Apps are seen as an “innovative way for churches and ministries to communicate their message to their community” says Matt Morris, project manager for LifeWay Christian Resource’s Digital Church. “With the ability to pull content from so many different locations, stream sermon audio and video, and pull it all under one roof, the ease of use and accessibility is simple,” Morris says.

LifeWay and their mobile app development group, ROAR, have provided 1,000 churches the app at a nominal fee in an offer that ended at the close of last year. Morris says that 50 percent of adults in America have a smart phone, and by the end of 2013 it is projected that the number will be closer to 80 percent.

“The number one app category accessed on smart phones is social media,” Morris says. “We believe that apps will be the future behind smart phone growth, and we believe that it will be key for churches to have a presence in the everyday life of their community and apps give us that opportunity today.”

Church Executive interviewed Morris on the direction that LifeWay is taking in this technology, not only for Southern Baptist churches but for any church that decides to get involved.

In doing your research what have you found that seems encouraging in this technology approach?

We found that, as organizations, churches are starting to steer away from traditional communication means. The benefits of using an app include lower costs to communicate a message, one place for everyone to gather virtually, and ease of use when an update/revision is needed, all while delivering the church’s message to the congregation in a simple way.

How do they make use of it with their staffs and parishioners and their own websites?

The status quo today among church ministry leaders, technology pastors, executive pastors and others consists of publishing content from their church or ministry across the web. They have a church website, websites for each ministry, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a place where they upload sermon audio, video and other content as well. This app brings all of that content into one place packaged in an app where people can find it easily and interact with that information on a device that is with them wherever they go.

So “Hometown First Baptist” signs up; what takes place then in the implementation, how is it used within the congregation?

ROAR sends them a username and password to an online management platform, referred to as a content management system, where the church and/or ministry leaders will decide what is in their app. These options are sermon notes, prayer wall, QR Code scanner, Facebook page, pictures, videos or a host of other options. The church then submits the app for ROAR to build. The congregation will then be able to be updated on everything from what their kids are learning in small group to when activities are happening to where local missions are happening.

Can churches “make it look like their own”?

Yes, the app is very customizable. All of the graphics and layout of the app are up to the church. There is a basic structure but the management system behind the app is very flexible for a myriad of different content.

Is there a way that the local church can maximize its use for its own members; how might they “market” it to increase usage?

The best way to “market” any technology is to use the technology. The app will become a daily part of a member’s life if the church leaders and ministries use the app to inform their members of what is going on in the church, encourage, equip, and inspire it’s members through the interaction of the app.

What are the maintenance factors and costs here?  What can the congregation save in costs with the LifeWay product?

The normal set up fee or building fee for a church app is $750 per iPhone, iPad or Android app, plus a monthly hosting fee of $35/month per app from ROAR the mobile app development company. If a church signs up through Digital Church, we charge $600 per iPhone, iPad or Android app plus a discounted monthly hosting fee of $30 per month.

How is the LifeWay app/program more functional and useful than any other one being offered out there?

Many apps built for churches, ministries and nonprofits simply inform. They don’t allow for interaction in the app with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. We believe that the more people interact with an app the more they will use an app.

With 1,000-plus churches using this app, is there a “power” of them all working together?

Just like there are different churches for different communities, we believe the power of having so many apps is that people will connect with the message of a specific church or ministry. Our goal is to empower and connect individuals, congregations and churches. This is why we believe there needs to be so many different voices in the app world.

Visioning a bit, how do you see the future of apps and iPhones and iPads?

The future of apps will be centered on building community. The more you can empower the individual or filter information, the more success you will have in the future. There will also be a push on a global scale and not just a local community scale.

The website designer you hired may own the materials used and use them again with the church down the street.

Think you own the new website that you just paid a vendor to create? Consider the following scenario. First Baptist Church hires a Web developer to create a new website. The developer designs a website with a new contemporary look that the church is proud of, complete with great graphics and content.

A few months later, the church sees that the new website of Trinity Christian Church in the next town over has much of the same graphics, artwork, and even some of the same text and other content. First Baptist discovers that Trinity hired the same developer to create its website, and the developer simply re-used much of the same stock material. Was the developer permitted to do so? If First Baptist did not enter into a contract giving ownership of the website content to First Baptist, the developer was fully within his rights to re-use the same materials.

Many organizations are surprised to learn they may not own a website or other projects that they hired someone to create, even though they paid for it.

Under U.S. copyright law, an independent contractor who creates a work is, by default, the owner of that work, regardless of who pays for the work.

This is true not only for websites, but for all types of creative works, including software, videos, music, artwork, graphics, photos, publications, brochures, and the like.

