Simple Church Communication

Things I Learned at #LCI2012: Day 2 PM

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:36:34 PST

For the past few days I have been attending the Large Church Initiative at First United Methodist Church in Richardson.

The general session speakers and workshops have been so great in the wisdom, and ideas they have shared. However, as one person put it, it's kind of like drinking water from a fire hydrant. So much stuff coming at you at one time.

I'm taking a little time to use these posts to help me digest and filter through the key things that I have learned. Maybe they will help you to.

In the first post I talked about our opening night of worship. The second post shared what we learned from the morning keynote speakers, before lunch.

After lunch we had two more keynote speakers. Here are some of my notes from those.

Keynotes

Rick Bezet - From New Life Church

Rick talked about the fact that we need friends in ministry. We need to be relational.

He said there are 5 main reasons people leave or do not attend church...

1. Don't Like the Music - Too contemporary, too traditional, it doesn't matter. Here is the question.

"Are you gearing your sound towards those who are already in your church, or those you are trying to reach?" ouch...

2. People are not kind. Don't make the ushers at the door, and the greeting time in your service the only time a guest is spoken to and welcomed. The harvest is showing up in your church. Teach your congregation how to be welcoming.

3. Sermons are Not Relevant - Pastors who are relational tend to be practical in their teaching. How can your creative team help your message to be relational.

4. Kids Don't Like it - Have a children's ministry that shocks people because it's so good.

5. Church Just Wants My Money - They don't want me, the just want what I have... How can we value people so they know they are important, wanted and loved?

Chris Hodges

Chris talked about his ministry strategy and how it is based on the 4 cups of the Passover story from Exodus 6.

1. Cup of Salvation - I will bring you from under the burden of the Egyptians -

2. Cup of Deliverance - I will free you from being slaves - Discipleship... Even though we are saved from slavery, we still think like our old selves. Accountability is a big part, people who will ask tough questions.

3. Cup of Redemption - I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and acts of judgement. This is where we find God's purpose for us. He brings us back into what we were created to do.

4. Cup of Praise - I will bring you to be my people - God says we are going to be a team, a family.

Few extra thoughts - Training/Sunday School should be for the expressed intent of training people to do what God has called them to do.

Workshops

Social Media Strategy- Scott McClellan

5 things successful organizations use social media to do

1. Listen - people share more on social media than real life. You can discover ministerial opportunities, and respond to them in ways you never could before, if you listen

2. Converse - Engage people in some sort of give and take. Use social media to continue the sermon conversation. Take prayer concerns, ask people what they think of different things. Create conversation.

3. Share - Sharing is about giving and not what you will get back. Share the right stuff with the right people and you will be indispensable.

4. Tell Stories - Tell about what is interesting and going in in your church or with your people. You can use links, videos, photos and more to tell the story through social media.

5. Invite - Social media allows your story to spread. You can reach people you never would have reached in your own personal spheres of influence. Invite people to be part of what you are doing in social media but more importantly invite them to be part of your church.

Planning Worship in a Team Concept - FUMCR Worship Planning Team

How to plan as a team, and things to think about when planning worship.

1. Determine who is coming to your worship services. What types of people.

Faithful

New Church Shoppers

Spouse who would rather be somewhere else

Pregnant mom who's husband just left

Employer who has to lay off employees

Once you know who is in your service, make sure there is something for each of those attending. This could be a scripture, a line in a song, video etc...

2. Think of ways you can broaden your worship style, not change it. Try to incorporate a more, not instead of. You can brooding your worship style, without changing the style of your worship.

*Design your worship around those you are trying to reach, not what you are trying to do.

3. Rhythm and Flow are important -

How you change things affects the flow or rhythm. High energy to low energy, or the other way.

Do not let liturgy dictate the flow. Be flexible so that it flows naturally

Pauses, dead space, technical glitches all kill the flow.

Work on transitions. Rehearse!

4. On Liturgy

We want people to be active participants, not just consumers.

Use some traditional creeds and response, but seek out or write new ones to use.

Sometimes scripture readers can "set up" a scripture, or let it speak for itself

5.On Music -

When making changes, or suggestions to your music director, go slow and be patient.

The phrase "We need to do more of this" can easily be taken as "you don't like what I'm doing."

6. On Children -

Make sure children are part of your services all year round.

Create dialog parents can use with their children about that worship services

Give families ways to serve together, maybe have a family usher.

Invite kids and parents to a special time, other than Sunday morning, where you can explain what happens in church, why we do the things we do, how stuff works.

7. On Screens and Media -

What you put on the screens should enhance, not distract

Go slow

Don't let what you CAN do with your new software dictate what you do.

Closing Worship

Our closing worship was led by the Access worship team. Access the contemporary worship at FUMC Richardson. We were challenged by Olu Brown to think about what would happen if we succeed?

