This is a fantastic presentation. I sat in on a similar presentation by Jerod a couple of years ago, and I'm a big fan of Church Juice and the work that they do.
In my experience, though, most CRC churches do not have staff or even volunteers with the necessary skill set to carry out the kind of strategic planning work, let alone the implementation of the ideas outlined here. I believe CRC churches need to raise the priority of this kind of work from both a staffing and budgeting perspective if they truly want to reach more people more effectively for Christ.
And full disclosure: I am a self-employed communications consultant specializing in planning and implementing communications strategies for small businesses, non-profits and churches.
This topic would make a useful Church Juice blog post. I believe "reasonable expectation of privacy" applies in the US. I'd love to also hear from someone who knows about the corresponding standards for Canada, which are likely different.
Even if you apply that principal as a general rule, it doesn't exactly make for a friendly message. The fact is that pre-Covid, our services did offer a more reasonable expectation of than they will in livestreamed service, which is a new thing for us.
We're looking for an effective way to inform people without scaring them off, while also making sure we're covered if someone decides they didn't give permission to be included in our stream.
I was going to say the exact same thing, so I'll just add to Bryan's point.
If you just use the sound mix that comes from your sound board for your audio recording, it has the potential to be very embarrassing for your singers. Even the best voices can sound pretty bad when they're not blended properly within a mix. So, you'd probably want to investigate suspending a microphone from the ceiling that captures the actual sound of the overall mix, including the congregation.
You also need to be very careful about sensitive personal information that may be shared during a complete service. Is personal information about people's physical or emotional health being shared during prayer requests that is okay within your church walls, but not necessarily meant for mass consumption? When people do a testimonial in front of their church, are you authorized to share that with the world? If you're recording video, do you have permission to show the faces of congregation members in an online setting?
There are several service providers that you typically need to manage and maintain a church website and it can get a bit confusing because some of them combine their services.
1. Registrar - This is the service with whom you register your domain (i.e., the address of your site). You pay a yearly fee (usually $10-$20 for this).
2. Hosting - There are different options for this. As someone who designs websites for a living, I strongly suggest you look for something called "managed hosting". Discount hosts are typically slow and have very poor service. Good, managed hosting usually costs between $15 and $30 per month.
3. Content Management System - Wix is actually a content management system that includes hosting. Squarespace is a similar option. As a website creator, I'm not a big fan of those tools for reasons I won't get into here. WordPress has become the world's most popular Content Management System, but it requires some expertise to use it well. Other choices you'll hear are Joomla and Drupal. And to confuse things even further, there are specialized content management systems designed for churches (like Ekklesia360 and Cloversites). In the right hands, any of these solutions can be fine.
The bigger challenge
When it comes to websites, the challenge many churches face seems to be overall management of website projects, including strategy, content planning, execution and on-going maintenance. Another big challenge is budget. Many CRC churches invest a lot of ime and money on their ministries and on their physical buildings but they don't really invest in doing websites well. And they often lack the the expertise within their staff/volunteer base to get projects like these done.
When you have a minute, check out ChurchJuice.org. This is a ministry set up by BTGMI to help educate and inform churches about issues like yours.
Our kids have participated in some summer programs at Harvest. They have an amazing check-in system with tablet kiosks attached to nametag printers. If you gave the church office a call, I'm sure they would tell you what they use. It's very efficient.
And I just noticed that Planning Centre Online has also added this functionality.
Great article, I'd suggest you add one more that's absolutely crucial: A champion!
A church needs someone, whether it's a staff member, a council member, a volunteer, or an outreach committee, who has some combination of the passion, vision, authority and acumen to lead the charge in initiating, planning, implementing and maintaining a church website.
Great idea to post about PCO, Adom! We started using Planning Centre Online at Faith Church in Burlington about 4 years ago. Here are some notes based on our experience.
I highly recommend PCO for any church team, especially where you have one or two technology champions who can assist others with the rollout. There is a huge range of options -- many of which we don't use -- and for those comfortable with using software, it is very intuitive.PCO is an amazing worship planning tool (and more), especially used in conjunction with CCLI. I use a lot of SAAS (Software as a Service) tools in my line of work and PCO is better than most from a user design perspective (not to say there weren't some growing pains from less tech savvy users). They continue to make improvements over time.
