Stealing Genius
How to Get Game-Changing Building Ideas from Your Staff
What if the best ideas for improving your church spaces were already in the room—hiding in the minds of your staff and volunteers? In this engaging and […]
10 Secrets to a Successful Social Media Presence
In today’s digital age, social media has become an invaluable tool for churches to connect with their congregation, engage with the wider community and spread their message of faith. With millions of people actively using […]
Good Stewardship of Marketing Budgets
Let’s dive into how to build an effective marketing budget. How do you advertise in various seasons of ministry? Lots of churches are walking into the budget season so this is a timely […]
Three Areas where AI will Benefit Your Church Teams
AI can feel like the Wild West, where it’s constantly advancing and changing. What can you do to use it to help your teams? Where do you turn for advice? How can this […]
A Top-of-Funnel Conversation About Leveraging Google, Content, and AI
If you’re a church that embraces the mission Jesus sent us on to “go and make all disciples,” then you are likely laser-focused in your approach and mindset around growth. But many churches […]
Beyond Sunday: Engaging Your Community Monday through Saturday
Gone are the days of thinking attendance leads to engagement. In a digital-first era, churches are re-thinking how to approach community engagement and may not have the right people, technology, and processes working […]
The Collective Might Platform
How do you maximize the strength of your church? All of our churches have wonderful strengths, but they are not always fully utilized or appreciated. Gloo connects the faith ecosystem and enables it […]
Websites that Provide Resources & Create Leads
Your church website is important to your ministry—of course, we all know that! It is one of the key ways to get information out to members and visitors. In this sense, it is […]
How Marketing Strategies Play a Role in Creating Disciples: Using the Member Lifecycle
Articulating your Church’s Member Lifecycle or member engagement strategy will help you know your people, define the next steps for growing their faith and result in growing your church. Let technology help you […]
Leadership Live: Connecting to the Congregation
Leadership Live is a concept that Village Bible Church developed to connect with its congregation. Village Bible is a church of 1,500 people, spread […]
Great Pastoral Communication by Video
Churches should always over-communicate with the congregation. This is especially so during a crisis, such as the pandemic. Here is a superb video from Lighthouse Community Church. It is a message from their elders to the […]
Free Qnnection App: A Conversation Starter
Each question in the free Qnnection app leads to a meaningful conversation. The app is designed to empower and enable the individual to improve conversation, small talk and daily interactions rooted in the rhythm […]
Video Calls – They’re Pandemic!
The coronavirus (Covid-19) has many staff working from home, and there are a number of things worth considering as you manage the ‘brand’ of your church in a distributed work environment.
Video Call Solution Standardization
It’s important […]
7 Essentials for Your Church Website
At Vanderbloemen, we spend a lot of time on church websites. Probably more time than anyone you know.
In our time, we’ve seen a lot of good websites…and some that, well, leave a lot to be […]
New Web Name for Our Church
Monday, February 4, 2019
Hey Fletch … We are wanting to come up with a new url for our church. What are your thoughts on what would be effective?
DRF—Many churches go with the name of their […]
Announcements for Benevolence Offerings
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Announcements for Benevolence Offerings
Hey Fletch … I read the recent “Hey Fletch” column about the benevolence offering for the woman with cancer. I get that donations cannot be earmarked for a specific […]
Urgency Mode in Email
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Hey Fletch … I have a grid of how staff can send me emails to get my attention. I created a four-part numbering system. This lets me immediately know how important their […]
Who Should Communication’s Leader Report To?
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Hey Fletch … We are a church of 1,400. We do not currently have a dedicated communications person. If we explore going to a new hire, who do they typically report to? […]
No Response to Emails
February 9, 2018
Hey Fletch … Some of our junior staff are terrible at responding to emails. They say, “our generation likes texts.” One staff member took a month to get me his annual review.
DRF—Well, you […]
The Three Big Mistakes Most Churches Make on Their Websites
In my day job, I have the opportunity to look at a lot of church websites. The thing is, I keep seeing the same three mistakes made on the majority of the sites I visit. […]
Less Clutter. Less Noise
I came across Kem Meyer a few years ago when I spent the day in my office listening to The Nines Webinar […]
Communications Strategy
The XPastor Online Course on Operations 102—Communications encourages students to develop a communications strategy for their church. Below is the Communications Strategy of one of our students, the Executive Pastor for Seven Mile Road Church […]
Why Podcasts are Critical to Your Church
There’s been a shift in the world. Is your church adapting? The shift is in how people use media and their expectation of what our churches offer. It all started when people could easily record […]
How Do You Communicate with Your Church?
Good communication is key to any relationship. As church leaders, you understand this better than most. It’s no easy task making sure your congregation is getting the information they need to be prepared for upcoming […]
Going Paperless
Consider if your church or business had 29,151,900 pages of documents. For ease of discussion, let’s round that down to a 29 million. According to some folks in New Zealand who had plenty of time […]
Facebook and Blogging Policy
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is the Facebook and Blogging Policy of Northshore Christian Church […]
Honest Virtual Communication
As I was looking closely at the websites of six local churches, one question I considered was this: “What does this website convey about the culture of the church?” That’s a great question. Websites are […]
Seven Reasons Why You’re Not Getting a Stage Announcement
One of the most challenging things in service planning for pastors and communication leaders can be managing stage announcements. Without a system and strategy in place, you can quickly find yourself stuck in a rhythm […]
Reflections on Communications
Throughout the XPastor Online Course, I’ve learned one thing about communication in organizations—it takes a lot of work! Whether it’s a small team of staff members or a large group of assembled leaders, communication is […]
How to Communicate Effectively on Any Budget
Do you want to be more effective as a church? Few things will give you a better return on your investment than improving communications. Communications isn’t about spending a lot of money. Rather it’s about […]
Church Publicity Campaigns
Summers are pretty busy for XPs. Beyond the normal budget preparation that keeps me busy, we also launched a major publicity venture for our 9/11 sermon series. This was a three-week series talking about the implications […]
XPastor Re-Branded
All websites need an occasional dusting off … or even rebranded and restyled. How is your church’s website? Does it look like it did ten years ago? Perhaps it’s time to improve your online image. A […]
Communications System
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is the Communications System of Hope Community Church in Raleigh, […]
Church Branding and Re-Branding—Part 2
Churches re-brand to emphasize their vibrant and living spiritual DNA. Let’s look at two churches to discover some principles that can help your church re-brand. Scofield Church in Texas and Oak Hill Church in Georgia […]
Church Branding and Re-Branding—Part 1
Traveling down the highway at sixty miles per hour, you see a church sign and think “That looks great.” A minute later, another church sign comes into view and you confess, “What a garbled mess! […]
Blogging and Facebook Policy
These days it seems everyone is pushing you towards blogging, Facebook and Twitter. Whether for professional or personal reasons, it can be wise to take advantage of these emerging social networking opportunities. However, there can […]