He used the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20. He talked about being in a place of great doubt, and great faith at the same time, like the disciples after Jesus' death and before his resurrection. That the people we are called to reach are often in that same place between faith and doubt, and that it's ok because God is big enough to handle our doubt, and your faith.

But the key is that we have to move on and go. If we stay in that brokenness we miss Easter Sunday.

Don't commit yourself to the minister of Good Friday. Go! Make disciples.

So are you here at LCI2012? What did you learn this week? Share some in the comments.

Read more - Things I Learned at #LCI2012 : Day 1 Day 2 AM

Things I Learned at #LCI2012 : Day 2 AM

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:50:09 PST

Where day one of the Large Church Initiative 2012 or #lci2012 was great food and awesome music, day two we spent listening to some challenging and inspiring messages.
The day started with breakfast and then our trip, in school busses, to FUMC Richardson.

Side note - This is definitely one of the prettiest churches I have ever been in.

Through the sessions and workshops I took notes, I'm just going to share a few of the things I learned from each one:

Mike Slaughter -

The main thing from his keynote speech is the idea that we have adopted an organizational model, instead of a missional model for ministry. Organizations tend to spend most of their time, money and resources maintaining themselves, instead of reaching out and being missional in the community.

When we change to being missional, we have a purpose and a passion.

He challenged us to think about multiplication instead of expansion in our churches. We don't need to build more buildings, or bigger buildings, but look at other ways our church can multiply it's DNA in other areas.

Two great ideas were restarts, and house churches.

With a church restart you reclaim buildings and save money, while starting a new congregation. The money you saved could go into other missional areas.

We need to find ways to, as he said "Minimize the brick, and maximize the mission!"

He also talked about being a mission focused church. To pick one significant mission focus to put your energy and money into as a church.

My favorite quote... "Christmas is not your birthday. On your birthday you can do something to honor yourself, but on His birthday do something that honors JESUS."

Clayton Oliphint
Rev. Dr. Oliphint is the Senior Pastor at FUMC Richardson

He talked about the role of leadership, using a passage from Nehemiah 6:1-3

"When you try to do something new, people will come to you and try to take you to 'Oh-no'.. They will tell you a million reasons why you cannot do what you are doing." - Dr. Oliphint

He told us as leaders we need to do three things:

1. Clarify the purpose -
Constantly ask "Why are we doing this? What is our purpose?"

2. Have Passion -
We have to be passionate and be willing to give our all whether we have 12 or 12,000 in our church, program, ministry, worship service etc...

We tend to end up with an "it will do" mentality. Thinking it's good enough, when we should be thinking "It will never do", constantly striving to do more, find new ways to be in ministry and serving those God has called us to reach.

3. Keep it About People -
Keeping numbers is ok, but remember each number is a person. We should be about the transformation process in people and in the world.

Lisa Greenwood

Lisa is the Contemporary worship pastor for Access, FUMCR's contemporary service.
She used the story of Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones... Ezekiel 37:1-11 to talk about how God can work through us to bring life, if we'll listen and obey.

Ezekiel was God's messenger and found himself standing in front of a valley of dry bones, to whom God told him to prophesy.

It made me thing about who or what those dry bones are in our ministries. Churches? Ministries? People? Cities? Do I have the courage to stand up and speak God's word, to prophesy to those?

"It's easy to see the realities. Dry, dusty, worn out, hopeless. But we are called to see the possibilities, to see the things that aren't there, to see what God sees. To often we thing that what it is, is just the way things are."

Too often we look at our positions or ministries and think, "I can't do anymore. And if I cannot make it happen, then it cannot happen."

We are not called to complacency, we are called to trust in God.

Trust God can do more than you could ever imagine...

Wow.. and that was only from the first half of the first day! I'll get notes from the workshops and final keynotes up later.

Things I Learned at #LCI2012: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:02:57 PST

I just finished my first day of the Large Church Initiative conference at First United Methodist Church Richardson, Tx. Over 500 pastors, staff and lay people from large Methodist churches across the nation have come together to worship, listen and learn about how we can be more effective in ministry, and how we can do better in our mission to make disciples, for the transformation of the world.

Day 1 started out with our trip to get here. Once we arrived and got checked in we had a great dinner from the volunteers at FUMC Richardson.

We then went to the sanctuary for a concert featuring Eric Michael, Josh Wilson and Jars of Clay. Though I am a big Jars of Clay fan I have to say my favorite part of the night was Josh Wilson playing an instrumental version of "Amazing Grace."

This is not the performance from this concert.. but here's a youtube of him doing that song.