Planning Centre Online has been branching into other areas such as volunteer management and online giving. Based on my experience with PCO to date, I suspect those tools would also be great.
Here are some highlights of the features we use most:
- Scheduling - team members (including pastors and AV volunteers) can block out their dates in advance so that our scheduler knows who is available when.
- Email Notifications - A reminder is automatically sent a week in advance to anyone who is scheduled for the next Sunday.
- Planning - we have a general service template so that all of the regular pieces of the order of worship are there. Then you simply drag and drop your songs into the template. The planning matrix view allows you to see past Sunday plans alongside your current plan so that you can avoid repeating songs too often. Our pastor has started to pre-populate the plans in advance with his sermon themes and Bible passages, so that worship leaders can get started planning their services as early as possible.
- Worship Plans/Cue Sheets - Once a service is planned, a one-page PDF of the plan can be sent to all of the team members who are scheduled, along with a note where you can provide special instructions or additional information about the service.
- Reporting - PCO keeps track of when and how often you use songs and allows you to generate reports.
- Music Stand App - I am the only team member who has taken advantage of the Music Stand app but for me it has been a huge game changer. I use my iPad to lead worship. I see the chord sheet in the key of my choice and I advance the page or backtrack using a bluetooth foot pedal. - I am also able to attach prepared notes such as introductory words and prayers and include that on my screen. There are some cool built-in features, including a metronome, and notation and highlighting tools. While the rest of the team sorts through paper file folders to gather their music, I just put my iPad in it's holder and open the app.
I think Faith Alive would actually be a better name for this new agency than any of the choices presented. But that would probably lead to even more confusion.
I may be alone on this, and hate to be a naysayer, but I completed the survey and I was disappointed with all of the name choices presented. I was especially disappointed with the ministry description. It lacks clarity and meaning and is full of jargon.
To me, all of the names are missing the mark. There is an art to branding and art is not best done by survey and consensus.
At the same time, I agree with Harry. Invest time and energy in revitalizing the CRCNA's brand identity and then present the agencies of the CRC as clearly named divisions of the parent organization. There are already too many sub-brands within the CRC and it's confusing to people.
Why not keep the name of this new organization practical, straightforward, and clearly associated with the denomination? LIke "CRCNA Missions"? Or "Christian Reformed MIssions"?
It wasn't clear in your ministry survey that the ministry description was intended primarily for internal use. Either way it should clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and why. It doesn't.
Like you, I'm someone who works in the area of communications, marketing, branding and graphic design. I deeply believe in the power of creative that reaches and inspires people -- to me it's a reflection of who we are as creatures made by a creative God. In my experience, the best way to do this is rarely to throw a bunch of ideas at the wall and rely on the consensus of the general population to choose a brand identity.
I have deep concerns about a 9-month process that yields the kind of results we're seeing in this survey. Either you are receiving poor consultation, or you are not allowing the branding consultant to do their job properly.
I've provided lots of feedback, both in this string and in the survey, not just for the sake of being critical, but because I care and I'm concerned that you are going down a path where people are going to be far more critical than me. In a denomination that is increasingly voicing its concerns and demanding accountability for how ministry resources are being used, I believe you are on a dangerous path.
I'll leave it at that.
I pray for wisdom and discernment and the Spirit's leading as you move forward.
Posted in: Beyond the Bulletin: Creating a Unified Communications Plan
This is a fantastic presentation. I sat in on a similar presentation by Jerod a couple of years ago, and I'm a big fan of Church Juice and the work that they do.
In my experience, though, most CRC churches do not have staff or even volunteers with the necessary skill set to carry out the kind of strategic planning work, let alone the implementation of the ideas outlined here. I believe CRC churches need to raise the priority of this kind of work from both a staffing and budgeting perspective if they truly want to reach more people more effectively for Christ.
