While I love my ministry job and my church, I am becoming increasingly “burned out” and depressed with what I do. Currently our church is having some pretty major financial difficulties, which makes this a good opportunity for me to resign.

I have always felt a unique calling on my life to serve with some sort of humanitarian organization. I see ministries like Feed the Children, Samaritans Purse, Hope for Haiti, Hello Somebody, and Sevenly and I have such a strong desire to do what they are doing. I know that you have very unique ministry, so I am hoping that you could offer me a little bit of advice about how I could begin a new career with an organization like those that I have mentioned.

-  Anonymous

ANSWER:

There are really two questions here:

1. Should I resign from my current church?
2. How do I begin a new career with a humanitarian organization?

I answered the first question yesterday. Click here to read it.

#2 :: How do I begin a new career with a humanitarian organization?

First, determine what you want to do and if you need to get paid.
Second, pray about if there is a specific organization you should work for.

The challenge with step 2 is sometimes God gives us a passion and calling to a general area of ministry, but then we add some of our own extra details and assume our ideas are part of God’s calling. For example, a leader of popular nonprofit told me an average job listings might have 100 applicants but 96 of those 100 will say that God called them to work there.

So pray and be pragmatic, too. Here are a few scenarios for landing a job at a great nonprofit.

5 Routes to Get Your Dream Job

1. Any Task / Volunteer (Easy)
   If you don’t care what you do and can volunteer while bivocationally work elsewhere, then it can be pretty easy to find a role to fit at a progressive humanitarian organization. Contact them and say you’ll do anything - done. If there is a specific organization you’d love to serve, sometimes this is the only route to go in order to get your foot in the door. Be prepared for it not to be glamorous.
   >> I’ve done this before. I shredded a lot of documents.
2. Any Task / Paid (Moderate)
   If you are willing to do anything but also require a paycheck, things get more challenging. The global economy is hurting and fundraising is down for many nonprofits. The causes that are thriving and/or doing cool things may have over 100 people apply for each job position. It helps if you have friends who work there, a well-known reputation, or some remarkably impressive skill.
   >> I’ve done this before. I did a lot of manual labor.
3. Specific Role / Volunteer (Moderate)
   What’s your dream job? If you have the skills and competency to do it and can work bivocationally, then approaching an organization by offering to do a specific role for free might just be your ticket to living your dream. When working for free, you can actually sometimes craft a role that never existed before and the organization didn’t even realize they needed. It can be incredibly liberating to be a high level volunteer rather than paid staff - more of what you love, less grunt work, less bureaucracy. It does have its limitations though. Few organizations can successfully assimilate volunteer team members into their organizational rhythm like a paid team member.
   >> I’ve gone this route with several organizations. It is the format I used while at LifeChurch.tv for a couple of years, which gave me a tremendous amount of flexibility to float around and work with 7 different departments.
4. Specific Role / Paid (Tough)
   Almost always timing is everything with this. To be available to take a dream role exactly when an organization wants that role filled and has the money to pay you is elusive.
   >> I’ve approached organizations and organizations have approached me numerous times, but seldom has the timing been right for both sides.
5. Start You Own Humanitarian Organization (Tough)
   Successful organizations almost always seem cooler from a distance. The closer your get to the core of an organization, the easier it is to see all of their ugly flaws, blemishes, and failures. Your romanticized ideals of a career in humanitarian work probably doesn’t really exist. It could be impossible, but your best chance for getting close to those ideals may actually be starting your own humanitarian organization. If God calls you to start something, one of the sweetest feelings in the world is being in his will regardless of how challenging that may be. However, if you aren’t called, starting something could be one of the worst chapters of your life. Pray about it.
   >> I have experienced no greater vocational joy or challenge than to pursue God’s leading to start a nonprofit. However, if you do not feel called, there is a good chance you should stay away from such an undertaking.

