Live.Awake

A Pastors Guide to the Web: Part 3

// April 27th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Church Life

// The Pastor Blog

This is the 3rd installment of a series of posts I’m doing to help pastors get themselves and their churches online and plugged in.

VIEW THE ENTIRE SERIES

I mentioned in my first post in this series that there is a new expectation in our church culture that wasn’t there just a decade ago.  People want to know their pastor, and that’s perfectly right and good.  I don’t think most people expect to know everything.  They don’t want to stalk the pastor, they just want to know him.  They want to have some sense (even if vague) of what his family life is like, what he laughs about (if he laughs), and what his dreams are for the church and his own life.  This isn’t hero worship.  It’s kind of the opposite, in my opinion.  It’s taking the pastor off the ivory pedestal and making him human again.  It think that’s a good thing.

If we pastors are honest, we will admit that our hesitancy to setup a personal blog has to do with a fear of being more vulnerable than we have been in the past.  You need to get over it.  If you don’t, you are going to find yourself more and more ineffective as a leader.  This is a bigger issue than your website.

I started blogging before I became a pastor.  It was just an unfocused creative outlet for me.  Then I took the pastorate and the significance of my litte corner of the web totally changed.  Immediately people in my new church started reading.  I didn’t know it, but they were making connections with me through this medium.  People that did not know me yet, felt like they were getting to know me before I was able to even introduce myself.  I didn’t feel like a stranger to them anymore.

THAT’S POWERFUL!

Visitors to our church mention my blog when they meet me.  They already know some of the funny stories about my kids.  They know some inside jokes.  They know my first name.  Pastor, if you aren’t blogging you are not taking advantage of one of the most powerful leadership tools available to you.

General Tips

• I suggest that you do not use your church website as your blog. Most CMS-driven sites will allow you to blog.  I don’t think this is ideal.  It will help you and your readers to have your own space.  It should look different and have it’s own web address.  You should feel free to speak freely and make the site your own.  And your readers will feel like it’s more authentic this way.
• Please.  Please don’t turn your blog into an online devotional. In my opinion, this is perhaps the number one mistake I see on pastor blogs.  Your blog, on the whole, should not be an extension of your pulpit ministry.  Stop preaching, and talk.  Talk like a human being.  Sermonize on Sunday.  Conversate on your blog.  If you want to blog your sermons, I suggest you do that at your church website.  Keep your blog personal.
• Practice using a personal tone in your writing. Address your readers by using the pronoun “you” a lot.  When you write, imagine that you are talking directly to a person.  This will inspire you to be personable.  A blog is not a formal writing medium.  It’s informal, personal, and conversational.
• Be yourself. Talk about books you are reading, thoughts you have, what you love about being a pastor and what’s hard.  The temptation to build a false persona as a pastor is very strong.  Resist it when blogging.  A lack of authenticity is murder in the blogging world.
• Don’t be long winded all the time. One of the main reasons I hear pastors cite as to the reason they don’t blog is that they don’t think they have the time.  That’s because they don’t understand blogging.  It doesn’t need to be long.  Just a paragraph or two.  A few minutes of your time.  Of course, there will be times when you want to really knuckle down and write some serious prose.  Go for it when you want to.  Mix it up.  Just don’t feel like you need to write a book every time you post.  Relax and have fun with it.
• Post with some regularity. This doesn’t mean you have to post every day (though that would be nice).  I post about 2 times a week.  However often you can do it, decide on a basic schedule and stick to it.  People will get into a rhythm with your site and consistency will build stable traffic.
• Have an opinion and state it with passion and sincerity. Passionless writing is boring.
  
• Remember that what you publish, is out there forever. Never say anything about someone that you wouldn’t want them to hear.  Never click “publish” when you are angry.  Never use your blog to solve relationship problems.  If you wouldn’t email it, don’t blog it.
• Remember that blogging should be a 2-way conversation. That’s what commenting is for.  Encourage it by asking the reader to respond.  Write in a way that inspires people to add to what you said.  Leave something unexplored and ask for opinions.  Commenting is what makes a blog fun for you and your readers.  Encourage it.
• Make it easy to comment. I’m a big proponent of wide open commenting.  No pre-moderation.  I think anything more restricted sends the wrong message.  However, at the very least, don’t make people register at your site before they can comment.  Having to remember yet another username and password is a barrier many, many people will not get over in order to comment (myself included).

