What I Am Reading-Freebies, Printing Press and Questions
Nov 26, 2009 Communication, Devotions and Thoughts, Media and Technology, What I'm Reading
Thought I would let you in on a few different blogs and articles I have been reading lately-
1. The Internet is Not Your Delivery Boy- From Church Marketing Sucks I learned that the internet is not just the 20th century printing press, but should be so much more. It’s not about informing but connecting…
2. Freebie Friday- Tim Schmoyer from Life In Student Ministry shares different freebies each week. Last weeks was #152: Dallas Theological Seminary Courses on Itunes-
3. Finally David Risley in a guest post from ProBlogger asks the question, “Are You Talking At or To Your Readers” in a recent post. I wonder how many of the questions, and lessons learned, in this post could be applied to churches too?
Tags: blogs, Church, Itunes, Ministry, ProBlogger, Tim Schmoyer
Help Me Save a Life
Nov 15, 2009 Communication, Devotions and Thoughts, Me
For the past two years I have been supporting the “Nothing But Nets” campaign. The campaign raises money to provide mosquito nets that protect from Malaria with the goal of wiping out the disease on the continent of Africa.
Between now and Christmas I want to raise enough money to buy 1000 nets. At $10 each that makes a total of $10,000
Wow, you might say that’s a lot of money but think of it this way.
Between now and Christmas is around 45 days. That means if you saved 22 cents per day between now and then you would have $10 for a net.
I figure that I have about 2000 people I am connected to between facebook personal page, fan page and twitter. If only half participated we would reach the goal.
How you can help:
1. Donate: I have created a netraiser team called Fork In the Road. You can help support me by making a secure online donation. Click here to donate.
2. Forward, Retweet, Repost: Send this on to your friends in your social networks. Get them to help.. who knows we could pass 1000 nets easily.
3. Start Your Own Team: Why not start your own effort with your church, youth group, or among your social media friends. It doesn’t matter who raises the money, just that they get raised.
For more information on how YOU can participate in Nothing But Nets, please visit www.NothingButNets.net
Thanks for your support!
Tags: application, camp, CD, Christmas, Church, Click, facebook, fork In the Road, help, Malaria, Methodist Church, Mosquitos, Music, Net Raiser Team, Nothing But Nets, people, Team, twitter, Wave, work, youth
Before You Create Your Webpage
Nov 11, 2009 Uncategorized
“Do you want people to spend time visiting your church website or visiting your church?” This is the question a wise person asked me when I was talking about upgrading our church website. The question caused me to rethink some of the things I was planning for our site. I am not arguing against having a quality website, however I think there are some questions to be asked, and things to seriously be considered when you are starting a website for your church or non profit organization. Here is a list of questions I came up with:
1. What is your goal? You need to decide what your website will provide. Maybe it will have basic information like dates, times and forms. What ever your reason make sure that you are using the appropriate tool, or site, for the job.
2. How much are you going to spend- You can easily spend $2500 or more to have a beautiful website designed for your group or church. You need to ask yourself whether that money should be spent on your web presence or if it could be put to use in your organization in a better way.
3. What do you need to get your message across? Wait.. first figure out what your message is. Then what do you need to get that message out. Will flash slideshow with pictures be the best format? Would video updates be effective? Do you need to be able to create podcasts?
4. Who is your audience and how do they like to be reached? Don’t just think about who you are communicating with but also consider what ways they communicate. I recently had a member of our church tell me she does not go to our website. When I asked why, she said that she gets our email updates and facebook messages and they all came to her phone. She has no idea what the website looks like, how many hours I spent choosing the right photo or how much money we spent designing it. She gets the information she wants in the best format for her. That’s what’s important.
5. Consider other forms of communication- In this artcile by Fred Zimny he proposes that with services like facebook and twitter, that websites are becoming less important and are being forced to change:
“Over the next few years, we’re going to see official institutional websites become less important. They will cease functioning as the only point of web interaction between businesses and customers and will become merely the official storefront. The main “conversion goal” of these retooled portal sites will be to drive interactions onto the third-party social networking sites.”
