As 2010 approaches and Restore completes our 2nd year, I really want to examine our website.

• What’s works?
• What’s missing?
• What needs to go?

How would you answer the following questions about your church’s website:

1. What do you love the most about your website?
2. What would you most like to change about your website?
3. What’s that 1 thing that you dream of adding to your website?

Thanks for taking the time. I really admire and respect the work you do for the Church.

We’re doing some cool things for Father’s Day at Restore this year. I don’t want to give it all away but I do want to let it be known that there are Royals tickets for the first 100 dads at Restore on Sunday. This goes for both services, 930 & 11am.

So if you’re a dad or if you know a dad here in KC, send ‘em our way on Sunday morning. We’re talking about “The Legacy of a Man”.

I'm continuing to think about how to utilize text messaging at Restore. We have the service all setup for us, thanks to TextCaster. Some of the questions I'm asking are: Why? Why not? How? How often?

I found a post from Tim Schraeder on Church Marketing Sucks, where he discusses text messaging at Park Community. Here's what he said:

Reasons why you shouldn’t:

• Because everyone else is. Let’s be honest, so
  often we look and see what other churches are doing and instantly think
  we should do the same. Make sure it’s a good fit for your church and
  your context.
• If people in your congregation are technologically behind. If people are barely using your web site, chances are they aren’t ready to receive text messages from you.
• If you use it as a Band-Aid. Many of us are
  struggling to manage our communications, and you should only introduce
  texting as a means to enhance your communications–not to fix any
  systems that might be broken.

Reasons why you should:

• To lower the barrier between the pulpit and the congregation.
  If you opt to do texting Q&A sessions in your services, it allows
  people the opportunity to voice questions or thoughts they might not
  normally have the opportunity to express.
• To have direct communication. Texting
  enables instant, direct communication with people. It’s not dependent
  on a postage stamp, the printing press and doesn’t run the risk of
  getting lost an inbox.
• To take a sermon deeper. Whether you give
  people the opportunity to ask questions in your services or text them a
  reminder throughout the week. It’s a great way to keep the conversation
  going and remind people of things they can apply during the week.

Things to watch for:

• Get their Permission Opt-in. Don’t go through
  your church database and add everyone’s mobile numbers to your texting
  list. Give people the right to opt in and respect the permission they
  give you to interact with them.
• Avoid spamming. Don’t spam people with
  unsolicited messages. Remember most people are paying the dime for each
  message you send. Only send what’s vital for the church as a whole. Or
  allow individual ministries like youth groups or college groups to
  create their own opt-in lists.
• Don’t replace electronic communication with personal contact.
  One of the dangers of texting is that it can take away from the
  relational dynamic of personal contact. Use texting as a means to
  create community, not to take away from it.

So does your church text message? What are your thoughts on all of this?

I read the blog Church Marketing Sucks on a regular basis. In a recent post was a clip of a video interview from the Director of Communications at Foursquare Church, Brad Abare. As we try to develop our communication strategy, was as churches have a tendency to copy others. We try to be the church on the cover, and not who we are, the church on the corner.

Check out the video:

Catalyst Voices – Brad Abare on Communication Challenges from Catalyst on Vimeo.

What are your thoughts??

I read the blog "Church Marketing Sucks" regularly… it's great. In a recent post, the "Felt Needs" are up for discussion:

Felt needs are not the end goal.
"Felt needs" is marketing-speak that's tossed around a lot.
Essentially, when someone realizes they lack something, and then want
it, they have a felt need. In the business world, people need to be
able to check their e-mail every six seconds, so companies produce
phones that accomplish this. They're called needs, but they aren't
actually needs. "Felt need" is a nice way to say, "wants."

In the church world, people are fearful, so we provide hope. People
are hurting, so we provide relief. People are starving, so we provide
food.

But some "felt needs" are inherently unbiblical. The "need to be
entertained at all times." The "need to be safe." These are not
biblical imperatives, they are cultural ones. And the church is not
obligated to meet all the demands of a worldly society. Evaluate the
felt needs of your congregation, and ask whether they are truly
biblical. Sometimes they feel a need, and it is your obligation to
explain to them that there is something greater. Church marketing
demands we put the gospel and lifestyle modeled after Christ above all
else.

After reading, I thought of the creative process of service planning and how I may make choices based on the felt needs of the congregation. (As I write this, I'm sitting back and trying to make a mental list of any possible felt needs at Restore)

Any felt needs at your church??

I had a great meeting this morning with a guy named Evan who's been attending Restore for about 2 months. Troy set us up because he has played a part in developing Textcaster. They have setup a great system for churches, schools, companies, and everyone to communicate with their audience via text message on the audience's terms.

In a church's case, the church member gets to say how often, or about what, he or she is updated on. There is so much more to it, yet it is so simple.

So for my Restore friends, would you like getting important updates from Restore via text message on your terms?? (Leave me a comment and let me know)

All other church attenders, would you like getting important updates from your church via text message on your terms??

If so, check out Textcaster

What is ROOV??

ROOV.com is an online community designed to connect like-minded
individuals around their shared experiences and passions within their
church and city.

Do you ROOV?? If so, what are some networks that you're in??

I started reading Kem Meyer's blog today. She's the Communications Director at Granger Community Church in Indiana. I realize most churches don't have Communications Directors, but that why reading blogs is great: all their great insight is published online.

Many would argue that Granger communicates well, in several ways. Here are their rules:

Content

What We DO:

• Pithy, short, quips, bullets and easy, scannable copy; maximum 2-3 paragraphs in length.
• Communicate
  context and information for next steps: message series, classes, events
  as well as volunteer and connection opportunities.
• Share stories about life-change.
• Support all-church vision and reinforce core values.
• Provide an opportunity to “drill down” online for more information.
• Address felt-needs and insider information “at a glance”.

What We DON’T DO:

• Fiction or poetry.
• Detailed or journalistic accounts of each ministry/event or full-length testimonies.
• Be all things to all people
• Leisure reading publications or newspapers.

Graphics

What we DO:

• Provide concepts, creative rationales and graphic deliverables for print and online mediums.
• Design tools to help remove barriers and support desired objectives.

What we DON’T DO:

• Design for cool-factor alone or because everybody else is doing it.

Web

What we DO:

• Use admin panel to make regular content changes on four to five primary pages on GCCwired.com.
• Develop new pages using templates.
• Continually
  review the site to ensure it is functioning well based on our vision,
  goals and objectives (i.e., keep the “main thing the main thing”)
• Generate interest and leave them "wanting more" so they'll take their next step.

What we DON’T DO:

• The heavy lifting (e.g., design from the ground-up, major functionality programming, etc.)
• Try
  to be all things to all people (e.g., telling the whole story online,
  constantly creating new pages contributing to the bloated navigation of
  a “big” website).
• Lots of scrolling or “deep diving” on our site navigation.