A book I constantly use -- STICK, new book SWITCH

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268093813&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268093831&sr=8-1

Sample Newcomers Info for Epis. Churches

www.edow.org/diocese/aboutus/expect.pdf

http://www.stlukesonthelake.org/visitors_and_newcomers

http://www.acswebnetworks.com/stlukesonthelake/article164329.htm

Church Marketing 101 Book

The Book || The official website of Richard Reising

This "must read" (we're not just saying that--look at what others are saying below) is a handbook to building a contageous church. Whether you are a marketing guru or novice, you will find it inspiring, encouraging, and hopeful. It’s everything you’ve been secretly thinking about church since you’ve been at church, but it’s also the solutions that churches are needing. In this book, Richard breaks down marketing principles and brand strategy by offering fresh insight into what both creates and hinders church growth. Built on a strong biblical foundation, he reveals how small changes can have a big impact on growth. Strategic marketing can set your church apart, creating the momentum to change the life of your church and your community for eternity. Bottom line: it’s worth the read.  

Church Software, Web Based | Church Community Builder, CCB

Church Software, Web Based | Church Community Builder, CCB

Another option for a web based community with ChMS like functions. They are trying to be more friendly/open to Twitter, etc. Some of the twitter post out functionality could be made by using the "email to post" option direct w/twitter but also with other providers that repost to multiple sources simultaneously and they too accept items via "email to post" then syndicate across multiple sites.

Once again, Church Community Builder has gone and created new, innovative technology tools that integrate their web-based church management software with the ever-changing outside world of communications technology.

Today, I helped them announce a new feature that combines text messaging with Twitter. Who would have thought? This is a great idea -I’m not sure that anyone else out there is doing this. Here are the basics:

CCB Twext™ Offers the Following Benefits:

Group Texting: In addition to email and mail merge, every Group Leader has the option to communicate with their Group participants via Text Messaging.

Twitter™ Integration: If a group within the church has its own Twitter account, the Group Leader can add that account to their CCB Group. When utilized, a Text Message sent to the group will also immediately post as a Tweet on the group Twitter™ feed. This further extends the reach of the Text Message to those who may not receive text messages but are a member of the Twitter group.

Member Controlled: Group members have full control over their ability to receive text messages. They must proactively edit their CCB profile before receiving them. This ensures people don’t end up paying for text messages they do not wish to receive.

More resources for Church Marketing

Three more sites to check out on Church Marketing

• ChurchCrunch.com
• ChurchMarketingSucks.com
• AnthonyCoppedge.com 

Checklist / Tips for 70+ things to consider in a church web site

http://www.internetevangelismday.com/church-site-tips.php

1. Most church websites are designed entirely for their members, or unwittingly exclude non-Christians because of their choice of language and content.
   More  | Extra
2. A good church site must communicate with three very different target groups:
   More  | Extra
3. This ‘three-way stretch’ is a challenge, but can be achieved.
   More  | Extra
4. Take time to consider the needs and viewpoints of non-Christians.
   More  | Extra
5. Avoid all ‘churchy’ jargon and ‘Christianese’ language throughout the site, especially on the homepage.
   More  | Extra
6. Non-Christians may have negative images of Christians: boring, killjoys, judgmental, etc.
   More  | Extra
7. Christian outreach often fails because Christians do ‘megaphone proclamation’ from behind the protecting walls of their ‘ghetto’.
   More  | 2
8. A primary task of the website is to convince non-Christians of these four things:
   More  | Extra
9. Do not think of your church site in isolation, merely as a stand-alone online brochure.
   More 
10. Church is people: the home page should have at least one photo of a church member. This is absolutely foundational to good communication, yet infrequently done.
    More 
11. Internal pages on the site can include photos of both outside and inside of the church building.
    More 
12. Include some ‘meet our members’ pages.
    More 
13. All links, page titles, and sub-headings should sound enticing.
    More 
14. If testimonies are used, they should be completely free of religious jargon, exaggeration and sentimentality.
    More  | Extra
15. Consider a ‘New to this site?’ visitors link on your homepage. This enables you to offer a particular welcome to an outsider.
    More  | Extra
16. Games and fun stuff are attractive and make a site sticky.
    More  | Extra1 | 2
17. Consider adding some ‘bridging’ pages to the site.
    More  | Extra1 | 2
18. Involve your church members in praying and supporting the web design team, and ‘owning’ the site.
    More 
19. Demonstrate a specific welcome for people with disability.
    More 
20. Summing up: the overall impression of the site must of a gentle, loving, enticing welcome. But...
    More 
21. Sadly, it is this issue of welcome and assimilation that frequently breaks down.
    More  | Extra1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
22. The context of your country, area and culture may lead you to apply these principles in different ways. Analyzehow some very effective church sites are using them: Brandywine | Southside | Bridge | King’s Church | Atlanta |North Branch | Questions
23. Church websites are not the only form of web evangelism.
    More  | Extra