And of course Jars of Clay was good. They did a more acoustic set with two acoustic guitars, keyboard, cello and light drum set. It was nice that they played some of my favorites from their earlier CDs along with some of the more recent songs.

Tomorrow we will hear from some great speakers and head to some breakout workshops.

If you want to follow what's going on here at LCI then check out the hashtag #lci2012 on twitter.

5 Reasons I'm Taking the 31 Days to a Better Blog Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:40:12 PDT

Last year problogger.com issued the 31 day blogger challenge. Bloggers signed up, and were given a task do complete with their blog each day. It was a great way to get some new ideas, and some expert advice from creator Darren Rowse.

Since that time Darren has turned his 31 days blog challenge into an Ebook called 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for anyone interested in taking the challenge on their own. It contains advice and ideas, along with a task for each day.

The first day's challenge was to write an Elevator statement for your blog. I'm still working on that, but the second was to write a list post. So why am I taking this challenge?

1. I need to learn to blog more consistently. Hopefully by taking this and making myself blog once a day for 31 days, I will get into better practice.

2. I want to know more blogging skills. Up to this point I have tried to glean ideas from some others, but I think the advice from a seasoned, proven blogger will give me some of the tools I need to move on to the next level.

3. I'd like to make some money - Up to this point I haven't really tried blogging for money, but I do know that it is possible. By writing more consistently, and writing better maybe I can turn this into a way for some extra income.

4. I want to help others in their blogging. - I have friends and family members who have their own blogs and look to me for advice. I want to learn things that I can pass on to them, and help them get their ideas out as a blog.

5. I have nothing else to do. - Ok that's not true. I have plenty to do, but if I am going to use blogging as a way to advance ideas, teach, and or make income I need to make time for it.

So there it is...my first blogging challenge. I am attempting to try this for two of my blogs. I'll do it mostly on my personal music ministry www.forkintheroadmusic.org blog, but write about the process here on simplechurchcommunication.com.

UMR Communicators Conference-Day 1 Photos and Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:22:23 PST

Today was the first day of the UMR Communicators Conference. Here are some photos and thoughts from the first day.

Rainy drive up.

Welcome by Debbie Christian and lunch.

Opening session by Tim McLemore

Workshop.. How to get organized.. with Samantha Naeyaert

Thoughts-

We started with our keynote speaker Tim McLemore. First let me say, awesome jazz piano player. He used hymns, poems, songs, and humor to talk to us about how we look at things. Here are some quick notes.

- The biggest change we make in a situation is not what we do, but who we are.

- It is important to take time to take notice of the world around you

- Find time to enjoy everything

- Get out into nature, reconnect with the creator

This was so helpful as we began to talk about keeping our balance. I began to wonder how I can take time to step back, look at the whole picture and make sure I enjoy life.

My first workshop was Getting Your Circus Act Together: Finding Peace through Organization

Samantha shared a lot of tips, and practical ways to get organized and stay organized. Here are some thoughts I wrote down:

-You cannot set your priorities till you know who you are-

- First choose the relationships that are important to you.

- Once you understand that every move you make affects a relationship, you can manage your time because you'l know what time waters to get rid of, and which relationship growers to choose

- Find one thing to accomplish daily. Examples: Clean your inbox, wash your dishes, sweep the floor. Then you can say every day that you at least accomplished one thing.

My final workshop was Communications 201 with Liz Applegate. We talked about all the varieties of methods churches can use to communicate, and how we can use them effectively.

-Determine who you as an organization

-More than the church logo- What do people say about your church? What do you want them to say?

- Do we use our communications to proclaim the story of Jesus Christ, or to say "look what programs we have!"

- Your marketing may be the only invitation a visitor receives.. is it deserving of that honor?

-Determine in advance, which communication methods are used, based on priority

- QR codes.. the next thing?

Of course there are many pages of notes and thoughts to digest. These are just the beginning.

Tomorrow I will learn more about volunteer optimization, and writing skills.

Remember.. follow what's going on using twitter hashtag #umr11

Less Clutter Less Noise- The Group Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:55:43 PST

Have you read Kem Meyer's book Less Clutter Less Noise. If you are in church communications and have not had a chance to read the book, I highly suggest you buy it and read it now.
Ok, so maybe you aren't a big reader. What if someone read it for you and highlighted some important facts from each chapter? What if then several people discussed, asked questions, commented and shared thoughts on the concepts in that chapter?
That's exactly what has happened over at Our Church dot Com's group blog. 15 bloggers got together, took a chapter each and shared their thoughts. Think of it like.. Cliff Notes for Less Clutter Less Noise
So go take a look, read, think and discuss. However I can say, as one of the writers, there is far more in each chapter than can be captured in one blog post, so if you do get a chance.. Read the book!

