Resources

Worth 1000 Words: find the right image

We all love pretty pictures. What better way to encapsulate the wonder of your message of [hope/love/glory/resurrection/etc.] than with a lovely photo of a [cross/dove/burning bush/etc.]?

Images are fascinatingly easy to find on the web. Google’s image search presents a mind-boggling collection of images suited to just about any combination of keywords you can think of. And they’re all free, right? All it takes is a right-click and a save as and you’ve suddenly got a website or powerpoint full of beautiful images reflecting the various themes of your ministry. Right?

Not quite. While Google is very good at unearthing images, it pays no attention at all to the ownership of those images. It is up to you to determine who might hold the copyright (if any exists) on any found image and get permission to use it. That takes up a lot of valuable time that many of us just don’t have.

Using stock photography is probably the best solution for most of us. Large stock photo sites like iStockPhoto.com will return a far larger number of quality images that are relevant to whatever it is you are looking for and they are reasonably priced. Unfortunately, the broad scope of a general stock photo source like iStockPhoto often makes it difficult to find ministry-related images among the less-relevant secular images.

That is where a site called iChurchPhoto.com really shines. Self-described as “for churches by churches”, the site caters specifically to ministries looking for church-related images. While the site contains only a fraction of the number of images on other sites, they are so tightly focused on ministry that almost every single one is relevant.

I contacted the folks behind iChurchPhoto.com to find out more and learned that it is an initiative of Outreach Inc. based in California. Caleb Hagen from Outreach told me that the site was launched in early 2008 and now contains “nearly 4000 photos from well over 200 photographers.”

Downloading a photo suitable for powerpoint or the web from either of these sites will only cost you a buck or two. At those prices, it just doesn’t make sense to risk copyright infringement by simply Googling and grabbing an image without permission.

: General,Resources

The Internet is not Evolutionary

It is revolutionary.

I have spent a fair bit of my time over the last few years explaining the web to people. The people I talk to are smart people but the internet is new – and it’s new in a new kind of way. It is a transformative presence in our lives in ways we have never seen from a technology – or collection of technologies.

This kind of change often leads to suspicion and fear and I used to try to allay those fears by framing the internet revolution as an evolution instead. “Don’t worry,” I would say, “this is no different than the advent of the printing press, telegraph, telephone and television. The web is merely the next step along the road of communication technology. It’s no big deal, you can relax.” To hear me tell it, this was a mere incremental advance in a long string of similar advances.

I was wrong, though, and I knew it. My desire to make my audiences as comfortable as possible with things like blogs, Facebook and Twitter trumped any desire to tell the truth. The truth is this: the the web is a technological revolution that has transformed, and continues to transform, our global society. Nothing will be spared the impact of the web. Our socio-political structures will change, our understanding of personal relationships will change (in just the last eighteen months a single website has made the word “friend” globally ambiguous), and, eventually, our churches will change too.

Don’t take my word for it, though, I’ve lied about this before. Let Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, tell you. In June of this year, Shirky spoke to the US State Department as part of the TEDTalks program. In just fifteen minutes and a handful of slides Shirky is able to distill the seismic shift we are experiencing into accessible language and concepts. This video skyrocketed to the top of my “videos everyone must watch” list:

Link to video: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html

: General,Resources,technology
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3 Quick Lessons in Church Website Design

Every once in a while I come across a church website that is clearly run by someone who “gets it.” That happened this morning what I ended up (by a rather circuitous route that I don’t even remember now) on the website for Park Community Church in Chicago.

Park Community Church is a “non-denominational, contemporary Christian church” in north Chicago. No, not Presbyterian, but that doesn’t matter – the lessons I learned about church websites in the first four minutes on the Park site are applicable to ANY church website – including yours.

Church websites speak to two distinct audiences: insiders and outsiders. The insiders are the folks who already attend your church – members and adherents. These people come to your church’s website wanting to know what time the Bible Study starts on Tuesday or, perhaps, find out what they missed on Sunday while they were at the cottage. Hmmm.

It’s that other group, the outsiders, that have the most to gain from your church website. These are the people that have either never been through your door – or have been once or twice and want to figure you out. It is to this group that you are most vulnerable to first impressions. If your website is an afterthought, or is too “insider-focused” – that is the impression you will give to those who visit looking for a church home.

Lesson #1: “I’m New Here”
Park’s website balances the two audiences well. Most of the links on the home page are actually for “insiders” but don’t feel that way because they’re more images than words.

The most prominent words on the home page – right below the name of the church itself, is the phrase “I’m New Here”. This is a clever way to engage the visitor by placing the phrase in their voice and an assertive one at that. An alternative phrase, “New Here?”, puts the visitor on the defensive – the knee-jerk response being “Me? No, I’m not new… what made you think that?”

The “I’m New Here” link leads to a page that explains what Park Community Church is all about – in concise and simple language.

Lesson #2: Links – lots of them!
Once you’ve identified the “outsiders” and convinced them to click on a link just for them (see Lesson #1), you’d better have something compelling for them to read. In most cases, the information most relevant to an outsider are already found elsewhere on the site – so help them get there with lots of links to other pages and sections of your website.

