Effective Church Communication is all about learning, practicing, and adjusting. We’ve been doing this for decades, learning something new every year. And 2017 is no exception. Here are our biggest lessons from 2017 when it comes to effective church communications and forming Church Training Academy as you know it today. The Most Dangerous Number […]
When was the last time someone actually used your church website contact forms? And how many times a year are they used? There’s one surprisingly simple trick to get more people to contact you… Why No One Uses Your Church Website Contact Forms Most churches use a single contact page as […]
Using the method of StoryBrand for churches can help you carry the Gospel to more people. But how can your church actually use a framework that was made for business? About Our Guest: Jared Wellman Jared joined the Tate Springs family in 2017. He married his wife Amanda in 2006 and […]
Canva.com is one of the easist and most powerful web-based apps out there! Canva is a free / paid (freemium) app that makes designing beautiful graphics and artwork EASY. Easy to Use – Almost Done For You It’s loaded with templates and designs that will either be perfect for what you need, or will be […]
Christmas planning without a strategy is like walking going to the store without a grocery list. You might get what you need but it’s not ideal. Brandon Swain swings by today to share how you can do proper Christmas planning for your church. Ideally, you start early, but this will still work if you’re reading […]
Every year it’s the same story with your church volunteer ministry. We need to do another training, so we need to find a time when our volunteers can meet, a place to meet, and try to herd everyone together. But it doesn’t end there… We still have volunteers that can’t make the meeting, so we […]
More ministries are moving online every year, and many pastors are afraid of losing personal touch with their congregation. But this fear may be invalid? How could you take something like prayer and turn it into an online prayer ministry? On today’s show, we interview Billy Taylor, who has created multiple online prayer ministries. He […]
If you’re like me, you’re always on the the look out for a tool or app that can make your day just that more productive. Sometimes when you hit on the right one, life changes doesn’t it! Ever had that happen? You come across this app or a web service that once you make it […]
Copyright. Yeah. That wonderfully secure, pesky little symbol and assumption that both protects us and is the bain of our creative existence. Copyright. It’s a love/hate relationship. As church creatives, we have no interest in selling the stuff we’re making do we? No, not really, not unless we’re helping the pastor with his book or […]
How would it feel if your church announcements actually inspired a response from the congregation? And what does it take? In today’s show Dave and Justin interview Adam Mclaughlin to discover if video announcements are really better than live, how to get and keep people’s attention, and how to make signing up for events a whole […]
On Facebook you can see how many views your church videos are getting, but what if your “minutes watched” metric is low? Imagine the impact if more people would watch your entire video! 85% of Facebook Video is watched with the sound off. 51% of marketers use closed captioning most of the time or always. […]
What if you started reaching your community wherever they are, 24/7? How could a digital missionary achieve that? In this episode, Justin interviews Tom Pounder from the YM Sidekick Blog & Podcast on how you can be a digital missionary for the Kingdom and grow your church (and it’s easier than you think). Subscribe […]
What was your first church media project? A sermon recording? Creative skit? Video announcements? Running the soundboard? Improving your church website? Before you took the leap, did you have butterflies in your stomach? The nervousness of getting the timing right…the worry of messing up, or being late…the fear of judgment from those you wanted to […]
You want more people engaging with your church social media, but what kinds of information are they looking for? Why would they engage?? In this episode, Dave and Justin share 4 easy ways you can show your church’s values, strengths, and culture on social media. Subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Tool of the Week: Facebook […]
What is “Pastoral Blogging”? What is a “Church Blog”? Is blogging still relevant today? Pastor blog trends that don’t work Inconsistent – There’s no one focusing and creating the content A 2nd or 3rd sermon in the week Blogging about things that don’t line up with the church’s mission Blog ideas […]
Apple brought out a slew of iOS product updates recently. Not only are we getting the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, but they’ve leap-frogged some levels in both tech and numbering and announced the iPhone X. Kaleb Rutherford, host of Parent’s Press Play and my resident iOS nerd joins in this episode to discuss […]
Churches have had ‘small groups’ or ‘home groups’ for many years. It’s a great way to bring the closeness and intimacy among members – especially in a large church. Small groups are a great way to help ‘the church be the church’. Extend Home Groups with Private Facebook Groups! Facebook groups… heard of them […]
Is your church social enough? Is your church effectively using social media? Does your church even care? Should you?? Being on social media is more than just checking a box and saying “We have a Facebook page”. “Your [church’s] social media pages are actually the ‘front door’ of your church. Maybe even […]
Editing software can be expensive. Believe me, it’s gotten a lot better than it was 10-15 years ago. I used to have to pay like $1200 for each version of the Adobe Master collection (all the apps). Now I pay a small monthly rate for it, and keep all the software updated to the […]
Apple recently rolled out some new podcasting tags to iTunes and iOS 11. The new tags are designed with episodic content in mind. Over the years, many podcasts have been created that are episodic in nature. For years, podcasters have published in the Season / Episode format with the idea that users can better […]
As ministers and church staff, everything we work on during the week seems to be pointed to and focused at our Sunday Morning service. Sunday School teachers, Worship leaders, the Band, the Youth Pastor and definitely the Lead Pastor are all preparing lessons, music and sermons all for the 4-5 hour window between 8 am […]
We’re not sure if we should start live streaming our services. We don’t know how many people will use it. It may not be ‘worth it’… I’ve heard this more times than I really can believe. Many small and medium sized churches, understandably, aren’t sure if putting ministry resources, money and staff or volunteers, […]
Churches around the world are starting to realize that live streaming can and should be an important part of their ministry. For many churches however, it may seem like a HUGE task to undertake. There’s so many bits and pieces to consider. Which camera to buy? Use our phones or even buy a camera? […]
The video camera connected to your computer – yeah, the webcam – is one of your most power tools. Using it properly can make a huge difference for people watching your videos. Do you use Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Periscope or Facebook Live yet. These are powerful communication tools. We’re living in a time when we can […]
Our church has been live streaming for several years, but to my surprise, we were putting out some horrible quality. With the staff’s permission, I took matters in to my own hands and upgraded our stream to Desktop Mode with the help of my laptop and a couple of cameras. Here’s a quick […]