UMR Communicators Conference-Pre Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:26:21 PST

For the past few years I have enjoyed going to the United Methodist Reporter Communicators Conference. This two day event is put on by the wonderful people of the UM Reporter. They are the ones that print our monthly Insight magazine.
I cannot tell you how much wisdom and information I have gleaned over the years, not just in the workshops, but in talking to the presenters and participants throughout the event.
This year the theme is "Finding The Balance: Inspiration to Information." Though I cannot remember all the workshops I know I am focusing on things like writing, developing a communications strategy, and budgeting.
Throughout the event I'll be taking notes, and sharing my thoughts through twitter. You can follow me at www.twitter.com/rgmmusic. Better yet follow the #UMR11 search in my sidebar to get everyones thoughts and comments.

5 Things You Could Take Out To Make a Better Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:53:17 PST

Sometimes it's not what you put in your newsletter that makes it good, but what you leave out. We tend to add so many things into our publications that they get crowded and complicated, when simple is much better. There are many things that could be listed, but here are my top 5 things that you should consider eliminating to make a better newsletter.

1. Boxes
We box things because we think they are important. But if you put a box around everything, then nothing is important. Its like taking a beautiful piece of classical music, with it's dynamic contrasts, and playing everything double forte, or really loud. If you must, choose one or two items that need to be highlighted and bring attention to them.

Boxes are also used to help with the layout of text. If you do not get the boxes lined up correctly, the mismatched lines are more distracting then helpful.
If you still use the boxes, take off the outline so that it is not as noticeable. Better yet, use columns to help guide your layout.

2. Fonts
One font is boring, two fonts are good, three fonts is pushing it, but four or more is just plain wrong. Too may fonts makes it too hard to focus again on any one thing. If everything is different we get tired trying to see what's important. Choose 2 fonts. Use one for body text, and the other for headers, callouts etc. To add a little variety you can use things like Bold, Italic, and Underline.

3. Links
Does your newsletter go online? If so, you need to either make an separate print, and online version, or make sure your one version is compatible with both. If you want to link to a specific page, do not just go to the page, copy the link and insert it into your text.

If you are directing your reader to a site like www.forkintheroadmusic.org and your program recognizes links that might be ok. However, if you are linking to a page within a website sometimes the addresses are not that clear, like www.forkintheroadmusic.org/home/songs/10-03-10/mymusic/angelise.mp3, it's not so easy.

Make it easy. Tell them in print like you were speaking to them in person. For example "go to 'www.forkintheroadmusic.org', click on 'my songs', and then find 'angelise'." Better yet, create a link to the file on your website either on your home page or under links, and say "the link is located on our website under links. For your online version you can make a hyperlink directly to the text.

4. Word Art
Nothing screams "the 90's called and want their newsletter back" like a newsletter filled with Microsoft Word Art. I know it's so easy to do, and looks so cool. Granted, use it once and you might could get away with it. But it's like pistachios, you can't just have one pistachio,and the little button that makes cool Indiana Jones 3D letters is addictive. So just don't do it!
Instead, use a logo or the 1 font you have chosen to use for headlines.

5. Clip Art
The same problem that exists with word art, exists with clipart. Every article or announcement does not need a cute graphic to go with it.

If you are taking a logo from a website, make sure you get the entire logo. Often websites put their logos up in pieces to help them load faster. If you right click and save the first part, you won't get the whole picture. Check first, a lot of sites may have a logo page. If that doesn't work, send an email to the webmaster and see if they can send you a logo.

Use photos instead of clipart. If you have an article about an coming bible study grab a photo of a bible, instead of the clip art version. They will both print just as well, but the photo will say a lot more about the quality of your publication, and organization.

Why?
I believe that your newsletter is a great opportunity to reach out into the community and tell others about your church. It is often the first impression that person will have about your church. What impression about your church do people get from your church newsletter publication.

Want to see how your newsletter stacks up? Download this Newsletter Quiz. from the Alabama West Conference Communication Website.

What do you think? Are these important? What would you add to the list?

Information or Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:54:33 PDT

One communication blog I almost always open comes from Kem Meyer. In her most recent post, Revamping Communication Arts Volunteer-ism she shares some information about the Communication Arts and Tech Ops Teams at Granger Community Church. I invite you to read the full article for yourself.

I wanted to point out one line in the "Communication Arts Teams" page that I think is often overlooked, yet vitally important.

Ready?

Here it is...

Transform content from “information” to “inspiration” through clever copywriting and editing.

Did you catch it? How many times do we spit out information without it being inspiration? Why is it so easy to print information instead of inspiration? How can we turn information into inspiration?

So what do you think? Let me know in the comments section or on Simple Church Communication Facebook Page.

Church Signs?

