Is writing good social media captions sort of like writing good sermons?
In a meeting last week, a participant in my Membership Program “confessed” that she had recently used my caption-writing prompts to write a sermon. Those prompts are: – Who are we? – Why does it matter? – Why should you care? From my client: “Obviously, the questions need to be tweaked just a bit for […]
A quick social media strategy that works for everyone
Part of my job is to continue seeking out and thinking through new ways to assist my clients in their communication. Years ago, I developed a social media training structure that I teach individuals and groups all kinds—a process I will teach starting this Thursday in a four-part series. This process includes strategy development and […]
A Resource for Pastoral Musicians
Through my work, I often have the privilege of encountering organizations that are engaged in work that stands out as necessary and rare. Diakonos Solutions serves women in ministry leadership. Faith Commons promotes public discourse rooted in the common values of many faiths. And Polyphony Music Resources aims to nurture church musicians in their ministry […]
What Bartimaeus can teach the Church about faith
*This is a sermon I preached for the first time in Arlington, VA in 2021. Since then I have preached a version of it at several churches.* Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting […]
The Four Qualities of an Effective Hybrid Church
This article was published by The Christian Citizen on July 26, 2022. Over the last two and a half years, we learned we can do a whole lot more online than we realized. We can worship, learn, pray, even gather. We learned how to stream, Zoom, edit, publish, post; and the learning curve was steep […]
Will you break my heart?
There’s a lot I could tell you about church websites. I could tell you that your website should resource its visitors instead of informing them. When it comes to the information though, I could also tell you that those who use your website will expect to find certain things in certain places. I could tell […]
Social Media as Ministry, Not Marketing: Top Three Tips
A few days ago, I sent an email to my subscribers encouraging them to view their social media content not as a communication tool for their ministry, but as ministry itself. In essence, I asked them to stop using social media exclusively for marketing purposes, to stop only ever publishing bulletin board-like posts. If you’re […]
It’s not as scary as it seems!
Over the past few years I have noticed a new emphasis in church life on AV and digital media ministries. We all know why, so rather than talking about that unpleasant elephant in the room, I would rather talk about one aspect of a good AV ministry: presentation software. There are many different options for […]
the dos and don’ts of email communication
Today, there are 4 billion daily email users and that number is expected to jump to 4.6 billion by 2025. Furthermore, email remains the most effective digital communication tool we have at our disposal. In fact, 4 out of 5 marketers said they’d rather give up social media than email marketing. 74% of Baby Boomers […]
Some Thoughts on Hybrid Children’s Ministry
When I initially developed the curriculum for my “How to Be a Hybrid Church” course, I did not include anything specific to children’s ministry. Along the way, however, participants raised questions about it and requested its addition. I decided to do some digging and adapt the lesson. As I researched and assessed the landscape of […]