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Capturing the fundraising power of millennials
Jim Alvarez Association ManagementMillennials — otherwise known as Generation Y, digital natives, Generation Me, Generation Rent and echo boomers — are generally defined as those born roughly between 1980 and 2000. The group is increasingly making their presence known with an estimated 75.4 million millennials currently living in the United States.
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Church vision isn’t enough
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunityMany churches go through a vision process. This includes hundreds of committee hours researching and praying, and formulating a vision statement and purpose platitudes. What I've discovered is that the church leadership loves the navel-gazing. They lean forward to examine the inner workings of who they are and how they do it. They find nooks and crannies that haven’t been examined for years; what a church should be, and what it should be doing. And they almost always discover exactly what every other house of worship does.
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3 ways to learn from church volunteers
Deborah Ike Religious CommunityVolunteers are on the front lines on Sunday mornings and at church events. They're the ones helping first-time guests check in their kids. They hear comments about the parking lot, sound in the sanctuary, the church website and more.
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Scary indicators that you’re not connected to your community
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunityWhat's the biblical response to shrinking numbers? "Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Luke 14:23 is quite a command! It's saying, "Connect to the community." Church is like throwing a ministry banquet and, of course, we're expecting our congregation to attend. But like the parable, many have (poor) excuses for nonattendance, and our pews aren't full. Yet, right outside our doors we have thousands of people who have no interest in what we're doing.
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7 tasks you can’t afford to overlook when planning church events
Deborah Ike Religious CommunityHosting events at your church can be a great way to serve your community, strengthen relationships and build momentum for growth. However, planning those events can drain staff and volunteers. Here are seven key tasks that you can't afford to miss as you plan the next event for your church.
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Your church brand can learn from cattle branding
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunityBranding originated with cattle farmers who wanted to make sure people could distinguish their cattle from others when they roamed together in a field. They used a hot iron to mark the animals. Ouch! Church branding is the same, but thankfully different. However, several principles are similar.
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The social scene: Choosing the best social media networks for your church
Amy Scott Religious CommunityAlmost every few months, a new social networking website emerges. Long-established social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are popular and well-known, but newcomers like Instagram and Snapchat have quickly gained ground.
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Does your house have foundation issues?
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunityThe wise man builds his house on a good foundation.The complexity with a solid church communication process? Every church has an established process, so as changes are requested and the church tries to improve existing elements, the foundation is neglected. Many times, in our haste, we renovate the top floor before the bottom is finished — or started!
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3 simple ways to improve communication between ministry departments
Deborah Ike Religious CommunityHave you ever felt frustrated with someone from another ministry area at church? Maybe they were late getting in a purchase request and now expect you to rush the approval process. Perhaps the youth pastor left out a few important details about an upcoming event when he needed the information posted online ASAP. Those are moments where you want them to succeed, yet feel frustrated that they didn't communicate sooner (or more effectively).
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5 signs your church needs a new logo
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunityI've been designing logos for three decades. I studied visual branding in college before computers were used. It was a real art form to hand create a symbol that would be combined with a font, and together it would represent an organization. Often hundreds of hours were required.
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