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:50:37 PDT

I was driving down to Houston a few months ago and I was looking out the window when I my eyes started catching church signs. A few advertised an upcoming revival or pot luck dinner, and a few had such sayings like "There's no A/C in Hell."

A quick google search came up with a few clever sayings like "There's some questions Google can't answer" and the ever famous "Sign Broken, Message Inside."

My favorite are always the ones that don't quite say what they may have intended. "Don't Let Worry Kill You, Let the Church Help"

After reading all the variety of signs I began to wonder what is the purpose of the church sign, and how best can we use it to communicate? What kind of message can you send in only 5 lines of 20 letters each?

The folks over at "Church Marketing Sucks" (reason for name) posted about this a few years ago when Joel Bezaire wrote "When Church Signs Suck" After his top ten list of things not to put on your sign he writes this:

"Most churches would admit that their church signs serve one of four purposes. First, the church sign can encourage current members to attend. Second, it can encourage non-believers or those who currently do not attend church to attend. Third, a church sign may improve the church’s image in the community. Fourth, a church sign can be another outlet for a church to glorify Christ and make Him known."

So what should you put up on your sign? Here's his suggestions:

Bible verses. (Note: Please choose Bible verses that make sense on their own and do not require a theology degree and three chapters of context.)

Service times.

News of how the church is working in and with the community. As a special bonus, not taking the time to think up these slogans actually leaves time for a church to work in and with the community.

General church news (new pastors, exciting growth, new programs, new buildings, etc.)

Upcoming sermon titles, provided they do not breach any of the above 10 categories.

So what do you use your church sign for? Do you think it's a good way to communicate? Share some of the best, worst or funniest church signs you have come across...

Before You Click Send or Print

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:01:44 PDT

It is almost time to leave the office, but you have stayed to finish up a flyer or postcard that had to be done today. So you add the text, pick a background and format it on the right size of paper. Time to print? Not so fast. Pressing print may cause you to waste time and money, and it could have been avoided.

Here is a list of 5 things to check before you press print :

1. Is everything spelled correctly?

Remember that spell check does not catch everything. The computer does not know when I mean "First Untied Methodist Church." Get someone else to check your work. Also read your publication from the bottom up. This way you will not be reading it the same way you have been for the past hour, and may catch something different.

2. Do you have too many fonts?

One font is great, Two fonts are better, Three fonts are pushing it. Think about using one font for your text and one for titles.

3. Is everything formatted consistently?

Are your times 3:00 p.m. or 3:00 pm or 3:00 PM? Are you going to list phone numbers like this 903-555-1212 or (903)555-1212 or 903.555.1212? It does not matter as much which is technically correct as you are consistent.

4.Is the information clear and complete?

If you are telling people to contact someone, do you include the contact information? When I duplicate information from the web to a flyer I have to make sure that I remove web only text like "Click Here" for more info. Also do you have all the room numbers, dates, locations and directions?

5. Are your graphics the right size?

Luckily the printing requirements for most church office printers are not as strict as those for commercial printing. That being said I am always amazed at the number of pixelated, grainy, distorted images that appear on flyers everywhere. Remember, if a photo is too large it can always be made smaller. However if a photo is too small it cannot be made larger without losing quality. Also, when resizing your graphics make sure and keep the proportions the same.

Checking these 5 things will help to insure that you do not have to re-do and print again. It may take a little extra time initially, but will definitely save you time, money, and embarrassment in the end.

Which of these do you tend to overlook most?

What would you add to the list?

5 Steps to a Better Church Website

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:48:41 PDT

There are a lot of great church websites out there. That being said, there are a lot of not so great church websites out there. No matter where you feel your site is on that spectrum, the fact is we always need to be looking for ways to keep our site relevant, fresh and updated.

I ran across a post from communicorps.org which lists 5 quick tips to improve your church website.

They give 5 suggestions but my favorites are:

(1) Keep it updated. No website is better than an old website. Make sure your information is always current. Only add areas to your site when you know you can keep them updated. A visitor browsing your site and finding details about last year's summer programs will not speak well of your church.

(3) Skip the cheesy junk. That MIDI file that plays "How Great Thou Art" on your home page? Ditch it. Also get rid of those spinning GIF crosses, the animated metallic fish picture and the tiled stained glass window background image. In web design, less is more. Look at what the best sites do (Amazon.com, Yahoo.com, msn.com)--they're colorful, organized, legible and at the same time they're all business. With each site feature, ask yourself, "Is this what I go to a website for?" If you're unsure whether something is a smash or just trash, ask others for their opinions.

I encourage you go head over and see what numbers 2, 4, and 5 are. While there you can check out some free logos, and graphics plus tons of other great articles regarding communication.

What do you need to change about your church website?