Lesson #3: Be helpful!
Two links on Park’s “I’m New” page stood out to me as wonderful examples of being helpful in ways that are counter-intuitive.

The first is a recognition that a large percentage of people looking for a church are probably new to the area – and certainly any Christian new to an area would be looking for a church. Park acknowledges this need by offering a “New to Chicago” page with lots of info and links to websites that explain everything from the Chicago Transit Authority to restaurant listings and where to get Cubs tickets.

The second example of being helpful is even more counter-intuitive than the “New to Chicago” page. The “Looking For a Church” page would seem, at first, to be a little redundant – if they’re on a church website haven’t they already found one? Not so. Park seems to recognize that if they’re on the outsider page, they haven’t fully found a church home – so they offer alternatives. The page lists a handful of other Chicago churches, primarily non-denominational, with links to their websites. Wow. Confidence and grace rolled into one little web page.

These are just three quick lessons learned in just a few minutes on a site run by folks who “get it” when it comes to designing a church website. What lessons have you learned from other people’s websites?

: Resources
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Inspiration

The slideshow embedded below is full of ideas for church communications material. It comes from a Flickr group called the Church Marketing Lab, organized by the Center for Church Communication.

Please remember that the graphic artists responsible for each work maintain ownership and copyright. I present these as inspiration, not as resources for your own use. I would also encourage you to join the group and participate in the discussions. You can also submit your own ideas (even in progress) for immediate feedback from a great community of designers.

Enjoy!

: Resources
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How to Speak Presbyterian

I came across a great little resource on the Presbyterians Today website called “How to Speak Presbyterian.”

Written by Rev. P.J. Southam, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), it helps explain some of the oddities of Presbyterian jargon – with a little theology thrown in.  For the most part it is as applicable to The PCC as to the PC(USA) with two key differences being that our General Assemblies are annual rather than bi-annual and we have a Book of Forms rather than a Book of Order.

The resource can be found here: http://www.pcusa.org/today/archive/believe/speak.htm

: Resources,Theology
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The Church Speaks

Have you ever wondered what The Presbyterian Church in Canada thinks about the various social issues that face our world? Many would be surprised that The PCC takes an active role in analyzing, assessing and commenting on social issues in Canada and world-wide. Poverty, health-care, human sexuality and biotechnology are just some of the tough issues that have been referred by various General Assemblies to the Justice Ministries office of the Life and Mission Agency, and other courts of the church. Social issues of concern to Presbyterians are brought through overtures to the attention of the General Assembly. These issues are considered by a number of committees and courts of the church.

How is one to remember all of these statements without poring over years of Acts & Proceedings? Unless you really like reading the Acts & Proceedings of General Assemblies (or you have a very good memory) you’ll be glad to learn of the Social Action Handbook (SAH) produced by Justice Ministries. This three-hundred-plus page volume is a compendium of General Assembly adopted statements and reflections concerning social justice and public policy issues. It was completely overhauled in 2004 and is updated annually. The Introduction to the SAH describes itself this way: It is a summary of the reports and recommendations adopted by the annual General Assemblies of The Presbyterian Church in Canada from 1954 to the present. As such, it represents the mind of the church, as an institution, as of the last time the matter was discussed at General Assembly. It does not necessarily represent the mind of every individual member of the church.

What can you expect to find? The handbook is arranged into five Books: Life, Relationships, Community, Nation, and World. Within each Book, issues are each afforded an article that has three sections: The Church Speaks, The Church Acts, and The Church Reflects. How about some examples? Poverty has long been a concern to Presbyterians. The SAH chronicles The PCC’s policy statements on this important issue starting on page 168 of Book 4: Nation. In The Church Speaks is a summation of the values and statements which underlay church reflections. The example below is from the poverty section:

  • God’s love and concern for the needy should be a constant reminder and challenge to His Church to join Him in His concern and action on behalf of the poor in Canada and the world.
  • There is strong [scriptural] evidence that God judges individuals and nations for their neglect of the poor.
  • Poverty is a great destroyer of human rights and one of the greatest causes of tension in Canada and the world.
  • We should endeavour to understand and have empathy for the poor and assist them to solve their problems where possible.
  • Levels of support should be adequate and should include opportunity for self-improvement.
  • A guaranteed annual income is a necessary component in the alleviation of poverty.
  • Sessions and congregations can be catalysts in bringing together community groups to discuss ways and means of improving the lot of the poor and in enabling the poor to have a voice in determining their own destinies.
  • As we seek justice, we must both minister to individual citizens and advocate for policy changes which reduce poverty.
  • Poverty is more than material depravation. A measure of one’s well-being must include the realization of self-worth, dignity and social inclusion.
  • A national strategy with measurable targets and a time line is a necessary component of poverty reduction in Canada.

