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
People Vs Perfection
Oct 29, 2009 Worship Planning
Relating to worship teams and the services we lead what does the following mean to you:
People vs Perfection
Participation vs Performance
Tags: leading, people, Service, Team, Win, Worship, worship team, worship teams
Worship Planning with Google Wave
Oct 14, 2009 Communication, Media and Technology, Worship Planning
I was invited to a google wave “post” or “blip” or whatever it is called, where my friend was writing a blog post, and wanted some fresh eyes to read over it. He posted his thoughts and what happened next was amazing. About ten other people started sharing thoughts, finding spelling mistakes and making corrections, giving alternate ideas and collaborating on the post.
After watching this for a few minutes I wondered if it could be used for planning worship services? What would happen if someone could start a wave with the sermon and scripture, then let people from all over comment, make song suggestions, give links to videos or tell about a skit they wrote that would fit the topic?
Well let’s find out. First let me say that I know not everyone has Google Wave, and I know this process won’t fully work until it is available everywhere, so hurry up Google! But I think there are enough to give this experiment a try.
I have created a wave for a service we are doing on November 8th. If you have wave add me to your contact list and I will invite you to the wave.
My contact is rgmmusic@googlewave.com
Tags: blog, Google, LInks, Music, people, planning, scripture, Service, song, Thoughts, video, Wave, work, Worship, Worship Planning
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
What Should I Sing?
Jul 10, 2009 How To, Worship Planning, Youth Worship
When I am a guest worship leader at a camp, or retreat, one of the hardest things I deal with is figuring out what songs I should sing. This seems like a small thing, but I can’t help but think, “Are they going to know these songs?” or “What songs mean the most to them?”
Here are three ideas about how to choose songs in that situation:
1. Talk to leaders and participants ahead of time if possible. When you first are contacted about leading worship, ask about what songs they use. Find out if they use hymns or worship songs, gospel, cutting edge, emerging? Ask what the worship service is like at their church or churches? Do they have a band, or is it more acoustic? This doesn’t mean you have to change your style, but this information can help you to choose songs that are more representative for the group.
2. Have a suggestion box- The first time I tried this I was skeptical about it. I was leading worship for a college work camp and the program director put out a suggestion box in the back. She told the group that if they had any suggestions for worship to put them in and we would try to accommodate them. It turned out working great. The song suggestions they had let me know what they were familiar with, and by their choices told me what they were needing to hear. We were able to use most of the songs, many of which I was already planning on anyway. Some of them were ones I did not know, but learned, and not only used there, but have used many times since and have become a regular part of my repertoire.
3. Well I don’t have a third one.. what would you suggest?
Tags: band, camp, choose, Church, College, guest, help, How To, Music, question, retreat, Service, sing, song, Songs, work, Worship, Worship Leader
Worship is More than 3 Songs and a Sermon
May 6, 2009 Worship Planning
How can I remind people that worship does not just happen on Sunday Morning with 3 songs and a sermon. but all week long?
I asked this question on my facebook page and got the following responses.
“well do would they consider someone a best friend if they only called them for 20 minutes every Sunday?”
“When I spend some time out in God’s beautiful creation, and most particularly when I then sing I am reminded of how worthy of worship my Lord is.”
“Amen and Amen!!”
“Honestly, worship at church should be longer than 3 songs too if you ask me!!! I bust out into song many times thruout the day in worship to God… I think it’s a heart thing. People who really “get” worship, understand that it’s more than a couple of songs on Sunday.”
“This may step on some toes…I would be happy if we just sang praise all morning!”
Then I asked this… to go the other way.. what would happen if you had a worship service where you didn’t sing at all?
“…It would be a worship service that you didin’t sing at all.”
“Hum… interesting turn around… it’d be AWESOME!!!!”
“It would Not be worship for me without singing. So much so that we changed churches when chior practice night changed to one where we could not participate. I can study, I can learn from a sermon, I can pray, but for me without music internal minimun external preferably it is not worship.”
So what do you say?
Memorial Services for a Friend
Apr 14, 2009 Uncategorized
For the past few days this site has been hit by people typing in keywords looking for information about Rusty Watkins. I assume you are searching for information about the memorial service. First of all a personal note, I cannot remember being in youth, or being a youth director without Rusty. Though we were not as close as many of you were, I learned a lot about youth ministry from him. His passing was a shock to me and he will be missed greatly.
Here is the service information (from the facebook page)
Memorial services for Rev Rusty Watkins, son of Billy & Peggy Watkins, will be held at Lakewood United Methodist Church on Friday April 17 at 3:00pm.
Please pass on to anyone else that you think would want to know. Billy & Peggy have both been working Emmaus walks for many years so please pass this info on.
I talked with Billy & Peggy this afternoon and they are doing well, just busy with plans, visitors and phone calls. They are asking in lieu of flowers to donate to your favorite charity.
Here is the facebook group- In Memory of Rusty Watkins
I just wanted to get the info out since I had visitors coming to my site. Please leave your comments on the Facebook Group if possible.
Playing Outside of Worship Services
Nov 17, 2008 Worship Planning
Last night we held our Xperience Night of Worship. We wanted a chance to play out of the usual Sunday Morning setting so we worked up all original tunes written by both myself and Kerri Crocker. We hope in the future to invite other artists, and or take our group and visit other churches. Included is the video of a worship song called “Awaken Our Hearts”. I will post others once I get them uploaded.
So where does your worship team play other than worship services?
Tags: application, CD, Church, Kerri Crocker, night, Russell Martin, Service, song, Sunday, Team, video, work, Worship
