Posted October 24th 2011 @ 5:01 pm by Jerod
God blesses the church that puts personal preferences aside for the sake of the Gospel. Those are the words (as best as I can remember them) from Pastor Scott Nichols at Crossroads Community Church in Carol Stream, Illinois. My wife and I were there visiting this past weekend which happened to be the church’s 10-year anniversary weekend. As Pastor Scott reflected on the past, this idea of putting personal preferences aside was one of the things he believes has helped the church successfully...
Posted October 20th 2011 @ 2:59 pm by Jerod
[Thanks to everyone who entered to win a copy of this awesome book and a set of our cool orange sweatbands. We loved reading all the advice people gave in the comments, too. The randomly picked winners are: Holly K. (Happy Birthday), Natalie, Tom O., Elizabeth G. (Merry Early Christmas) and Nikki T.]
When more than 60 smart church communications people come together to share advice, it has to be good, right? That’s exactly what has happened with the new book Outspoken: Conversations on...
Posted October 18th 2011 @ 4:39 pm by Jerod
There’s still plenty of debate in churches around the question of, “Is social media really relational?” It’s probably a fair conversation to have as long as it’s not just an excuse to quickly dismiss using social media because it’s new or too hard to do. But I’d like to layout my reasoning that social media is indeed relational.
In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Claire Diaz Ortiz, leader for social innovation at Twitter, talked about how social media makes perfect sense for...
Posted October 11th 2011 @ 5:30 pm by Jerod
The Netflix train wreck is now a full-on spectacle. Over the past few months, there’s been a flow of bad news and bizarre announcements that has taken Netflix from a customer favorite to one that’s losing people, and reputation, quickly.
In July, the movie-mailing and streaming giant said it was raising rates by 60 percent while providing no new services. While a lot of that increases was due to greedy media studios, Netflix took the brunt of the blame. Following the announcement,...
Posted September 26th 2011 @ 2:45 pm by Jerod
Online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos is known for their customer service. Buying is easy. Return shipping is free. It’s not uncommon to get what you bought shipped to you sooner than expected. The language they use online and in correspondence is fun and cleaver. Overall, most experiences with Zappos are good.
As I was perusing around their website recently, I found a list of the “Ten Zappos Family Core Values” that explain how they do business and why customer service is so...
Posted September 15th 2011 @ 1:30 pm by Jerod
Certain events can become a catalyst for change for churches. At Life Baptist Church in Las Vegas, it was a move to a new building. It was a chance for the church of nearly 300 people to start with a clean branding slate to better present their message. It was time to clean up the inconsistent messaging and branding they had in the past.
“I can't overhype the importance of branding. Don't be afraid of it,” says Creative Arts Guy Matt Phillips “The truth is that you are already sending a...
Posted September 14th 2011 @ 3:11 pm by Jerod
(The Juicys are a way to recognize and reward those churches who’ve worked to improve their church communications in some way during the last year and includes giving them a grant to jump start their next project. We hadn’t expected to give any runner-up awards for the Juicys, but the smaller church division for Communications Church of the Year had so many entries we wanted to highlight more than one church. So here we go.)
No one usually likes annual meetings. They’re required by most...
Posted September 12th 2011 @ 3:07 pm by Jerod
(The Juicys are a way to recognize and reward those churches who’ve worked to improve their church communications in some way during the last year and includes giving them a $1,000 grant to jump start their next project.)
Our journey to find great church communications takes us to Anchorage, Alaska, where ChangePoint went through a complete communications overhaul.
“A year ago we had a very ‘normal’ communications strategy,” says Communication Director Adam Legg. “We printed your standard...
Posted August 29th 2011 @ 3:42 pm by Jerod
As we’re entering a new ministry season, I want to lay out a challenge to you. Be more consistent and coordinated in your communications across every aspect of your church. I think too often we fall into the trap of letting each ministry within our church do its own thing. Or we’re not intentionally thinking about what information is important to communicate each week. These approaches can be easier in a lot of ways, but it can be far more frustrating for your congregation. Plus a...
Posted August 23rd 2011 @ 2:30 pm by Jerod
Our sister ministry, Under the Radar, recently ordered some Chick-fil-A catering for a concert here in our office. Oddly, we found ourselves in the middle of a rare Chick-fil-A flub. Something didn’t feel right when the chicken-serving, service-oriented restaurant was more than a half hour late delivering the food. We found ourselves in a bizarre, unfamiliar place of shaking our fists and cursing Chick-fil-A for denying us fried chicken goodness.
When the food mercifully arrived, we...