And full disclosure: I am a self-employed communications consultant specializing in planning and implementing communications strategies for small businesses, non-profits and churches.
James Bosma - Lift Communications
Posted in: Livestreaming Worship and Privacy Concerns
Thanks, Bryan.
This topic would make a useful Church Juice blog post. I believe "reasonable expectation of privacy" applies in the US. I'd love to also hear from someone who knows about the corresponding standards for Canada, which are likely different.
Even if you apply that principal as a general rule, it doesn't exactly make for a friendly message. The fact is that pre-Covid, our services did offer a more reasonable expectation of than they will in livestreamed service, which is a new thing for us.
We're looking for an effective way to inform people without scaring them off, while also making sure we're covered if someone decides they didn't give permission to be included in our stream.
Posted in: Livestreaming Worship and Privacy Concerns
Some good ideas here: http://www.guideone.com/safety-resources/be-safe-not-sorry-when-live-streaming-your-worship-services
Posted in: Livestreaming Worship and Privacy Concerns
Some good ideas here: http://www.guideone.com/safety-resources/be-safe-not-sorry-when-live-streaming-your-worship-services
Posted in: Posting Worship Services Online
I was going to say the exact same thing, so I'll just add to Bryan's point.
If you just use the sound mix that comes from your sound board for your audio recording, it has the potential to be very embarrassing for your singers. Even the best voices can sound pretty bad when they're not blended properly within a mix. So, you'd probably want to investigate suspending a microphone from the ceiling that captures the actual sound of the overall mix, including the congregation.
You also need to be very careful about sensitive personal information that may be shared during a complete service. Is personal information about people's physical or emotional health being shared during prayer requests that is okay within your church walls, but not necessarily meant for mass consumption? When people do a testimonial in front of their church, are you authorized to share that with the world? If you're recording video, do you have permission to show the faces of congregation members in an online setting?
Food for thought...
Posted in: What Is a Good Web Host for Churches?
Hi, Rachael.
There are several service providers that you typically need to manage and maintain a church website and it can get a bit confusing because some of them combine their services.
1. Registrar - This is the service with whom you register your domain (i.e., the address of your site). You pay a yearly fee (usually $10-$20 for this).
2. Hosting - There are different options for this. As someone who designs websites for a living, I strongly suggest you look for something called "managed hosting". Discount hosts are typically slow and have very poor service. Good, managed hosting usually costs between $15 and $30 per month.
3. Content Management System - Wix is actually a content management system that includes hosting. Squarespace is a similar option. As a website creator, I'm not a big fan of those tools for reasons I won't get into here. WordPress has become the world's most popular Content Management System, but it requires some expertise to use it well. Other choices you'll hear are Joomla and Drupal. And to confuse things even further, there are specialized content management systems designed for churches (like Ekklesia360 and Cloversites). In the right hands, any of these solutions can be fine.
The bigger challenge
When it comes to websites, the challenge many churches face seems to be overall management of website projects, including strategy, content planning, execution and on-going maintenance. Another big challenge is budget. Many CRC churches invest a lot of ime and money on their ministries and on their physical buildings but they don't really invest in doing websites well. And they often lack the the expertise within their staff/volunteer base to get projects like these done.
When you have a minute, check out ChurchJuice.org. This is a ministry set up by BTGMI to help educate and inform churches about issues like yours.
Blessings,
James Bosma
Posted in: Electronic Sign-in for Children's Ministry?
Marian,
Our kids have participated in some summer programs at Harvest. They have an amazing check-in system with tablet kiosks attached to nametag printers. If you gave the church office a call, I'm sure they would tell you what they use. It's very efficient.
And I just noticed that Planning Centre Online has also added this functionality.
James
Posted in: 5 Things Every Church Website Must Have
Great article, I'd suggest you add one more that's absolutely crucial: A champion!
A church needs someone, whether it's a staff member, a council member, a volunteer, or an outreach committee, who has some combination of the passion, vision, authority and acumen to lead the charge in initiating, planning, implementing and maintaining a church website.
