Author Archive
6 Reasons to Podcast Your Sermon
Would it be strange to still say, “Happy New Year”? I can’t believe the month of January is virtually gone and this is our first post of 2010. We’ve been busy over at our other small business marketing site, but we’ve neglected adding any content here.
I came across this post about the importance of capturing your sermons into a podcast. While many churches reading our blog have likely been at this for a while, it should be mentioned anyway. To summarize, the author mentions 6 reasons to make your sermons available via podcast:
- For those who missed the service, they can still listen to the sermon. Perfect for shut-ins or people who are simply sick or out of town one week.
- Having a podcast affords you promotional content – your members can link to it in emails to their friends, tweet about it on Twitter or pass on their link to their huge network of friends on Facebook.
- Easy distribution eliminates (or cuts down) the effort and cost of making CDs and having to mail those out – some folks will still want the traditional method, but you can significantly cut down on costs by moving toward digital delivery.
- A second-time around is best – perhaps your message is so profound someone wants to listen to it again. Or a small group may want to listen to a segment to enhance their discussion during the following week.
- While we know there is alot to our congregations besides the preacher, many visitors count the weekly message as a significant factor in their online search. Making your sermon available in full (or better, an abbreviated snippet), you give visitors a touch point and open the door for their visit.
- Historical archiving establishes a reservoir of content that can be repurposed by members of the church for group study, promotion, or even the preacher himself to use in his blog (you are blogging, aren’t you?)
Although I spent 10 years doing church-planting missionary work in French-speaking, Benin, West Africa, I don’t have a sermon podcast – but you can subscribe to our podcast about ministry marketing and church communication.
-Randy
image source: podcastmysermons.com
Tweeting During Church: Who Else Is Listening?
There have been a number of articles recently on this subject – here’s yet another one from Houston about tweeting in church.
I love the quote from one pastor mentioned in the article:
“It’s a tweeting, Facebooking, MySpacing world,” said (Pastor Rudy) Rasmus. “For a church to ignore that is literally kind of diminishing the influence of current culture, and many churches miss that influence — and ultimately miss a demographic of possible attendees.”
So . . . you’ve heard it said:
“What happens here, stays here.” Catchy slogan for Vegas, but it makes no sense for churches.
One of the positive uses of this technology is to break down the walls of your non-church-going followers. I would assume – or at least hope – that believers who tweet also have plenty of non-believing followers. If you have a solid group of local friends following you, this pulls back the curtain a little bit about what happens behind the walls of your church building. Tweets are often remembered and talked about in other offline venues (over the phone, at our kids’ football or soccer games, or in conversations with neighbors) – you want to invite a question from your non-believing friends about your tweets during the assembly. Done right, these could lead to conversation starters.
During this discussion of tweeting during church, naysayers often point to the fact that it is “distracting” or that parishoners will not be paying attention to the sermon. I think that shows that we often have this cave-like mentality when we go into our sanctuaries as if we lose touch with what influence we have outside. And it often tells alot about the minister’s pride if the deliverer of the message is so consumed by things distracting the listeners. If that’s the case, they were distracted long before they were tweeting. Perhaps they are not good listeners, or perhaps you’re not that interesting for 35 minutes.
Remember, our church-going experience is to send us out with a fire for sharing what we know and have experienced with Jesus. If part of the assembly draws the community of faith together (rather than feeling like we’re just “individuals” in the pews) and something of our weekend experience inside the walls of church opens up a conversation during the week, then it’s a good thing.
I was reminded of a tweet I heard this morning from one pastor (sorry, no appropriate attribution):
“I’m thrilled all of you are here this morning in church. But I’ll be even more excited at the end of the service to see you leave here.” He is thinking missionally and I believe the Twitter technology can be viewed in the same light.
What happens in church needs to be shared during the week.
-Randy
ACU Summit – Streaming Live
Our friends at ACU Summit have launched a great new feature this year – watching the main keynote addresses LIVE via streaming video! Great job guys!
PODCAST: Mike Cope, Part 2 of 2, Heartbeat
You can always subscribe to our MINISTRY MARKETING PODCAST on iTunes for this interview and more to come!
We had the privilege of interviewing Mike earlier this summer. Listen to the interview (click on the PLAY or PLUS button below):
Mike Cope, Part 2 of 2, Interview with The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative (only 14:29 in length!)
Mike Cope – Part 2 of 2 – 1429 Creative Podcast
Continue the conversation on Twitter:
Mike Cope – @runmichael
Landon Saunders – @yesjoy
Donny Vaughn – @1429creative
Randy Vaughn – @marketingtwins
PODCAST: Mike Cope, Part 1 of 2, Heartbeat
You can always subscribe to our MINISTRY MARKETING PODCAST on iTunes for this interview and more to come!
We had the privilege of interviewing Mike earlier this summer. Listen to the interview (click on the PLAY or PLUS button below):
Mike Cope, Part 1 of 2, Interview with The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative (only 14:29 in length!)
