In times of lean staffs, your church can become volunteer-centered

Five steps in making your church a more effective volunteer-led congregation.

By James Higginbotham

With the recent economic downturn, some churches are closing their doors due to lack of money. Many are choosing to downsize their facilities or abandon their multi-million dollar buildings in an effort to stay open. Churches are often forced to lay off staff members, some of whom were recently hired. Now, churches are trying to find out if it is possible to keep the 
church running smoothly while running with lean staff.

One church that has been running with a lean staff for many years is Calvary Austin [ www.calvaryaustin.com ]. They currently have five staff with about 1,000 members. During their early years, the church existed in a low income neighborhood, generating lower-than-average offerings from its membership. Running with a lean staff was essential to cope with their increased growth.

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From volunteer baristas for their onsite coffee bar to volunteer-based building maintenance, they learned that not all church activities had to be performed by the staff. When volunteer resources were not available due to time or lack of specific skills, they contract to local businesses. This not only extended their skill set beyond the membership, it offered opportunities to get to know local businesses and invite them to weekend services.

Volunteers reduced labor cost

As they began to outgrow their current building, they started a building campaign to raise funds for a new location. The cost of the new building, renovations and materials were beyond their means, so they again turned to their volunteers for help. They purchased a building previously occupied by a grocery store and converted it into their new church building using their volunteers to reduce the cost of labor.

Utilizing more than 200 volunteers, they converted one-third of the building into their new church location in just six months. Tasks the volunteers performed included project and volunteer coordination, financial tracking and reporting, preparing meals and babysitting for work crews, landscaping, painting, demolition, stage setup, media setup and cleanup.

While they have experienced additional growth during this time, they still utilize a lean staff and depend heavily on volunteers to accomplish much of their church operations.

Using volunteers well

How did they do it? Let’s examine five steps you can take to become a volunteer-centered church.

1.) Have a well-defined vision. A volunteer centered church requires that your volunteers know and understand the vision of your church. Volunteers are often occupied with a career and family, so having a focused vision will help them to know if the work they are doing for the church is contributing to this vision.

Create a short, memorable vision that helps focus your volunteers. The more complicated or wordy the vision, the more likely they will forget it. Make sure the vision is easily visible and permeates throughout your printed materials, sermons and signage.

Volunteers have short memories. Be sure to communicate it often, as volunteers are busy and need to be reminded on a routine basis. It will also help them to make better decisions during their day-to-day volunteer work, as they will use your vision to guide them.

2.) Limit your programs. The natural desire for a church is to attempt to address every opportunity that comes its way. The result is a drive to add more ministry teams and staff to tackle these opportunities. The problem with this approach is that it isn’t a scalable solution. There are always more opportunities than you can handle and never enough money or people to go around.

Limiting programs allows your volunteers to select from a limited list of serving options. While it may seem that more programs mean more opportunity for volunteers to signup, marketing research indicates that more choice can paralyze rather than encourage decision making. Restricting your programs makes it easier for volunteers to find a way to use their skills while still providing plenty of opportunities to serve their church.

3.) Invest time with your volunteers. Staff members are often inside the same building and are able to spend time together on a personal level, creating camaraderie. While volunteers should be focused on the tasks at hand, they desire the same fellowship and personal growth as your staff. Your job as staff is to create this kind of environment not only for yourself, but for your volunteers as well.

Encourage your leaders to create quarterly team meetings that are casual, allowing volunteers to share in recent successes and discuss upcoming projects. Have them spend one-on-one time with volunteers over coffee outside the normal work time. Reward your volunteers often with praise and small gifts from the church, such as a gift card to their favorite restaurant or handwritten thank you note.

4.) Provide guidance and opportunities for growth. Volunteers need guidance from their staff and leaders during difficult times, but they also need room to grow. Every volunteer brings a unique mix of personal experience and talent to the church. Find the balance between micro-managing your volunteers and failing to give them the support they need.

A great way to create this kind of balance is to break larger tasks or projects into smaller milestones. Each milestone should have a small list of tasks to accomplish toward the larger goal. At the end of each milestone, review the tasks accomplished, provide some feedback, and discuss the next milestone. These smaller milestones can provide great teaching and discipleship moments, help the church improve their volunteer process and ensures that volunteers are on the right track.

5.) Constantly develop and train volunteer leaders. Raising volunteer leaders is essential for churches with a lean staff. These leaders will be directly involved with their team’s day-to-day effort and will know the volunteers that are excelling or require special ministry needs. They can also identify candidates for future leadership positions within the church.

The most effective way of developing volunteer leaders is through consistent training. Finding or developing a core set of training materials will provide the foundation they need during difficult leadership situations. It also demonstrates the staff’s desire to invest and support their leaders.

Servanthood focused

Finally, remember that a lean staff must learn to be servants of its volunteers. Don’t let your staff perform all of the big projects and leaving the leftovers to the volunteers. Instead, let the volunteers own the projects.

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This may require more time, training and course correction, but it will create a more creative and independent volunteer base as time goes by. Plus, it will reduce the burnout of your lean staff.

James Higginbotham is the editor of www.VolunteerCentered.com, a website focused on helping churches with volunteer management, leadership and recruiting.

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Learning from lean staffs during lean times

With many congregations facing tighter budgets as they weather the worst economic recession in decades, a survey earlier this year of U.S. church leaders by Christianity Today International and Leadership Network shows that a small percentage of churches are able 
to continue doing ministry while keeping staffing costs — the single-biggest expense for nearly every church — well below national averages. Lean Staffing survey of 735 leaders 
of Protestant and evangelical churches shows that one in seven spends less than 35 percent of its annual budget on staffing costs.

Responses included churches of all sizes, from attendances of 50 to 20,000. Among 
findings:

• Lean staff churches do a better job with volunteers and lay leadership development.
• Lean staff churches invest a noticeably higher percentage of their budget beyond the
• walls of their church.
• Growing churches spend a smaller percentage of their budget on staffing costs, so
• they’re “leaner” than plateaued or declining churches.
• Staff costs become leaner with size — as overall weekend worship attendance increases, but not dramatically so.