3 Keys to Starting a New Career

1. Have the skills that pay the bills.
   Hopefully you started a decade ago reading the books, learning the skills, and getting the experience you’ll need to competively serve a new career. If you don’t have them, start today and go from there.
2. Cut through the clutter.
   Currently, the U.S. unemployment rate is at 8.5%. Nobody wants the mundane jobs. Causes are cool and among some of the first places people dream about working for. If you seem remotely like everyone else you, are replaceable and boring. How will you impress me? How are you the linchpin I didn’t realize I needed until I met you? Why should I care? Do everything you can to set yourself apart from the other 100 applicants that are boring the HR department.
3. Follow the Holy Spirit.
   Pray, listen, and follow. Doing otherwise could make you miserable.

Questions to Gauge Your Seriousness

• How badly do you want a career like this?
• Would you sacrifice and sell most of your belongings to make it happen?
• Would you sacrifice your other dreams to have the chance to pursue this one?
• Do you want to work at one of the organizations you listed because of what they do (and how they do it) or because they are famous?
  Fame is the wrong reason. There are hundreds of nonprofits (often copycats) doing what they do. But the rarity is finding a group that does the “how” well.

If someone came to me offering to work for free, had remarkable skills, took initiative, respected boundaries, and got results, I’d do everything I could to keep that person with my nonprofit. Bringing value along with sincere personal sacrifice is one of the quickest ways to win the heartstrings of a nonprofit founder.

How would you answer Anonymous’ second question? Leave a comment to help him out.

While I love my ministry job and my church, I am becoming increasingly “burned out” and depressed with what I do. Currently our church is having some pretty major financial difficulties, which makes this a good opportunity for me to resign.

I have always felt a unique calling on my life to serve with some sort of humanitarian organization. I see ministries like Feed the Children, Samaritans Purse, Hope for Haiti, Hello Somebody, and Sevenly and I have such a strong desire to do what they are doing. I know that you have very unique ministry, so I am hoping that you could offer me a little bit of advice about how I could begin a new career with an organization like those that I have mentioned.

-  Anonymous

ANSWER:

There are really two questions here:

1. Should I resign from my current church?
2. How do I begin a new career with a humanitarian organization?

I will answer the 1st now and the 2nd tomorrow (click to read it).

#1 :: Should I resign from my current church?

Pray. Pray hard.

Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This requires a delicate answer, and no one can truly answer it except for you and the Holy Spirit. Understand that you are not alone. Many ministers feel burned out. Many ministers are depressed. Many nonprofits are having major financial difficulties.

Don’t leave because it is tough (unless God tells you to go).
The pursuit of the Great Commission when done right is never easy. There will be many trials, but we are to be joyful about these challenges because they test our faith and mature us (James 1:2-4).

Don’t leave if the burnout is because of you doing too much (unless God tells you to go).
However, realize that the pursuit of the Great Commission when done right will not produce burn out and depression. Burn out is what happens when you give of yourself more than you fill yourself with the spiritual refreshment of a relationship with God (i.e., personal prayer, Bible study, and worship - not work related). This burnout may be from trying to do too much in your own strength rather than trusting God to show up. This burn out may be caused by you overcomplicating God’s calling for you by adding too many details, tasks, and requirements. If this is the case, cut programs and any of the fluff that is not Biblically essential to your mission, do you best, and trust God to show up.

Leave if the source of the burnout is out of your control (unless God tells you to stay)
Unfortunately, burn out sometimes is caused from abusive relationships from church leadership or from self-destructive management systems. If this is the case and you have tried to mend the relationships or repair the systems to no avail, your effectiveness in ministry may be quenched by leadership above you. Ideally, you leave as soon as possible. However, sometimes God calls people to challenging circumstances like this for a variety of reasons. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit amidst the frustrations.

Leave if the burnout is because you are called elsewhere
You mention feeling called to serve a humanitarian organization. Is it a passion, a romanticized dream, or a calling? If a calling, is the timing now or in the future? If now, then your burnout may be because you are not supposed to be working at the church. Pray hard about this. If you have to, cut distractions out of your life to heighten your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

There are many more possibilities that could be written, but I do not want to distract from the most important thing - pray and follow Gods leading.

You should also check out Anne Jackson’s book Mad Church Disease (ebook).

I will answer the second question tomorrow.