Before or after
In order for the copyright in a work to be owned by the hiring organization, it must either (1) enter into a “work-for-hire” agreement with the creator prior to the creation of the work or (2) the contractor must assign (transfer) the rights in the work to the hiring organization. Unlike a “work-for-hire,” an assignment can be executed before or after a work is created.

If a hiring organization has neither a work-for-hire agreement or assignment of a copyright, the creator owns and is free to re-use the content. At most, the hiring organization may have only a non-exclusive right to use the work. (Note: “Works-for-hire” agreements are applicable only to certain types of works listed in the U.S. Copyright Act, such as audiovisual works, collective works, and compilations.)

Sometimes contractors are reluctant to give ownership of materials to a hiring organization, particularly when they have stock material that required significant effort to create. This happens frequently with software components. Often in these situations, it may not be necessary for a church to obtain ownership of the material as long as the church has the right to use it for the desired purposes. It is wise, however, to ascertain ownership before hiring a contractor so that it is clear which materials will be owned by whom, and the price and terms of the work can be negotiated accordingly. A church may wish to obtain a better price for a work when it knows it will not own certain elements of a project (or the entire project).

If a church does not acquire ownership of a project, it will not have the right to reuse the materials for other purposes, unless explicitly stated in an agreement. For instance, without ownership granted from a contractor, a church may be prohibited from using the graphics and artistic theme created for a website in other ways, such as on printed brochures or newsletters. A church wishing to use contractor-owned materials for other purposes would need to obtain a license from the contractor. Failure to do so could result in copyright infringement.

Use an agreement
Churches and ministries can safeguard their interests in copyrighted material by entering into a written agreement. The larger the project, the more critical it is to have a formal agreement. If the contractor supplies his own agreement, it would be prudent to have it reviewed by an attorney experienced in such matters.

Consider the following recommendations before engaging an independent contractor:

1. Enter into an agreement before starting a project. Although work can be assigned to the hiring organization later, it is wise to enter into an agreement before a project is started and before any money is paid. Generally, the hiring organization has more leverage for negotiating the terms before work is started, and it is always better to have agreed upon terms before disputes arise.
   One of the key purposes of a contractor agreement is to define the scope of work: What are the contractor’s specific obligations? What end products will be delivered? When will each stage be completed?
2. Delineate the rights of each party. If the hiring organization will not own all intellectual property rights in a project, it is crucial to define what rights will be retained by the contractor and what will be granted to the hiring organization. For those rights that will merely be licensed to the hiring organization, the agreement should clearly define the scope of the license, including the term of the license and the specific items on which can the hiring organization use the materials. The larger the project, the more important it is to clearly define the rights.
3. Be sure works are original to the contractor. Obviously, a contractor cannot assign rights to materials he or she does not own. Be sure that an agreement with a contractor includes a warranty that all works created are original works. If a contractor uses materials from other third parties (such as a stock photo agency), the contractor should be responsible for obtaining all the rights allowing the hiring organization to use the materials for the purposes intended under the agreement. No church wants to receive a copyright infringement claim from someone whose work was “borrowed” by a contractor without permission.
4. Get an agreement, even with a friend or a volunteer. Churches may often use the services of a church member (or a member’s friend or relative) who designs websites or other works on the side. The church may have a good relationship with this person at the outset, but unfortunately relationships sometimes sour. Although it may be awkward to ask for a written agreement from a volunteer or to work out details of ownership with a contractor, an agreement can prevent later confusion and frustration.

A written agreement protects both parties by defining the scope of each party’s rights. For small projects, an agreement does not need to be a lengthy formal contract. Even a short email agreement in which the designer assigns to the church all rights in the works he or she creates is better than no agreement at all.

Having a written agreement allows you to be sure you are getting what you pay for, or at least know what you are getting for your money.

Kenneth Liu is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Internet practice group of Gammon & Grange, P.C., a law firm in McLean, VA.
www.gg-law.com

By Jennifer Michalek

Although you have probably heard the word Twitter many times, chances are that it remains an abstract concept in your mind. So let’s begin by first describing what it is and then we’ll look at how churches like yours are embracing this tool as a means to connecting with their followers.

Twitter is an online social networking and micro-blogging tool that allows people to send “tweets,” or text-based messages of up to 140 characters that are delivered to other users, known as followers. Tweets can be sent through different mediums such as cell phones and the Web. They appear on the owner’s Twitter profile page and broadcast out to the owner’s followers. If your church has a Facebook page, you can use Twitter to update your Facebook status, or, conversely, you can send your updates from Facebook out to Twitter.

The social networking component of Twitter is that it allows users to become followers of each other and to receive their messages.  It also allows followers to retweet messages, which spreads your message even further.

“Who has time?”