    Design

24. Your church site will be the first point of contact for many people in your community. First impressions count.
    More  | Extra
25. Do not place too much information on your homepage.
    More 
26. And all important information should be ‘above the fold’.
    More 
27. Avoid ‘churchy’ graphics – open Bibles, stained glass windows, doves, candles. And appeals for money.
    More 
28. Use at least one graphic of a person’s face on the homepage.
    More 
29. A 3-column layout is often the most suitable for a church site.
    More 
30. Never use an introductory ‘splash page’.
    More 
31. Every page should display the same overall appearance, with the same navigation options in the same place.
    More  | Extra
32. All links, menu options and buttons should be clearly identified as ‘active’ – they should change color when hovered.
    More 
33. If you use Javascript for any effects, ensure everything on the site still works for those with Javascript disabled.
    More 
34. Don’t use frames for site design.
    More 
35. Learn how to use ‘include’ files – a great time-saver.
    More 
36. Also learn how to use CSS.
    More  | Extra
37. Use colors correctly: understand how to choose a color scheme, how colors relate to each other, and what mood they communicate.
    More  | Extra
38. Don’t use patterned graphic backgrounds behind body text.
    More 
39. Consider a ‘liquid’ page design: the content should flow naturally and fit together, at any screen resolution (i.e. size of the monitor screen measured in pixels) or reasonable font resize by a user.
    More 
40. And don’t put ‘best viewed at resolution’ or ‘best viewed in browser Y’ on your website.
    More 
41. Don’t include ‘mailto’ email addresses in plain coding on the site.
    More 
42. Your site need not be large or complex.
    More 
43. Don’t leave out-of-date content online.
    More 
44. Use several people to proof-read for typos and poor grammar.
    More  | Extra
45. Make your pages printer-friendly.
    More  | Extra
46. Take time to assess your target audience, their interests, needs and circumstances.
    More  | Extra
47. Not least, pray – both for planning and implementation.
    More  | Extra

    Your church webmaster/team

48. A church webmaster or team needs a clear job description.
    More The church should encourage the webmaster or web team in their back-room role.
49. What if there is no-one technical in your church, to take on the webmaster role? You can use a pre-designed template system. These also answer the problem of what to do if the only technical person in the church moves on, leaving a website that no-one really knows how to update. Follow ‘Extra’ for a listing of providers and how to assess the features they offer.
    More  | Extra
50. A larger church site can benefit from ‘CMS’ – Content Management which enables multiple users to keep the site updated.
    More  | Extra
51. Learn from others. Help is only a mouse-click away.
    More 

    Readability

52. For normal body text, use black font on a white or near-white background.
    More 
53. Do not used fixed font size in your coding.
    More 
54. Therefore make all font sizes relative, so that users can resize text if they wish.
    More 
55. Choice of fonts is important. The Verdana font is designed for computer monitors, and is widely perceived as the most readable for body text. (Note how upper-case I is distinguished from number 1 or lower-case l.) Test it yourself: view this page in helvetica | arial | default sans-serif | default serif | times new roman | restore verdana.
    More  | Extra
56. Understand how to make your site user-friendly to color-blind and visually-impaired visitors. color tester. More 

    Testing

57. Test your site from a technical viewpoint in different browsers, and at different screen resolutions.
    More 
58. Also test your site with real first-time users. Remember, you know your site backwards. They do not.
    More  | Extra
59. Find non-Christians to critique your site. Yes, non-Christians! They are your primary target audience.
    More 

