow-To, Media Even if your church doesn't have a website or will never start using Twitter or Facebook, I'm sure your church records sermons. With tape players obsolete and CD players common, it would be good to make the switch to recording your service digitally if you haven't yet. Not only will this be more compatible with your church listeners, but will allow you to easily podcast your sermon. |
|
| September 23, 2010 |
What Impression Does Your Website give to Visitors?Church Websites, Marketing A while ago I wrote an article detailing several items that every church website should include no matter the size of their church or website. Mick Mel's recent post "Don’t be like a “University Website"" details many of the items I mentioned along with several items that are unnecessary on your church's homepage. Most of the items are aimed at presenting a good impression for your church, but also help with not frustrating return visitors. |
|
| September 13, 2010 |
Using Quickbooks Online at Your ChurchGetting Started, How-To More and more software programs are becoming available online or 'in the cloud'. Currently, there are several popular services like Google Docs or now Microsoft Office Web Apps that make working in the cloud advantageous. Recently, Intuit unveiled Quickbooks Online which allows an organization to manage their books, run reports and more online. Now those who keep track of the church's finances and books can do so in the cloud.
|
|
| September 6, 2010 |
Feature Focus: Email Addresses at Your DomainCommunication, Feature Focus, Getting Started Another simple and quick way to add value to your church is to have email addresses at the church’s domain. Many times church staff or leaders create email accounts with the provider of their internet service, or through free providers like Yahoo (Yahoo email), Google (Gmail), or Microsoft (Live Mail, Hotmail). |
|
| August 30, 2010 |
Your Church's Online Presence: Get Past the Planning and Jump inChurch Websites, Getting Started Over two decades ago Nike coined the phrase "Just do it". While this has taken on numerous meanings, the original meaning still rings true: even if it's not going to be perfect or close to perfect, just do it anyways. If you are waiting for the perfect moment and for everything to come together perfectly, it's probably not going to. Instead, take the first small steps, and go from there. |
|
| August 17, 2010 |
Feature Focus: Short Descriptive URLsChurch Websites, Feature Focus, Getting Started, How-To Look up; at the top of the window. Up in the address bar is the URL of this website. Have you looked at the addresses that your website is using? Your church is probably using a system (CMS) that automatically creates the URL for a page based on a template. Usually the default is for ugly unusable URLs. However, with most of the popular CMSs there are options to change the way URLs are structured. |
|
| August 2, 2010 |
Do Christians Become Jerks Online?Communication A month ago Blizzard (a video game developer) announced they were going to require users of their online forums to use their real names with a hope to reduce trolling, flame wars, and other non productive comments. This was a bold move by Blizzard which shows the severity of their problem. Immediately, many users complained, and Blizzard ended up cancelling this requirement. |
|
| July 12, 2010 |
Technology and Equipment GrantsGetting Started, How-To, Media The Christian Reformed Church wants to assist your smaller church in utilizing technology effectively and efficiently so that you can focus your energy on growing your church instead of figuring out how to operate equipment. To do this the Sustaining Congregational Excellence (SCE) program established two grants, the first provides up to $1,000 US for equipment in your church. The second provides up to $500 US for training on equipment in your church. |
|
| July 7, 2010 |
You Use The Network, Now Tell Others About it!Church Websites, Media Not only is there a sample bulletin announcement and other ideas on this page to spread the word about The Network, but there are two images that you can post on your church website. This not only showcases your support of The Network, but helps us get the word out so that we can add to the number of voices on the site and share the knowledge and wisdom for the many different roles in a church. |
|
| June 28, 2010 |
Twitter PossibilitiesCommunication, Marketing, Media, Social Media Recently I had an interesting experience on Twitter. While it's not revolutionary, it is simple and effective at finding people in your area that have similar interests, are looking for a new church, or just searching. |
|
| June 14, 2010 |
Adopting New TechnologyGetting Started, How-To, Media Endless solutions exists to make your church run better, faster, and more efficient. As with any solution, there's a trade off between using a new technology since it's faster or cheaper, and the usefulness of it. Dan Hotchkiss explores the difficulties associated with new technologies and the shift to digital in an article from The Alban Institute, titled When to Adopt New Technology |
|
| June 5, 2010 |
Church IT SurveyChurch Websites, Communication, How-To, Marketing Ever wonder what operating system other churches are running on their servers? What they use for email? What solution other churches use for their staff intranet? What their IT budget is? The Church IT Survey is a survey that provides responses for these questions and forty others from over 150 churches. |
|
| May 25, 2010 |
Technical Preview of Office Web AppsCommunication, How-To Two aspects of the web that are driving innovation are collaboration and lowering costs, of which almost any new web service or site provides. Recently Microsoft started the Technical Preview of Microsoft Office Web Apps which includes both of these. Office Web Apps (OWA) enable the editing, sharing, and storing of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote files online, through most browsers and any operating system. |
|
| May 10, 2010 |
Upcoming Seminar - Social Media & WebCommunication, Marketing, Social Media Over the last couple of years it seems just about everyone is either a social media consultant or offering seminars. To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, I wanted to pass along one that I have heard good things about. This next Friday WiredChurches.com is offering a one day workshop on Social Media & Web. The workshop will focus providing valuable content on your site, the best way to present it, and how to use social media for marketing. If you check out their site, look at the other events they offer and you might just come across another one that interests you. |
|
| May 2, 2010 |
Using TheCommon.org to Connect Needs and Abilities in Your ChurchCommunication, Marketing, Social Media Part of living in community is sharing needs, and abilities. As part of a church community, you probably share these needs and abilities through bulletin announcements, or someone tracking and matching up people to help. While this can be effective for some churches, it can limit the potential of helping each other by limiting it to only dire needs. |
