Posts Tagged ‘church’

Deciding on an Outreach Ministry for your Church

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

If your church has decided to start an outreach ministry, one of your most important steps is deciding what type of outreach ministry to start. A lot of variables play into this decision including the talents, size, and passion of your congregation. Other factors include available funding and the time that your staff and volunteers can devote to your new endeavor. A great first step is to gather interested members together to discuss the goals of your church and how you can achieve those goals through an outreach program. Your meeting should also discuss the assets of your church and the limitations or obstacles that you will need to overcome to achieve your goals.

The number of members in your church is crucial in deciding what type of outreach program your church will implement. A large church may have more opportunities for what it can do but may have more difficulty organizing the vast amount of volunteers. Smaller churches may be limited in its programs but can often be more versatile in a variety of projects. Along you’re your size; you should also consider what is already going on in your community. Churches often overlook partnerships with other nonprofit organizations in the community. There may be an organization that is already doing something similar to the program your church wants to start. In many cases, especially for smaller churches, joining forces with an organization such as this may greatly increase the effectiveness of your program. Even if you do not join together with them, you should still seek them out for advice, guidance, and ideas in implementing your own church’s outreach.

Your church members’ talents are an essential determinant in what type of outreach program your church can implement. Through a written survey or in-person meeting you should find out what types of skills your members have. This may come from their employment, previous volunteer experience, or hobbies. For example, if your church is seeking to set up an afterschool program for youth, it would be beneficial for you to have teachers in your congregation.  Just as important as talents are the passions that your members have. Any project will end quickly if your members do not get behind it. Also, because not everyone will have the same passions, make sure that it is explained clearly to the entire church the need that your outreach program will meet and why it is important. In addition to considering your members’ passions and talents, you should also consider the time that your members can put into your new outreach program. Calculating weekly “man hours” can be as easy as taking a poll of your volunteers to see how much time that can commit on a weekly basis to your outreach activities. 

Another important factor to discuss is the amount of funding your church can devote to its outreach program. This will include the initial start up costs as well the cost to maintain the program. In order to make your outreach program meet its fullest potential, you will want to make sure that you are able to sustain the program financially. If this issue is what is holding your program back, think about looking outside of your church for funding to run the program. This can come through private grants, public donations, or fundraising events.

During your decision process it is extremely important that your church stays honest about what it can accomplish through careful examination of all the church’s capabilities and limitations. Once a decision is made on which program to implement make sure that you bring the whole congregation in and not just a small group. If some of your congregation is unable to put in the man hours for running it, make sure that they are involved through prayer and financially supporting the ministry.

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Church Growth and Generation X and Y

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Generation X and Y are seemingly at the forefront of all industries recruiting efforts. As Baby Boomers, who are most likely the majority of your church’s members, grow settled in their respective communities and churches, churches are looking to younger generations to fill their pews. However, attracting this audience will call for a break from the traditional. Generation X and Y require a different approach that focuses on action and technology.

Generation Y’s (born 1980-1997), are referred to as the most tech savvy generation. They are the avid Facebook users, are constantly text messaging, and have their lives saved to hard drives. A survey by Forrester’s 2008 North America Technographics Benchmark reported the following statistics:

  • 90% of Gen Y own a computer
  • 82% own a mobile phone
  • 72% of Generation Y mobile phone users send or receive SMS messages
  • They spend more time online than they do watching television, with 42% watching online video at least once per month.

Generation X’s (born 1965-1979) share similar technological savvy.

  • During the past three months, 69 per cent of Generation X’s have shopped online and 65 per cent used online banking—more than any other group
  • 21% of Gen X are now reading a blog once per month compared to 15% last year
  • 61% of mobile subscribers text compared to 49% in 2007

Thus, technology carries over to ever part of their lives. Generation X and Y expect their jobs, politicians, and churches to be as technologically advanced as they are. In order to attract these generations, your church should evaluate its technological capabilities. Do you have a website? If so, does it work properly? Instead of the traditional mailed letters that you may have instituted during direct mail campaigns, have you set up a Facebook account? Can one download your church’s sermons? Generation X and Y find these types of strategies appealing. Increasing your technological capabilities will show the younger generations that they are welcome to your church.