How would you answer this first question? Leave a comment to help Anonymous out.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

ANSWER
It really depends on each church’s resources and the cultures of the church leadership, the congregation, and the people they are called to reach.

Personally, I think bulletins are a waste of money, so I recommend trying to get rid of them altogether or condensing them to 3.5″x7″ cardstock with announcements on one side and contact info/prayer card/visitor card on the other side.

However, for a variety of reasons that is not an option for most churches. Here are some ideas for you to mix and match:

• Custom Everything Bulletin per Series ($$$$)
  Some churches have gorgeous tri-fold or quad-fold church bulletins designed weekly by designers who win ADDYs. The front cover features a custom graphic that changes with each series. The bulletin layout and dimensions change every few months. Special event graphics inside are custom designed. And each week’s announcements are carefully limited in length and placed to create a look as seamless as a brochure. The cardstock is premium and that value is noticeable to the touch. The visitor card is on an inside perforated flap, and there is a place for notes. Sometimes the church splurges to get a special embossing, spot varnish, or foil stamping on the cover. The printer is the best local shop. This approach while aesthetically marvelous costs about $1 per bulletin printing if ordering gigachurch quantities, and that does not include the cost for the graphic designers and copywriters.
• Custom Bulletin Template per Series ($$$)
  A more affordable custom approach is to custom design the church bulletin cover for each sermon series and then print the weekly announcements on the inside. The frequency of a designing and printing a new cover design with every sermon series will still be costly, but the bulk printing of the bulletin template will help cut costs. Be aware, however, that bulletin templates can often make the announcements look more awkwardly pieced in than seamlessly stitched.
• Premade Free Bulletin Template per Series ($$)
  A handful of websites offer free downloadable sermon series graphics. Sometimes these design packages come with bulletin templates. Either way you may very well still have to rework the file to make it work for your church’s needs. This is a great solution for cutting graphic design and printing costs, but the value is really in how you approach it.
• Pre-printed Paid Bulletin Template ($$)
  While not versatile in customization, pre-printed bulletin templates have been a popular choice among small churches. They streamline production costs and are easy to use. However, be careful; there are a lot of ugly preprinted bulletin templates that do more harm than good.
• Custom Bulletin Template per Season ($)
  Custom design the church bulletin to reflect your church brand rather than a sermon series, and you can bulk print a year’s worth of bulletin shells at a great rate. Use the money you saved to build a well.
• Custom Card per Series ($$)
  Most bulletins quickly end up in the garbage, so consider streamlining your announcements into a simple sheet of cardstock front and back. The front can feature the sermon series graphics or a sermon outline, and the back can have the announcements. With a high quality printer and a good paper cutter, you can print these in-house with three 3.5″x7″ bulletins to each page.
• Custom Card per Year ($)
  Ditch the tri-fold and the sermon series graphics, and use a single sheet of cardstock to list announcements on one side. Use the other side to feature church information, a prayer request card, or a visitor card. You can professionally bulk print a year’s worth of the church information side.
• Projection Screen Videos ($$)
  Videos take time to create but can be a fast and fun way to make announcements. These can get pricey if too many paid staff members get involved. However, it will still likely be cheaper than most printed solutions. Don’t be boring, cheesy, awkward, or embarrassing. There is an art to good videos. Check out Whitney George and Gary Hornstein’s insights if you want to do church announcement videos well. 
• Projection Screen Slides ($)
  Photoshop. JPEG. Done.
• Church Website & Blog (-)
  If you have a good website content management system, this is incredibly fast, easy, effective (for reaching core members), and low cost.
• Facebook & Twitter (-)
  The best place to reach people is where they spend their time. 1 in every 7 minutes spent online is spent on Facebook. Use social media. 
• Lobby Chalkboard Easel (-)
  Find a good calligrapher or fine arts illustrator in your church, and you can have some of the coolest and low cost church announcements around. 
• Lobby Interchangeable Poster ($)
  Design a large poster for each week’s announcements, print it at Kinko’s, and then place it in a prominent place like where people enter the auditorium.

These are just a few ideas. Mix and match them.

How would you answer this question? Leave a comment to help Mark out.