Many of us hear the word Twitter, and think, “Who has time for that?” Don’t assume that Twitter is a platform just for teens, narcissists or those with too much time on their hands.

However, churches are beginning to use Twitter to promote their events, to call for feedback, to provide commentary and to spread the Word. Twitter offers a direct way to communicate important information to those who want to receive it. It is a tool that allows churches to quickly, and succinctly, communicate with their followers. And better yet, it costs nothing.

“There is an investment of time, of course. When you are first learning, it requires more time. After that, I would say we spend about six hours per week on social media, including Twitter,” says Rob Cizek, executive pastor of Northshore Christian Church in Everett, WA.

Twitter and Your Church

Churches can use Twitter in a variety of ways to compliment traditional communication tools. Northshore Church, for example, tweets about food drives, Pastor Ken’s “A Beautiful Mind Series,” live online services, scripture and special events. “It’s a dynamic way for us to communicate with our congregation,” says Cizek.

12 Stone Church Lawrenceville, GA, with a congregation of 9,000, has about 740 Twitter followers and not all of them attend their services. “Connecting through social media gives the community a safe way to check us out. They are able to get a sense of our heart and mission before they ever walk through our doors,” says Donna Witten, 12 Stone’s director of communications.

“Through Twitter, we have been able to quickly respond to questions, connect volunteers, and by using the search feature on any mention of 12Stone, we are able to keep an eye on our brand. We can even see what first-time visitors thought of our service,” adds Whitten.

Twitter can be used by anyone. Therefore, pastors, guest speakers, attendees and even non-participants can tweet about your events and services. In fact, you may be surprised to find that members of your congregation have tweeted about your events even before you have.

Make use of Twitter in the following ways:

Scripture: By quoting scripture, many churches use Twitter to regularly lift the spirit of their followers and to spread the Word.

Events: Announce upcoming events such as opportunities for baptism.

Generate interest and define an agenda: Speakers can tweet to build enthusiasm for their talk or to find out what attendees hope to get out of it.

After-service follow-up: Remind your congregation of the resources mentioned  during services by posting links to more information.

Request help: Ask for volunteers, donations, or prayers.

Live coverage: Through live-coverage commentary about events, you can include people who were unable to participate. For those who chose not to participate,  live-coverage Tweets might entice them to join you next time.

Site traffic: As a viral tool, Twitter directs traffic to your Web site. By asking your followers to tweet about something your church is doing, your news will quickly be  sent far beyond your Twitter reach.

Job postings: If your church or someone in your congregation is hiring, or if  someone is looking for a job, you can use Twitter to announce it.

Branding: A benefit of Twitter is that it can establish your church as a personality that is connected, dynamic and approachable.

Feedback: Through Twitter’s search feature and services such as TweetDeck,  you can “listen” to what is being said about your church.

Develop a strategy

Like many social media tools, Twitter requires an ongoing investment. It needs to fit within your overall communications mix. In addition, you need to identify how you expect it to support your initiatives.

“Before you start using Twitter, you should have a strategy. You have to think about what you hope to accomplish by using Twitter. Otherwise, it’s just one more thing to do,” says Cizek. “I would encourage other churches that are just starting to tweet to focus on quality over quantity. Sure, you need to remain active, but don’t overwhelm your audience.”

Here are some specific components to include in your plan:

1. Identify your audience (current and potential). What kind of resources and information do they want from you?

2. Define your objectives. What do you hope to achieve by using Twitter? For example, do you want to engage your followers, grow your community, promote your events, or perhaps all of those?

3. Develop your overall message. What do you want to accomplish through your messages? For example, do you want to inform your followers, inspire them, call them to action, or simply connect with them?

4. Define the process. How will it be administered? How much time will be allocated? Will you develop a weekly or monthly editorial calendar for Tweets? What policies should be followed?

5. Identify how you will measure your results. Evaluate your results against your objectives. Did you increase attendance at an event through Twitter? Did you see an increase in video downloads?

Start building followers

Like other social media tools, your church’s Twitter following will build over time. Start by signing up at Twitter.com. Once you have a profile, conduct a search on the site using terms related to your church to see what content already exists. Seek examples of how similar churches are using Twitter.

Once you have started using Twitter, start educating your members about your Twitter presence. Remember, in a tight economy, leveraging free social media tools allows churches to maximize their reach without breaking their budgets.

Jennifer Michalek is a freelance writer and the chief communications officer of a national medical society in Chicago, IL.

• twitter.com/12Stone
• twitter.com/northshorecc
• twitter.com/willowcreekcc
• twitter.com/liquidchurch

Social media creates ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ of Christ

By Matt Horan

At 3:26 p.m. on January 16, 2009, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia International Airport in New York. Seven minutes later, it landed on the Hudson River in what is now being called the “Miracle on the Hudson,” as all 150 passengers and five crew members survived the crash.

