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« Previous EntriesRelational Evangelism Road Trip: Love God? Love the Church!
Sunday, May 11th, 2008If you happen to have been on my Facebook, you’d know that I am back on the road on leg number two of my “Mother of all Road Trips” (this time it’s ONT, YYC, YYZ, SPI, BDL!) It is seems appropriate I would set back out on Mother’s day, I guess. Don’t worry my wife […]
Bonsai Church Growth
Monday, May 5th, 2008Here’s an ethical consideration that needs to be thought about when planning outreach in your community. Be careful when you are planning your church’s communication that you are not using your marketing ability and budget to compete with other churches.
Some churches have the mistaken impression they are growing because they think they are very evangelistic, […]
A Few More Thoughts about Facebook for Pastors
Saturday, April 26th, 2008The Facebook for Pastors e-book phenomenon marches on! I wanted to thank all the people who have downloaded the free e-book and sent their comments and encouragement to me on Facebook and email! Not to mention the ones who’ve added me to their Facebook friends list!
Thanks also for all the blog posts, links, and comments […]
Five Reasons Why Your Mama is the Only One Who Reads Your Missionary Website
Saturday, March 8th, 2008I recently asked a few stateside people to take a look at missionary websites and make a few observations. I am compiling the ideas from their comments and my own observations into a brief blog series for missionaries. Here’s the first one:
Reason Number One: You already have an off line relationship with your Mama so […]
Engel’s Strategy Classic: ANALYSIS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008From the 1975 classic “WHAT’S GONE WRONG WITH THE HARVEST” by James Engel
ANALYSIS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Obviously, any strategy begins with an understanding of the audience, but attention also must be focused on several additional factors: (1) competition, (2) governmental regulations, and (3) media resources.
The Audience
George and Sally Calderone represent a segment of the total audience […]
Engel’s Strategy Classic: Men, the Message, and the Media
Monday, January 28th, 2008From the 1975 classic “WHAT’S GONE WRONG WITH THE HARVEST” by James Engel
Men, the Message, and the Media
The Calderofles are just two of the more than 40,000 people who live in Rollingwood. Probably no more than 20 percent of these 40,000 are Christians, judging at least by church-attendance figures. So the tasks of proclamation and […]
Read This Before You Jump on the Willowcreek “Reveal Study” Band Wagon! (Pro or Con!)
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007Sociologist Bradley Wright has done us all a favor by posting an extensive 11 part review of the Willowcreek Reveal study by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson . You may recall Christianity Today wrote an article about the study subtitled “Why the most influential church in America now says “We made a mistake.”
The study and conversation surrounding it […]
15 Ways to Improve your Church Marketing
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007I was just talking about this article I did a few months ago for Religious Product News called How to Make More Impact with Your Ministry Communications in the comments section and was inspired to post these points here:
1. Put more effort and thought into your communication planning.
Take it slower and be more methodical when planning your communications. […]
Hello?! Church Marketing Doesn’t “Work” People Do!
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007Too many people treat marketing as a program and not as a process. I fear the heightened interest in marketing we see these days is from churches who believe marketing is a program. “Let’s try some marketing!” There are plenty of people to help them confirm their biases. It seems in some quarters that marketing […]
Stop Speaking Gibberish in Church Marketing
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Much marketing coming out of churches today has messages that still have too many terms that people don’t understand. Often, the message requires more biblical literacy than is “out there” in the general public. To some people the message in church marketing is no more than gibberish to them.
For example, I don’t know many unchurched […]
Making Media Work for Your Church
Thursday, December 6th, 2007When people think about marketing they usually think about the fun stuff. The glossy side of marketing, the promotion element of the Marketing Mix is very attractive. Obviously, you have to develop a promotional plan if you want people outside the doors of your church to know about what is going on inside. As a […]
How to build on the seeker-sensitive model: Plan ministry follow-up and assimilation as part of your outreach promotions
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007>>> This article I have on ChurchCentral.com goes along with a lot of what people are talking about since the new Willowcreek “Reveal” study. This is not a time to scrap Seeker-sensitive good ideas, it’s a time to reflect on how to make assimilation and discipleship better IMHO
Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits: Learn the Secret to Making the News Every time
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007You send out news releases and Public Service Announcements regularly, right? I knew you did. Did you know the main reason most organizations don’t get in the news is the simple reason that they don’t write and send news releases and PSAs.
I have coached organizations that came to me later and said, “Wow, we have […]
Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits Tactic: Narrow Your Target and/or Narrow Your Niche
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007Some organizations are looking so hard for their “next customer” that they loose sight of the potential in the ones they have already. The answer to more financial resources, more clients, more volunteers may be as simple as increasing the participation of the people you have already reached.
In a similar way, some organizations seek to […]
Eight Simple Questions to Kick-start Your Nonprofit Guerrilla Marketing
Sunday, October 7th, 2007Who is my focus?
What is my niche?
What can I use that’s free?
Who can I partner with?
How can I use publicity?
How many marketing tools can I use?
How can I help people succeed?
What do I need to learn?