    Navigation and usability

60. Good navigation allows a first-time non-technical visitor to move round your site easily.
    More 
61. Good navigation gives visitors constant clues to fulfill the vital requirements: ‘Where am I, where have I been, and where can I go’. Many websites, of all types, fail to be effective because they lack a good intuitive navigation system.
    More 
62. Do not offer too many links in your navigation menu.
    More 
63. You can use ‘paper prototyping’ to plan different ways of structuring links within the site.
    More  | Extra
64. Make sure your pages download quickly.
    More 

    Being found – online and physically

65. The title tag in the head of your homepage, which should contain the full name of the church, plus town, state and country.
    More  | Extra
66. Your church name, street, town, area/state, country and phone number should also appear in unabbreviated form in a small font in the footer of your homepage (or preferably every page).
    More 
67. Submit your church site to main search engines and secular directories.
    More  | Extra
68. Make every page of your site a logical entry point to your site.
    More 
69. Framed pages present problems to being listed in search engines.
    More 
70. Ensure the church URL is easy to remember. Take every opportunity to give it a high profile.
    More 
71. Make full use of press releases to local newspapers and radio stations. These should always include your URL. Larger churches can consider publishing regular news using an ‘RSS’ feed.
    More  | Extra1| 2
72. Include clear directions for finding the church. Give details of parking, public transport links, and a map.
    More 

    Responding to emails

73. Ensure that every day, someone reads incoming emails to the church.
    More 
74. Some people may be emailing for help on serious life issues.
    More  | Extra
75. It need not necessarily be the pastor or pastor’s secretary that does this, especially out of hours.
    More 

Fun with database fields & data tracking

Membership status?


We have a lot of options here that we probably need to discuss, define and decide which terms and who they apply to for the database (our use) and need for reporting under Parochial rules.  So there is a toss-up having too few options does not give us a clear picture of where we are at and having too many tends to leave people lost between the cracks.  We can juggle other fields/lists as well if that is a better option i.e. split contribution and steward info separate from membership so there is less of a hierarchy of Steward, Contributor, Active Member, Attendee, etc.  

• Active member
• Inactive member
• Member Non-resident
• Prospective Member (or Returning visitor or Seeker or Visitor 3 or more times)
• Visitor (1 - 2 times)
• Active Participant (or Active Attendee)
• Inactive Participant (or Inactive Attendee)
• Active Contributor Only
• Inactive Contributor Only
• Active Pledging Member (Pledging / Financial Steward - Same or separate form contributor?)
• Relative of Member/Participant
• Deceased?

Relationship:

• Need to separate single adult from single youth/child.

Additional Contact Note types:

• Personal Crisis Event
• Health Crisis Event
• Alert
• Pastoral Counseling

Custom fields:

Adding some special fields into the ACS People Database for office use/tracking:

• 2008 Pledging Member (Yes/No)
• 2009 Pledging Member (Yes/No)
• 2010 Pledging Member (Yes/No)
• A-List Member (Yes/No)
• Baptised (Yes/No)
• Confirmation Status (Conf. Episcopal, Confirmed Other, Not Confirmed, Reconfirmed Episc.)
• Frequency of Attendance (almost never/moved, Al least once a month, at least quarterly, at least 2x a month, Every week solid, high holidays only, less than once a year, regular 3-4x month, yearly)
• Last time seen at church (2006 or before, 2007, 2008, 2009 Q1/Q2, 2009 Q3, 2009 Q4, 2010 Q1)
• List in Directory (Y/N)
• Membership form recevied (Yes/No)
• Preferred service or event (8AM, 10:30AM, 5:00pm, Special Event Only)
• Attending with whom (Adult child only, Friend, Other, Parent, Self only, Sibling, Spouse, Youth or child only)

For baptism and confirmation separately tracking in text:

• Date for baptism
• Location of baptism
• Denomination of baptism
• Date for confirmation
• Location of confirmation

Additional possible fields:

• Majority Faith Community (What denomination if any before now would you most identify with/raised in?)
• Marriage in the church, name & location of church, what denomination, when

As far as groups, organizations, skills, etc -- all likely to be handled in that subfunctionality and not direclty attached to the customizing user record fields.