Historically, churches in recent years spend, on average, about 45 percent of their total budgets on staffing costs — and sometimes more. The Lean Staffing study separated 539 respondents to generate the “lean staffing” comparison: 15 percent of that group spends less than 35 percent on staff, while the rest spend between 35 percent and 65 percent. The study used 35 percent or less as a benchmark since it represents a sizable decrease from national averages and helps with statistical comparisons. A 46-page report on the survey results is available for free at store.churchlawtodaystore.com/lestsure.html.  — RK

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Knowing more about volunteercentered.com

VolunteerCentered.com is a website that provides in-depth articles on volunteer leadership, management and recruiting. They also offer a variety of resources, including a free eBook on volunteer recruiting.

In addition, they offer consulting to churches that desire to improve their administration, church building campaigns, technology and volunteer management processes.

Full-time staff members and church volunteers will find a number of resources to help make a positive impact with volunteers and community.
— JH

By Cindy Sanders

Does it seem like the boys and girls in your ministry walk in each week, sit down and wait to be entertained? Do they think of church as something to check off their list as another thing they have to endure just because their parent or guardian said so? Imagine what it would be like to have the children involved in the ministry. Actually “being” the church instead of church “being done” to them?

First you need to understand why it is critical to reach kids at an early age. Then, work on changing the trend of losing them at an alarming rate.You may need to make adjustments in the way you lead and minister. Are they worth it to you? Will you make the sacrifice to keep children coming to church?

Children’s ministry probabilities

In his book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions: Why Children Should Be Your Church’s #1 Priority (Regal, 2003) George Barna reports these statistics:

• Children between the ages of five and 13 have a 32 percent probability of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• The probability of accepting Christ drops to 4 percent for those who are between the ages of 14 and 18.
• Those older than 18 have a 6 percent probability of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Barna’s research also discovered that a person’s lifelong behaviors and views are generally developed when they are young — particularly before they reach their teen years. The disappointing news is that the statistics show us children are dropping out of church as soon as they can convince their parents to let them stay home.

In the book Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do to Stop It (New Leaf Publishing/Master Books, 2008) by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer, the 20 to 29-year-old evangelicals who attended church regularly but no longer do so, report:

• 95 percent attended regularly during elementary and middle school
• 55 percent attended during high school
• 11 percent were still going during college

The most alarming conclusion of this information is that 40 percent of these kids dropped out in elementary and middle school. We automatically think that we lose them when they go to college, but we are losing them much earlier. So, what is the solution?

Take a good look at the children’s ministry in your church. An even better idea is to have an outsider come in and look with fresh eyes and give input. What does the environment say to a parent, child, and guest? Does it feel welcoming, warm and comfortable? Is it kid-friendly, safe, clean and appealing? What about your class time? Are you being a good steward of the time you have with kids? Does every child feel special? Is there a greeter at the door and someone to pay attention when the child who doesn’t fit in needs a friend?

After you have assessed the basic environment and class time, focus on using the natural tendencies God put inside each child to involve them in ministry. Some of the first words a child learns to say are, “I can do it myself.” Children must feel they belong. They need a purpose beyond attending a class or worship service. Spiritual gift surveys and basic personality tests are a great way to help kids realize their potential.

Every Christian can learn to share their faith with others. When kids accept Jesus as their “forever friend,” they have a story to tell. Writing out a short testimony of their experience gives them confidence and boldness to share.

When children know what you expect of them, they will rise to the occasion. Talk to them about the importance of consistent attendance. Give them responsibilities in the classroom and during the services. They can greet guests, lead worship songs, pray, dramatize the lesson and create illustrations. With training, some can even be responsible for sound or lighting. Never assume kids can’t do something until you let them try. Regularly offer service projects and watch the children in your ministry blossom and mature.

True relationship

If children enjoy the environment and feel like they belong to a group, where does the true relationship with Jesus Christ come into play? Kids need consistent, authentic faith modeled by significant people in their lives. Although parents are the primary spiritual leaders, they need church leaders to partner with them. Kids also need intellectual knowledge from people they can trust about current issues they face.

A biblical foundation must be built in the lives and hearts of children. Because of the Word of God, they will think differently and live differently in order to be faithful to that Word.

Point the parents to Deuteronomy 6 and remind them to teach God’s Word all the time, in everyday life. Provide resources, a link on your church Web site, or email activities to the home. Encourage interaction and family service projects church-wide as you emphasize the importance of time together. As life happens, parents will begin to use teachable moments to discuss the ways of God.

The facts state the problem and demonstrate why we can’t keep doing church the same way we have always done it. Assess your environment and make some needed changes. This first step might be to get some new children in the door and make the ones already there feel some anticipation of change. Focus on spiritual gifts and watch your children shine.
Next, build relationships with the kids, parents and ultimately with Jesus Christ. Introduce Jesus and His love in everything you do and watch your ministry change. In Mark 10:14, Jesus says, “Let the little children come.” We want to do everything we can to keep them coming!

Cindy Sanders is a children’s ministry consultant for Life Catalyst Consulting, Flower Mound, TX. [www.lifecatalystconsulting.com]

Ministry to children cannot thrive unless leadership is intentional about its role

Too often the leaders in charge of the children’s ministries are caught up in the management of week-to-week programs. Attention to the big picture of the church’s role or vision can be neglected.

This mentality can dilute and negate the value of ministry to young children, presuming it to be a “no news is good news” ministry in the eyes of pastors and other church leaders. A challenge exists to those leading young children to rise up, lead and connect. A challenge exists for pastors to invite this connection and let it evolve appropriately for that age group of participants.

Methods for making this connection will be as varied as each individual church. The key to the connection is not the style, but the source.

The four sources

Consider four sources for connecting the children’s ministries to the foundation, or what I call, the big church.

1. Connect to the center. The center of a child’s life is the adults who care for him day to day. Children’s ministry needs to connect to the home. Direct methods can include offering parenting classes or newsletters, providing good customer service and developing relationships with the adult arms of the church through things like class adoptions and new mom representatives.

2. Connect to the core. The core of an individual is their eternal capacity; their soul. Excellent tools, such as curriculum, craft books, toys, CDs, staging and lighting saturate the market for children’s ministry. As vital as these are, they are still simply tools. A connection takes place when the organization knows what they want to accomplish by using the tools. Connecting to the eternal capacity comes from intentionally knowing what spiritual milestones a ministry wants to see children reach as they grow and promote through it in stages.

3. Connect to the community. The community of a church is the tangible location and the individuals who live and work there should not be untouched by that church. Connecting to community involves getting the church moving among and serving the lives and businesses around it. Children’s ministries are no exception to this connection.

A little creativity on the part of a leader can open opportunities to serve or encourage local day cares, nursing homes, family services departments, public servant offices, local food banks, homeless shelters and more.

