Church Marketing

Can you imagine—if people began to catch on? What if they began to realize we don’t have to come to church to worship—or, better said, what if they began to realize church isn’t the only place we can worship? What if we helped them grab on to a truly biblical model of worship that empowers…

Once God began opening my eyes to the transformative power of spontaneous worship, I immediately started to educate our teams and our community on its biblical origins. If there was any hope of grafting spontaneous worship into our worship culture, we would need to establish relevant biblical affirmation right from the get-go. The following are…

The kind of worshipers the Father seeks are those who don’t need their cultural or stylistic preferences catered to. Diversity has become a serious buzz word in our world, especially in the last ten years. And of course, this means the Church has largely wrestled with its definition (as it should) in light of the…

 Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most overlooked rehearsal component for every worship team is transitions. You know, those often-so-awkward spaces between the songs, loaded with key changes, tempo changes, patch changes, pedal changes, and wardrobe changes—wait, no. Scratch that last one. Let me set the stage. We’re cruising along brilliantly through one…

Before considering the HOW of running your worship rehearsal, you must consider exactly WHAT you are going to rehearse. Identifying the most important elements for rehearsal up-front keeps us from wasting precious time and goes a long way toward boosting team morale. Let’s take a look at eight of the most important things to rehearse:…

Once you’ve established the plan for WHEN you will rehearse, you can begin to implement the plan for HOW you will rehearse. I highly recommend beginning each worship rehearsal by first gathering the team for some type of spiritual-growth activity. Following this, you’ll want to keep everyone circled up briefly to communicate—or reiterate—the plan for…

In The Language of Influence and Personal Power, author Scott Hagan states, “There are two types of leaders. Those who love power and those who love people.” Not surprisingly, it’s easy to shift the focus of caring for people to the bottom of the ministry to-do list—unintentionally. Our tendency is to continually aim to love…

Assimilating New People Suppose I come to visit you and you’re going to show me the town. Included in that is a visit to a new restaurant that just opened up last month. Let’s do this, wild and crazy guy (generically speaking) that you are … I’m game. So here we go – off to…

If you want to connect people in the church, the path for connection must be clear. If you’ve ever wondered why people aren’t connecting, it’s always good to evaluate the process through which you hope they will connect. Oftentimes, the path is not clear. Let’s illustrate with a hiking trail. There’s something about going into…

Easter is just around the corner! Now’s the time to prepare your church for Easter and all that God wants to do through you. This is by far one of the greatest weekends on the church calendar. We have pastors all the time ask us, “What are best practices in getting the word out for…

Trendy vs traditional marketing… We’ve all seen the catchy one-liners and puns posted on church signs. Sometimes they’re funny. Sometimes they’re thought-provoking. What you can always count on, however, is that they get a response. Because they’re posted publicly for anyone to see, these signs naturally draw people’s attention. Occasionally, they even go viral. These…

In a world where team meetings are a vital aspect of every organization, ensuring that you get the most out of your church team meetings is crucial. Church meetings with zoom is becoming more and more common. In the church world, multi-site ministry, outsourcing for resources, and issues that may arise outside of work hours,…

Using videos to promote an event or share encouragement with a church congregation has become a huge part of ministry. Perhaps you would like to share your sermons so that people can view them after you preach on Sunday.  As pastors, YouTube is a great platform for churches to utilize if they want to share…

Vimeo is a service that has proven to be quite effective when it comes to church video and church media. This platform allows you to upload your church videos on a safe and simple platform so that you can share them with the public. In this video, you will learn how to upload and post…

The world of social media has collided with church ministry and the connection between the two is only getting stronger. Churches are utilizing social media for all types of things. With that said, Facebook is one of the leading social media platforms in use. One of the best ways for you, as a pastor, to…

It’s likely that your photographers serve a few times per month, which means they might feel like they are getting the same shots over and over again. I mean, how many times can you take a random-person-smiling-in-the-lobby picture, am I right? So, how can you tap into a photographer’s creative inspiration, while also getting the…

  Ever wondered what it takes to move your church to the next level — how to cause your ministry to improve — to make it better and more effective to mission? It happens only when you are willing to take the specific steps necessary to examine all ministries of the church and set your…

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” This is an idiom that needs not be the description of any pastor or church leader anywhere in the world! Pastors are notorious for doing nothing but the ministry. They are called of God … and because they are called, they sometimes confuse their work…

NOTE:  It may or may not be summer when you read this blog.  But you get the drift.  Any time of year, you could have a slump. So read this “Summer Slump” blog as an “Anytime Slump” blog and you’ll be good to go:-)!) Click here to join the Church Marketing Bootcamp This summer does…

[NOTE: This blog is focused on a major event on the church calendar – Easter.  The principles articulated herein are applicable across the spectrum of church events and seasons.] Here’s a question for you: What is going to make this Easter different from last Easter?  By that I mean … what is going to cause…

When churches work hard and try new things to get the word out, I love it! But sometimes things don’t pan out the way pastors think. Many times that’s simply because the approach could have been different. Marketing mistakes in ministry are all too common. This is not an indictment on churches. We love the…

After 2,014 churches took the Church Marketing Strength Assessment, we discovered 8 specific breakthrough findings that will help you see the growth you desire. What are growing churches doing? And what are flat or declining churches not doing? That’s what you’ll see in this brief summary of the 8 breakthrough findings revealed. (NOTE: To our…

You’ve likely spent a number of hours this year praying about ways your church can reach more people. You’ve probably already read a few books, blogs, and maybe even attended a church conference. You may have a few new outreach ideas that you and your board are praying about doing this year or next. Reaching…

Over the last few months The Hardy Group offered the Church Marketing Strength Assessment for pastors and church leaders. 2,014 churches responded giving us the most comprehensive analysis on that subject out there today. In the Assessment we asked 20 questions with three-answer (Yes, No, Don’t Know) options to each question. I want to zero…

You know how important location is for any organization. We hear it all the time — location, location, location. In fact, you’ve probably seen good businesses in your community go out of business simply because of crummy locations. Here, we are discussing digital church real estate. Now what if I told you that you can…

How is dreaming correlated to your ministry? Dreams vs. reality … Have you felt this tension when leading in ministry? More than likely you have experienced it … … but the question is, which of these consumes your thoughts? The fact is — we live in reality. Sunday prep … meetings … outreach events ……