Posted in: How Our Church Uses Planning Center Online Services
Great idea to post about PCO, Adom! We started using Planning Centre Online at Faith Church in Burlington about 4 years ago. Here are some notes based on our experience.
I highly recommend PCO for any church team, especially where you have one or two technology champions who can assist others with the rollout. There is a huge range of options -- many of which we don't use -- and for those comfortable with using software, it is very intuitive.PCO is an amazing worship planning tool (and more), especially used in conjunction with CCLI. I use a lot of SAAS (Software as a Service) tools in my line of work and PCO is better than most from a user design perspective (not to say there weren't some growing pains from less tech savvy users). They continue to make improvements over time.
Planning Centre Online has been branching into other areas such as volunteer management and online giving. Based on my experience with PCO to date, I suspect those tools would also be great.
Here are some highlights of the features we use most:
- Scheduling - team members (including pastors and AV volunteers) can block out their dates in advance so that our scheduler knows who is available when.
- Email Notifications - A reminder is automatically sent a week in advance to anyone who is scheduled for the next Sunday.
- Planning - we have a general service template so that all of the regular pieces of the order of worship are there. Then you simply drag and drop your songs into the template. The planning matrix view allows you to see past Sunday plans alongside your current plan so that you can avoid repeating songs too often. Our pastor has started to pre-populate the plans in advance with his sermon themes and Bible passages, so that worship leaders can get started planning their services as early as possible.
- Worship Plans/Cue Sheets - Once a service is planned, a one-page PDF of the plan can be sent to all of the team members who are scheduled, along with a note where you can provide special instructions or additional information about the service.
- Reporting - PCO keeps track of when and how often you use songs and allows you to generate reports.
- Music Stand App - I am the only team member who has taken advantage of the Music Stand app but for me it has been a huge game changer. I use my iPad to lead worship. I see the chord sheet in the key of my choice and I advance the page or backtrack using a bluetooth foot pedal. - I am also able to attach prepared notes such as introductory words and prayers and include that on my screen. There are some cool built-in features, including a metronome, and notation and highlighting tools. While the rest of the team sorts through paper file folders to gather their music, I just put my iPad in it's holder and open the app.
Posted in: Help Us Name the New Mission Agency!
Good points, Harry.
I think Faith Alive would actually be a better name for this new agency than any of the choices presented. But that would probably lead to even more confusion.
Posted in: Help Us Name the New Mission Agency!
I may be alone on this, and hate to be a naysayer, but I completed the survey and I was disappointed with all of the name choices presented. I was especially disappointed with the ministry description. It lacks clarity and meaning and is full of jargon.
To me, all of the names are missing the mark. There is an art to branding and art is not best done by survey and consensus.
At the same time, I agree with Harry. Invest time and energy in revitalizing the CRCNA's brand identity and then present the agencies of the CRC as clearly named divisions of the parent organization. There are already too many sub-brands within the CRC and it's confusing to people.
Why not keep the name of this new organization practical, straightforward, and clearly associated with the denomination? LIke "CRCNA Missions"? Or "Christian Reformed MIssions"?
Posted in: Help Us Name the New Mission Agency!
Hi, Josh.
It wasn't clear in your ministry survey that the ministry description was intended primarily for internal use. Either way it should clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and why. It doesn't.
Like you, I'm someone who works in the area of communications, marketing, branding and graphic design. I deeply believe in the power of creative that reaches and inspires people -- to me it's a reflection of who we are as creatures made by a creative God. In my experience, the best way to do this is rarely to throw a bunch of ideas at the wall and rely on the consensus of the general population to choose a brand identity.
I have deep concerns about a 9-month process that yields the kind of results we're seeing in this survey. Either you are receiving poor consultation, or you are not allowing the branding consultant to do their job properly.
I've provided lots of feedback, both in this string and in the survey, not just for the sake of being critical, but because I care and I'm concerned that you are going down a path where people are going to be far more critical than me. In a denomination that is increasingly voicing its concerns and demanding accountability for how ministry resources are being used, I believe you are on a dangerous path.
I'll leave it at that.
I pray for wisdom and discernment and the Spirit's leading as you move forward.
James