Seventeen minutes later, the first photo of the plane was on the Internet, but it did not come from NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox or CNN. It came from a passenger on one of the first ferry boats on the scene. He took a picture of the plane with his iPhone and posted it on Twitter.

My brother was married last year. In times past, your soul mate lived in the same town as you, but not anymore. My brother met his wife because they were both “fans” of Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter,” on MySpace. This connection led to messages sent back and forth, followed by phone conversations, followed by visits, followed by marriage; but it never would have happened without social media. My brother was serving in the Army at the time he met her, stationed in Iraq. His wife is a police officer in Australia. And now they’re married.

It would be wrong to say that this sort of interaction is the wave of the future. It is not. The wave is here, and it is time to surf.

Church listening

Church leaders already know that one of the most powerful urges humans possess is the desire to be understood. We teach the practice of “reflective listening” to engaged couples, so that they can develop skills in getting to a place where each understands the other. An argument suddenly loses steam when one can tell the other, “Okay, I think you understand me.”

Look at the explosion in the tattoo industry. Somewhere in the U.S. a new tattoo studio opens up every day. A tattoo is an opportunity to express something in a visible way. It is not difficult to get someone to explain their tattoo to you so that you can understand.

Bumper stickers

Consider also the company that first invented the bumper sticker. It started in the 1930s, and so far just that one company has sold more than one billion stickers expressing everything from the drivers’ political affiliations to their favorite radio stations to their alma maters to their love for their pets to their favorite obscure rock bands.

It is this instinctive human desire that fuels the “social media” phenomenon. Now our goal is not to judge whether or not this is a healthy development. That remains to be seen, as social media is just a few years old. We’re to explore what this means for the church and how church leaders should respond now that hundreds of millions of people are now interacting online. After all, people have hundreds of “friends” on Facebook, hundreds of “followers” on Twitter, and might also have a growing readership if they have a “blog.”

Like a fishing trawler, people have many nets cast with which they capture information. They still have a mailbox outside. They have an answering machine or voicemail. They have an email address. The church is pretty good at getting itself into these nets. But now, there are new nets like blogs, Twitter and Facebook; and people are starting to check these nets as often, or even more often, than the others. When they do, it won’t be a bad idea to make sure that your church is in those nets too.

The shift that churches may undergo in response to this trend is detailed superbly in Seth Godin’s book, Tribes. Local congregations tend to measure themselves by their membership but the day is soon approaching when that will not be an accurate portrayal of a church’s reach. As people display themselves on social networking sites one element frequently expressed is their allegiances, or as Godin would describe, the “tribes” to which they belong. A new measuring stick may also be the size of your church’s tribe.

People choose tribes to which they’ll belong based on a couple different criteria. First, they’ll join a tribe full of people that are committed to a similar cause. Is your local church a cause or a movement that is accomplishing something significant enough for people to want to express allegiance to it? If not, it will need to become one soon — for reasons far larger than gaining a social media foothold. But perhaps this issue might drive congregations to think about whether or not what they do entices people to offer their allegiance.

Second, they’ll offer allegiance to the tribe if it’s a useful resource for them. Does it make their life better in a significant way? Once again, if your local church is not a useful resource for people in their spiritual journey, the reasons to become so are bigger than the aforementioned social media phenomenon. Once again, however, if your congregation is driven to become a more useful resource to people as they become closer disciples of Jesus Christ because of it, then it’s clearly time well spent.

Worthwile work

If your congregation is a cause that is accomplishing something worthwhile (like, say, growing the Kingdom of God), and if your congregation is a useful resource to people (helping them grow as disciples of Jesus Christ), then growing your tribe is pretty easy using social media.

On Facebook anyone can create a Web page for their group, cause, company, local church and so forth. On this page people can click a button that says, “Become a fan.” Once they do that, their personalized Facebook page will announce to all of their hundreds of friends that they just “Became a fan of (insert your cause here).” In addition, they can invite their friends to become fans.

Twitter is different. The amount of information shared on Twitter is 140 characters at a time. But once again, if you use those 140 characters to share something useful or inspiring or entertaining, more and more people will become your “followers,” meaning that they are sent your 140 character presentations whenever you compose them.

Far more important than your church’s Internet presence is the health of your church. If your worship services are not making disciples of Jesus Christ, work on that first. If your congregation is not making a hope-filled difference in the community where it resides, work on that first. If there is a lack of prayer, study of the Scriptures, generosity, or service, work on that first. People will be drawn to healthy churches by the power of the Holy Spirit at work through your people more so than through Facebook or Twitter.

