Articles on Operations
Your Facility and Communications Departments are important parts of the ministry of your church. Without them, you might be meeting in a tent using a megaphone! They are also ministries that take a lot of money to keep current. A long-term plan and some policies and procedures are vital for the smooth operation of your church.
Defending Your Church from Cybersecurity Threats
Data security breaches are constantly in the news, but the threat of phishing scams and ransomware attacks aren’t limited to large companies. In fact, ministries are increasingly under attack by savvy cyber [...]
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 [...]
Church Spaces for Introverts, Extroverts, and Nickelback Fans
From Introverts who actively dodge your overzealous door greeters to extroverts who are the overzealous door greeters, the needs of our communities are as diverse as the people who attend. Add to [...]
A Sound System for the Next Decade
Our church was in the middle of planning for a sound system renovation for our worship center. Then came the live XPastor broadcast on Auditoriums Post-Covid: Big Ideas to Think Through When Designing Your [...]
Free E-book on Church Facility Budgeting
Our friends at Church Smart Solutions have released a new E-book on Church Facility Budgeting. It covers where to begin your church facility budgeting journey; overspending and underspending; practical steps so that you can [...]
10 Questions Before You Buy Facility Management Software
In today’s world of advanced web applications, cloud computing, and web-based solutions, it can be confusing what facility management software is right for your organization. Identifying your organization's needs is the first step to [...]
Freedom in Hiring vs. Software Platform Policies
The U.S. Supreme Court gave churches and ministries the legal right to only hire those who agree with their religious and doctrinal views, but many IT solution providers require churches and ministries to certify that [...]
How to Budget For Your Next Project
Most projects start with a vision, idea, or dream and then quickly run into reality—specifically, the reality of, "How are we going to pay for all of this?" Join us as we sit [...]
Three Strategies that Protect from Ransomware
Ransomware is a serious threat that costs a lot of unbudgeted dollars to fix. Effective protection is available! Here’s what I recommend. Ransomware is not like most malware threats that slip into systems under the [...]
The Nuts and Bolts of Commercial Development on Your Site
For years you’ve imagined that irresistible coffee hot-spot on the corner of your property that lures the community to your campus and increases the bottom line. But, you’re not sure how to [...]
What Are Capital Reserves and Why They Matter
Less than 40% of churches Smart Church Solutions have surveyed in our national benchmarking have a defensible plan for capital reserve planning. Capital renewals are inevitable expenses. Every component of your building has [...]
The 4 Buckets of Church Facility Budgeting
If your church has a facility, then you have been entrusted with the care and stewarding of your ministry tool. That means that you will have to set budgets, hire personnel, plan [...]
The Seven Deadly Sins of Church Building Design—and how to Fix Them
What are the seven most common church designs mistakes? You know, the ones that create the biggest headache for church leaders. Dave Milam will explain a mistake, then watch Bob Bergmann fix [...]
How to Never Say, “Our Policy Won’t Allow It”
There is a bane in having a good church policy for your facilities. Here is what happens. A church leader plans an event on your church campus and turns in a facility request. The [...]
4 Types of Church Facility Maintenance
Maintenance can be defined, as it relates to property, facilities and equipment: The upkeep of property or equipment—Merriam-Webster Maintenance is what we do to keep our facilities and equipment functioning as intended use. It is [...]
Entrusted: Intentional Church Facility Stewardship
Fletch talks with Tim Cool about his latest book “Entrusted: A Guide to Intentional Church Facility Stewardship.” Tim has extensive experience in all aspects of church buildings. Get in on a great [...]
How to Measure Online Attendance?
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated change in churches at arguably the fastest rate in history! Back in 2015, megachurches led the church world in offering online church: 30% of megachurches offered an online campus [...]
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 across 5 campuses. They were looking for ways to connect with [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Keeping Data Secure for Remote Workers
Where are you working right now? If you are working remotely, it’s likely your employees and coworkers are, too. So how do you secure remote workers and the devices they use to access your resources? [...]
How to Live Stream and Start Church Online
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, XPastor is sharing an article that highlights one vendor of online streaming. There are many vendors and ways to accomplish a video worship service. Enjoy this as a [...]
It’s Time to Test Remote Operations–Conduct a Drill
Michael E. Batts, CPA, is the managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales & Lee, P.A., Certified Public Accountants. He gives great insight on what churches should be doing now regarding their financial operations using the [...]
WheatFields’ Report Card on Church Safety
In Fletch’s book, Predators—The Case of the Church Embezzler, uses a fictional case study of WheatFields Good News Church. Executive Pastor Dan Black created a report card to evaluate how the church is doing [...]