4. Connect to the commission. There is a purpose for the church being established. It is stated in scriptures. This commission is for the church to be organized in preaching, teaching and giving foot to the Gospel. Alongside this commission individual churches often lay out visions particular to them. The role of a leader in ministry to young children is to connect that ministry to these overall goals. If the goal of a church is to send people to other countries with the message of the Gospel, is the children’s ministry engaged in assisting that somehow?

Intentionally connecting to the big church involves planning and often additional money. Leaders of children’s ministries, who have the responsibility of creating ministry plans and using budgets, should challenge themselves to connect these to the source.

Kim Williams is director of Preschool Ministries, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA. [www.fbcw.org]

International Network Holds Conferences

The International Network of Children’s Ministry (INCM) is a nonprofit, denominationally independent organization located in Castle Rock, CO. INCM is the premier organization in America for training and resourcing Christian leaders from around the world who minister to children and families, and its mission is to train, encourage, motivate, network and resource Christian leaders.

INCM stages the Children’s Pastors’ Conference (CPC), which is the foremost Christian conference focusing on children’s and family ministry. CPC includes four life-changing days presented by experts in children’s and family ministry. Quality speakers and professional performers are scheduled throughout the conference.

Since networking face-to-face with ministry colleagues is important, the registration fee includes six meals connected with each general session. Conference participants have the opportunity to browse the largest gathering of children’s and family ministry resources available.

CPC offers two location options in 2010 for nearly identical events that together attract 4,000 leaders:

January 4-7 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN and March 14-17 at the Town and Country Hotel in San Diego, CA.

The “CPC Experience” offers more than 140 breakouts choices, including a Pastors’ Track with topics such as “The Joy of Leading with Joy” and “How to Wire Families for Serving and Church Growth.” Academic credit is given through Trinity International University.

Inspirational speakers, meaningful worship, excellent focus groups, a jam-packed exhibit hall and an abundance of fresh ministry concepts make CPC the event that cannot be missed for those working with children. Details at www.incm.org.

Children’s Ministry Resources

• Web site suggestion for spiritual gift information and testing: www.mintools.com
• Books for service projects: Hands-On Service Ideas series by Group Publishing and The Big Book of Service Projects from Gospel Light. www.group.com and www.gospellight.com
• Teach your children to share the plan of salvation: www.cefonline.com

By John Welches

When Phil Hotsenpiller became the teaching pastor at Yorba Linda Friends Church, Yorba Linda, CA, writing a comic book was the last thing on his mind. In fact, the thought had never occurred to him. Little did he know that one of the comic book industries most talented and controversial artists, Rob Liefeld, attended his church. Neither Hotsenpiller nor Liefeld ever imagined what would happen next.

Over Labor Day weekend in 2006, Hotsenpiller decided to do something very different at the church. “I thought it would be pretty cool to have an entire weekend dedicated to studying the End Times. We figured ‘Why not?’ It’s supposed to be a light weekend, what with vacations and all,” Hotsenpiller laughs. “We ended up having more than 8,000 people present. It was like Easter!”

Liefeld was among those who attended the weekend sermons at Yorba Linda Friends Church, which typically sees an average attendance of 5,200, and he was mesmerized and enthralled by Hotsenpiller’s interpretations and theories that merged current events with biblical End Times prophecy.

Signed to Marvel Comics at 17

Liefeld has been creating comic books since he was 17 years old, when he was signed to Marvel Comics.

Since then, he created the popular “Youngblood” series, co-founded Image Comics (the publisher of “Spawn”) and sold more than 65 million comic books.

“I was completely taken in by Hotsenpiller’s teaching,” Liefeld says. “The way he meshed historical and current events and then brought it all back to Scripture was radical. I knew something was there, but that it was bigger than a comic book.” Liefeld has never been one to sit still. “I just walked up to Hotsenpiller after a service and told him we should do a graphic novel,” Liefeld says. “I explained what a graphic novel is to him and he was like, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ And then we just made it happen.”

Graphic novels have been steadily rising in familiarity and popularity among audiences, especially youth and young adults, thanks to the movie industry’s frequent adaptations of stories based on new and classic comic books. A genre of literature distinctive for its extreme art fused with text, the graphic novel format is a visually-stimulating way to illustrate a compelling story.

Liefeld knew that Hotsenpiller’s ideas and storytelling ability would go beyond a Christian audience and the graphic novel presentation would be the perfect packaging to not only get their message across, but also reach the mass population in a relevant way. In developing the characters, both creators had the intention of not making it a solely “Christian” comic book, falling in the genre of “The Left Behind” series that followed believers around while the world fell apart.

Reaching a larger audience

“We quote scripture in the graphic novel and use the Bible as a historical artifact,” Hotsenpiller explains. “The ultimate goal is to entertain, enlighten, and get young people to start asking questions and to stop ignoring the signs pointing to what lies ahead. We want to reach a larger audience because that’s what we’re called to do as Christians.”

This is the main reason for “Armageddon Now: World War 3.” What’s truly unique about this story is how Hotsenpiller and Liefeld implement astronomy, chemistry and other scientific methods to support and inform. You’re immediately introduced to larger than life characters‚ figuratively and literally. Liefeld’s style is known across the industry for the way he draws his characters, often exaggerating muscles and bending the rules of anatomy.

The first installment has received rave reviews from young readers in both the Christian and mainstream groups. Young people are already responding by asking questions, starting discussions, and diving into the next installment of the series, “Armageddon Now: The Beast,” which was released this past Labor Day weekend. There will be a total of seven books in the entire series, plus additional books featuring back-stories on many of the main characters.

“We are pouring so much information and truth into these stories,” Hotsenpiller adds. “Young people, both Christians and nonbelievers, will benefit from reading these books. Both Liefeld and I believe that we were called to create these books not only for the current Kingdom, but to use as an unconventional tool to reach the rest of the world.”

John Welches is an award-winning writer and owner of the branding firm J. Welches and Associates, Yorba Linda, CA. [www.jwelches.com]

For more information on the “Armageddon Now” series, Hotsenpiller and Liefeld, visit www.ArmageddonNow.net.

Saddleback Church, like most congregations, uses audio/visual equipment to enhance services as well as capture teachings and send video to other campuses. Increasingly technology is finding its way from the pulpit to youth ministry too. With youth demographics experiencing nearly every facet of life in Web 2.0 — from the classroom to the playground — why not integrate similar technology into youth worship experiences?