Food for Thought: The 40 Hour Work Week

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:34:03 PDT

Worship Leader Carlos Whittaker does a great job of writing posts that make you think. Sometimes it's just a photo with "Caption Please", and sometimes it's a quote or a short story.

Here is a clip of what he posted today:

Before the church had “offices”, which was not very long ago, the ministers were out in the community doing “church”

He goes on pose the question of how much ministry opportunities are we missing outside our walls, in the community, while we sit in our church offices planning "ministry?"

He also has an interesting proposal on how to fix it.

I'm not going to tell you everything, I just wanted to bring it to your attention, and encourage you to go read the whole post for yourself. While you're there go ahead and check out some more of his posts.. and his music

Where to Find Free Graphics?

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:26:50 PDT

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then you need a place to find the perfect photo for your screen, video or print publication. So what are some free resources for finding graphics for print and screen productions? I'll get the list rolling with a few that I use:

Flickr- I search for photos which are posted under creative commons license. This basically means you can use them but you need to give credit to the owner. Flickr is an only photo community where members post their photos for others to comment on, view and use. You may have to do a little searching for the right photo, but I have found some good ones. Flickr also has groups where you can find graphics uploaded by people with similar interests. For example the Church Marketing Lab is a group where church communicators post their publications for feedback and critique.

Creative MYK- This site is a christian community of talented people who want to share their work with others. You can find many different formats of graphic materials. This includes not only photos, but adobe photoshop files, illustrator files, and screen graphics. Many of these files are editable so you can customize them for your own use.

Stock Exchange- Stock exchange is another photo and graphics community that is more regulated than flickr. Photos available are more by serious photographers, which means you don't have to filter through a ton of snapshots to find the photo you want. It also means there are not quite as many photos available, but it has been one of my go to sites for a long time.

Those are just three places of the places I go to, but there are many more out there. So what about you? Where do you go to find graphics? Share in the comments below or on the simple church communication facebook page.

7 Steps to Creating a Facebook Group

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:54:43 PDT

My last post was a guest post about the difference between facebook pages and facebook groups. Though many organizations are opting to move to a facebook page, there are still many uses for the facebook group. So how do you create one?

1. Sign into facebook.com
2. Click on Home in the top right corner
3. Choose Groups from the left hand column
4. This page lists your groups, and should have a button that says "+Create a Group" click on that.
5. There are three required fields; Name, Description and Type. On The type choose a category, for a church I might suggest "Organizations" and then select a type, like "Relegious Organizations"
6. The next 5 fields of Office Phone, Email, Website, Street and City/Town are all optional. The more you put the easier it is for others to find your group.
7. Click Create Group!

There are many more settings to fill out, but I want to point out one important one. Under where your picture should go, it will say "Edit Group Settings" This is where you can set your access, whether it is public or private, and who can join, add, view or contribute.

At the end of the page you have three choices; This group is "Open, Closed, or Secret" Here is a definition of each from the facebook page.

This Group is open.

Anyone can join and invite others to join. Group info and content can be viewed by anyone and may be indexed by search engines.

This group is closed.

Admins must approve requests for new members to join. Anyone can see the group description, but only members can see the Wall, discussion board, and photos.

This group is secret.

The group will not appear in search results or in the profiles of its members. Membership is by invitation only, and only members can see the group information and content.

I hope this will help get you started on creating a facebook group. If you have questions or suggestions, please put them in the comments below.

Guest Post: Facebook Groups vs Facebook Pages for Churches

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:29:49 PDT

Today I received my first guest post on Simple Church Communication. It comes from my friend Brant Mills who handles the web content for the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Someone asked him recently about the differences between facebook groups and pages, and which was best to use. Here is what he had to say.

There are two different ways organizations can connect via Facebook – through groups and through fan pages. They are different in the way you can communicate through them and how they lead to others connecting.

A fan page allows you to post directly to their news feed or wall (I forget which, it may be both) and depending on each user’s settings, their friends may see the updates on their wall or their feed and be able to become a fan as well. (Now this is done by “liking” the fan page.) The downside is, since it is in their stream it can easily be missed if they don’t login that day, but it is more open to others seeing it and connecting to a larger audience.

The group allows for different settings, allowing it to be open completely or restricted to invitation only or approved by an administrator. You can easily send a message to the entire group and it goes into their message folder where they are sure to see it the next time they login. They can also (depending on their settings) receive an e-mail when these are sent. The downside is that it is less social and random onlookers won’t see the communications unless they happen across the group page or are invited directly and choose to join.

It all depends on your audience and connecting with them in a way that is useful to them and in a manner they expect based on where they are.

Be aware that anyone set up as administrator will have their personal page connected to the account and they should know that groups and information they post on their personal page may be accessible to others. Facebook is constantly changing privacy settings and has made what I would consider a few mis-steps – so the best policy is not to post something at all on your own personal page rather than assume privacy settings can protect you.