It used to be that your goal was to get people to come to your website for interaction with your company. It seems more and more that websites are directing their visitors to their presence on social networking sites like facebook and twitter. Consider the thought that a website cannot be the only online presence your organization has.
6. Will your web presence be mobile?- Look at the number of iphones, blackberry’s, droids and other smartphones that are out there. More and more we access the web on the go. Are you considering how your site will be accessed by these devices?
What questions do you think should be considered before starting a website for your organization?
Tags: Church, Communication, email, facebook, people, photo, Pictures, podcast, question, Service, sing, twitter, video, websites, work
Instrumental Reflection #11- Veteran’s Day
Nov 9, 2009 Free Stuff, Instrumental Reflections
This past week we created a video of member of our church, who was in the military, sharing his thoughts on what veterans day means. This weeks instrumental reflection is the background music I composed for that video. Click here to see the whole video.
To listen click play!
Just a reminder.. Instrumental Reflections is now available as a podcast. Click here for the feed for the podcast or here to subscribe in itunes
Tags: Background, Church, Click, compose, Instrumental, mp3, Music, podcast, reflections, song, Songs, subscribe, Thoughts, video
Appreciating Your Worship Team- Ask for Feedback
Nov 3, 2009 How To, Worship Planning
Each year I have an end of year evaluation with my pastor and other church leaders. This is a great time to look back on the previous year, talk about goals and identify areas in need of attention.
This year I decided to go a step further. I sent a short survey out to my worship team. After all, these are the guys who are in rehearsals and leading worship with me week in and week out, and I really wanted to know what they were thinking. I will admit I was apprehensive about doing so at first, however now that we have gone through the process it is one that I plan to do every year.
The set up was simple:
1. I used google to create a form
2. I emailed the link out to the team members
3. As they filled in the sheet the answers were collected for me
Here were my questions:
1. Rate the overall musical quality of the worship Team (1-5)
2. How much do rehearsals prepare you for leading worship Sunday morning (1-5)
3. Rate the variety of music presented (1-5)
4. List up to three things you think the band has definately improved on in 2009
5. What are three things you would have liked us to have improved on but we did not?
6. If you were in charge, could do anything you want, what one major change would you make?
7. Give me your idea of something new we should try to do?
8. Can you commit to the worship team for 2010? Why or Why Not?
9. What else would you like to say?
Through providing this opportunity for feedback I was able to hear things that I might not otherwise and address them before problems arise. I am excited too about new suggestions that were given and am looking forward to implementing them in the new year.
I encourage you to find some way where you can receive honest feedback from those you work with on a weekly basis. Not only will it help you to stop possible problems, but it gives your team members ownership.
So.. how do you give opportunities for feedback?
Your comments are appreciated.
Tags: Appreciate, band, Church, email, evaluation, Family, Google, help, leading, Music, question, rehearsal, Sunday, sunday morning, Team, work, Worship, worship team
Creative Artists or Praise and Worship Cover Band?
Oct 28, 2009 How To, Worship Planning
I was reading through various friends facebook updates when this one by Chuck Harris caught my attention:
“The church does not prize originality, but rather cloning, it does not prize freedom, but control.” Leonard Sweet.
It got me to thinking about how we approach worship music in the church. Do we foster an atmosphere of creativity and unleash our members to use their talent in unique and creative ways, or do we throttle creativity by insisting on playing a piece just as it was recorded by the latest worship band? I admit it is much easier to do the second. I also think that we are encouraged to do so by artists and publishing companies because they make it so easy. You can find now an extensive library of resources where the worship tunes have been charted out to mimic their recording. It is easier to learn the music when CD’s can be listened to and are available for easy reference. I wonder though if it has not just made us a praise and worship cover band. Although it is easier, is it best?
I had been thinking on this topic even before I read the quote above. One of our band members, who had been thinking along the same lines, asked if we could try an experiment. He said that we should pass out a chord chart to a song, and let us come up with the arrangement before listening to it on the CD.
I really want to get your thoughts.
What are the benefits of using CDs and pre-written charts?
