Church Growth Consulting » Internet

Starting a Blog for Evangelism

stephenlawes — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:23:12 +0000

One of the things we hope to accomplish on Church Growth Consulting is to encourage people to use the Internet to help people with not only their own church growth, but to help encourage church growth all over the world. One of the ways to accomplish this is by starting blogs and websites that will appeal to to not only Christians, but also to pre-Christians. A well chosen topic can provide opportunities to develop online relationships with people from all over the world and then develop opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. By applying some simple SEO (search engine optimization) strategies and a little bit of time, we can create sites that will be found on the search engines and provide us with a steady stream of new people to reach for the Gospel. As a demonstration of this principle we are starting a site called Political Events. We will be working on this site to get a strong placement on the search engine results and a steady flow of traffic.

To get the site started we purchased a domain name from Good News Domains, (www.politicalevents.org), we took advantage of the free hosting plan (we will deal with the advertising banner across the header as this will allow us to operate the site for the cost of the domain name, which is $10/year), and we installed WordPress.

To give the site some foundation, we added RSS feeds from Political sites and some news sites as well. We also included video feeds about politics and current events. Here is what the site looks like today:

We will be working on the site by adding content and building links. Once the site is established on the search engines we will start developing ways to utilize the site for the Kingdom of God and world wide church growth.

The Problem with Church Signs

stephenlawes — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:59:26 +0000

While a church sign that allows you to put in new information every week might be a good way to get people to find or recognize your church, the problem with a lot of church signs is that they produce the opposite result. It might seem like a good idea at the time of purchase. You think about some of the clever and witty things you have to say and you get caught up in the thoughts of how this new sign is going to help bring new people into the church. The reality is, there are only about six or seven really clever and witty things to put on the sign. Then what? The sign becomes another burden. What will we say this week? Now, you not only have a sermon to write, you need to think of something clever for the sign. You search for ideas on the Internet and quickly find out that you have already used all of the good slogans and sayings. Before long the signs begin to say things that are ridiculous and even often offensive. There are some weeks when I drive by a church sign that makes me feel like I need to apologize on behalf of believers everywhere.

Here is my official church growth consulting advice. Before you buy a sign, sit down and try and come up with 52 weeks of material for the sign. If you can do that, then a sign might work out for you. If you can’t, hire a sign painter to create an attractive sign that lists you service times and phone number. Take the money you save and invest in some servant evangelism outreaches. It will be a better use of your money. Don’t do this:

Does anyone think that a sign like the one above is going to draw people in to the church? How about this one:

Ultimately, the best church sign is the people of the church living life in such a way that the Kingdom of God is displayed through them.

Establishing an Internet Presence

stephenlawes — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:35:14 +0000

One of the things I try to point out on this Church Growth Consulting site is the importance of establishing and maintaining an Internet presence. The Internet is already huge and it is growing in an amazing fashion. I use the Internet not only for my main church web site, but I also have three other sites that are even more popular with people in our church. I have a site for daily online bible studies, a site for online ministry, and a Christian Book Club site. Not only are these sites popular with our church folks, they are also visited frequently by people from all over the country and world who find them through keyword searches. If you don’t have an Internet presence you really need to establish one. Here are some recent facts from the Barna Group (April 28, 2008 www.barna.org) about the church and the Internet.

“The ways in which churches are reaching out to people over the Internet are expanding. Back in 2000, just one-third of Protestant churches (34%) had a church website. That exploded to 57% in 2005, and has inched upward since then to 62%. About half of the small churches (48% of those drawing less than 100 adults) have a church website, compared to three-quarter of the mid-sized churches (75% of the congregations attracting 100 to 250 adults per week) and nine out of ten larger churches (91% of the churches with more than 250 adults attending). One out of every four Protestant churches (26%) now has some presence on one or more social networking sites (such as MySpace). Again, church size was a factor in this with larger churches being more than twice as likely to have such a presence (20% vs. 47%). Charismatic churches were notably more likely (38%) than either mainline or evangelical congregations to use such pages in their ministry efforts”.

How is your Internet presence? Do your people actually go to your website? Is your website current or is it filled with old and out dated information? Could a potential visitor be encouraged to attend your church through your website? As a Pastor, have you considered the potential impact having your own blog could have not only on your church but on the Kingdom? We are here to help you if we can!

Welcome to Church Growth | Software and Consulting

stephenlawes — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:01:24 +0000

This site is dedicated to help Pastors and Ministry Leaders utilize the Internet to advance the Kingdom of God. I have understood the importance of the Internet for years, but I have now gained an even deeper appreciation of the potential to impact not only my own church but also “The Church” with some of the continual new advances taking place.

The Blogosphere

Perhaps one of the biggest advances is the explosion of the blogosphere. WikiPedia defines the blogosphere this way:

“Blogosphere is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network.”

Blogs are a connected community and a social network. As such, they are a great harvest field. What people are writing in their blogs can have a huge impact on the world. Pastors and churches can utilize blogs to spread their message in amazing ways. I started a blog called God’s Daytimer which contains short online bible studies and some weekly video clips of news events with a Christian perspective. This site started gathering readers before I even launched it. The blogosphere opens up significant opportunities not only to minister to believers but to reach out to seekers as well.

New Software Makes it Easy

Our church website has always required a webmaster and God bless the webmasters for all they have done and continue to do. Software like “WordPress” which is free and quite simple to use now makes it possible for virtually anyone to start and operate a blog. You really can’t tell the difference between a blog site and a conventional website. This site is a blog. The advantage for me as a Pastor is that I can get my ideas up on the Internet without having to try and convey them to someone else first and then wait for the process to happen. I can do it myself. I have found that blogs are a great addition to my ministry. I have started an Online Christian Book Club. I have started a question and answer site called Internet Pastor Online. I started a site to help individual believers to start their own Christian blogs as a form of evangelism. This site will help you to not only start your own blog but also how to use WordPress to start a church website as well.

All of This is Very Affordable

Since starting and running your own blog is now possible you won’t need to pay for a webmaster. The best software available for bloggging is WordPress and it is free. You can actually use WordPress at WordPress.com and get your sites hosted or free. I would suggest however getting your own domain name (which costs about $10.00 a year) and utilizing a web host (which costs about $80.00 a year). I use GoodNewsDomains to get my domain names and serve as my web host. One of the advantages of using GoodNewsDomains is that when I use them as my web host, they actually allow me to start up to 25 sites without having to spend any more money. So for about $90.00 a year I can potentially have 25 blog sites.

What about Consulting

I am also available to help you with other church growth issues you may be having. I have been blessed to be able to see the church I pastor grow from 75 to 500. We have started video venues and I have a lot of information on how to do that. I have tried a lot of things over the years and will be happy to talk with you about your ideas or maybe give you some new ones. I have ways of getting your audio and video files on the Internet for free. I have tried all kinds of Servant Evangelism, been blessed to help plant churches overseas, and started an Internet Radio Station. I hope you enjoy Church Growth | Software and Consulting and encourage you to sign up for the free RSS feed or email subscription.