At the church where I serve, we’ve spent a great amount of time investigating how we should use the Internet as a part of our practice of ministry. We have a very effective and user-friendly Web site with information about how to become a part of what is happening at the church, how to grow in your relationship with Christ and how to contact someone if you need more information.

Further, there are links on our Web site that allow people to “Follow us on Twitter” or “Find us on Facebook.” We can be followed on Twitter and have five to six designated people who post items regularly to our Twitter account right from their email. Our Facebook fan page has several hundred fans, most of whom were invited by a friend and others who found it from our Web site. We put all of our upcoming events and announcements on Facebook, which then informs all of our fans.

Also, we have a church blog. While the Web site shares easily accessible information, the blog is where people share stories of their experiences with our church. Whenever someone posts a new blog article, a link to it is automatically posted on our Twitter account and sent to all of our followers. The blog is accessible on Facebook as well and funnels people to our main Web site for more information about the church.

Hopefully, as we gain “fans” and “followers” through Facebook and Twitter and our blog, we’ll see the tangible results that we’re called to see — people becoming fans and followers of Jesus Christ.

Matt Horan is associate pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Tampa, FL, where he blogs about taboo things like religion and politics. [ www.reemergentchurch.com ]

By Brad Hill

With the multi-site church revolution in full swing across America, much attention is paid to video venues, program development and community outreach. An equal or greater amount of attention, however, should be paid to the digital communications strategy. Whether or not your church is offering its own live video streaming or “Internet Campus” experience, running a Web site for multiple locations is a much different challenge than that of a single-site church.

The good news for a church considering the communication issues around multi-site? Nobody quite has it all figured out yet. Most “multi-sites” acknowledge that it’s still in the experimental phase, although many do agree on some fundamentals.

The challenges facing most far-flung ministries would be familiar to any Fortune 500 company operating in multiple locations. Internal communications, brand loyalty, and consistency of message rank as the trickiest hurdles.

Keep lateral lines open

Dave Adamson at Liquid Church (www.liquidchurch.com), Morristown, NJ, says that keeping lateral communication lines open requires effort from their leaders. It’s not a Web-specific challenge, but it affects every aspect of communications — both internal and external. “It’s easy for silos to be created around individual campuses,” he says, “unless the communication between them is kept open and honest.” Liquid Church operates two physical campuses in the suburbs of Manhattan, and Adamson is the pastor of Liquid’s Internet Campus (which also operates its own Web site, on par with the physical locations).

Parkcrest Church (www.parkcrest.org), Long Beach, CA, operates multiple campuses in the Long Beach, CA area. With 2,500 weekly attendees across three locations, the church asks each of its lead pastors to provide weekly information to their congregations. This can work well, because each pastor can build rapport with his or her parishioners, but isn’t guaranteed to produce uniform results.

Steve Dunham, worship arts pastor, describes the challenge of communicating information through multiple mouthpieces. “Since each campus has a different campus pastor, it is hard to know if the information is being put before the people with the same enthusiasm and regularity,” Dunham says.

Site strategy

Enter the Web site strategy. Using video, images, and consistent content updates across three Web sites and a mini-mobile site, Parkcrest is able to keep its campuses on the same page. Newcomers are greeted with vital information; meanwhile, regular attendees can quickly find updated information on activities, connection points, and media resources.

There’s also the not-all-campuses-are-created-equal problem. For most multi-site congregations, the oldest location is the largest. In a “one church, many locations” model, this poses a delicate dilemma. AnnieLaurie Walters, communications director at McLean Bible Church (www.mcleanbible.org), McLean, VA, says that getting the 13,000 attendees of the church to stop thinking of their first and largest campus as “the mother ship’” is a struggle. She’s helping to solve this challenge with the Web strategy, since the Internet is a great playing-field leveler.

Most multi-site churches quickly outgrow a single Web site. This is especially true for those who operate programs and events at each location. “If we tried to have all that on one Web site it would turn into a supermarket catalogue of odds and ends,” Adamson says.

Walters, whose church operates six video venues with live worship and pastoral/ministry staff, describes the identity balance between the campuses: “We are not identical twins, we are fraternal twins. We have a lot of the same DNA on the inside but we look different on the outside. Therefore, we are committed to reflecting that with our Web presence.”  They solved this by creating a central hub site for all information that is central to the church. Each campus, in turn, runs its own Web site for activities, blogs, Twitter, announcements and newcomer information.

Easy content management

McLean Bible Church wrapped up a major overhaul of its six Web sites in early September. Working with the team at SiteOrganic, McLean implemented a system to feed content from the central campus site out to the individual campus sites. Walters says, “This way, I can create one page in our central site and make that page available to the other campuses for syndication. The content can only be edited in one place, making content management pretty easy. Otherwise we would be creating content again and again for every campus page.”

