Jesus Hates Papyrus » growth http://jesushatespapyrus.com helping the church become the most creative place on the planet. Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:33:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 What’s in your annual report? http://jesushatespapyrus.com/growth/whats-in-your-annual-report/ http://jesushatespapyrus.com/growth/whats-in-your-annual-report/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:56:55 +0000 Michael Buckingham http://jesushatespapyrus.com/?p=39 Annual reports are not easy beasts to tame from a marketing standpoint. Some might even wonder what this has to do with church marketing since your annual report isn’t even on the radar. After all it’s just a bunch of…

]]> Annual reports are not easy beasts to tame from a marketing standpoint. Some might even wonder what this has to do with church marketing since your annual report isn’t even on the radar. After all it’s just a bunch of facts and figures, right?
annual report
No. Your annual report is, or should be, a report on the health of your church. We just wrapped up an annual report for a church and only 4 pages of the 20 were facts and figures. The rest, including a full page on marketing and communications, told of both the health and growth of the various ministries of the church. The health of a church is about more than just numbers. A growing church is a sign of a healthy church, but growth isn’t limited to the number of people that walk through your doors.

Growth is found in the depth of your ministries, the increase in outreach, missionaries support, well received sermon series and yes, the number of people that are showing up to all of those things.

Of course not every church can celebrate growth in all areas, there may be areas that need attention. Don’t shy away from that, in fact I might argue that every church should have at least one area that they should focus some added attention to. Take the opportunity to cast a vision for those areas that haven’t been growing, build excitement. This is the half time locker room talk when you’re down by 21. The second half is yours!

]]> http://jesushatespapyrus.com/growth/whats-in-your-annual-report/feed/ 0 Church marketing mistakes http://jesushatespapyrus.com/church-marketing/church-marketing-mistakes/ http://jesushatespapyrus.com/church-marketing/church-marketing-mistakes/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:18:20 +0000 Michael Buckingham http://jesushatespapyrus.com/?p=37 Church marketing sucks has a new poll asking what church marketing mistakes you make most often. Tow of the answers caught my attention in particular and not just because they are currently the top 2:

Not thinking about marketing, even…

]]> Church marketing sucks has a new poll asking what church marketing mistakes you make most often. Tow of the answers caught my attention in particular and not just because they are currently the top 2:

Not thinking about marketing, even though marketing happens.
I know that there are some that think that church marketing waters down the message or that it focuses on relying on man instead of the holy spirit but the truth is you are already marketing your church. The question isn’t if you are involved in marketing, the question is are you doing it well. Doing it well is by not being guilty of the other answer:

Promoting your church instead of generating a response.
People really don’t need to care about your church…they need to care about God. Are your promotions and marketing speaking to how great you are, how great the next even is or does it show people how and where they can experience growth? Speak to needs, not features. That’s why I say marketing is communication…while it should result in increased church attendance, it also must generate a conversation about life with God.

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