-Randy
PODCAST: Joel Quile, Bara Church, INTERVIEW – Part 1 of 3
You can listen to the replay of:
Part 1 of the 3-part interview with Joel Quile, Bara Church, Trophy Club, TX
1429 Creative Podcast – Part 1 of 3 – Interview with Joel Quile – Bara Church 2
You can always subscribe to our MINISTRY MARKETING PODCAST on iTunes for this interview and more to come!
-Randy
FISHERS OF MEN: Aquarium Church in Dallas Sets Itself Apart
When you’re looking for new inspiration that will differentiate your sanctuary or church building from all the others, why just think about carpet colors, statues, stained glass, or playscapes for kids? Think bigger people.
The Inspiring Body of Christ Church (IBOC) recently set themselves apart as having the world’s largest display of its kind.
Think FISH.
Here’s a VIDEO on our local Dallas TV station.
Here’s a gallery of photos from the company tasked with building the custom made display.
Three observations that lead to questions:
- Could it serve a dual-purpose as a baptistery? How cool would that be?!! (except I’d ask for them to restrain the 2-foot long sharks) – How much creativity is out there in Christendom when it comes to baptisteries? You got your traditional, outdoor, portable and heated or non-heated. Anyone else doing anything unique in that category? Any church created a river of life in the middle of their foyer? Another cool thought – have the whole church gather on the shores of a man-made lake inside the church building – think of the sermon illustrations you could do from there!
- In the news report, they hired full-time staff people to look after the aquarium – that’s an outreach, huh? Look for FT employees who may be great at their job, but not necessarily a person of faith. Do churches usually require staff to be FT members of a church?
- If you check out Acrylic Tank Manufacturing’s gallery of photos (link above – “the company tasked…”), about 1/3 of the way down is a guy in an orange ATM vest – check out the tagline. “Lifestyles of the Fish and Famous” – classic!
Church Offering: Paper or Plastic? – The Credit Card Issue
Churches have for years struggled on the decision to make it possible for their church-goers to use credit/debit cards to pay their tithe.
There are about 3 different ideas about why you SHOULD:
- Beat the summer slump – this is that inevitable season during the year when traditional contributions are down because people are traveling and not in town to give. Having a “make up offering” is burdensome and possibly a turnoff – although I can’t testify as to its effectiveness or not for sure. (My guess is that they never really make up the difference).
- People are paying all their other bills online – so help givers make their giving systematic and consistent. Making it a regular, recurring payment each month beats that slump (see #1) and gives people the joy of giving simply because they know they are more like to actually give. No more writing the check just before the offering plate is passed, or reaching into the wallet to pull out what few dollars are there. Online giving gives disciplined disciples an opportunity to give easily; and for those not so disciplined, it affords an opportunity to be faithful.
- People tend to give MORE when they are not writing a check or emptying their wallet. That’s not meant to sound greedy, but I believe it’s true (it is with me).
There are a couple of suggestions about why some say you SHOULD NOT:
- Dave Ramsey says not to! The Church’s financial guru (that’s my name for him) holds alot of weight and this goes against everything he teaches about using CASH!
- On Dave’s heels, is it possible that people would charge their tithe on their AMEX and never pay it off? Is that honoring God?
- Some suggest that taking the offering out of the context of Sunday worship makes it more of a duty (or worse, a perceived “bill” just like utilities and groceries) – isn’t part of our weekly worship to include the act of giving, too?
Here is an article from a couple of years ago from the Dallas Morning News – some of the same arguments above are made in this article about churches promoting online giving.
I think as long as the church promotes the use of debit or check cards, it’s great! Your thoughts?
-Randy
Cartoon image credit: kazoot
What’s the Mission of Your Church?
What’s your MISSION?
The Great Commission is clear.
The Church’s Mission seems to be unclear.
Frankly, so many churches are still so concerned about its membership, that we have to admit that we’re often pretty much an exclusive local club looking for ways to keep the participants happily engaged while at the same time, keeping them generously participatory (we need their money to keep them happy, right?)
Perry Noble, Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church, located in Anderson, SC recently asked this on Twitter:
@perrynoble: If we really believed in the reality of heaven and hell…would we waste as much time as we do on each other…or would we reach the world
Ouch.
The mission of the church will always be based on Acts 1:8 – making disciples locally and globally. If the majority of your church’s time and money is spent more on the members, something’s upside down.
Maybe it’s time for some change.
Gary Hamel made a big impression at The Leadership Summit (#tls09) last week. I’m gonna let Dave Ferguson tell you about the highlights of Gary’s topic of CHANGE.
Recent guest writer on this blog, David Tonen, also contributes to this conversation about change. David asks your church the question:
What Will You Do That No One Else Is Doing? (enjoy the 3 min video from Craig Groeschel on which the question is based)
-Randy