Liquid Church also uses a syndication model, along with some old-media smarts. “Lead Pastor Tim Lucas is a former English teacher and before coming here I was a TV reporter in Australia,” says Adamson, “so we are the gatekeepers of content quality.”

Like any operation with satellite divisions, the desire to develop unique personalities while identifying with and benefiting from the umbrella organization is genuine.

All three congregations have a consistent brand identity, with some minor variations (color, tagline, etc.) to delineate each campus. Most are also using social media in various ways, since it knows no boundaries or multi-site limitations. “During the lead up to [a recent fundraiser for Africa] we did a series of viral videos that raised awareness in an informal and entertaining way,” Adamson says. “We’ve seen our people use our social media across their own Twitter and Facebook pages to invite their friends. It’s been very successful.”

Brad Hill is founder and president of SiteOrganic, Reston, VA. [www.siteorganic.com]

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 Lauren Hunter

There’s no doubt that your church members desire increased communication with their church friends, small groups, Bible studies and pastors. As more of the population joins Facebook to try and stay connected with the people they love, many church leaders are not quite sure how to leverage these new social networking tools to generate true fellowship with their congregations.

In the attempt to help church members communicate and share information, some churches decide to establish a Facebook group, a Google or Yahoo! group, or even a private social networking group on other free or paid sites. While these groups can serve a purpose, rarely does it function in ways to help the church leaders oversee the groups and work with a church’s already established means of record keeping and membership management.

Uncertain of approach

I currently serve on my church’s technology committee and can personally vouch for our church staff’s uncertainty of how to approach this conundrum; we’re unsure about using public social community tools as a formal means of communication within our church, yet our members desire a way to stay connected that supersedes methods we’re currently using.

Sure, I’m on Facebook, and many of my church friends are as well; still I would hesitate to go too far in my communications with them about personal prayer requests and small group concerns for fear of privacy. Instead, our church, like many other churches, is turning to Web-based church management software solutions (ChMS) that incorporate many of these social networking features within the safe walls of a trusted provider that we can adopt into our church family as a ministry partner.

One such provider, Church Community Builder (CCB) differs from many of the other church management software providers out there in that its framework was designed with community features built-in from the beginning, not added on as the social networking craze has taken off.

Connect with online community

“We have integrated useful social media components into our church management solutions so that a church may track member involvement and needs, while also allowing the members and church participants to connect with the church and other people through a private and secure online community,” says Steve Caton, vice president of sales and marketing for CCB.

One of the questions we’ve been asking at my church is: “What does our congregation need to stay better connected and how can we facilitate their communication needs more effectively?”

Hope Bible Church in Washington, D.C., had been asking this same question in order to better serve their 300-member congregation.

“We aspired to build an application ourselves that would better facilitate community and allow us to give access to more than 50 leaders and ministry coordinators within our church,” says Ross Levin, church administrator for Hope Bible Church. “With only two and a half paid staff members, and no facility of our own, there was no way for us to do ministry if we didn’t use some type of technology solution to keep track of everything.”

Setting up ‘Hopebook’

While setting up their new management solution, Levin was sharing the program’s functionality with his young daughter, an avid user of Facebook and currently the number one social networking application, who promptly suggested that it be called “Hopebook.”

Because Hopebook has become the church’s centralized point of communication, the church is now building community in new and exciting ways.

For more churches looking to technology to empower deeper relationships and establish firm connections, having one management system that can do it all is a wonderful, practical and feasible solution.

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer and owner of Lauren Hunter Public Relations, Roseville, CA. [www.laurenhunter.net]

By Stuart M. Manewith

There are opportunities, believe it or not, for churches and other faith-based nonprofits in an economic downturn. In order to survive, churches have no choice but to continue striking a balance in conducting ministry initiatives, relationship-building and business.

Most importantly, they are continuing to support their communities. And, in order to be successful during difficult times, they are all the more dependent on faith-driven giving.

Communicating effectively is the key in connecting not only with a congregation, but with staff as well. If a message is not properly delivered it will be lost — and the method to deliver that message is changing. Let’s look at a few of those communications:

1. More church offices and administrators will prefer to communicate by e-mail — and there will likely be an explosive increase in the use of text-messaging. Church staff members will be more accessible with the instant communication that e-mail and text-messaging provides.

Online communication via e-mail, as well as texting, is often a preferred method of communication for congregants as well. It’s that immediate answer they are looking for. They like to have that fast response that an email or a text-message provides.