Parish Vital Signs Survey

I received this in a 2008 Vestry Day training at Grace Cathedral. As we look at tools this might be another / different option. Issue with any survey to judge impact you need to do it a few times -- as memories often have rose colored glasses.

Taking Your Parish Vital Signs

Here is a simple tool to enable you and the leadership of your church to measure and reflect on your parish’s general health and vitality. Below are twenty questions that explore various facets of your life together.

Task: Read each question and assign a number to each between 0 and 10, with 10 as the highest, signifying excellence. Then add up the total responses (0-40 = Should you close your doors?; 40-80 = Needs parish EMT; 80-120 = Fair but needs coaching; 120-160 = Good, keep going; 160-200 = Excellent, where can I join?)

There is a powerful, caring ministry to members in need. People know who is hurting and respond meaningfully.
Parishioners have a genuine air of joy, hope, confidence and ease with each other and others.
People are truly appreciated and thanked for what they do.
Parishioners have an active spiritual life at home and at church.
People can deal with conflict openly, allow disagreement and still love, learn from and respect those who differ from them.
People are discovering their gifts for ministry and are encouraged to use them.
The congregation is fairly free of a critical spirit.
The needs of children and teenagers are known and included in the life of the church.
Parishioners feel deep anger at the injustices in society that hurt people and move to act.
People who visit could think: “These folks really have something special and I want to join!”
The community is generous in pledging and sharing, living out of a theology of abundance vs. scarcity.
Members have a real personal relationship with Christ.
Parishioners are eager to share their real lives and experiences of God with others to lead them gently to Christ.
Clergy, staff, vestry, choir, altar guild, etc. relations are open and mutually respectful, a sign of God’s Presence.
You get a sense that you are not with a bunch of Pharisees but forgiven publicans whose lives are lived in gratitude to God’s love.
These people know how to play and are fun to be with.
The church leadership and members have good self-esteem and a clear sense of boundaries.
The community thrives on open communication not back biting triangulation or gossip.
The community is open to change while keeping faith with the past and their clear identity.
This church is a place where the Spirit is contagious.

Total: _____________

Critically Important Site to Read - Mystery Worshiper

Ship-of-Fools.com and their Mystery Worshiper survey is fantastic tool to read what others are doing well and where improvements can be made.  To give long time attendees of a church some insight to someone who is church shopping and what types of things worked or didn't work for them at a church.

Here are the review questions / categories they use:

Descriptive:

The church: Denomination:  The building:  The church:  The neighborhood:  The cast:  The date & time: Review: What was the name of the service? How full was the building? Did anyone welcome you personally? Was your pew comfortable? How would you describe the pre-service atmosphere? What were the exact opening words of the service? What books did the congregation use during the service? What musical instruments were played? Did anything distract you? Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what? Exactly how long was the sermon? On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher? In a nutshell, what was the sermon about? Which part of the service was like being in heaven? And which part was like being in... er... the other place? What happened when you hung around after the service looking lost? How would you describe the after-service coffee? How would you feel about making this church your regular (where 10 = ecstatic, 0 = terminal)? Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian? What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time?

C3HWiki - ChurchManagementSystem

C3HWiki - ChurchManagementSystem

Another good site reviewing/commenting on ChMS and other technology issues for churches. In this case it is primarily Unitarian Church IT related discussion of the tech they use/recommend.

Google Apps for Non-Profits is and that link is in there as well.

Book: Author/Book Recommend by Ed

High Impact African-American Churches

http://www.amazon.com/Impact-African-American-Churches-George-Barna/dp/0830732659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266104057&sr=8-1

This book is packed with twenty-first-century lessons and practices, highlighting real-life success stories from the African-American church experience. Here the strengths of the African-American church are celebrated, and its best practices explored through the study of large and small churches alike. Half of the chapters in High Impact African-American Churches feature African-American history from the inception of slavery to present day, revealing the influences that have shaped these churches. Readers from any church, in any culture, will learn specific steps they can take and apply to their own churches, achieving successes similar to those found in the African-American Church.

