Archive for INSPIRATION
Merry Christmas from 1429 Creative
The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season. We know many of you are planning on taking time off over the next few weeks and we hope to do the same.
It’s been a great 2009 for us and we appreciate the relationship we have with all of you. We look forward to continuing our efforts in offering you value-added content in 2010 that can help your business, organization, personal branding efforts or even your ministry.
Here’s a fun video to watch as we close out 2009 and enter this magical holiday season. We are thankful for the birth of Jesus because of the “Amazing Grace” that He offers all of us. May you celebrate that gift and time with your family and friends in the weeks to come. Merry Christmas everyone!
5 Things a Minister Can Do While on Vacation
Many of our great ministers are allowed to take some much needed time off during the summer. While relaxing on a family vacation might be just want they all need, we thought of a few other things (namely 5) they could do as well:
1) Get active on Facebook – if you aren’t connecting on Facebook with church members already, you are missing a great opportunity. There are now over 250 million active Facebook users – chances are many of them a church members who pour out what is going on in their lives between Monday and Saturday. Church is all about the people and the people are on Facebook. It’s time for connections.
2) Get active on Twitter – Ok, maybe Twitter doesn’t have 250 million active users like Facebook but it’s still a useful tool. There are some great resources out there to help you understand how to use Twitter but we are launching a course on July 24th that will occur in August so check out Twitter Twaining Camp!
3) Get active in using email to connect and communicate – Email still works!! Did you know that? Yes, it still is a vital and effective form of communication. Setting up a regular email communication plan using an permission-based email marketing program can be a great way to keep members and guests up-to-date on events going on at your church as well as a way to drive those same individuals back to your church’s website. And wouldn’t it be great to track the results of all your email messages? Yes, that’s possible.
4) Blog, blog, and blog – Despite the onslaught of Facebook and Twitter, blogs are still an essential part of the pastoral toolkit when trying to maximize communication of the Good News of Jesus! Whether you choose to blog using services like Blogger, WordPress or TypePad or if you are simply using the blog feature on your church’s website, you should begin the process of producing quality and effective blogs. Use blogs to get sermon feedback, sermon ideas, announce church community events or to simply open the “personal door” a little to let members get to know the real you. Blogs are great for search engine optimization because of the fresh, new content they provide as well.
5) Create a YouTube Channel and produce some videos – Video is a great form of communication and a great way to get your message and the message of Jesus to more and more people. Use it to communicate your mission trips like Max Lucado or use it to broaden your church’s message and humorous videos like The Branch. A great way to use video would be to place “sermon snippets” on your website but place them on your YouTube channel so people can watch 7-minute versions of your series on financial matters or what the Bible says about marriage. Or possibly create a video that shows a guest what an experience would be like to visit your church from the parking lot, through the greeters at the door, to even where the kids need to be dropped off for Bible Class. Wouldn’t that be helpful to a first-time visitor?
So there you go! So on your drive to Destin, Florida or on the flight to Disneyland out in California, take a moment and make a plan. Here are 5 things to help you get started!
-Donny
Strategy: Can Small Churches Really Thrive & Make An Impact?
Ed Stetzer, author of Comeback Churches, shares this encouraging article for those smaller congregations who beat themselves up for not thinking they can make an impact because they lack the size, resources, or personnel.
As a part of a team planting a new church in Denton, TX (that’s me with 2 of my kids in the pink and gold) and coming most recently from a 4,000+ church, I can see this:
- Smaller churches can provide a more flexible and dynamic discipleship program – one that adjusts to the people involved (not just running every person through a turn-key program)
- Prayer is a powerful means by which the small church can make an impact. Globally, smaller churches may not contribute significantly to missionary efforts (although there are plenty of cases of generosity), but small groups of believers can gather together in Jesus’ name. I don’t think Jesus would have said what he said about 2 or 3 had he really meant, “you gotta be big to do big things in the Kingdom.”
- Smaller churches are needed – there are just some people who would never grace the doors of a mega church simply because of its size. It wouldn’t matter if their favorite coffee beverage was served in the mega church’s Holy Grounds coffee bar (can’t we be more creative than that?), offered 16 different jump houses for their kids each Sunday, or had the most riveting hip-hop praise (for me, not into that, but hey, others say it’s reaching the lost) – some are never going to go into a big place. Smaller churches meet this need without question.
-Randy