The challenge for some churches is they are often the last to jump on the technology train. Members of the congregation may not yet have acquired the technology or don’t know how to use computers, e-mail or text-messaging.

So while e-mail and texting may be cost effective and quick, they may not yet appeal to the masses. The solution will be to ensure that church offices, pastors, and staff members have the technology resources needed to communicate with as many constituents as possible who want to receive communication, and reply, 21st-Century-style.

2. While older church members may not be comfortable with computers and cell phones, younger members today will expect information over the Internet. They will expect the church Web site to provide as much access to their church as a bank Web site would to their bank. So to appeal to a younger audience, churches will have to be more technologically savvy.

3. More pastors will be turning to social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to communicate with members, especially to communicate and involve younger members.

While this may be a challenge for more traditionally-focused pastors, the outcome may also build a more “virtual” and far-reaching congregation. Social networking is really what communication is evolving into. It does not replace face-to-face communication, but it extends the reach.

4. The printed and mailed (via USPS) is still the most familiar means of communicating to members, but many members will, in fact, expect church newsletters to be sent via e-mail. Churches need to prepare to communicate this transition and develop a plan to utilize this avenue to share information on a regular, consistent basis. The upside of this is the money that will be saved in the production and postage of the traditional hard copy, mailed newsletters. Is your church asking for the sharing of e-mail addresses?

There will still be members who expect the printed version of the newsletter as well. The quality of a church’s database will be critical to the success of the communication.

At one larger church, members can “opt-in” to getting the newsletter electronically by sending their e-mail address to the editor — otherwise, they get it the old fashioned way. Every time someone subscribes to get the newsletter electronically, church postage costs decrease.

5. Effective fundraising has become more crucial. It comes as no surprise that major donors, indeed donors in general, who rely on investment income to make donations may reduce giving. Investment assets have been reduced due to the economic downturn. Moreover, those congregants who give to collection plate offerings will likely not increase giving. Churches will need to focus on faith- or mission-driven giving, rather than on “low-touch” appeals.

Churches will likely see a swing in existing giving from more unrestricted to more restricted. In a tight economy, donors want to make sure their gifts are going to the program they support. Churches need to find the right programs to promote and initiate; programs that will appeal to their congregation.

6. Donors will be expecting better fiscal stewardship. They’ll expect the church to be clearer about how the contributions are used. Churches should expect to provide more thorough reporting — whether it be from the pulpit, correspondence to members who contribute, or in reports created for donors at the end of a specific campaign. The church or its governance organization should be prepared to have an in-depth reporting plan to effectively show where donations have been allocated.

Since giving includes non-monetary gifts as well, transparency across the giving spectrum is important. Donors are more likely to scrutinize how church assets are invested, making sure they are invested in safe vehicles. Transparency and openness in this arena will be very important to assure members that the moneys that they give willingly are being effectively stewarded.

Churches need to develop the right appeals and programs to ensure that they are the choice that donors make for their discretionary dollars.

7. With all of this new Internet, cell phone, and e-mail technology at hand, one of the most important things to remember is the value of meaningful relationships. Because of the increasing high volume of online communications, human interaction is even more important and significant. Congregants will continue to depend on meaningful relationships with pastors and lay leaders, making high-touch interactions imperative to address issues such as fundraising and governance.

Knowing the members of the church leads to better understanding of what is appealing to them. When a church leader communicates with his or her members, he or she should know how to appeal to them.

To be effective at caring for constituents while the economy is rebuilding itself, churches are more reliant than ever on support from their constituents. Is your church prepared?

Stuart M. Manewith CFRE is business development manager, Professional Services, Blackbaud, Charleston, SC. [www.Blackbaud.com]

Just when Facebook thought it had become the go-to social network for our techno-hungry culture, along came Twitter (www.twitter.com). While Facebook touts more than 200 million users, half of whom return to the site daily, Nielsen has recently reported Twitter as the fastest growing social networking site on the Internet, posting 1,382 percent growth from early 2008 to early 2009.

With mainstream coverage on network television shows like “Brothers and Sisters” and even “Oprah,” it’s no wonder Twitter has grown so quickly.

Popularity aside, you may still be asking: What is Twitter exactly? Let’s take a look at Twitter top to bottom and, more importantly, explore ways that your church can leverage Twitter to help deliver your message and improve overall communications online.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter does one simple thing. It asks the question: What are you doing? It is then your job to type — in 140 characters or less — your answer to that question. Your message is then posted on Twitter.com for the world to see. Keeping messages short is the unique appeal for users of Twitter versus other forms of online communication and collaboration like blogs and wikis. Say what you want, but say it succinctly. It’s a perfect fit for our ever-evolving Internet society that prefers to snack on information rather than feast.