How to Get Started

It’s a whole heck of a lot easier than you think to get a blog up and running.  I’ll give you two options, in order based on the best to the least desirable.

1. Host your own blog with your own domain and use WordPress to do it.  WordPress is the best blogging platform.  There, I said it.  And I believe it.  This doesn’t require much expertise, but some.  If you are new to blogging, you probably will not be able to do this on your own.  Find someone to install WordPress for you.  This gives you maximum control over the design and functionality of your site.  It will be yours to tweak and make your own.  Installing WordPress is easy and should not be expensive to hire someone to do the basic install for you.  In fact, this is one of the things that a geek volunteer in your church could do with some research.
2. Create a free WordPress blog, hosted by WordPress.  It takes less than 5 minutes to create the free account, choose a theme, and start blogging.  You have less control over your design and funtionality than if you hosted it yourself, but it’s the same engine running it.  DON’T USE BLOGGER, or any of the other free blogging platforms out there.  Just do what everyone else eventually comes around to and start with WordPress.com.  If you decide later to host the site yourself with the WordPress software, moving it from the free hosted service to your own is a cinch.

Go on.  Get started now.  You can thank me later.

The next post in this series will be about social networking.  Don’t worry.  It won’t hurt.

A Pastors Guide to the Web: Part 2

// April 23rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Church Life

// The Church Website

This is the 2nd installment of a series of posts I’m doing to help pastors get themselves and their churches online and plugged in.

VIEW THE ENTIRE SERIES

DISCLOSURE: I do web development work as a side business.  I work mostly with other churches.  Though I’d love to have you as a client, that’s not why I’m writing this post.  I really have a heart to see churches get plugged in, no matter how they get there.

Get a Good Website

do you have something nauseating like this on your website? REPENT.

I said “good” for a reason.

The first question is if you have a website, is it a good website or a bad one? Now, odds are you are a terrible judge of this.  So are your friends.  I know that seems harsh, but it’s usually true.  I really can’t count how many times another pastor has bragged about their website and I go look at it and it’s abysmal.  Ask a 25 year old to give you an honest opinion both on the functionality of the site as well as the design.  Have them describe the site to you in their own words.  Ask guests if they have seen the website and what they think.  Watch their body language as much as what they say.  You’ll know, if you pay attention.  If you still aren’t sure, email me or leave a comment with a link and I’ll give you my honest (but nice) opinion.

If you don’t have website, or your current site looks like any of these (I’ve seen worse, but these are bad enough) then you need to change that now.  This is a bigger priority than most people realize.  Start dealing with it this week because it’s hurting you more than you think.

Assume that anyone that thinks about visiting you is going to Google your church name first, because they will.  What will they find?  Does it help you or hurt you?  First impressions last, and your website is your first impression.

Where Do I Start?