Now 19 months later, many churches are still using their 700 MHz wireless mics and risk the FCC confiscating their equipment and fines of $10,000-$112,500 or imprisonment.

While I haven’t heard of a single church being punished yet, don’t assume these are empty threats. I expect the grace period to run out sometime soon, and the FCC to gradually make examples of select violators.

Why 700 Mhz Microphones are Prohibited

Radio frequencies are limited, and the world is beginning to run out of space for all of the tech devices we want to stream across the airwaves. All frequencies between 698-806 MHz are now reserved for public emergency services, such as police and fire departments. Unfortunately, that means that thousands of 700 MHz church wireless microphones are now illegal.

To see the FCC’s list of illegal microphones, click here.

The Solution

Obviously, you need to buy new microphones, but you need ones that work in your geography. The FCC has designated select TV frequencies to be used, and the frequencies that will work for you depend on your local TV station coverage. And for churches that max out their designated TV frequencies, they can register for temporary exclusion during their services.

Free Consulting

Rather than trying to figure this all out on your own, Skylark Audio Video is offering free consulting to guide you through what steps to take and what gear you need. They can even help you save some money by purchasing your upgraded microphones direct from the manufacturers.

Call 888-365-7770 or email info@skylarkav.com to get started.

The sale only lasts 48 hours (through December 29th) and while supplies last, so be quick to call 888-365-7770 or email info@skylarkav.com to get the special deals on this gear.

Year End Sale Special Deals

Aviom A-16II Personal Mixer
only $500

Aviom 16/o-Y1 A-Net Card for Yamaha Consoles
only $700

Aviom AN-16/o v.4 16-Channel Output Module
only $900

Sennheiser EW300 Series Wireless Microphone System
only $800

Sennheiser EW300 Series Wireless In-Ear Monitor System
only $800

Chauvet LED Par56 56-24B Lighting Fixture
only $150

Chauvet LED COLORado Batten 72 TOUR Lighting Fixture
only $700

Chauvet LED COLORado 2 Lighting Fixture
only $950

Over the past year, I have taken on side projects to help fund Open Church. A few months ago, I was given the providential opportunity to join the team at Skylark Audio Video to lead their rebranding and ongoing communications.

Formerly known as AVi Worship, Skylark Audio Video was founded in 2005 by recognizing churches’ need for more attentive care and financially responsible audio, video, and lighting systems without compromising high-end performance.

Although young, Skylark is one of the few church audio video companies that LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) chooses to work with. While popular among multi-site churches, Skylark also helps church plants take their first steps and 100-year-old landmarks overhaul their church audio while still preserving their historic character.

4 REASONS WHY I JOINED SKYLARK

What I appreciate most about Skylark is their emphasis on high performance, frugality, relationships, and the client’s best interests.

1. High Performance Technology
   If you are going to get a church audio, video, and lighting system, you need an AV company that stays current, knows their stuff, and can turn all the talk into reality. While you should never base your decision solely on an AV company’s technical prowess, you should never choose one that lacks it.
2. Frugality
   This is where Skylark really stands out. Some churches think they need the most expensive equipment or to build everything now for the future. What they don’t realize is they can almost always slash their expenses without sacrificing tech quality by choosing more reasonably priced gear and designing the church AV system for scalability and add-ons when needed. The opposite is also true. Penny-pinching to the extreme costs more in the long-run because cutting-corners leaves you with gear that can’t perform until you upgrade. Skylark gives each church advice on where to spend and where to save in order to meet their goals.
3. Relationships
   Skylark regards their clients as friends and family. We work to understand how your church operates and then customize their approach to mesh with your team. The goal is to create less work for you and your organization. When the focus is on relationships and not a business bottom line, it is much easier to ensure each church is happy, taken care of, and using Skylark for years to come.
4. Your Best Interests
   Making your best interests Skylark’s top focus doesn’t make sense to some businessmen. It means spending more time. It can mean sacrificing some paycheck to get you the best solution (not the priciest one). But Skylark does audio, video, and lighting because they love it, and they learned quickly that focusing on your best interests is Skylark’s best interests because it keeps clients coming back, and it helps the cause of Christ.