The Church Acts section offers a timeline of church actions and particular involvement in the public square. The latest statement on poverty, made in 2007, reads:

2007: The 133rd GA affirmed the need for a national strategy with measurable targets and a timeline to reduce poverty in Canada and encouraged congregations to write to their federal, provincial and local officials to establish such a strategy. The Moderator wrote to the GOC [Government of Canada] and Provincial and Territorial governments recommending:

  • a minimum wage of $10 per hour and that minimum wage should be indexed to the annual cost of living;
  • the establishment of a national social housing program;
  • that Employment Insurance coverage be expanded to make it more accessible and that benefit rates and the maximum benefit period be increased.

Congregations were encouraged to write to their Premiers recommending an end to the claw back to social assistance and to meet with representatives of low-income groups to learn about the challenges their face and how the church might assist them.

Finally, The Church Reflects section offers excerpts from various reports to General Assembly including the most recent from Justice Ministries entitled "The Growing Gap in Canada":

We are created in the image of God. All humans are equal before God and are to be treated with dignity. We are called to share God’s abundance. Canada is a prosperous nation and ranks sixth on the United Nations Human Development Index. Poverty in Canada is not only about material deprivation; self-worth and dignity suffer. Social exclusion is a painful consequence of poverty. Our society has a tendency to blame the poor for their predicament.

The Social Action Handbook offers over three hundred pages of Presbyterian perspectives on issues facing Canada and the world. I highly recommend taking a glance through it.

: Action,History,Resources
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The Box Pew Metaphor

Every once in a while I read a blog post somewhere that is so completely relevant to my life or work that I have to resist the urge to sweep my home and office for listening devices. Jon Swanson, of the Levite Chronicles, wrote just such a post this morning.

His story of a “social media pastor” named Emilio faced with the metaphor of box pews illustrates brilliantly the challenges we face in the realm of church communications in the 21st century.

A few excerpts:

As he stared at them, Emilio pictured the cubicles in his own church, and in many other churches. This time they weren’t around families. They were around generations, around interest groups, around social strata. There were groups that went into their cubicles every Sunday, with walls around them.

And he knew that they were trying. There were weekly bulletins, biweekly mailers, web updates, a facebook group, Sunday school class email prayer chains. There were displays in the hallways, announcements in the services, notes on clipboards in classrooms. There was a limited circulation enewsletter. There were hundreds of pieces of information. And there were people who said they never heard what was going on who, when questioned, acknowledged that they didn’t read the newsletter.

I highly recommend that you visit Jon’s blog and read the article (it’s not long) and leave a comment there (or here) about the manifestation of the box pew metaphor in your own church.

link: http://levite.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/emilio-and-the-box-pews/

: General,Resources
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Opening Doors to Discipleship

For those of us who grew up in the church, Sunday school teachers hold a special and significant place in our memories. The wacky one, the serious one, the one that always wore jeans and the one that always wore a tie. There is often also one that made a difference in your life in one way or another.

Sunday school teachers are a valuable asset for the Church and we have a responsibility as a denomination to provide the resources they need to shape the young hearts they’ve been entrusted with.

Through The Vine Helpline, the PCC produces countless resources for our congregations in the areas of evangelism, congregational development, and children & youth ministry among others. One of the ways The Vine is able to this is through ecumenical partnerships through which we can pool our resources and produce quality products that would otherwise be beyond our means to create.

One of those partnerships, PREP – Presbyterian Reformed Education Partnership, came together to create an online training resource for Sunday school teachers called Opening Doors to Discipleship. The other member denominations of PREP are: The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, The Moravian Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and The Reformed Church in America.

Opening Doors to Discipleship is designed as a series of three courses with twelve sessions each. The courses are free of charge to members of the PREP denominations. Below is a video, produced by PREP, that explains the program in detail:

For more information or to get your login information, contact The Vine at thevine@presbyterian.ca. More detailed info about Opening Doors to Discipleship is available on the website at http://openingdoorstodiscipleship.com

: Resources
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Media Relations for Churches

Making the News by John Longhurst

Making the News by John Longhurst

I went browsing through the PCC/WMS Bookroom last week to see what I might find in the area of Communication. I was pleasantly surprised by this little gem: “Making the News: An Essential Guide for Effective Media Relations” by John Longhurst.

This concise book of just over a hundred pages is geared specifically towards churches and other non-profit organizations. It provides great insight for those with little or no experience in dealing with the media. Among other things, Longhurst offers some very practical advice on how to construct a news release, complete with examples.

I highly recommend this book to every congregation as part of an effort to reach out to their local media to celebrate the mission and ministry of the church. The book can be purchased throught the PCC/WMS BookRoom

: Resources
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Note to Church Webmasters: Tell Stories!

Kevin Hendricks is one smart guy. I’ve been a huge fan of his Church Marketing Sucks project for years, and have also been enjoying his contributions to the Church Communications Pro blog.

In a post on Friday about building effective church websites, Kevin said this:

Tell Stories You can’t just write copy and hope to connect with people. Try telling stories about real people. It’s likely a few folks in your congregation have weathered the greatest economic collapse this country has ever faced. What’s their story?

This was one of three excellent suggestions to create connections through your website rather than just push content.

If you are at all responsible for your congregation’s website – or even if you’re not, go read Kevin’s series on effective church websites. Your congregation will thank you a year from now.

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