When your church is without a pastor, it can feel like you're on a boat without a captain—sailing aimlessly and without direction.
The church office might be the place where the pastor is missed the most. Questions about bills, membership, and bulletins have no answer, forcing staff like the church secretary or office administrator to take on even more responsibility than usual. So how can your church office survive without a pastor—whether it’s for a month or a year?
I know, I know. Infomercials. But he was a good salesman. Everyone knew him and what he sold. His style worked great on TV, but I would have been frightened to buy OxiClean in real life with him screaming at me.
Good thing most in-person sales reps aren’t like Billy Mays!
When you buy church management software, you’ll most likely work with a sales rep who guides you through buying and training. Church management software is complicated, and it’s a big decision that can set your church back hundreds of dollars.
But first, you need to make sure the software will work for your church! When you find the right solution, it can help make managing finances and members effortless. To ensure you’re completely happy with your new software, ask your sales rep these questions before you decide to buy!
Before you write just about any document, you have to think of your audience. Who are you writing for? If I send a text to a friend, it’ll be different from a text I send to my parents. Even for a daily, unimportant task like this one, we automatically consider our audience.
The same goes for your church website.
Who do you want to reach with your website? In other words, what is the purpose of your website?
In college, I always tried to prioritize. I’d start by writing that excruciatingly long paper, then tackle the short, multiple choice quiz. Though I knew the paper would take a long time and the quiz wouldn’t happen until 3:00 a.m. when my brain power hit an all-time low, at least it was easier than writing! My plan got me through.
In the church office, work such as creating bulletins and newsletters will always take a while to complete. But you can still have a plan! We’ve compiled a list of six ideas to help you minimize those time-consuming tasks.
If you’ve spent time on Instagram, you probably know that almost every day of the week has a hashtag to accompany it. For example, there’s #ThrowbackThursday (endless baby pictures), #FlashbackFriday (last weekend’s lake pictures), and #SundayFunday (mimosas and bloody marys).
If these are foreign concepts to you, count yourself lucky!
Basically, there’s an unofficial schedule to indicate what pictures to post when, and most people follow it; they’ll save their baby picture for Thursday rather than posting it on Monday.
The concept of scheduling social media posts is not inherently a bad one, and it does apply to your church (although hopefully you’re not posting too many embarrasing baby pictures of your pastor).You should have a general schedule for posting that you stick to throughout the week.
I hate Comic Sans.
Truly. I do. And just about everyone in the world agrees with me!
“But Comic Sans is fun!” you protest.
I’m going to stop you right there.
Its curved sides and round handwriting script were originally designed to resemble comic book text (hence the name), and I’m even hesitant to allow it to be used in comic books because it simply isn’t the best out there.
You can like Comic Sans and use it for your family Christmas card, but it really has no place on your church website or any documents you produce professionally.
In The Social Network (2010), which is arguably my favorite movie of all time, Mark Zuckerberg tells his best friend about his initial idea for what would eventually become Facebook: “I’m talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online.”
I’ve always enjoyed going in church offices.
As a teenager, I became very involved in activities at my church, in everything from the youth group to mission trips to even attending meetings with the Board of PR Communications. It’s safe to say I visited the church office more than most people my age.
The office was closed on Sundays, making it look dark and gloomy, but during the week, it had such a friendly and happy feel. Our church secretaries, Mrs. Geighes and Mrs. Moll, would smile and greet me, asking what was new with me and how my family was doing. Then they’d happily go back to their work. I thought it must be a really fun place to work!
Have you ever felt like your church kills an entire forest printing its weekly bulletins? Liturgy, songs, entire Bible passages, announcements, and all of the prayer requests are added, until the bulletin begins to resemble a beginner’s chapter book.
Using a content management system (CMS) can help condense your bulletin or just expand and update your website. A CMS allows you to distribute frequently updated information, and it makes sure people actually see it. Your visitors can subscribe to this content, which means they will receive instant email notifications when you post new information.
When my wife and I were shopping for a new (used) car a few years ago, we had a list of “must-haves.” We need a car that I (being 6' 4") could fit in, but one that wasn't too big for my wife (who is 5' 1"). Of course, a roomy backseat was needed (as we wanted to start a family), as well as a large trunk for storage. We reviewed many different cars, and, with this list of qualities in mind, found a car that we’ve had ever since.