About the Author

GEORGE BARNA is the directing leader of the Barna Research Group, Ltd., a full-service marketing company in Ventura, California, that specializes in research for Christian ministries. George is the best-selling author of books such as Real Teens, The Frog in the Kettle, Boiling Point and The Habits of Highly Effective Churches. HARRY JACKSON, JR., is senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Washington, D.C. This large multicultural ministry includes a Bible college and an active mission ministry that sends worship and teaching teams to numerous nations. Jackson, who earned his MBA from Harvard, is one of the foremost African-American leaders in the nation. He is the author of In-Laws, Outlaws and the Functional Family.

St. Aug's lending library might have the book.

the author/group's website is: http://www.barna.org/

they do a lot of marketing research and studies of faith organizations.

Same author has a few other interesting book titles:

• The Habits of Highly Effective Churches: Being Strategic in Your God Given Ministry
• George Barna reveals nine critical habits proven to make a church an effective local body. This book dispels popular myths and wrong beliefs as to what constitutes a thriving church in today's society and is an excellent resource for ministry leaders who are seeking or willing to reevaluate and restructure a church.
• Grow Your Church from the Outside in: Understanding the Unchurched and How to Reach Them
• George Barna reveals that America has more unchurched people than the entire population of all but 11 of the world's 194 nations! Based on research among several thousand unchurched people, the book discusses their values, attitudes, beliefs, religious practices, demographics, life goals, and spiritual expectations. Using additional research conducted among churches that have had great success in attracting and retaining unchurched people, Barna sets forth new perspectives and effective strategies for churches that wish to reach those who avoid church. By understanding what makes the unchurched tick, we have a better chance of relating to them in meaningful ways.

More resources / sites to check out from Ed

http://healyourchurchwebsite.com/ -- pretty good blog

http://www.churchmetrics.com/  -- this one looks AWESOME!!!

http://groups.drupal.org/node/24494  -- this is a pretty specific page outlining the possible features for a Drupal for Churches distro. i refer to it constantly for ideas about possible features to add.

http://www.onthecity.org/ -- commercial SaaS from Zondervan

Recommended Church Tech Links / Resources from Ed

OpenAtrium  (for an intranet)
http://www.openatrium.org

Geeks & God Podcast
http://www.geeksandgod.com

Mustardseed Media (related to G&G Podcast)
http://mustardseedmedia.com/

Godbit Project
http://godbit.com/

LifeChurch.tv (check out the series "A Place for Everyone"... it is about welcoming, church, and why some churches grow and others don't)
http://www.lifechurch.tv

also check out their free Church Resources
http://open.lifechurch.tv

PlaidFile
http://www.plaidfile.com
(i think this project might be dead. i've tried contacting the author several times... it was supposed to beta release in 2008.)

Web-Empowered Church
http://webempoweredchurch.com/

desperately waiting for this project to get off the ground:
Drupal for Churches
http://drupalforchurches.com/

Coffee with Ed the true Web MASTER

Had a very good and detailed talk with Ed about tech, marketing and his experiences working with St. A's on the web front.  I'll be entering notes into this a bit later. Meeting was on 2/12.   But this was a key meeting to keep the momentum and move towards him being able to hand off some of the stuff still on his shoulders.

Ed is a real web professional -- great at design, good at tech, tries to meet users where they are at and bring them up, meets clients spec, goes way above and beyond every time in effort.  I have to say I've never had that in an outside contractor or firm to this level except once - and that guy is golden too.

Ed isn't going away from outside advice / assistance but it is being paired down to a much more manageable level.

Purchasing Address Lists & "Move-in" Lists

One area that a co-op marketing group could do to reach out pretty cost effectively is to purchase and plan mailers and mail campaign pieces.

Purchasing address lists may be an excellent way to target out an outreach/marketing campaign.  Purchasing change of address lists i.e. people moving into the area and other "new home owner" mailing lists might be one of the best ROI groups for "blind" solicitations.

Other "Public Record" type names if legal might be another source i.e. marriage, child birth, etc.  Voter file might also be a good source.

One source -

• http://www.buy-direct-mailing-lists.com/new-movers-mailing-lists.html - offers $0.45/name to buy list, print card and mail.

