A church needs technology in order to effectively communicate with their staff and congregation. Communications includes hardware, software, web design, worship technology and print … yeah, pretty much everything that is expensive!
The Inherent Risk of Guest WiFi Access at Your Church
With the myriad of wireless devices in constant use, many churches provide Wi-Fi for the convenience of employees and guests. However, this complimentary benefit can come with a heavy price if security is taken [...]
Simple Steps to Online Safety
Malware. Ransomware. Identity and data theft. Phishing. Corporate account takeovers. Denial of service attacks. As recent headlines illustrate, cyber attacks are a real and growing risk for all organizations. It’s no longer a question of [...]
Free E-Book on Church Automation
Neil Miller and KiSSFLOW have just released an e-book, The Beginner’s Guide to Church Automation.” He says that "Automation can be a big step for some churches, but these questions shouldn’t stop you from experimenting with automation.” [...]
Church Event Planning Toolkit
Deborah Ike is a regular author on XPastor.org, contributing some fantastic articles over the last few years. Based on her experience in helping churches and as a professional project manager, Deborah shares her approach to [...]
Copier Leasing and Negotiation Tips
As an attorney, the vast majority of business and church executives I talk to dread their copier lease expiring as they must deal with leasing new ones. Recently, we helped a church with a multiple [...]
First Impressions: Five Tips from a Church Secret Shopper
Below are five practical tips to implement at your church in order to make great first impressions with guests. 1. Vision cast to your Guest Services team So often, people that serve on a church’s [...]
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. [...]
Book Review: 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 Conference. I was so intrigued and delighted by her approach and expertise that [...]
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 [...]
Mobile Phones and Online Giving
With 87% of the U.S. adult population now carrying mobile phones, (52% of them internet-enabled smartphones), people are changing the way they buy things. According to a survey recently released by the Federal Reserve Bank, 15% [...]
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 [...]
Visitor Experience Audit
Mike Robinson of www.details.com prepared this Visitor Experience Audit for Oak Hill Baptist Church, in preparation for the opening of their new building. It's many times helpful to get an outsider's perspective on your church's [...]
Seven Questions to Ask About a Content Management System
This year’s hurricanes mostly “missed” us, but our basement flooded anyway. Days later I sat absorbed in my computer monitor, buried up to my eyeballs in search results and browser tabs. Search by search, each [...]
The Role of Technology in a “Do More with Less” Environment
The dichotomy churches are experiencing during tough economic times creates an interesting set of challenges. On one hand, people are either finding their way back to church looking for help, guidance and answers or they [...]
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
nikeTraveling 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! [...]
Changing Our Church Name
Richland Bible Church is located in the small West Michigan town of Richland, about nine miles northeast of Kalamazoo. The church was organized in March of 1983, when 75 people came together to form a [...]
Webcasting Church Services
Imagine holding Sunday services with an unlimited number of available seats. Imagine those seats being accessible to anyone, anywhere in the United States or world. Surprisingly, these days it’s easy to turn those dreams into [...]
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 [...]