In addition to technology, younger generations also want opportunities to make a change. Unlike, earlier generations that were content with providing financial donations to charitable causes, generation X and Y would prefer to take action. X’s and Y’s are passionate about social justice, have a burning desire to make a difference and donate more time to charitable causes than any other generation in history[1]. This group is responsible for the dramatic rise in volunteer vacations, spending weeks at a time building shelters for the homeless, preserving the nation’s hiking trails and mentoring at-risk children. Therefore, churches should focus on providing hands-on outreach programs for this generation. Allow them to put the Word to action.

Churches must consider the desires of the younger generation as programs are planned, sermons articulated, worship experiences created and marketing collateral developed. Responding to the needs of the younger generation should prove favorable to your church’s future growth.

[1] Johnson, Carol. Don’t Forget Your Gen X’s and Y’s. www.churchsolutionsmag.com

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Blog Stats to Keep your Church Blogging

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

On average 57 million adult Americans read blogs, which is good news for churches trying to generate awareness about the services they offer the local community. If you’re writing blogs to generate additional donations, you’re not alone. Approximately 53% of professional bloggers are interested in attracting new donors from blogging.

About 63% of respondents say that blogging has led them to become more involved with things they’re passionate about. This is great news for church organizations who can utilize their posts to help volunteers become more passionate about the causes they work with. Hobbyist or persons who are unpaid for the content they generate write about 73% of blogs. Blogs can be a commitment as small as one hour a week to 10 hours a week depending on how often you post.

Technorati has indexed more than 133,000,000 blogs since 2002 and around 77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann. According to recent data 57% of blog readers are male, 48%, were under 30, and 82% were longtime Internet users or had more than six years’ experience online. Blog writers appear to mirror these trends, as two-thirds are male between the ages of 18 and 44. Over 75% have college degrees and 40% have graduate degrees.

Blogs are decidedly content driven but a growing emphasis is being placed on having more multimedia friendly blogs. Over 82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia. Of those who use media other than text, 73% say that that they create the photos, video, or audio they post themselves about half of the time. Only 13% of all respondents say that they never post any images/videos/audio to their blogs, preferring to just use text. With just-text blogs becoming the minority in today’s blogosphere, it’s important to use appropriate multimedia to make your nonprofit blog exciting. Post a picture at a recent fundraising event or a video of a family you just helped. Human-interest stories are really important to make your reader feel empathy in your blog.

Bloggers participate in an average of five activities to drive traffic to their blogs. Which is most successful? Well the jury is still out but Twitter is definitely in the top five. Blogs with greater than 100 page views a day received on average 83% of their page views from Twitter referrals. This referral percentage was constant as the audience size of the blog increased. In other words, the faster the growth of a blog the more important Twitter became in promoting it.

It is important to keep up with your blogs statistics to see how people are finding your blog and how often they are reading it. There are many free blog statistic softwares available to blog writers but the five most commonly used are:

1. Google Analytics

2. StatCounter

3. SiteMeter

4. AWStats

5. MyBlogLog

Blogging is not just about numbers, traffic, or hits to your website but can be a wonderful church marketing tool. Be careful to avoid the trap of writing for search engines rather than human beings. As a church blog, your key objective needs to be keeping the community informed about recent trends in your overall cause or local events sponsored by your church. Build your credibility first and traffic later. Traffic is a direct reflection of writing good content and smart cross promoting of your blog. Contact ChurchNet USA today about setting up a blog for your website so you can take advantage of these exciting statistics.

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Gear up for Summer with Sizzling Savings!

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Summer is almost here… Don’t you think that now is a great time to devote more energy, attention and detail to your church or outreach ministry?