High School Pastor Josh Griffin leads a staff of six full-time employees, three interns and 100 volunteers who dedicate time to assisting Saddleback’s younger community. His enthusiasm for innovative teaching methods brought him to integrate response technology into his ministry, and the ministry prides itself on creative and relevant means to convey Bible teachings to its students.

With an audience that has seen incredible growth in the past year, Josh works at capturing and keeping the attention of his students. He uses tools such as audience response in order to maintain focus and direction.

Chaos with previous system

Previously, the ministry adopted a response system designed solely for classroom environments that used infrared technology. Utilizing infrared equipment — the same technology television remotes employ — often required students to run up to receivers to ensure responses were submitted. With a group of hundreds of high school age students, the system was less reliable and created more chaos than it was worth.

During one of the weekend services, Griffin and his team hosted a “choose your own adventure” series. The program allowed youth to decide on different aspects of the service — from the opening song to the topic of discussion, and everything in-between. Griffin originally wanted to incorporate a response system where the audience could easily vote with the press of a button without having to leave their seats.

He’s now using Turning Technologies’ flagship product TurningPoint, interactive PowerPoint software, and radio-frequency, credit-card size ResponseCard keypads, provided by Interactive Church Resources. Every aspect of the service during the “choose your own adventure” series was determined by the students. The system created an interactive environment and offered insight into a typically uncommunicative audience.

“Often times in youth ministry we talk to students,” Griffin says. “It’s not often that we get to hear from them. One of the fun things we were able to use the ResponseCards for is to create a very specific message based on what they wanted to hear and what they’re interested in. We used the results from surveys during the message to tailor the content to what they were struggling with and what they were dealing with.”

Used in training sessions

The audience response system was also used during several training sessions and conferences. First considered as a way to inject humor into his messages, Griffin quickly discovered that it was capable of collecting hard data as well. When more than 1,000 people joined him for a youth ministry training conference, he inserted a few ice breaker questions to relax and allow the audience to become familiar with the technology.

When he posed the question, “What method of transportation did you use to get here?” he was surprised the find that most participants had driven. By inserting a quick, on-the-fly question slide, he was able to find out how many miles the majority had driven. The answers to those two questions altered the way the conference was marketed and communicated to participants, making it a worthwhile tool in several situations.

Griffin and his youth ministry team have had great success with audience response in a variety of environments. On Saddleback’s campus alone, four different buildings have accommodated the system flawlessly and without any problems. He hopes to continue to use the system in a fun, interactive manner and also apply anonymous polling to uncover real problems that students may feel uncomfortable disclosing.

Mike Broderick is CEO, Turning Technologies, Youngstown, OH. [www.turningtechnologies.com]

By Sam S. Rainer

They are the young family from South Africa that just got transferred to Florida to head up a new division of a Global 1000 company. They are the American military family who has lived in Germany for more than a decade. They are the young family who was transferred to India, adopted two children while living there, one from India and the other from China. They now have five children from three different countries, and each family member has lived in at least two countries.

These families represent a large segment of people: “third culture” worlders. Third culture is a sociological term used to describe a person who has spent significant time in another culture, thus incorporating their birth culture with a second culture and creating a third culture.

The term third culture was coined in the 1950s when sociologists studied the expatriate community in India. But a growing number of people in the North American context are now part of the third culture. They have mixed the dominant first culture with another second culture to form a unique third culture. This third culture world is not another homogeneous bunch, but rather a diverse, heterogeneous combination of people.

It has always existed

Where is home? To some degree, the third culture world has always existed. People migrated and incorporated differing cultures into their family units. During the past few decades this phenomenon has become quite visible in North America. The following are some of the ways this culture views their world.

Neither/nor: In some ways, the third culture exists in a neither/nor world. It is not completely the world of their parents’ culture. Nor is it the world of the culture in which they were raised. As a result, people from the third culture develop different life patterns than those raised in one context.

Either/or: This culture of people does not see the world in terms of either/or. Divergent views can coexist in this culture. They do not feel as compelled to choose either one side or the other. Cultural contradictions do not rub abrasively with them. For example, in most cases third culture worlders are physically different than others around them. They have a different ethnicity, yet they assimilate much easier in the dominant first culture than true outsiders.

Both/and: Dave Gibbons, founding pastor of Newsong Church and author of The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church (Zondervan 2009), best explains how this culture is both/and. He explains, “We’re seeing the emergence of people and leaders who can live in the intersections between divergent ideas; people who understand the fringes and the margins yet can weave in and out of multiple cultures, honoring each context yet without alienating those on the fringes.” This culture is not white or black, rich or poor, East or West.

Where are churches? It’s a great question and somewhat of a dilemma. Culturally speaking, churches cannot become “both/and.” We are called to be among the people and in the culture, but we cannot become the culture from which we are set apart. Conversely, it’s not wise for the church to be “either/or.” A person’s culture is not itself a bad thing. It just happens to be where they are, and we are called to meet them there. And the mission of churches is obviously not “neither/nor.”

It’s best for a church to see the emerging third culture world is an opportunity. Clearly, people in this culture are more inclined to live with conflicting values and beliefs; they tolerate inconsistencies. But they also have fewer walls, which mean they might be more inclined to hear the Gospel. And it might just be the consistency of God’s truth that grabs their hearts and changes their entire view of the world.

Sam S. Rainer III is an author and president of Rainer Research. [www.rainerresearch.com]

By Ronald E. Keener

Trent and Jennifer Sexton are living on a budget and using the “envelope system” in managing their expenditures.

Each month Trent goes to the bank and withdraws the month’s budgeted amount in $20s, $10s, $5s, and $1s. Trent, 31, is a classified sales manager for The Times newspaper in Gainesville, GA, and Jennifer, 30, is a treatment coordinator for an orthodontic office in nearby Lawrenceville. They are expecting their first child in November.

At the bank, the teller made the change for Trent and asked, “Are you doing Dave Ramsey?” Ramsey, widely known for his books and DVDs on family financial management, is a proponent of the envelope system in his program, Financial Peace University.

The Sextons this spring finished the course at Blackshear Place Baptist Church in Flowery Branch, a congregation where 1,200 people participated in the program, that includes 80 percent of the congregation’s regular attenders and others from the community.

The bank teller had earlier gone through the FPU program at her own church. Says Trent, “Whether it’s going to the store or getting your budgeted money out at the beginning of the month, it gives you an opportunity to tell others what you are doing when they see you pull out your cash envelopes.”