|
Date |
Average Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| October 9, 2011 |
Worship Planning OnlineHow-To A highly recommended online worship planning program. Worship Planning Online has a place to plan services, keep libraries of music (mp3 files, songs, chord charts, ties in with CCLI and iTunes) and Power Points, schedule everyone participating in the services and communicate with everyone involved. The program includes email communications to let each person know their schedule, and individual logins for all concerned. You can even chat live during a service. |
|
| March 18, 2011 |
Recording Your Worship Service LiveHow-To, Media Article from "Technologies For Worship Magazine" on how to set up to make audio recordings of your worship services. |
|
| February 19, 2011 |
How Do You Know When to Invest in New Technology?Media There is a right time to adopt new technology, but too-early adopters incur high costs for the new toys. For congregations, the hard question is: When is the right time? Read this article about useful guidelines and questions to ask as you make your decision. |
|
| June 22, 2010 |
Christian Reformed Church Logos and GraphicsChurch Websites To show your association with the Christian Reformed Church and its agencies, you can include these logos and graphics on your website. |
|
| June 1, 2010 |
Website 101: Seven Basics Vital to a Good SiteChurch Websites, Getting Started, How-To This white paper by Church Juice explains 7 key areas to consider when starting or revamping your website. |
|
| March 29, 2010 |
CRC Social Media and Blog ListingsChurch Websites, Getting Started, Social Media The CRC maintains a list of its social media presence and blogs on this page so that you can easily follow or friend them on platforms like Twitter, or Facebook. Also, you can read the blogs written by different ministries. |
|
| March 8, 2010 |
OpenDNS Cache CheckChurch Websites, Getting Started, How-To This tool will help you when you change the DNS settings on your website. If you change your DNS settings you need to double check the changes you made which Cache Check enables you to do. If you don't, your site may be inoperable as the changes take a while to propagate. Using this tool... |
|
| January 25, 2010 |
Facebook PagesGetting Started, How-To, Social Media Visit this link to create a Facebook Page for your church. Once you click the link above, go to "Create Page" and then choose a category (probably "Brand, Product, or Organization" and then "Religious Organization") choose a name and then start adding content. |
|
| January 19, 2010 |
Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics is a free service provided by Google that enables you to look in depth at all your site traffic. You can look at basic information like page views, traffic sources, which pages are most frequently visited. However you can dive in and look at heat maps, browsers used, and returning visitors. This valuable... |
|
| January 18, 2010 |
Google Apps for Non ProfitsChurch Websites, Communication, Getting Started, How-To |
|
| January 11, 2010 |
WhoIs - Domain Registration LookupChurch Websites, How-To |
|
| January 4, 2010 |
Twitter as a Ministry ToolCommunication, Marketing, Social Media Church Juice's in-depth description and ideas for using Twitter in your church is a must-read if you are considering using Twitter in your church. |
|
| December 28, 2009 |
Website Markup ValidationUse this site to check if your website is standards compliant. While it is debated how important it is to pass, it is still useful for cleaning up the code on your site. The site is described as... |
|
Date |
Average Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| July 27, 2011 |
LivestreamCommunication, Media Livestream is a program for streaming video. Livestream, formerly known as Mogulus, is a live streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content using a camera and a computer through the internet. -- Wikipedia |
|
| March 18, 2011 |
AudacityHow-To, Media Free software for working with sound recordings. |
|
| May 15, 2010 |
Church Marketing LabThis Flickr group is a pool of images for special events, sermon series and other items at churches. Browse the images for ideas to spice up your marketing material or website. But also read the comments for the community's critique of the images and maybe even leave your own input. If you have some images you are working on, upload them and you'll get feedback on what's good and what needs to change. Also this site is a part of Church Marketing Sucks. While the images are copyrighted, if you find some that you could use contact the person you uploaded them and see if they'll grant you permission to use them. |
|
| May 10, 2010 |
UnMarketingCommunication, Marketing, Social Media This blog offers straightforward advice to an organization's online presence, and marketing. |
|
| January 25, 2010 |
Church CrunchChurch Websites, Communication, How-To, Marketing, Media, Social Media Church Crunch is a popular blog that will not only inform you, but it will make you laugh. It will inform you about using social media, design, SEO, and more on your site. With its light-hearted humor they will make you laugh while your learning about how you can improve your church's presence on the web. |
|
| January 20, 2010 |
Church Website HelpChurch Websites, Getting Started, How-To This blog oriented website hopes to "give you the tips and ideas you need to help your church website reach as many people as possible, in the most effective way possible." Not only is the author familiar to social media and runs her church website, but also shares his advice by reviewing church websites. |
|
| January 13, 2010 |
Heal Your Church WebSiteChurch Websites Dean Peters help in "Teaching, rebuking, correcting & training in righteous web design" through his blog. Visit here to find tips and hints on how to ratchet your website to the next level. |
|
| January 6, 2010 |
MashableChurch Websites, Communication, Media, Social Media A leading blog that features the latest tools and trends on the web, especially related to social media. Mashable describes itself as "world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. With more than 15 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific... |
|
| December 30, 2009 |
Church Marketing SucksAs you can tell from the name of the site, Church Marketing Sucks is straightforward, and focused. They aren't just critical of the stagnant status of church websites, but offer incredible advice to transform your church website. They say, "[o]ur mission is to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ." |
|
| December 23, 2009 |
Church Communications ProChurch Websites, Communication, Marketing, Media, Social Media |
|
| December 16, 2009 |
Church JuiceChurch Websites, Communication, Getting Started, Marketing, Media, Social Media Church Juice is a service to help churches with their communication, online presence, and marketing. They provide useful information through blog posts, articles and free consulting for churches. |