We do too, so we thought we would turn up the heat with our Sizzling Summer Savings!  ChurchNet USA wants to help you get the most out of this summer.  We have developed a great offer for all of our special non profit clientelle, so please take advantage of these sizzling savings:

  • Spend $299-$599: Get 10% off PLUS a Free Website or Web Service!
  • Spend $600-$899: Get 15% off PLUS a Free Website Service!
  • Spend $900 or More: Get 20% off PLUS a Free Website & Flyer!

Don’t Wait… For a Limited Time Only Save Hundreds on the Services you Need. Plus, get Free Value Added Solutions!

Have we convinced you yet?  If  you are ready to start your summer off right,  Contact us today and invest in your church’s future success!

Important Details:
*Free Website can be exchanged for a free web service of equal value
if you already have a website.
*Free Flyer inlcudes design only and is limited to a 1hr service.
*Hosting and Setup Fee Applies

Interested in learning why websites are so important to your organization?  Join us June 8, 2010 from 3 P.M. – 4 P.M. (EST) for a FREE webinar: Must Have Features Every Website Should Have!  Learn how to have an effective, engaging and action-driven website for your church!

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Establish Strong Children’s Ministry in Your Church

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Verses from the Bible such as Mark 16:15 “and he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. (ESV)” tell us that as Christians we should spread the good news of Jesus Christ to others. Your church can accomplish this in a variety of ways but one of the most effective and rewarding outreach channels can be a children’s ministry and outreach.

A strong children’s ministry in your church can be the difference on whether or not first time visitors return to your church the next week. Many families consider a children’s ministry their top priority in selecting a church to attend. A strong children’s ministry has many facets and this article will hopefully put you on the right track to creating one. By creating a coordinated and successful children’s ministry, you will give both your regular church attendees and visitors a sense of the excitement and fun that comes with growing together in God.

First off, establish an “image” or “identity” for your children’s ministry. Just as professional brands like Coca-Cola and Nike create an identity for their products, so must your church for its children’s ministry. Giving your children’s name its own name, logo, and slogan can be the backbone to creating that brand image. Not only do you need to develop it but you need to promote it as well. Create t-shits for volunteers and ministry leaders, put up signs and other paraphernalia in the area of the church where your children’s ministry takes place. It will give children the feeling that they belong to something special and exciting. Make sure you get the whole church involved in promoting this brand by putting it on the bulletins, flyers, and announcements.

It is always important in your children’s ministry to stay very connected with the parents. After all, in most cases, they are the ones responsible for bringing the children to the church every week. Whenever parents check-in their children at the children’s ministry make sure that you have their contact information so that you can stay in touch with them. Sending out parent letters or cards that say, “thanks for visiting” and “we’ve missed you,” are a great way to show parents that you appreciate them. Again, with all of these materials make sure that you are continuing to promote your brand image and include your logo and slogan on the collateral that is sent out to parents. Because printing and mailing can get expensive, think about using an email marketing software to send out bi-weekly emails to the parents on upcoming events and news about the children’s ministry. Another great way to stay connected with parents is to create a blog specifically for your children’s ministry. Have your children’s ministry leader or a volunteer update on a weekly basis the blog to keep it interested. Topics could include a quick synopsis about what the children learned the past Sunday or just some thoughts on parenting.  

It is obvious that a children’s ministry needs children to be considered effective. One way to bring children into your ministry is to put on an event for the community that will attract children and their families. Such events can include a summer vacation bible school, a children’s concert, carnival, or family fun day. When you do set up a children’s outreach event at your church, you will need to take the proper steps to make the public aware of your event. Consider putting up banners on the street and engaging in a direct mail campaign. Another way to market your church outreach event is to print flyers and have volunteers distribute them to the local neighborhoods and it never hurts to utilize local media such as radio and newspaper to advertise. Hopefully, these ideas and tips will have you on your way to establishing an effective and successful children’s ministry in your church.

