Discover how to leverage technology in your church

If I don’t write down that I have to do something, I will immediately forget it. No joke. Whether it’s homework assignments, work duties, or personal chores, if it doesn’t get written down, it doesn’t get done.

“It’s already a big enough change that a pastor is using an iPad to lead service.” An innocent comment, but it struck me nonetheless.

I had recently accepted a call to a church where the other pastor was retiring. I was called to be the Senior and then Sole Pastor. Talking to the soon-to-be-retiring pastor, I mentioned that I hoped to change as little as possible the first year (a new pastor is usually change enough!). And, that is when he made the above comment.

I have, as some people call it, an unhealthy obsession with Microsoft Excel. I get excited about anything that allows me to be more efficient. With Excel, I keep finding new and better ways to do just that.

While much of Excel revolves around numbers (all right, most of Excel revolves around numbers), there are some pretty fantastic formulas and functions that allow you to quickly manipulate text. So even if you are more focused on Bible studies and mail merges than income statements, Excel can help you.

Some people simply aren’t online much. Maybe that’s the case in your congregation. But that doesn’t mean a church or pastoral blog would be a waste of time!

Even with a “offline” congregation, a blog can still be a success. Try these 3 ideas to make the time spent generating blog content worthwhile. 

Last week, I wrote about the first step of stategic planning for churches—implementing a program review process at your church. With that step in hand, you can now set the future in motion through visioning.

Strategic planning is important for every organization, whether it’s business, a group, or a church. As a church leader, you are responsible for looking at the larger picture to decide what will be of most benefit to your congregation—unless your church has unlimited resources, of course!

The first step? Implementing a program review process at your church. Here’s how to get started:

Let’s be real—creating newsletters is a pain. Especially if you’re creating your document in Microsoft Word, where formatting can be a real issue.

Whether you make newsletters for print or email, it’s a struggle to keep your announcements down to a page or two. But if your newsletters are much longer than that, readers lose interest and resort to skimming or throwing away the paper completely. Here are some tips to keep your newsletters short and informative: 

When I start working on my Christmas cards every year, I find myself wishing for a really awesome photo.

My guess is that this happens every year. Some well-meaning person comes up to you after the Christmas Eve service and says "Isn’t it exciting to see so our church so full? Wouldn't it be great if we could get them to all come back next week?"

If no one has ever said that to you, I’m sure you’ve at least had that same thought. I know I have!

Sometimes it’s really easy to get worked up about the number of people who worship at your congregation. Our culture defines success by numbers. When large numbers of visitors attend worship, we think that means we must be successful as a congregation, and our thoughts naturally turn to how we can keep them coming back.

’Tis the season to bring a little Advent/Christmas spirit to social media!

Imagine a month where you didn’t need to think about what you were going to post on social media. Pretty great, huh? Better yet, imagine a month where members of your church are creatively generating images that you collect and share throughout the Advent season. Sound too good to be true?

Enter the Advent Photo-a-Day Challenge.