Recent Articles

• 3 reasons to unplug during a vacation

  Deborah Ike Religious Community

  With all the chaos and uncertainty we've faced this year, we could all use a few days to relax and recharge. Hopefully, you'll be able to take some time off once Christmas services are over (whatever those end up looking like). While it's tempting to stay plugged in to what's going on at the office, there are a few reasons why you should avoid work email while on vacation.

• The beginner’s guide to church websites: 4 steps

  Mark MacDonald Religious Community

  There are many communication channels for your church. You can talk from the stage, in your bulletin, through text or email messaging, on one or all social media channels, and your website. What matters most? That you communicate where most in your congregation have access to — and where your community can discover you. Print can’t do that economically. Your church needs a digital communication hub that’s trusted and known. Everything points there. If your congregation or community wants info, they know they can find it at your web URL address. Here are the initial four steps to creating a successful website.

• 3 areas where small improvements can make a significant difference

  Deborah Ike Religious Community

  As we start to wrap up a challenging year, making any significant changes or improvements may be a bit too much to ask. However, there are several ways to make incremental improvements that lead to lasting impacts. We all want to see significant results from ministry efforts. We want to see more people coming to Christ, increased attendance at worship services (online and/or in-person), more volunteers serving consistently, etc. Those are worthwhile goals that would be wonderful to see happen. However, getting to that fruit typically doesn’t happen overnight. So, what can you do now to see that fruit later?

• The beginner’s guide to church SEO

  Mark MacDonald Religious Community

  Everyone can benefit from a third-party endorsement where someone recommends what you’re offering. Wouldn’t it be great for a trusted friend to recommend your church? The next best solution is when Google (or another search engine) gives results that recommend you! Winner! We tend to trust one of their first results like we heard it from a trusted friend. The ability to be found on that first page requires a lot of work, though. Here’s how you can ensure your church is the "best" Google solution.

• How clarity builds a stronger team

  Deborah Ike Religious Community

  With more to do than time in the week, it’s imperative to build strong teams that can serve the congregation and community more effectively. Whether a team consists of staff, volunteers, or a combination, each individual needs to know what you expect. A fundamental way to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of any team is by clarifying expectations. A lack of clarity can cause misunderstandings and frustration between team members and between you and your team. Here are three key reasons to clarify roles and responsibilities for your team.

• Warning: 3 things you need to know before a church rebrand

  Mark MacDonald Religious Community

  It’s all the rage, and it’s a great trend. In fact, if you haven’t branded or rebranded your church in the last five years, you should budget for it in the next year. Why? Because an effective rebrand will help you evangelize better, increase membership, and strengthen participation. But before you jump into the rebrand process, understand these three things.

• 4 change management tips for ChMS implementations

  Deborah Ike Religious Community

  Whether you’re starting to use church management software (ChMS) for the first time or switching from a previous vendor, there’s a lot that goes into a successful implementation. New software involves learning a new program, changing processes, and the typical implementation headaches. While everyone may agree that change is necessary, they might still get frustrated along the way. So, how do you have a successful implementation and a happy team? Here are a few tips.

• Churches, ‘COMM’centrate on 6 things

  Mark MacDonald Religious Community

  There are many distractions and options when thinking about church communications. Focus is the key, and that “COMM”centration is required for a church to become noticed. Each person in your community and congregation has a lot of competition for thoughts and actions, too. The shotgun approach rarely works. If you’re not concentrating on the right things by limiting what people know about you, you will be ignored. Here are the six things your church needs to COMMcentrate on.

• Avoiding burnout in a difficult year

  Deborah Ike Religious Community

  2020 has been a year full of unforeseen challenges, to put it mildly. You've probably had to shift gears repeatedly to deal with the latest curveball thrown your way. If you're feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and always on alert for the next battle, you're not alone. Ministry isn't easy in a typical year, but this year has been anything but typical. Even in a season as difficult as 2020, burnout isn't inevitable. Avoiding burnout will require you to make some tough decisions and possibly do things that feel selfish at first.

• Stop developing your church website until you do these 3 things

  Mark MacDonald Religious Community

  You're trying to achieve a great online presence. You're looking at other websites and wondering why they're so informative and entertaining. It's not as simple as it looks. Your church needs a website, but it has to be good (or it'll be ignored). From my decades of helping churches develop communication materials and developing many websites for others and myself, here's what I've learned. Put your website hat down until you do these things.

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