Before I joined the team at Skylark, Marcus Walker (the founder) and I had several conversations to determine if we were a mutually good fit. I asked, “What values unify your team and drive their performance?” And I love his answer.

We don’t say what are values are. They just are. What unifies us is the constant pursuit to be better than we were on the last job. The quest to learn more and do things better unifies us. We love our job. We are doing what we love and getting paid for it, and it actually means something.

FREE CHURCH CONSULTING

One of the ways Skylark serves churches is by offering free audio, video, and lighting consulting. No strings attached. You need a church AV system that meets your goals, fits within your budget, and works for your facility. We would love to start a conversation to identify what is the best solution for you.

Call 888-365-7770 to get started.

• We have had tremendously enthusiastic feedback but few actual donations yet.
• We have over a hundred volunteers and potentially 10-20 terrabytes of free resources.
• It takes an initial investment to make it happen and save the global Church millions of dollars.

2 Ways to Meet Our Launch Goal

1. CHURCHES - $500 monthly from 31 churches for a 6 month commitment (PDF)
   
2. INDIVIDUALS - $31 monthly from 500 individuals

Your support guarantees hosting for 3.5 terrabytes of free resources, on-going web development, and a team to manage hundreds of volunteers.

Download a 1 page PDF to give your church’s senior leadership.

Disclaimers

• I will not get rich off Open Church.
• I have committed to not take a salary from Open Church until October 2012 or later.
• My wife and I have liquidated assets and made lifestyle adjustments to fund Open Church.
• I have funded 80% of Open Church’s costs thus far since February 2011.
• And Open Church’s team has collectively funded over 90% of the costs thus far.

Many have dreamed about better global Church collaboration, but it will never happen unless people are willing to prayerfully sacrifice the time, money, and egos to make it happen. If you are passionate about Open Church, please join me in sacrifice.

A 3rd Way to Meet Our Goal

Hire us to do consulting, branding, graphic design, or web development. Buy an ad on Church Relevance. Ask us to speak at your event.

We’d prefer to spend our time focusing on Open Church but are willing to take on some side projects to make it a reality.

How to Donate

We accept donations via credit cards at https://secure.openchurch.com/donate
For questions, please email info @openchurch.com

In 2007, there were 20.
In 2008, there were 33.
Now 2011’s update has grown to 77 top church logos.

It is a testament to how churches globally are increasingly embracing and understanding good design. The bar has been raised and some previous “top church logos” have been dropped. In 2008, having a clean logo with a good professional font was good enough to make the list. Now 3 years later, a church logo must be clean, well-balanced, scalable, appealing, professionally executed even in its subtleties, and downright subjectively better than most other church logos (some exceptions apply).

Here’s a peek at some new additions this year:

To see all 77 top church logos, visit: http://churchrelevance.com/resources/top-church-logos

Open Church intends to be much more than a hub for ministry articles and free downloadable resources. Phase 1 will focus on these basics, but we are structuring the organization and the web platform to quickly adjust according to God’s leading.

Over the past year as we have laid the groundwork for Open Church, we have had hundreds of ideas of what could be accomplished if enough people sacrifice the time and money to make Open Church a reality. We pray about these ideas. Many of them are good concepts but not the right fit with Open Church’s mission. However, some of the ideas resonate deeply with God’s leading and open our eyes to exciting new possibilities. Here are some of the ideas that we are most excited about:

