Church Brand Architects

Posts Tagged ‘church technology’

From time to time special people come into your life that change your perception and trajectory of life- In this case that person is author Michael Holmes. You may remember Michael as one of our guest blogger who wrote these great blogs.

How to Use Social Media for Greater Ministry Effectiveness

Why Pastors Should Use Twitter

How important is social media in Church Growth?

Well now Michael has allowed me to offer his incredible book I Shall Raise Thee Up to you for FREE

I Shall Raise Thee Up is a book about leadership from a biblical and christian perspective. The book, expertly written is now available via download. That’s right folks – Michael is making that audio download available for FREE.

You were meant to be great.  Regardless of color, culture, profession, gender, and background there are seeds of greatness in you that need to be cultivated.  Understand that God has a purpose and a plan for your life.  He Himself said: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

In this book you will learn:

• What true greatness means
• Why greatness means nothing without service
• The necessity of applying time-tested principles
• Why great people tend not to fit it
• Why desire is necessary before any great work can be accomplished
• Why God is always focused on sound character first and promotion second
• What principles great people apply to become great
• Why greatness was never meant just for you
And much more…

Know that it’s God’s desire to raise you up – He’s been preparing you for that purpose.  He’s been getting you ready through every test, every trial, every setback, every victory…and deep down…you always knew it yourself.  The time to unlock your greatness is now!

Do me a favor take a minute to click this link and get your Free Audio Book download for your collection.

Richard Byrd

The ChurchBrand Architect

Your Urban Church Marketing Specialist

In my last post  we discussed the necessity of social media for ministry growth; not just leading people to a building but to a relationship or greater relationship with Christ and greater fellowship with each other. Social media is not the ONLY way to do that but it offers the tools to help. In this post I want to follow up with SPECIFIC ways to do that. But before I go into “specifics” let me lay some groundwork:

1. It starts with the top: Ultimately, it is leadership that sets the culture of an organization (or ministry)–whether that culture be progressive or not it starts with the top. If the leadership is not sold on social media the ministry will not benefit from it.
2. Social media is a tool of ministry, not its “savior”: Many ministries struggling often see  this technology as a haymaker shot: “If we get on board technologically speaking, that’ll save us.” Technology doesn’t save ministries great leadership with purpose does. Technology that’s used in line with a core purpose will always bear more fruit than technology that’s used for the sake of being used.
3. Social media efforts must be measured: Sometime ago E-marketer released a survey where 84% said that they don’t measure any type of social media ROI. This is astounding considering the fact that social media allows us to better track our efforts. Granted, some things can’t be measured but there are things that can–track the things that can.

Social media and ministry

So without further ado here they are: some strategies that can enhance ministry effectiveness.

• Use Facebook ads: Paul Steinbrueck recently recalled how his church used this to advertise their past Christmas play. The ad was run for 9 days prior to the weekend of the performances.  Over that time, it was displayed 900,000 times and clicked on 600 times.  Total cost of the ad campaign was about $475. Wow!

• Consider a blog-centric strategy: Some ministries have different ministries that do different things at different times.  A blog-centric strategy allows the church to have a main blog and each ministry to have a blog. Feedburner is set up for each blog, so people can get info from whatever blog they want.

• Launch a Facebook Campus: That’s what Central Christian church did.  Following their mission of “connecting the unconnected” they launched the campus and hold services 7 times a week.  The Church partnered with Plainjoe studios and Facebook to develop the campus after positive responses from its year-old online campus. Launched in September, the inaugural service of the Facebook campus saw more than 450 attendees from around the world comprised of a wide variety of demographics.

• Listen: Granted, social media gives us a bigger microphone to speak from it also gives us a greater opportunity to listen to what’s being said.  You remember the saying: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” In this new era of social media, we’re being asked to be more transparent and personal–its our job to make sure people know HOW MUCH we care.
• Show who’s using it: Mickey Mellen (follow him @mickmel) gave an example of how his church does it.

• Got an event? Promote it through Tweetvite: Tweetvite allows you to create events specifically designed for Tweetups (or “meet ups” that use Twitter). Its free and offers a fully search able listing of upcoming Tweetups (should you want to get out the house). You can sign up through your Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace account; it allows you to map the location of the tweetup; and you can use your own URL. It’s great for informal get-togethers outside of of church as well.

The end of the matter

I must admit, there are endless ways to use technology for ministry. But the one criteria is this: it must be used prayerfully and purposefully.

We as believers have an obligation to “redeem the times”? Or as Paul said, “Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity.” [1 Colossians 4:5 The Message)

And truth of the matter is, the "traditional church" is on its deathbed.The times have changed and will continue to change...but our Message never will. This new landscape presents us with new opportunities. But, its only an opportunity to those who see it as such.

Guest Blogger Mike Holmes

Bio: Mike Holmes is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness. He’s also a blogger that writes on leadership development from a Biblical perspective. It’s leadership by the Book! When he’s not writing blogs or speaking he can be found writing bios in the third person. Check out his website/blog here.

Http://www.churchbrandarchitects.com

Over the week-end, I was the keynote speaker for the Networking and Technology Luncheon in South Plainfield New Jersey. What a great time we had exploring all of the unique ways of integrating technology into ministry and business. The luncheon was sponsored by Kenneth Irvin and Man2Man Ministries. Also joining me on the luncheon was Keith Sedor from Apple Consultants. Needless to say his presentation was so impressive I have committed to transitioning my whole office to Apple products before the end of the year. I thought you might want to see some of the things we discussed, as well as the resource form I gave out of the tools I use for my business and ministry.  Please enjoy.

This October, YouVersion Live will give you a brand new way to interact with live events like church services, conferences, and more. Want to know how you’ll be able to use it? Join us today for an up-close look at YouVersion Live and how it can work in your environment.

For those that do not know – YouVersion is a interactive Bible Application – Actually more like the Bible Meets Social Networking.  I use the service often to take notes and keep a running journal of my thoughts and the insights God gives me on certain scriptures. They even have an i-phone and Blackberry app, making the this app available on a broad base and platforms. The best part is this app was developed by a church. That’s right. So you know ministry was a big part of its development. Now my friends over at Lifechurch.tv have developed a way of using the YouVersion Bible in a live application. And I have secured an invitation for my clients and friends. The link is below.

Live webinar: Wednesday, September 23 at 2:00-3:00 PM CDT at http://www.youversion.com/live

No need to sign up or register in advance—just go to http://www.youversion.com/live

Hope to see you there!

ChurchBrand Architect

Your Urban Church Marketing Specialist

This is fresh off the presses. I have been waiting on this roll-out for several months. can you feel my excitement.

I just received this announcement from my friends at LifeChurch.tv. Now there is a way for your church and ministry to effectively track trends in your church. This is a free web app that keeps tabs on attendance, giving, salvation, and baptism. This program gives you easy to understand charts and reports that will catapult your church growth.

This is not a substitute for church membership or contact database, but rather a place where you can monitor patterns in your church. Oh and did I tell you there are mobile features as well !!!! I am telling you this will jumpstart and powercharge your urban church marketing efforts. I will be reviewing this software over the next few days and then will give you my thoughts. But, I know I have hungry/hyper techno-marketing clients who will want this information sooner rather than later. So enjoy. http://www.churchmetrics.com.

A special thanks to the Digerati and LifeChurch teams for this wonderful application. DID I SAY IT WAS FREE!!!

Church Brand Architect
Your Urban Church Marketing Specialist