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Developing a Fundraising Plan

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Fundraising is a primary method by which churches can gain the money required to implement the programs needed to fulfill its growth and outreach goals. Fundraising events can also help raise awareness of the church and its activities through newspapers or newsletters, it can help a church establish an internet site, and it can help the church’s target community. However, in order to successfully fundraise, churches should develop a comprehensive plan of action. A fundraising plan provides a description of the fundraising activities to take place during a given time period. It answers the who, what, when, where, and how of fundraising. The following steps can assist your church with developing a fundraising plan.

Developing Your Fundraising Plan

  • Set goals for the amount of money you need to raise and what the money will be used for. Will you use it for overhead expenses? To fund an ongoing or new program? To build a new facility? To develop an emergency fund for a future rainy day? To close a deficit?
  • If you have more than one goal, develop a fundraising plan for each goal. Goals should be developed with your board of directors, and have the board’s approval. Having your board’s involvement will also set the stage for their participation in the fundraising itself.

Write down your fundraising plan.

  • Develop a written plan that states how much you need to raise, from what sources, and how you will do it. Don’t worry; the plan can be revised as you proceed. Not all of your ideas will work out, or you may find new sources along the way.

Estimate how much your fundraising program will cost.

  • Most experts recommend that fundraising and overall administrative costs not exceed 25% of your overall operating budget. In other words, three-quarters of your expenses should be spent on doing what you were founded to do.  

Identify funding sources

  • Will you fundraise by soliciting foundation grants, government grants, special events, etc?

Develop a timeline for your fundraising plan

  • Fill in a year’s calendar with specific activities, and identify who will be the lead for each of those projects. Go further by developing timelines for each fundraising activity, such as the direct mail campaign, the online auction, or the planned giving seminar.

Evaluate your fundraising plan during the year

  • Plan to evaluate what you are doing every few months. What accounted for the biggest successes? What were the biggest challenges? What fundraising methods should you change, drop, or add?

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Assessing the Outreach Needs of your Audience

Friday, March 26th, 2010

When a church is considering embarking on a new outreach initiative, the input of the congregation is crucial. After all, it is the church members who will be expected to carry out the outreach program. A simple solution to this issue is to survey the congregation on the types of community outreach programs that they would like to conduct. The following steps will help you to design a brief survey instrument that will assess the needs of your congregation.

Surveying your Congregation:

  1. Find out which causes they would like to help.

                List suggestions and provide room for an open-ended response. For example:  If the church were to embark on a new outreach program, which would you prefer to take on?

  1. Reading program
  2. Financial Management Program
  3. Afterschool Program
  4. Single-mothers program
  5. Other

2.  Find out how much time they are willing to give to the outreach program. Do they plan to volunteer daily, weekly, monthly, etc.?

3. Are they willing to support the program financially? An extra program means that additional resources may be needed. While your church can apply for grant funding for outreach programs, it will also need the financial support of the congregation to ensure that the program is sustainable.

4. Solicit Assistance from the congregation. Are they willing to serve on the outreach committee? You will need a few dedicated volunteers to ensure that the program’s administrative processes are designed and implemented effectively.

5. Give them a due date and place for submission.  For example, “We’re performing the survey during the following two weeks. We have placed trays at the entrance for you to return the survey.”

6. Select the need that you are most able to meet given the resources that are available. If the top two choices were a Saturday Breakfast program and an after school program, but your church only has a very limited budget, the Saturday breakfast program may be the best decision.

7. Update the congregation with the survey results! This is an important aspect of surveying your congregation that is often left out. Keep the congregation involved by letting them know of the top choice. Announce the names of the members who will serve on the outreach committee.

By surveying your congregation, you are getting them excited about the outreach program and garnering support for the program early-on. The survey will not only shed light on the desires of the congregation but it will also identify an outreach committee, help in program design (you now know the hours that “work” for your congregation), and secure volunteers. These are major factors in the success of an outreach program.

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Start Reaching Out!