One of Twitter’s most cherished features is that it allows you to send a message from your cell phone. By insisting the message length be under the 160 character text limit on cell phones, Twitter enables users to post from virtually anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be in front of a computer screen to participate on Twitter (unless, of course, you choose to be) and that’s what people love about it.

A message posted on Twitter is called a “tweet.” The more useful and valuable your tweets, the more likely you are to get “followers.” Followers are like “friends” on Facebook. They are the people you know (or don’t know) that find value in your response to that What are you doing? question.

Celebrities, of course, tend to have the most followers on Twitter. Ashton Kutcher recently won an ad hoc competition against the news channel CNN, beating them to the water mark of one million followers. Kutcher won without breaking a sweat and CNN later reported that 94 percent of CNN viewers are not Twitter users — yet. No contest in the end for Kutcher.

So, does your church need one million followers to reap the benefits of Twitter? Of course not. The goal for your church on Twitter is to earn the members of your congregation as followers, along with anyone else who might be interested in joining your church. You may also get followers from the press, other local churches or people that simply find great value in what your church tweets.

Who should actually tweet?

Okay, you get the idea behind Twitter and it’s something you might like to try. So, who is actually going to be writing the tweets for your church? Short answer: it depends. It’s crucial, just as it is before embarking on any marketing endeavor, to first have some goals and objectives in mind. Why do you want to tweet in the first place? To create an alternative means to reach out and engage your parishioners online? Not bad. To create a platform to communicate about and report on events in real-time so that those who can’t attend can still get a flavor of the event?

In his popular E-book, The Reason Your Church Must Twitter, author Anthony D. Coppedge states, “By it’s very definition, Twitter will allow churches to give quick updates, drive traffic to websites and remind people of events more efficiently than ever — and, best of all, to the right demographic every time.”

How much of my time will this take?

Keep in mind, the most challenging part of Twitter is sustaining your presence. Nielsen reports that 60 percent of Twitter users don’t come back after one month. Why? Well, how many times can one person answer the question, “What are you doing?” The truth is the rapid exposure and growth of Twitter no doubt has people joining to simply kick the tires. They had no real interest, purpose or strategy behind joining Twitter. You, on the other hand, do. So, how much of your time will it take to stay on Twitter and make it work for your church? Again, it depends.

Are you going to be tweeting news updates once a week? Or maybe tweeting memorable quotes in real-time during a Sunday sermon? Or maybe you as a church leader want to give people a glimpse into your personal life and tweet from your cell phone at regular intervals during the day. Your strategy dictates your usage. For those organizations that anticipate heavy usage, there are some tools that can help. For organizations that intend to use Twitter as a broadcast tool, for example, TweetLater (www.tweetlater.com) is a service that provides you a great option for Twitter management. As the name implies, you can queue up pre-written tweets and deliver them to the Twittersphere on your own schedule.

Can our followers tweet back to us?

Twitter offers more than broadcasting one-way communications to your congregation. Your followers also have the option of tweeting you back. Imagine a chat room or instant messenger. After you post your 140 character (or fewer) tweet, Twitter gives all of your followers the option to respond. Did you just tweet about your recent arrival in Chicago for a retreat? Maybe a follower will tweet you back with a great downtown restaurant.

You’ll know a tweet reply when you see one because it will begin with the “@” sign.

Give Twitter a spin. Go to Twitter.com and click the “Get Started” button. Fill out a very short form and your account will be set up. Twitter then instantly gives you the opportunity to see if any of your friends are already on Twitter. You can choose to query your Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail and MSN e-mail accounts. For example, if you have many contacts in your Yahoo! account, you simply supply your Yahoo! username and password and Twitter does the rest. The system will automatically tell you which of your Yahoo! contacts are already on Twitter. You can officially “follow” them on Twitter with the click of a button.

Okay, so you have friends. What’s next? My advice: simply listen. Sure, post a couple innocuous messages to get the feel, but begin analyzing how other people (maybe even your competition) are using Twitter. Are they using it as a conversation starter? A one-way communication tool? See what styles and methods resonate with you and then emulate them. Again, having a grand plan is vital, but to really understand the potential of Twitter it’s best to get your feet wet first. It provides context for your future Twitter strategy planning.

Twitter is not a fad. Its proliferation is too wide and too deep for it to be usurped by the next bright shiny technology next year. Twitter has changed the paradigm for online communication forever. Today holds an opportunity for your church to explore new territory and expand your reach. It’s time to take a “what’s possible” attitude and jump into the deep end of technology.

The only question now is: What are you doing?

Chris Bonney is director of Business Development, Vanguard Technologies, Chicago, IL. [www.vanguardtechnologies.com]

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]