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Current Issue
- Churches Can Help to Simplify Holidays
- Economic pressures will force some to simplify this year. Churches can plan and promote ministries that focus on the season’s meaning—and share holiday joy.
For United Methodists seeking to be good stewards, simplifying will mean less spending and more time "to focus on the meaning rather than the method of giving thanks or celebrating Christmas," says the Rev. Tom Albin, dean of The Upper Room Chapel, General Board of Discipleship (GBOD), Nashville, Tenn.
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- Making the Best of a “Situation”
- In the last two articles, we provided suggestions on how to collect information for your church’s situation analysis. Now it is time to put together all of the information.
A situation analysis has several parts. The most important is the SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Your research findings or, in the absence of research, your planning team’s perceptions, can help to establish the SWOT.
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- Making Connections through Social Networking in Cyberspace (Part One)
- If you remember the Faberge Organics shampoo commercial featuring “I told two friends, and they told two friends,” you are not a digital native.
“I’m not a what?” you may ask. A “digital native” is someone born in the Internet age, which officially began when the World Wide Web went public in 1989. Those born before that year—who have migrated online—are “digital immigrants.”
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- You Have to Ask
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
--Matthew 6:21, NRSVA wise person once said, “Plenty of people are willing to give God credit; yet a few are willing to give God cash.”
These are unpredictable economic times—as unemployment increases and businesses close—and dark clouds loom on the horizon for the predicted “perfect economic storm.” Congregations feel the pinch too. Supplies at food pantries and used clothing closets are stretched to the limit.
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- Teens! Can They Hear You Now?
- While the rest of us have finally caught up with Web sites and would not know how to survive without e-mails, generally speaking, most teens have already moved on.
Simply setting up a Web site for youth groups is no longer sufficient. Unless you give teens and their leaders and parents reasons for returning, they will visit the site once and leave. In e-mail, they see a lot of junk: spam, marketers, phishers, scams, authorities, adults, random forwards and, most importantly, no friends. It also is too slow. They want communication that is like hitting the “Fire” button when they play a video game.
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- Extra! Extra! Read All About It! We’re Talking E-Newsletters!
- The terms “e-newsletter,” “e-card” and “e-mail” are thrown around all the time. What are their distinguishing characteristics, and what makes the e-newsletter the subject of this article?
According to PC Magazine, an e-card (electronic card) is a digital greeting card or postcard created on the Web and sent to someone via the Web. PC Magazine defines e-mail (electronic mail) as the transmission of text messages and optional file attachments over a network. Lastly, an e-newsletter (electronic newsletter – are you seeing a trend?) is an electronic report giving news or information of interest to a special group, as defined by Answers.com. - more
Past Issues
OCT 08
SEP 08
Aug 08
Jul 08
Jun 08
- To Thine Own Self Be True: Assessing Your Congregation
- Part 2 of the series on Church Marketing
May 08
Apr 08
- How to Program Your E-mail to Improve Its Functionality
- Email Best Practices Series Part III
Mar 08
- Five Tips to Write Effective E-mail Copy
- E-mail Best Practices Series Part II