Friday, March 5th, 2010

When developing a church outreach program, your church should first evaluate what it wants to achieve through its program. Is it to demonstrate love to your neighbor, show the community that you exist, or help your congregation meet their “required” community service hours? Developing a solid outreach program in your church can put enormous pressure on the staff and leadership to come up with activities that everyone is interested in and that all will participate in. Many church leaders feel that they are responsible to provide every outreach opportunity possible to their congregation so that their members always have opportunities to love, share, and serve the community. While this is a good objective, what about considering this: Instead of developing an “end-all” outreach program, why not develop a program that can act as a catalyst to encourage and demonstrate to your congregation how to serve and how to get involved. This in turn, can help your church goers get in the habit of recognizing needs in the community and then following up with service, instead of just looking to the church to organize an outreach event or program.

A great example of this being played out is at my local church, Summit in Orlando, Florida. I am a partner of Summit and have been attending for about a year and a half. One reason I was drawn to this church is because of their constant encouragement to be involved in the community and not rely on the church to spread the love of God for you. One of Summit’s outreach programs is an event called niceSERVE. NiceSERVE is a quarterly event that the church organizes that only lasts for one day (actually just four hours). The goal is to “mobilize people to serve locally. This event connects volunteers and local non profits by creating helpful service projects that are geared toward revitalizing neighborhoods and communities.” Four Saturdays a year, over a thousand individuals gather together and are then sent out to twenty or more local non profit organizations. For three or four hours, volunteers engage in activities such as facility clean ups, planting shrubs, sorting food, or playing with children. After, the volunteers come back to the church to eat lunch and then go home.

So what is accomplished in these few hours? Well, initially, there are some benefits to the organization or individual that was served, such as a cleaned yard, encouragement from a stranger, etc.; but that is not the overarching goal of niceSERVE. While initial benefits to the community are great, it is only through constant follow up that an outreach program becomes successful. The goal of niceSERVE is to introduce people to these organizations and individuals in hopes of follow up being completed by the volunteers who participated.

Now something of this magnitude may seem hard for you to pull off. For example, the hours that go into contacting local non profit organizations to discover present needs, organizing project leaders, and gathering supplies are just some of the activities that need to take place before a niceSERVE type event can be accomplished. However, my goal in explaining this project to you is not to have you replicate it, but to understand the premise behind it. Your church’s outreach programs should be the spark, catalyst, or “kick in the rear end” to mobilize and equip your congregation to a discipline of service. So before you organize a parent’s night out, vacation Bible school, or a potluck meal, consider two questions: “How can we improve our community through an outreach program?” and “How can we improve our congregation through an outreach program?”

Be sure to check out our short video on Church Outreach.

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Outreach as a Form of Witnessing

Friday, February 26th, 2010

As a believing body, churches set out to witness the Word to those outside of the church. We often see examples of this in street revivals and door-to-door witnessing. While these methods can be effective, there is another option. Churches can use an outreach program as a form of witnessing. When a church implements an outreach program, it is positioning itself to regularly interact with people outside of the church. It is creating relationships with people who may have never stepped foot in a church. 

When designing your church’s outreach program make sure that your volunteers are positive people, that your program is operated efficiently, and you are welcoming. This may play a pivotal role in a potential parishioner’s choice to attend your church. Remember that church members are charged with shining as lights for others to see the blessings of God. When we shine as lights, we naturally attract people to us and to our places of worship.

Of course, you should also provide church materials at your outreach event. Remember to have flyers or brochures displayed for the program participants or provide t-shirts for your volunteers to wear with the name of the church prominently displayed. Most important, do not forget to invite the program participants to your church. Many unchurched individuals would attend church if they were simply invited.  

Using outreach as a form of witnessing does not follow the traditional means of witnessing. However, by displaying how blessed the congregation is by giving and shining as lights, your church will assuredly attract additional church members. Many people in the world have become numb to traditional tactics of witnessing. Using outreach to reach out allows you to tap into another channel; one that is less defensive and receptive to the blessings that you are attempting to share.

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