Jobs were lost

Hall County, where Blackshear Place is located, is a fairly prosperous community with a mix of white and blue collar industry. It’s home to 47 Fortune 500 firms, more than 300 manufacturing and processing concerns, and 35 international companies representing 15 foreign countries.

But residents have had their issues with the recession as have the rest of the state and country. Another family in the church who took the FPU course, Ken and Chris Smith, observe that in “every other house on our street someone has either lost their job, foreclosed on their home, getting divorced, or has a serious illness.

We are counting our blessings as we both have stable careers, a stable marriage and good health.” Ken, 42, power lineman at Georgia Power, and Chris, 36, an RN at St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta, and their three children, 20, 8 and 6, plus Grandma, have been attending Blackshear Place for three years.

Never knew how much

While the Sextons had a mortgage and “medical bills stemming from confirmed skin cancer the previous year with Jennifer,” they had paid off a car a year earlier and were paying off credit card balances each month. Still, in the way they were managing their money, “we never really knew how much or where our money was going.”

For the Smiths, it was a different story, with some $80,000 in credit card debt. “Before FPU, all the money we made just seemed to disappear,” Chris says. “We never understood why as soon as I paid one credit card off, we seemed to run up another credit card.”

In the course of the 13 week FPU program at the church the Smiths paid off $13,000 and now have a financial plan “that we both agree on.” Says Chris: “We also have set up boundaries for things we want. Now we have one car payment and only one credit card to pay off.”

Both Ken and Chris saw the need from the beginning. “I expected my husband to come kicking and screaming, but to my surprise he ‘drank the Kool-Aid,’” Chris says. “We worked together and it was quite painless.”

Getting smarter with money

With the economy in turmoil, senior pastor Jeff Crook saw a need in helping families in crisis, and those who just needed to be smarter with their money. The church sold more than 800 kits for FPU.

There were many stories of how the program made a difference for those in the program. “We heard of families who were able to pay off their house and weeks later lost their job,” says Grady Sutton, minister of church programming. “They were prepared and able to make it on their spouse’s income.

“We had a number of families lose jobs but they had an emergency fund and were OK. We heard of marriages that were mended when husbands and wives got on the same page financially,” Sutton reports.

FPU has been offered in more than 17,500 churches since Dave Ramsey began teaching it in 1994, involving 750,000 families. The Ramsey organization says that the average family pays off $5,300 in debt and saves $2,700 in the first 91 days after beginning FPU, and is out of debt — except for the mortgage — in 18 to 24 months.

Nathan and Mary Robertson, he 30 and she 27, have four children between the ages of 4 and 1. He is an electrical designer for Southern Company and she is a stay at home mom. They’ve been at Blackshear for a year.

While they never believed in credit card debt, they used the card to buy what they wanted and paid if off at the end of the month. “We had a car loan, which we thought everyone had to have, and were not saving any money each month,” Mary says.

Paying off the loan

Because of the FPU classes, the family paid off their car loan of $9,000 — selling the car and buying a cheaper one — and put $3,000 into savings. “We have also stopped using our credit cards and are sticking to cash and our debit cards,” Mary says. “We have started saving around 15 to 20 percent a month to establish our six months of expenses in savings.”

The couple is also using Quicken to keep up with their expenses and stay on budget. “Together we are checking each other and not allowing frivolous expenses to break our budget,” she says. Their goal is to speed up payments on their house.

The Robertson family says they have learned that God’s perspective about debt is different than that of the culture. “We learned that God does not approve of debt and that even though our society condones and promotes debt, God does not have the same view.

“When we saw what God’s word said about debt, we then realized that our hearts and minds had to be changed to better have a heart like God,” Mary says. Both of them have taken every opportunity to share with friends, co-workers and “other moms” the wisdom of living debt free.

Grady Sutton says the church “is committed to the principles of tithing taught in the Scriptures.” Tithing is taught each fall from the pulpit and within small group ministry on Sundays.

Working with a $5 million budget, the church has seen nearly a 10 percent growth in its giving during the first six months of the year. Says Sutton: “We can’t explain why our church is financially blessed, or with so many large churches suffering, how is it that we are so blessed.

“We can’t say for certain that it was FPU, but we do believe that it has greatly helped our people. God has been good to give a vision for financial peace to our pastor, good to provide for our needs in a tough economic time, and good to guide and direct our steps,” he says.

Blackshear Place began another wave of the FPU teachings in September [2009].

By Ronald E. Keener

Churches are as engaged in the issue of immigration in this country as are other groups, many doing quiet, steady work and providing dialog and attempting resolution that goes well beyond the public clamor that adds little to a real solution.

Adding to that understanding is a new book that brings a reasoned and thoughtful background to the issue. Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate (IVP, 2009) is written by Matthew Soerens and Jenny Hwang.

Soerens is a Board of Immigration Appeals-accredited immigration and citizenship counselor at World Relief DuPage in Wheaton, IL. Hwang is director of advocacy and policy of the Refuge and Immigration Program of World Relief, Baltimore, MD.

Says Hwang: “Immigrants — both those who entered legally and those who entered illegally — are a rapidly growing segment of the church in the U.S. and many predict are going to be at the forefront of the evangelical movement in the U.S. in the next 20 years.

“The undocumented population, in particular, tends to be very hard working, about 95 percent of undocumented adult males are employed, but earning relatively low incomes in jobs that employers say they cannot find anyone else to do.” [www.WelcomingTheStranger.com] Church Executive posed some questions to Jenny Hwang:

What couple issues have prevented the U.S. from dealing with the immigration issue to this point?

The largest issue is just misunderstanding. Very few people have had to interact with U.S. immigration laws, so most people do not understand how antiquated and often unjust the current system is. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions, some of which are passed on by the Internet, radio and television, that have entered into our national consciousness that are just incorrect and often, from a Christian perspective, slanderous. Immigration is fundamentally tied to the economy and labor needs, and while most studies and research have shown that immigration is favorable to the economy, improving immigration policy is a political battle, in which our leaders in Congress have yet to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

So what’s standing in the way of reform?  How can liberals and conservatives come together on this issue?

The divide on the immigration debate isn’t between conservatives and liberals, per se. In fact, it creates some strange alliances between, for example, left-leaning human rights organizations and right-leaning business interests in favor of comprehensive reform.  Also most left-leaning groups don’t want open borders and instead favor stronger border security while many right-leaning groups acknowledge that deporting all undocumented immigrants is not a feasible way to tackle the immigration challenge.