7 FRINGE OPPORTUNITIES WITH OPEN CHURCH

1. Scripture Engagement
   In his works of 1539, Martin Luther warns of the danger in collecting great libraries outside and alongside of the Holy Scriptures lest we waste good time and neglect studying Scripture. We are excited about the free church resources and ministry articles that Open Church will offer, yet we recognize the Bible as the greatest resource of all. To ensure that Scripture is a priority both online and offline, Open Church is exploring how to best partner with and serve organizations that do Scripture advancement well, such as Biblica and American Bible Society.
2. Volunteers for Global Church Projects
   We are currently organizing teams of volunteer graphic designers, editors, web developers, translators, and many more skills that can help create in-demand resources and help people package resources for their culture by their culture.  While it will take hundreds of volunteers to run Open Church well, we expect the global scope to actually attract more volunteers than needed for operations. The overflow of volunteers can be assembled into fluid teams that can ebb and flow to projects outside of Open Church that offer the greatest potential to impact the global Church.
3. Offline Resources
   The Internet is an incredibly efficient way to spread ideas and resources. The overhead costs are minimal. However, only 30% of the world’s 7 billion people have access to the Internet. We are excited about the ability of Open Church phase 1 to rapidly equip ministers globally, but we realize that long term goals must address how to get offline resources to the other 70% of the globe. These resources are mainly printed word and pictures but could also be audio on electronic devices as well as much more. It will take collaborating with locals and already established organizations and experts. We do not have all the answers for how yet, but we are already forming relationships with organizations and experts who can help. An example is Antoine RJ Wright of Mobile Ministry Magazine who specializes in mobile Internet but also works with ministries to get resources to remote areas with wireless devices but no Internet by attaching Wi-Fi hubs to 2 terrabyte hard drives.
4. Reaching Microlanguages
   There are about 6,900 languages spoken globally. And the top 100 languages account for 90% of the world’s population. More than half of the world’s languages (3,524) have fewer than 10,000 speakers each. I call these microlanguages, and together they account for 8 million people globally. Open Church wants to be able to equip people regardless of what language they speak, simultaneously reaching the top 90% and bottom 0.1% of the world’s speakers. Again we do not have all the answers yet, but we are prayerful exploring ideas and collaboration opportunities with experts like Tim Jore of Door43 and Distant Shores Media. Tim is a former Wycliffe Bible translator pioneering new ways to empower microlanguages to translate and equip themselves with ministry resources.
5. Acquisition of Licensed Content
   Sometimes the best resources are stuck behind rigid paid license models. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be. Open Church is designed to keep overhead costs low. We would love to raise funds over and above these costs to acquire previously licensed content. For example, the Bible was translated into a more obscure African dialect whose speakers want to create free audio Bibles to reach their storyteller culture, but the local copyright holder will only allow it if money is charged and royalties given. Money is a barrier that is keeping some of the most effective resources from reaching people and changing lives. What if together we can acquire high impact resources and give them away for free?
6. Insights into the Behavioral Science of the Global Church
   Lifeway Research and the Barna Group offer outstanding insights for the Church. However, there are limitations to polls and surveys. In the age of supercomputers and the Internet, we now have opportunities to process complex relationships with millions of variables and discover the science behind humanity such as, Twitter users are happier in California than New York, happiness and sadness spread just like disease, and time availability determines Good Samaritans. Because Open Church categorizes its content by the creator’s age, gender, ethnicity, geography, role, ministry model, denomination, and theology, we can evaluate user trends to analyze the relationships between content, much like how Netflix’s algorithm can tell why someone will like one movie but not another. In other words, what are the dynamics between a Reformed Southern Baptist millennial from Texas and an Emergent Anglican Baby Boomer from the United Kingdom? With time, we hope that Open Church can better understand the complex dynamics across the 39,000+ denominations of the global Church.
7. Read, Consume, & Stream Resources Online (no download required)
   Particularly in emerging economies, it is not always feasible to have the means to download a resource and then print it or burn it to a DVD. In some contexts, it makes much more sense to be able to stream and instantly consume content. Whether curriculum, a video, or some other resource, Open Church would like Christians to be able to use resources on demand straight from the website. So rather than downloading, a small group leader can just pull up individual curriculum lessons on his smartphone. During bedtime stories, parents can pull up video shorts to teach their kids spiritual truths. And a children’s minister in India can teach from the Bible and then show a 5 minute Bible story video translated into Hindi-Urdu.

Again please keep in mind that these are fringe opportunities for Open Church that we are prayerfully considering. The ultimate roadmap is up to God’s daily direction.

WANT TO MAKE OPEN CHURCH POSSIBLE?

We still have a long way to go to find 500 partners willing to contribute $31 per month. Or if you are a church, consider supporting our digital missions with a commitment of $500 per month for 6 months.

You can donate at https://secure.openchurch.com/donate