Have a conversation with staff and discuss any potential issues you can conceive of relevant to your congregation. Set up a communication plan and your own policy and guidelines to determine what specific steps to take in the event of any scenario you can conceive of. Who should be informed of issues immediately? Who are the people who should be responsible for responding to difficult questions? While it might be similar across the board, there are certainly different things that will vary by congregation and some things are appropriate in some settings or to some audiences that aren’t for others.

A lot of it is trial and error in seeing what works with your specific community. Set goals and guidelines, and put down a plan to meet them. If something isn't working, adjust to make it happen.

Brant Mills is the Web Content Manager for the United Methodist Church Texas Annual Conference. You can connect with him at twitter.com/brantmills

Follow Simple Church Communication on our facebook fan page
Subscribe to receive these updates by email

11 Communication Questions I Need You To Answer

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:43:20 PDT

Here are eleven questions I have been asked since I have started this blog. I do not pretend to know all the answers, and I need your help.

Look over the list of questions. If you see one you can answer and you have a blog you write on, or you know of a blog with that answer, then send me the link. If you do not have a blog but would like to answer the question then email your answer to rgmmusic@gmail.com and I will add your answer as an article.

You will, of course, get a link and credit for your answer, plus the knowledge that you are sharing your knowledge with others and helping them out.

Here are the questions:

- How do you take info from Excel and put it in Publisher without the format changing?

- How do you transfer something from paint or illustrator into Publisher without losing quality?

- What do you know about fonts?

- What's the difference between a facebook group and a facebook page?

-What are some free resources for finding graphics for print and screen productions?

- What is the best way to set up a free website?

- If our church isn't online, and into social media, do we have any hope of reaching 18-30 year olds?

- How can you stay within copyright guidelines on web and print images?

- What is the best way to send out e-news?

Effective Communication Workshop Notes and Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:18:12 PDT

Today I had the opportunity to teach a workshop on church communication to leaders and staff from our North District Churches. Here are my presentation notes.

Here were some of the questions you asked at the end of the workshop:

- What's the difference between a facebook group and a facebook page

- What are some free resources for finding graphics for print and screen productions

- What is the best way to set up a free website

- If our church isn't online, and into social media, do we have any hope of reaching 18-30 year olds?

- How can you stay within copyright guidelines on web and print images?

- What is the best way to send out e-news?

So now that you are home, what questions do you have?

If you didn't attend what questions do you have?

As you read these questions what answers or suggestions do you have?

Three Steps for Creating Consistency in Your Publications

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:53:31 PDT

I caught up with a friend, from UMR Communications, on facebook chat the other day and we began talking about style guides and the importance of consistency in church publications.

Wikipedia defines a style guide as "a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field. The implementation of a style guide provides uniformity in style and formatting of a document."

Because creating a complete style guide for all of your publications can be a seemingly impossible task, I asked if she could suggest a few things church communicators can do now to begin building consistency. Here were three of her suggestions:

1. If your church has a logo, make sure it is used consistently on everything you do.

2. Try not to use more than 2-3 fonts on any one piece.

3. Edit all content that comes in for external publication, Maintain a consistent voice that is not child-llike, not rambling, not conversational.

As we talked, the evident theme was to be consistent. Pay attention to things like how you format dates and times. Make sure that you abbreviate the same way. Keep a consistent theme in your fonts, sizes and spacing. When you choose photos make sure they they are similarly formatted with borders, sizes, and colors.

The great thing is that none of these things require a high powered computer, or special software. They just require you to sit down and take some time to edit, and format.

Does your church have a style guide? What other suggestions do you have?

Photo from the article 20 Do's and Don'ts of Effective Web Typography

What Does the "Social Media Revolution" Mean For the Methodist Church?

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:19:43 PDT

The updated "Social Media Revolution" video by Erik Qualman is a fast paced, fact filled, and eye opening. Beginning with the question "Is Social Media a Fad?" it goes on to show, through a variety of statements about current social media use, how social media is here to stay.
Although the video was more intended for businesses, it got me to ask the following question. What does the "Social Media Revolution" mean for the church? How does it, or should it impact how we do advertisement, outreach, publications, even worship services?
In the video he mentions 42 different statements. I want to look at five specific facts, or statements, and see how they can have a huge impact on how we do things.

96% Of Adults Under 30 Are On A Social Network-
I have been working at churches for 15 years. In that time I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the phrase, "How can we reach out to our young adults and college students?" Any one doing missions knows you have to go into the mission field, learn their language and live where they live. If you are trying to reach this segment of the population you need to engage in social networking. Set up a facebook page, sign up for twitter and then use it. Do not just do this for your organization. People will "like" an organization, but they will interact with a real person. Youth directors, pastors, lay people need to dive in and interact online.