What has blocked political progress on this issue is that the majority (about 65 to 70 percent, according to polls) of Americans who do favor a comprehensive solution that would require undocumented immigrations to legalize their status, are not very vocal about their preference. Thus the small minority of individuals who are opposed to any legislation that would allow legal status to undocumented workers call and write to their legislators consistently, shifting the debate to reflect their perspective.

Many churches are realizing that immigration is affecting them directly because in some churches, almost all of their congregations are undocumented immigrants, while in others, pastors themselves are undocumented immigrants. Thus, many churches are starting to get involved in the debate because it’s an issue that’s affecting them directly.

Can you typify the immigrant (legal and illegal) population in the U.S.?

Immigrants are as diverse as the native-born population, working in every career, living in every state, and with a whole range of cultures and beliefs. Most immigrants in the U.S. are in legal status, either already naturalized as U.S. citizens or with green cards, while another 11 to 12 million are undocumented, meaning they entered unlawfully or overstayed a valid visa (which comprise about 45 percent of the undocumented population).

Mexicans make up a bit more than half of the undocumented population, but there are a great many undocumented Asians (about 1.5 million), Europeans, Canadians, Africans, and Hispanics from countries other than Mexico, so this is certainly not just a Mexican issue. There are also about three million U.S. citizen children living with families where one parent is an undocumented immigrant.

What stereotypes do Americas have of “immigration reform” and coming to a “solution”?

A lot of Americans are wary of passing an “amnesty” that would “reward illegal behavior.” They don’t see that as an adequate solution. Current reform initiatives, however, are not amnesty (which means forgetting an offense, from the same etymological root as amnesia), but would require those who are undocumented to come forward and register with the government, pay a substantial fine for having entered or overstayed unlawfully, prove that they have been working and paying taxes, pass a criminal background check, and earn temporary legal status behind those who are stuck in backlogs to enter the U.S. legally.

To quote Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, to call such a process “amnesty” is to “do violence to the English language.” Immigration reform has also often included a guest worker program. By creating legal avenues through which immigrants can come to the U.S. legally in the future, we decrease pressure off the border and prevent another undocumented immigrant population from growing in the U.S.

What can congregations do to help the situation?

There are lots of ways that congregations can help. The first is to get to know the immigrants in their community — through direct ministry, perhaps by opening up their building to an immigrant congregation without their own space, and by inviting immigrant brothers and sisters to share their stories in Sunday school classes or other venues.

We’ve found, both personally and in the work of World Relief across the U.S., that as individuals and congregations get to know their immigrant neighbors, many misconceptions they had about immigrants dissolve. In fact, we see many individuals and churches transformed by their relationship with immigrants. Oftentimes, as churches begin to befriend immigrants, they begin to understand the problems with the current immigration laws and find ways to advocate for just policies as well.

Can you summarize what solution to the issue you might suggest at this juncture in the debate?

We think that it is important to reform immigration in a comprehensive, holistic fashion, rather than taking a piecemeal approach. That means (1) reducing the backlogs in the current system, so family members of U.S. citizens do not have to wait up to 22 years to be lawfully reconciled with their relatives, as they are in some cases currently; (2) creating a new mechanism for legal entry into country for individuals who want to accept jobs, including jobs not requiring a great deal of education or skill, with an option either to work temporarily in the U.S. if they prefer or to eventually become U.S. citizens; (3) a mechanism for those currently in the U.S. and out of status to apply for the same program, with the additional requirement of paying a fine for having entered or overstayed unlawfully and meeting other requirements; and, (4) smart border security policies that secure the borders of our country while treating detained immigrants humanely.

The best way to secure our borders is to re-direct the traffic from the “back fence” of our country to the front door: to create legal mechanisms by which those who want to work in the U.S., who do not mean us any harm and have nothing to hide from a criminal background check, could enter lawfully. That’s what is missing in current law. Our border patrol agents are overburdened, which distracts them for pursuing the few individuals who really do pose a threat to our country.

_____________________________________________________________

SOURCES FOR INFORMATION

For good, non-partisan data —

The Pew Hispanic Center (www.pewhispanic.org) and the Migration Policy Institute (www.migrationpolicy.org) are good sources.

From a Christian perspective, Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (www.sojo.net/immigration) and the Justice for Immigrants campaign of the Catholic Church (www.justiceforimmigrants.org) are good resources.

By Phil Cooke

I’ll never forget the phone call I received from Joel Osteen to let me know his father — long time Houston pastor John Osteen — had passed away. It was January 1999, not a great way to start a new year. John Osteen birthed Lakewood Church on Mother’s Day 1959 in the most humble possible way — a rural feed store outside of Houston.

The first church members literally had to step over bales of hay to find folding chairs to sit on that first Sunday. About 10 years ago we recreated that scene on film, and in striving for accuracy I was constantly surprised to find out just how primitive that first sanctuary was back then.

But from those early days, John Osteen built the small congregation into one of the largest churches in America. Now, 40 years later when I received that phone call, John Osteen was gone.

It wasn’t totally unexpected. For months, he had been in the hospital with failing kidneys, and although we hoped for a miracle, I knew the phone call would soon come.

New to preaching

When Joel called me at my home in Los Angeles, I had to ask the question, “What now ? Where do we go from here?” The only time Joel had ever preached was the previous week. Even though his father had asked him multiple times over the years, he always evaded the issue and had never stepped into the pulpit. Joel considered himself a media producer and was perfectly content to stay behind the scenes, leading the church from the background.

But as his father’s condition grew worse, Joel finally relented, and on the Sunday he preached for his dad, they wired up a phone connection so his father could hear the message from his hospital bed.

The first sermon Joel Osteen ever preached was the last sermon his father ever heard.

The next week John Osteen went to his reward, and suddenly Joel Osteen was facing a completely different future.

Up to that point, Joel was the communications director and producer of his dad’s global television program, and we had been close friends for a long time. Over the years Joel would ask for my help with many of the bigger events, and we had produced Christmas TV specials in the mountains of Colorado, live prime time programs and many other major concerts and TV events. He was a consummate producer with brilliant instincts and I was the creative guy. Together, we made a good team.

Forming a new strategy

But now, Joel was the pastor and we had to completely change our thinking and our strategy.