1. I’m a pastor so I know how this works.  Right out of the gate, you need to face the money issue. Unless you are blessed with a volunteer that is a skilled, experienced and faithful web developer at your church, you are going to need to hire someone.  Yes, there are open source solutions out there that you can use to create your own site for cheap/nothing but that only gets you the tool.  It doesn’t teach you how to use it, create the right content, or organize it the right way.  Most churches start with a volunteer, then hire someone they know to fix it, and eventually pay someone who actually knows what they are doing to fix 3 generations of junk website and wasted cash.  Make payments if you have to, but get it done right the first time.  If you think it’s hard getting financial backing now, wait until you go through 2 or 3 failed (and very public) iterations of a website.
2. If you really can’t afford that (or can’t convince your finance committee to cough it up) then at least hire someone (for less) to do a basic “brochure-ware” site that only has 2 maybe 3 nicely designed static pages with some pics, general info about your church, service times, directions, and contact info.  This is far from ideal, but I’ve seen some sites like this that were very compelling and well done.
3. Provide at least one section of content on your site that will keep people coming back.  This could be a news/announcements section, prayer request board, church calendar, sermon podcast, etc.  Anything that will make people come back to check for more.  If you have to choose, go with sermons.  EVERYONE wants to “try before they buy” and church hunting is no exception.
4. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.  You should have sermons on your website every week.  But, if it doesn’t get updated it looks bad.  You will need a volunteer to handle the sermon editing and uploads.  You should have a church calendar.  But if it’s empty, you’ve shot yourself in the foot.  Resist the pressure to add every bell and whistle you can to your site.  Start small, and grow it as it is practical to do so.  Be honest with yourself up front about what your church is equipped to handle and do well.  If it won’t be excellent, don’t do it.
5. Get a CMS (Content Management System).  Whoever you hire to create your site, should provide this to you.  A CMS allows you (and your volunteers) to edit and manage the site’s content without having to be a web geek.  It gives you a graphical, web-based  interface that is intuitive.  Demand that as part of your contract with your web company.  If you have a skilled volunteer creating your site, demand that they use a CMS.  No one person should ever have sole ownership and access to your website.
6. Remember to include the basics.  The following should all be no more than 2 clicks away, one is better.  Staff bios with pics.  Service times visible on every page.  Directions (even better, embed a Google map).  Contact info including an email form.  Statement of Faith (that makes sense).  What to wear (no matter your denomination, you need to tell them this.  You’re a bad host if you assume they know what to wear).  I can’t tell you how many church websites I’ve seen where I have to hunt for this info for 5 minutes or more.
7. Be very very careful when hiring someone from your church to do it.  When it works out well, it’s great.  You usually get more passionate work at a better price.  However, when it goes bad it goes really bad.  You end up having to choose between losing a church member and losing a website. You don’t want to be in that position.  I’m not saying don’t do it.  I’m just saying, do MORE than your due diligence when it comes to hiring a web designer from your church membership.

If you want to check out some excellent church websites for inspiration, GodBit has a nice church website review section.  Worth a look.

There’s more to do than this, but this will get you started which is my goal here.  Assuming you haven’t hired an incompetent web geek or allowed the “computer guy” in your church to handle the website (you haven’t, have you?), most of this will be taken care of.  However, if you don’t ask for it you might not get it.

Shoot the Animated Doves

Once your cool new site is live, promote that thing like crazy.  Mention it all the time in conversation, mention it Sunday morning, mention it to guests.  Put the URL in your bulletins, business cards and signage.  Find ways to force your church to visit it often.  Make it a part of your church culture, because this is a building block on which you are going to be able to build other things.

Next time I’ll get you started with blogging.

A Pastors Guide to the Web: Part 1

// April 21st, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Church Life

// Why This Should Matter to The Pastor

This is the 1st installment of a series of posts I’m doing to help pastors get themselves and their churches online and plugged in.

VIEW THE ENTIRE SERIES

Most pastors know that they need to get plugged into web technology, but they have no idea where to begin.  This series is for you.  I want to help you engage your city and the world with the gospel.  I also have another audience in mind.  It’s those that still don’t see the need to get on the web tech bus.  Maybe your seminary prof told you the web is a dark and evil place that should be avoided at all cost.  Or maybe you just see this as a big fad that will go away soon.  Let me address that problem first as a way of providing some context.

Only a crazy hermit could deny that web tech has taken over, particularly in the form of social media and networking.  Still, I meet pastors all the time that simply don’t see how participating in that world can possibly benefit their ministry.  If they do participate, it’s begrudgingly.  They say, “Humph.  I guess these days this is the kind of thing you have to do.  All the young kids are doing it, so I suppose we should too.”  In other words, I don’t see the value in this, but I’ll do it to make people happy.  However, I know in my own mind that I’m not going to really give this a shot.  I don’t understand it, so it must not be important.

(more…)

Easter Festival 2009

// April 7th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Church Life

What are you doing for Easter this year? If you are in the Kernersville, Winston-Salem, High Point area of North Carolina you should stop by and see us at KCC.  We are planning a killer event this year.  We have a big, flat field behind our building and we will be putting it to good use this year with an outdoor festival.  We’ll have music, dance performances, door prizes, giveaways, a bounce house for the kids, food, and more.

Come celebrate Easter in a fresh way.

Innovation and Creativity in the Church

// April 3rd, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Church Life

I saw this video and immediately thought, “Why don’t I see this kind of innovation and creativity in the Church?”.  How is it that we know the Creator personally, but tend to kill creativity and innovative, out-of-the-box thinking?

What qualities would a church culture have to possess in order for this kind of thing to come from it in a way that is impregnated with worship and the gospel?