Church Design

Before a person ever steps foot in your brick and mortar church for the first time, they likely will have visited your church website to see what you’re all about. Are you communicating who you are and what they can expect in a way that’s clear and inviting so that they’ll want to learn more? Are your overall church communications helping you reach more people and engage your congregation? Or do your communications reveal some underlying problems that may need attention?

Many church leaders could write out a list of tasks and priorities for launching a new site. More challenging is having an effective communication plan and solid timeline for sharing the vision, building the team, and creating anticipation that leads up to the launch. What steps are most important to start with? How much time do you need, from start to finish, to build a core group and launch a new site? When is the right time to ask people to make a commitment? What should we be doing to get the word out?

What can we learn about church multisite strategy from the business world? As a communications specialist for churches, I am always looking at what's going on in our culture at large, not just within the church world, to help churches communicate clearly and carry out their mission. What are companies doing? What are stores doing? What are coffee shops doing? We want to learn from them what we can and apply those lessons to our ministries and churches.

How can your church—especially if you have multiple locations or plants—grow and develop in the critical ministry area of communications? How can you reach multiple generations of people? How can you connect with new people? How can you help people take next steps to learn more about your church, get involved, and grow in their faith? It takes a dedicated communications leader and a team (of staff and/or volunteers and other support) to intentionally and strategically organize the various communications messages that your church has to share with your congregation and community.

Is worship a significant priority in the life of your church? What about the children's ministry? Or the student ministry? Adult discipleship or small groups? I'm sure you said yes to all (or most) of these.

Last night on the soccer field, my 12-year-old received her first yellow card (a warning call given after aggressive behavior), and she had to leave the field. The call was questionable, but our daughter responded with respect and humility. And she quickly regrouped. I was proud to see her excelling at this life lesson.

Perhaps you know the feeling. You feel like you just preached your best vision sermon...but it fell flat. Your congregation just didn’t get it.