I flew to Houston and we had a meeting with Joel’s family and the Lakewood leadership team. We decided that while we wanted to honor the legacy of his father, at the same time we had to recognize a new era was dawning in the history of the church. Just as you can’t pour new wine into old wineskins, we focused on the future, and how to capture this unique story for the city, the state and the nation.

After numerous meetings and brainstorming sessions, we created a campaign called “We Believe in New Beginnings.” It was symbolic of the new beginning at Lakewood, but also of the new beginning that Jesus Christ can bring into your life. It was designed to express Joel and Victoria’s change of leadership to the people of Houston through television, radio, billboards and print advertising, and by extension, to the national television audience as well.

Led by Joel and Victoria, I wrote and directed the campaign, while Lakewood’s television producer Jon Swearingen coordinated the project. Joel always understood the impact of quality, so we created an original song, shot the campaign on 35mm film, and created something that made a remarkable impact on the city.

Our challenge was to create a campaign and TV program that would capture Joel’s unique gifts and brand story, and by all accounts, it worked very well. The perception in the community was indelible, and the Houston press would later call it one of the most successful marketing campaigns in the city’s history. It launched what we know today as Joel’s television ministry, which has become the most successful inspirational program in history, based in the largest church in America.

Elements of success

Looking back, I’ve often considered the elements that went into the launch and why it became so successful. So many churches and ministries are faced with similar challenges, examining what worked in that situation might be a good lesson on getting to the next level. Besides God’s blessing of course, here are five key principles that made a dramatic difference:

The power of a great team. Perhaps Joel’s greatest strength is his ability to assemble a qualified team to help accomplish his vision. Too many church leaders are insecure and need to be the smartest guy in the room. But that only lowers the collective I.Q. overall. Joel understands that you can’t be an expert in everything and he isn’t afraid to bring together a great team in pursuit of an important goal. After all, with only 11 people, Jesus changed the world. Who are the 11 people on your team who could help you do the same?

Strong relationships with the city. Early in his life, Joel’s father taught him an important lesson: A strong relationship with local city leaders can make a significant difference. Take the time to meet city leaders and make them aware of the work you’re doing in the community. It can reap unexpected rewards when you need it the most.

The importance of quality. In a media-driven culture, when the competition for the hearts and minds of the public is at its peak, quality makes a difference. Whether it’s a higher quality media ministry, a more creative Web site or print materials, or even sanctuary construction, perception matters. The first thing people talk about when they see Joel’s TV program is the quality, and that opens doors for people to listen to the message.

Brand unity. Make sure every expression of the church or ministry is telling the same story. Your website, media outreach, print materials — even the church’s design — should have a similar look and feel. People should see anything you create, and instantly recognize it as belonging to your church. “We Believe in New Beginnings” began on TV, but filtered into local billboards, advertising, church videos and even bumper stickers. When we were done, nearly everyone in Houston knew what it meant.

Reach people through multiple levels. In the age of cell phones, Facebook and Twitter, it’s not how you want to talk to your congregation or donors, it’s how they want to talk to you. Make sure you’re communicating on multiple platforms. Today Joel is one of the most watched podcasts on iTunes, and his brand presence extends across all media.

In a media-driven culture, perception matters. While the last generation of Christian leaders discounted the value of perception, it all comes down to the fact that no matter how powerful your message, if no one’s listening, you’ve failed. The question you should be asking is, “What do people think of when they think of you?”

If you don’t work to shape that perception, you’ll spend the rest of your ministry at the mercy of other people who will.

Phil Cooke is a media producer and consultant at Cooke Pictures, Burbank, CA, and author of Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Non-Profits Impact Culture and Others Don’t. [www.philcooke.com]

If by now you think I’m anti-traditional media or even anti-religious media, you’ve missed my point. I’m anti-bad media. I’m anti-stupid media and anti-pointless media; entertainment, information, education, ministry, inspiration — regardless of what type of media programming you create.

I’m against media that isn’t honest and authentic, doesn’t accomplish a purpose, doesn’t express your values, and doesn’t find an audience.

Traditional media will always be with us — after all, I may spend my days on the computer and iPhone, but Kathleen and I still cuddle up in front of my widescreen TV (my Christmas gift to her of course) for a good movie.

The key is finding the right media mix for the right message and the right audience.

— From The Last TV  Evangelist by Phil Cooke  (Conversant Media Group, 2009)

By John Grable

To say that branding a 140-year-old organization presents challenges is a colossal understatement, one so large that I suspect you are smiling right now.

Step back and think about branding a church that still worships in a building built in 1891 (that’s not a transposition of numerals either) and in the center of that sanctuary stands a pulpit 118 years old. Then add the geographic context of being located in a city that is home to so many great churches.

That visual of a mountain conjured in your mind is the challenge of re-branding First Baptist Church of Dallas. It seems like another trip to the thesaurus for a better word than colossal is necessary.

In any leviathan endeavor such as this, the work begins with the process. The quality and integrity of the process correlates directly to the success of the brand. Our ability to truly perceive what the marketplace thought of our institution as seen through the lens of our understanding of what people in Dallas want in a church brought our brand into focus.

Unique to the church

It is important to note that from the beginning we recognized that Dallas residents, newcomers and long-timers exhibit attitudes and practices, even nuances in choices that make them unique. So we knew from the beginning we were not out to create a brand or marketing strategy that would necessarily work in any city but Dallas.

The communications office of First Baptist Dallas began this process by identifying the partners needed to make this journey. It was critical to find brand-advertising professionals who knew how to communicate to the Dallas marketplace. In our case, we chose a group that worked together virtually — art directors, copywriters, planners and account managers who understood our DNA.

At this point of brand development, the core question became, “Are we willing to ‘own’ the results of what we find on this journey?” With a positive affirmation on our lips, we began with multiple sessions of blind focus groups. Our criteria for selection began with Dallas residents, ages 25 to 60 who were identified as not currently affiliated with a church but looking to find a church. That group represented the microcosm of prospective guests to First Baptist Dallas on any given Sunday.

Looking through a one-way window, we saw Dallas residents at all stages of life interviewed and queried, sharing their needs and viewpoints of church, and we heard many positive comments on the qualities of Dallas churches. It was fascinating information.

Stodgy and staid?

After six hours of watching these interviews, the assimilation began. Studying transcripts, viewing closed circuit video and tabulating data yielded some valuable conclusions. We discovered responses such as “perceptions of First Baptist Dallas lag reality by decades … stodgy and staid … stuck with lingering perceptions … not a clear new perception on deck.”