What are the benefits of doing your own thing?
Which do you use more often? Why?
What are other ways you can foster creativity with your band?
Tags: band, CD, charts, chord chart, Church, facebook, Free, late, listen, Music, praise, praise and worship, Reading, Recording, Resource, resources, sing, song, Thoughts, Worship
Suggest Your Favorite Podcasts
Oct 22, 2009 Communication
I was listening to music on my iPhone the other day and I noticed that there was one category empty…. Podcasts. I really hadn’t given much thought to podcasts until I took a trip down to Houston recently. On the way down I was tired of listening to music, but there was nothing on the radio. I stopped for dinner and began to browse through the podcasts in itunes. I downloaded several and had plenty to listen to the rest of the trip down, and back up.
The ones I started with were:
Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast- I really enjoy listening to Andy’s thoughts on leadership. The only thing I do not like is that this one only comes out once per month.
All About Worship Podcast- Wisdom Moon and the guys do a great job making an entertaining podcast. It contains artist interviews, reviews and just some good fun and conversation. Great for worship leaders.
Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast- Since hearing Rob Bell at a National Youth Workers Convention many years ago I have been challenged by what he has to say. Nice to be introduced to other great preachers from time to time.
Those are the podcasts that I started listening to but I know there are other great ones out there. So let me know! What do you listen to? Which ones inspire you, challenge you, or make you laugh?
Tags: Church, iphone, listen, Music, National Youth Workers Convention, podcast, Thoughts, work, Worship, Worship Leader, youth
Video Tips- One Way to Capture Audio
Oct 7, 2009 Communication, Media and Technology
Video is something I have just started doing at our church. Even though it is new to us as a way to communicate, we are already seeing some awesome results. We started out doing all of our youth updates as a video and have had some fun with that.
To start off with though, all the videos have been kind of funny and light. That changed this past week when our pastor wanted me to video the testimony of one of our members. When doing the funny, light videos it was good to hear what was being said, but with background music and other elements in the video sound quality could be compromised a bit. With the testimony, however, I knew that we had to get the best sound possible.
First you should know we are using two Everio Hard Disk cameras, set up in two locations with different angles. Its a good consumer level camera with a decent microphone. We have not invested in higher quality equipment, extra microphones or any thing else up to this point because we are just getting started and want to build slowly. But I did need to find a way to capture good audio. When telling a testimony, we really need to hear the story.
This is when I got the idea to just use the church sound system. We used the wireless lapel mic as our input. I then captured the audio three different ways. First it was captured by one of the two cameras I had set up; Second it was captured by sending it from the board, to a wireless earphone pack, to the second camera’s microphone input; and third it was captured by a CD recorder running on the sound board. We recorded the interview and I used my computer later to sync up the video, and audio from the different sources.
The best thing would be to purchase a good microphone for the video camera, and I hope that is in our future. However, this way gave great results and did not cost us anything.
Do you use video in your church? If so how? Is it effective? What is your setup?
Tags: audio, Background, Camera, capture, CD, Church, computer, Everio, Funny, late, Music, sing, tips, video, youth
Do We Have Customers?
Oct 5, 2009 Communication
I have worked in churches for over 15 years now and I will have to say it is definitely a unique “business” to be in. In fact, I just described the problem. Is the church a business? We have bills to pay, employees to provide for, buildings to maintain. There is a budget, income and expenses.
If the church is a business then do we have customers? If so who are they? Are our customers those who are already in the pews and on the roster? The ones who are faithful in attendance and give to support our ministries. Are our “customers” those who are in our community un-connected to any church, or not even knowing who Jesus is?
Furthermore, should we gear our resources, worship services, communications, programs etc to those who are already here, or to those who are unreached? On one hand if you do not take care of those who are already in the church, supporting the church, then they may not stay and support. However are we really fulfilling our mission to make disciples if we do not expect, plan for, and actively pursue those who are un-churched, non-believers?
Or is even the right question to ask?
I’d love your thoughts…
Tags: Church, Communication, question, Resource, resources, Service, Thoughts, Win, work, Worship
