Archive - August, 2010

Church communications survey

August 30, 2010 in for Churches, Pastors

After writing ‘Avoiding church calendar overload‘ and pondering some of the comments and feedback I received, I’ve decided it would be worthwhile conducting a survey of church members to evaluate the effectiveness of current communications methods, to help plan future communications approaches.

The goals of the survey are to:

  • understand how church members perceive the current frequency and effectiveness of communication,
  • understand what communications channels church members regularly use,
  • understand what gaps exist in our current communications, and
  • understand what communications channels church members would prefer to be communicated through.

The survey hasn’t gone live yet – I’m asking for your feedback before it does! Take a look at the survey, and let me know what you think – what’s missing, and what could be included.

Thanks!

UPDATE

Following feedback from readers, the survey has been refined and updated. You can see the updated version here.

Related Surveys

A couple of examples and articles I came across as I prepared the survey:

A seminar on digital discernment

August 27, 2010 in Christian Living, for Churches, Pastors

In a couple of weeks time, as part of my church’s ‘Weekend Extra‘ training morning, I’m running a seminar entitled: “Digital discernment: using new technology and social media to the glory of God”.

It’s a topic close to my heart – how to use technology in a discerning manner – neither writing it off, nor accepting it wholesale without consideration.

Here’s my question – what to include? What issues to explore? What questions to ask? How does the Bible help us to think through these issues? I’ve got my thoughts, but I’d love to hear yours. Are there any resources that I should check out on this topic?

Here’s a short interview with N.T. Wright to get you thinking…

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

God’s Technology is a recently launched video by David Murray that walks through four Biblical principles for approaching our use of technology. I’ve also ordered a copy of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies, to help me think through the topic of discernment some more.

A lesson in checking the price before going to print

August 26, 2010 in for Churches

I needed to print 5, A1 posters for church’s upcoming I Heart Kirribilli art exhibition and prize. I went to my usual provider – Officeworks, who print A1 posters for $19 – bargain! Unfortunately, they were busy, and couldn’t fit me in.

Officeworks suggested I go to Snap Printing – their printer was broken. They suggested I visit another printer up the road and good news – their printer wasn’t broken and they could fit me in. As we were arranging a time to pick up the posters, I thought I better check the price.

Total: $456! Ouch.

I thought the prices would be more expensive, I didn’t think they’d be 4.5 times the price!

I’ve emailed the files to another Officeworks store, and saved myself $361. When it’s a service that lots of businesses can provide for little to no difference in quality, it pays to ask around, and get a good price.

Normally I go to my usual provider, but today I was in a hurry, and they couldn’t turn the job around in time. However, $456 was a high price to pay for a quick turnaround!

Here are some suggestions for churches on getting larger print jobs done at a good price.

Review: Song Manager

August 25, 2010 in for Churches

Song Manager is a good looking tool that meets a more specific need – organising songs and developing set lists. Here’s an introduction:

Obviously Song Manager doesn’t share the same functionality as Elvanto or Planning Center Online, but if your church doesn’t need help with rostering, but does need help with getting your music team/s organised, this could be a handy tool for you.

Using Song Manager is pretty straightforward.

Step 1. Create a database of all songs, and apply tags (e.g. praise, Jesus, confession, etc).

Step 2. For each song, you can add author details, copyright details, the key and lyrics and chords.

Step 3. You can then create a set list from any of the songs in the collection:

Step 4. Then, you can export the list in 4 different formats – for PowerPoint, PDF, Song Sheets and ProPresenter slides:

Review: SongBook by Gospel Software

August 24, 2010 in for Churches

SongBook by Gospel Software is similar to Song Manager, with some more advanced features.

It is primarily a tool for managing music and assisting musicians, and doesn’t include the additional rostering functionality that you’ll find with Elvanto and Planning Center Online.

Some of the extra features SongBook brings to the table are:

  • 2650 songs already loaded and ready to use,
  • the ability to generate PowerPoint slides,
  • view songs by service (e.g. Sundays at 9.45am), and how many times the song has been sung in a given time period,
  • the ability to create user accounts (e.g. for musicians and worship leaders at church)

It’s also possible to add in other elements to a set – i.e. you could use SongBook to create a basic service structure for your services:

SongBook costs US$15 per month (i.e. $180 per year) for fewer than 200 people. See the pricing for other account structures.

If you use SongBook I’d be keen (and so would other readers) to hear of your experience.

Review: Google Docs (for church rosters)

August 24, 2010 in for Churches

I’d go out on a very short limb and contend that many churches are like mine – using Excel spreadsheets for their roster. I’ve been reviewing a number of different rostering tools, but I’ve also thrown Google Docs into the mix. Google Docs offers a more ‘share-friendly’ version of a spreadsheet that I thought might work for churches.

The way I envisage Google Docs working goes something like this:

Step 1. Set up the roster in Google Docs.

Step 2. If you like, you could add multiple sheets (e.g. with the contact details of the people in the roster so they can organise their own swaps).

Step 3. Share the roster with other people. Google Docs makes this easy, and allows you to create different levels of access – e.g. people can edit or view the roster. The people you share the roster with don’t need a Google account to access it.

Step 4. You can set-up notifications to let you know when changes are made to the roster. Also, as the roster administrator, you can easily send out an email to all the people on the roster (e.g. if there’s been a change).

Obviously this tool doesn’t come close to the functionality of Elvanto or Planning Center Online, but for more basic needs (or for churches with no budget), this could do the trick.

The Google Docs Template Gallery has hundreds of roster templates, but I couldn’t find any specific to church. Perhaps if your church has a good template you could upload it and share it with others!

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