With this challenge our ad team went to work. The first product of this process was our brand positioning. This is where it became really fun. The positioning we discovered began with defining our target, then defining how we are distinctive. This positioning statement emerged:

“To people who believe faith should be more than a spectator event, First Baptist Church is the enduring community that applies the Word of God in every facet of life.”

Reading that statement was stunning; it encapsulated the essence of our church. It also propelled us into the next phase — logos and theme lines.

The art involved in logo design perhaps is the most subjective. It proved that way for us. We never had a consensus. In fact, among the team there were many opinions. We ultimately went through 25 design comps. But at the end of this phase, the decision came down to, simply, “what represents who we are” and not what was cool for the creatives, or what we wanted people to think of us — indeed, not even what we thought people would be attracted to. It had to represent who we are today.

Our theme line in retrospect was much easier. It is in perfect harmony with our brand statement. It is the best answer to the question of “church?” It contains a wordplay that points people to God. It is the best response to a number of statements that people feel about church. It is a theme that Pastor Robert Jeffress uses in his appeal at the close of a service.

First Baptist Church of Dallas is “a church you can believe in.”

John Grable is minister of communications, First Baptist Church of Dallas, TX. [firstdallas.org]

With our theme, “A church you can believe in,” established, we rolled this messaging multiple ways. In outdoor media, we started with a message that said, “Looking for a church you can believe in?” We even did an expandable Web banner that began with this same question that revealed in the expansion: “You’ve found it!” combined with logo and worship information.

Our second wave was a “real people” component. Using actual church members, we added a round of billboards with their image, name and descriptor, plus the line “I found a church I can believe in.” [see photo on this page] We accompanied this with radio spots based on the church member’s story. The tag for these spots works nicely as we stated the emotional conclusion plus our theme:

[Real person] “You know, that’s a story that I’ll tell my grandkids about how I came to be embraced instantly by First Baptist Church.”

[Announcer] “A church that takes the time to get to know you is a church you can believe in.”

Our third wave launched with the messaging taken from our pulpit and pastor: “Bold, Biblical, Practical. That’s a church you can believe in.”  — John Grable

By Ron Weber

Church buildings provide walls for the Christian community. While traditional interaction occurs face-to-face, a growing percentage of church-goers connect through another medium — the Web. For Crossroads Church in Grass Valley, CA, their church lacked the kind of online presence that leadership felt was necessary for connecting with their congregation and reaching out to their local community.

“Frankly our Internet presence was pretty pathetic,” says Tim Weeks, administrative pastor at Crossroads. “We had a website, but it was static, outdated — both in design and content and we basically ignored it as a tool for developing community within the church and extending the church’s impact to the community around us.”

Since partnering with Trinet Internet Solutions in Irvine, CA, Crossroads launched a more effective Web site to promote community within the church and provide a quality point of connection with the surrounding community. These initiatives amplify their ministry’s impact by providing access, information and interaction through the Web.

“The daily, ongoing ministry at the church would be the same, but it wouldn’t be as accessible as it is now,” Weeks says.

Top of the homepage

The Crossroads website now uses effective tools for outreach. At the top of the homepage, a link to a visitor page guides interested attendees to key points, including their mission, location, service times, as well as information about kids’ programs and student ministries.

“People in the community are consumer-oriented. They’re looking for churches online,” Weeks says. “Therefore, it’s important for us to let people know who we are and what we’re about.”

Crossroads also revitalized their communication plan by abandoning the traditional text-heavy church newsletter for a formatted and image-oriented monthly email called the “eNetwork.” This feature essentially serves as an interactive online bulletin. Visually appealing and to the point, the eNetwork provides direct links to blogs, updates, event registration and sermons. Users click their way through announcements, discovering more ways to get plugged in to the church.

Another piece in Crossroads Web communication strategy is a trimester e-newsletter called “The Intersection,” which presents feature article introductions, enticing the reader with catchy overviews instead of lengthy, full versions. This allows recipients to read the highlights and then click on to read the expanded version.

Create additional ministry

“In many ways, the new website creates ministry,” Weeks says. “Society has changed from going to the phonebook to going to the Web to look for everything. Now people in the church and local community are much more aware of what’s going on at Crossroads.”

This new awareness even fuels excitement about already existing programs, such as small groups, events, youth programs and volunteer opportunities. Offline and online efforts are married seamlessly as staff members immediately upload new programs or information about a series to the Web site. These weekly revisions keep the momentum running as new content increases user interaction.

As a result, returning visits have increased by 31 percent a month and website interaction continues to grow an average of 37 percent every month. “There’s a sense of vitality as we are constantly changing the look and features of the homepage,” Weeks says.

The Crossroads’ staff fuels this sense of vitality by posting photos of church activities and familiar faces of church members through the “cc::photos” application. They upload recent pictures of church members, recent events, baptisms, camps and home groups. Albums showcasing mission trips also spark excitement for church supported programs, while furthering the accountability of church funds at work.

Two other important additions include a “Listen Live” feature and “Todd’s Blog” (a blog hosted by the church’s lead pastor), generated a large increase in Crossroad’s Web activity. These features provide easy access to sermons and direct interaction with the pastor, making the church more approachable and personal.

“An important part of community is connecting with your leaders,” Weeks says. “With ‘Todd’s Blog,’ church members extend their interaction beyond Sunday morning sermons. They read the pastor’s posts, dive deeper into topic discussions, share videos, review books, and really engage with one another.”
Through the “Listen Live” feature, regular church members can hear sermons while out of town or at home. Meanwhile, interested attendees might preview a Sunday message if they are searching for a church home.

For other church leaders considering a more effective web approach, Weeks suggests strategic planning. “Don’t just dive in because it’s the thing to do,” Weeks says. “Determine how the Web can assist you in fulfilling God’s unique plan for your church and pursue that.”

In other words, consider the goals of your ministry. Today, an effective Web presence can enhance the impact of a fruitful ministry.

“We needed to take advantage of the Internet to pursue our mission of seeing people living in a right relationship with Jesus Christ and to provide people with connection to our church,” Weeks says.

For churches today, online ministry promotes on-site ministry. This platform allows churches to communicate their values, while interactive features connect, build, and grow the church community.

Ron Weber is the chief operating officer for Trinet Internet Solutions Inc., Irvine, CA, a full-service ministry Internet firm. [trinetsolutions.com]