Fastest Growing Facebook Demographic is Females 55-65
If you thought that social media was just a way to reach the young adults think again. Grandma is online checking out photos of grandchildren, and keeping up with her family and finding her own circle of online friends. We need to use social media to help our churches reach out to them too. Create a facebook page for your UMW group. Post videos and photos of their grandchildren singing "Jesus Loves Me" online so they can show them off to their friends.

The 2nd Largest Search Engine is Youtube
There are many churches who already are posting sermons through Youtube. I think we need to go further though. People are all searching for something, they have questions. How can the church use videos to help answer those questions. What about a video of a couple who have adopted, or a girl who made the choice to put her kid up for adoption? We had one of our members share her testimony about almost losing her sight, and how it totally changed her perspective on work, family and faith. (See Renewed Vision Video)

78% of People Trust Friends Recommendations, 14% Trust Advertising-
How much do we spend on advertisements. Do you place ads in the newspaper, yellow pages or school programs? What if instead of spending so much on advertising, we spent it giving our members a variety of ways to invite their friends? According to one poll, 79% of people attend church because someone invited them. Why not then spend our time, money and resources creating tools that help our members invite someone?

Maybe instead of creating a newspaper ad, we create invitation business cards for each member that have the church information, times and locations. Maybe instead of taking out an ad in the school sports program we invest in a facebook ad campaign that targets friends of youth who go to our church. Instead of a television or radio spot, create a youtube video that can be embedded, shared, liked, and emailed.

We Will No Longer Search for Products and Services, They Will Find Us Via Social Media
Are we still waiting for people to walk into our doors? According to that survey only 3% said they just walked in. What if we the church found people, instead of waiting on people to find the church. Through things like facebook, twitter, and youtube we have an incredible opportunity to reach out, and reach into the community. I recently started adding people in our town to my twitter feed. Many of them add me in return. Now any time I mention anything about my church, it is sent to their feed. I have many friends on facebook that do not go to church. When I post a video, or photos on my page they see that also.

You can also use those means to find people in your community looking for a church home. Set up a twitter search for words or phrases like "new in town" "looking for church" "methodist" "name of your church" and see what others are saying. You can then just send a quick hello, and invite them via twitter.

Social Media is here to stay, and we are going to have to embrace it, and use it in order for the church to reach out. I have shared just a few ideas on how we can do that, but you probably have some that are even better.

What would you share? What do you think?
You can also connect with me by
Facebook- www.facebook.com/rgmmusic
twitter- www.twitter.com/rgmmusic
Youtube- www.youtube.com/rgmmusic
Gmail- rgmmusic@gmail.com

7 Things Communicators Want You To Know

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:20:37 PDT

I belong to a facebook page of Church Communicators put together by the great folks over at UMR Communications. I told the group I would be leading a workshop for church secretaries and communications people in our district.

I asked them what the 3 top things they would want to share about communication. Here are some of their responses.

1. The world is changing and so much church communications.

2. New media strategies can help with budget woes (Facebook is free!)

3. Look at all church communications through the... eyes of a visitor.

4.Pick a few ways to communicate and do them well, rather than trying to do lots of things, poorly

5. It's NOT all about the postcard anymore

6. For a new perspective on a regular print piece, resist the temptation to open up the last file and do a "save as." start from scratch and re-evaluate what was good about the last one and what can be done differently

7. I can't overstate the importance of everyone being willing to use the same softwares...makes file sharing and life in general so much easier.

There's seven things to get you started. What would you add?

So What is Simple Church Communication?

noreply@blogger.com (Russell Martin) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:05:29 PDT

I used to be a youth director, now I'm a worship leader. So what am I doing writing a blog about communication for churches? Working in a church for over 15 years I have seen how effective great communication can be. Unfortunately I have seen some examples too of poor communication, some of which have come out of my computer. But I have learned over the years from those who communicate effectively through different means, and through my own errors and successes how to use communication better.

I now serve our church in two roles, worship leader and communications director. I handle most of our communication avenues including website, facebook and printed magazine, along with occasional flyers, posters, videos and other means.

I do not pretend to know everything. What I do know is what I have picked up along this journey of mine. My goal is to share what I have learned with you, and in return learn from you.

Over the past few years I have been asked to lead a few local workshops covering things like newsletters, blogging, websites and social media. I hope to use those questions as the launching point for this blog. If I know the answer I'll share that. If I don't know the answer I'll try to find out. Along the way to I'll post any helpful links to articles, blogs and other communicators I have learned, or am learning from.

So with that introduction over let me ask you a question.

What is one area of communications that you feel your church does very well? Why?