Notes on Power Connection

Notes From my Power Connection Call
(Call and demo with Larry Hardy 2/10/10)


Primary goal was to learn more about their solution and see it in action at least our top "priority" items.  This meant focus on the Visitor Power module primarily and some on Member Power.  We touched Web Power and I skipped the Contribution side for now.




Software:

• No web forms post-in, no email-in processing – entry of contact is entirely MANUAL
• Very Que based – approach with significant overview/control at the "Program Director" level.  Volunteer callers cannot access or change actual records in their web form -- can print out a call sheet and later enter a series of notes into a web form vs. correct or worse case corrupt good data.
• Lots (almost all) of "results" to queries and functions are exported to CVS not displayed and not displayed with a hyperlink to drill down into a member of visitor record.
• Way to get to member record is primarily a name search.
• Volunteer caller management is done by the "Program Director" role who can see assign / reassign people manually – You can easily see the volunteer caller name followed by ##/## which represents que of assigned people and # of total calls they pledge they can make on a weekly basis
• System has a vacation / time off / DND to help limit dead-end/drop outs/delays of volunteer callers connections to visitors.
• During calls or completion of print/cards for later entry if a visitor selected interest in several items i.e. interested in Parents group the visitor in the que would also be contacted by that specific ministry  i.e. expressed interest in parents group – qued to be called by that specific groups leader.
• Built-in survey i.e. lists of things to ask or listen for to gather more complete information and link into the ministries/groups.
• Once a volunteer caller completes data entry for 1st call made -- flows to the next call data entry form.
• Power.Web is their CMS and also helps syndicate out info to churches with more advanced sites.
• System is not really a true "modern" CRM it only really tracks notes and info does not integrate, facilitate or track email or other "touch points" unfortunately.

Process:

• Secret of Power visitor is the process / discipline of 5 calls by three individuals over X weeks (I think 4-5 weeks).  Caller 2 & 3 call twice.
• Visitors are matched to volunteer callers automatically based on first Location, Family Status, Hobby, Age (First Caller is generally closest member)
• Process for addressing non-attendance: Week 1 - slide, Week 2 - Letter, Week 3 - Call, Week 4 - Home Visit.
• Data collection is basically manual via contact/visitor cards collected weekly and taken up with the offering.  From there data entry Sunday on Monday AM so if possible follow-up calls go out Monday for a weekend service.
• All call attempts are entered not just successes.
• You can drop someone out of the process easily by changing status.

Info / Stats: <I'm definitely interested in research>

• 70% of visitors drop out of a church when after 4-14 weeks # 1 sighted issue was never established a relationship to someone in the church.  #2 issue sighted was someone was never asked to participate in anything. 
• Only 2-8% of visitors convert to long term members if there is no contact strategy in place.  With connection power they say that rises to 28-48% depending on how well systems are implemented and followed.
• Three weeks from purchase to train before launching Power Visitor.
• Their experience is email response rates are down to 3-5% while mail receipt rate was close to 100%
• Church who has 60% of members over 60 will die within a decade
• 70% of visitors now visit a web site before attending a church
• Number one "turn off" to web visitor was an out of date site

Hints / Suggestions:

• Adoption of Lapsed/Attendance Troubled members by another Family
• Attendance tracking is key and a process to follow up for fall out of both members and visitors.
• Using Avery label name badges @ every major service to track attendance (those labels not pulled returned to input absent).
• Adding an interesting "ask me question of the week" to name badges to encourage conversation.  Those that don’t take a badge then are marked Absent.
• First caller in the volunteer callers should be the best "personality" you've got i.e. positive and friendly.
• First call should be no more than 48 hours after attending a service and completing a visitor card.
• First caller should arrange to meet the visitor for the service on the following Sunday 3-5 minutes before the service and offer to sit together and introduce them.
• Weekly Call Partner Rewards and Praise for Top Caller - possibly ribbon or something on their name badge.
• Church needs a "cruise director" similar to my "mother hen" analogy
• "Visitor Centers" are very popular now
• People go to small churches to build relationships.  Families go to big/mega/giga churches to have someone babysit their kids during service, activities and church schools, etc.