Source: Launching a Preview Service

The post Launching a Preview Service appeared first on Passion for Planting.

In Episode 478 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss launching a campus in downtown.

“What advice would you give me to launch a campus in the downtown area of my city?”

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

Why knowing what parking is available is vital in a downtown location
When the right time is to add a second service

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“What you really need to figure out is if this downtown is one where people live, play, and eat, or are they just working there.” – @danielsangi
“Know your zoning, know your ordinances. Do a serious parking study.” – @toddadkins
“If you are lucky enough to be near a metro, that is an amazing asset.” – @toddadkins
“One of the things you have to be careful of, and train people on, is the importance of being a good neighbor.” – @toddadkins
“We trained volunteers that after they are done handing out promotional materials is to go around and picking up any cards that people discarded.” – @toddadkins
“I want to be careful about adding a second service and splitting the momentum.” – @toddadkins
“This is a quick visual win if we start with one service and there are so many people you have to start a second service.” – @toddadkins

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This Episode’s Sponsor:

For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

The post Episode 478: Launching a Downtown Campus appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 478: Launching a Downtown Campus

The post Episode 478: Launching a Downtown Campus appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Almost every leader I know would love to see growth.

The question, of course, is how. 

While growth has a certain mystery to it, and there are nuances that vary depending on your context, there are some principles that, in my experience, are nearly universal.

Here are 7 of them.

1.  The status quo has got to go

If you think about it long enough, you realize that one of the things that keeps anyone from future growth is the status quo.

Why?

Because the status quo (even if it’s helping now) is responsible for your current state. And your current state is producing the results your currently getting.

This means, quite naturally, that if you’re plateaued or declining, your current results are frustrating you.

But even if you love your current results, the status quo is eventually going to be your problem because nothing lasts forever. Just ask AOL, Blockbuster, Sears or Yahoo. The status quo only helps anyone for so long.

Smart leaders start challenging the status quo before their growth slows down. Average leaders wait until they see the momentum wane before rethinking what they’re currently doing.

Below average leaders wait until things have been stagnant for a while until they disrupt things. And, of course, sometimes it’s then too late.

Your job as a leader is to challenge the status quo, rethink the status quo and change before it’s too late and your current growth slows down.

Here’s your choice in leadership. Disrupt the status quo, or be disrupted.  Just ask Kodak or MySpace.

If you want to grow, the status quo has got to go.

If you want to grow, the status quo has got to go. Click To Tweet

2. Focus on new and different more than better

While better isn’t a terrible goal in itself (see point 5 below), over the long run, new and different beat better.

There are several reasons for this.

In a situation of decline, new is a far better option than better. Once the smartphone was introduced, better home phone systems became irrelevant. Adding another handset to a home phone set or reducing long-distance costs on landlines wasn’t going to revive the home phone business any more than better saddles for horses was going to stop the car from becoming the dominant form of transportation.

Better only works if you’re improving something with growing demand.

But over time, better always brings diminishing returns.

Eventually, the amount of money and time it takes to improve things eventually gets out of sync with the returns you see.

Making the website load 5% faster probably isn’t going to double your traffic. Adding more lights to an already well-lit stage isn’t going to grow attendance by 30%.  Tweaking an already awesome logo might be fun, but your newly awesome logo probably going to usher in a 50% growth spike.

No, eventually new and different beats better.

When better isn’t working, try different. When different isn’t working, try new.

Adding more lights to an already well-lit stage isn’t going to grow attendance by 30%. Eventually, new and different beat better. Click To Tweet

3. Breakthroughs are often accidents

Most leaders spend a lot of time looking for breakthroughs. And sometimes you find them by asking, how will we find a breakthrough.

But often that’s not how breakthroughs happen at all.

A surprising number of innovations and breakthroughs happen by accident.

Penicillin, Post-It Notes, and the microwave are three examples of accidental discoveries. They were all discovered as a by-product of other experiments and projects scientists were working on.

Multi-site church wasn’t a strategy for growth, it was a by-product of overcrowded services that were frustrating church leaders at the time. So, they thought, why not run a video into an overflow room? No one had any idea that 5000 churches would adopt that practice within two decades because it was such an effective method for outreach.

The principle here is simple:

By regularly trying new things, trying new approaches, and experimenting on the side, you’ll likely discover some things that resonate more than you realize.

For example, I developed my first on-line course as a stop-gap to solve two problems. First, I didn’t feel like I had the bandwidth to write a book. Second, I had far more speaking requests than I could say yes to, but I still wanted to help leaders I couldn’t get in front of live.

So three years ago, I created my first online course. When the initial response was 10x anything I imagined, I realized I’d stumbled on a method to deliver content that really met a need.

And sure, I didn’t invent the online course. But embracing it has been a breakthrough both as a way of bringing my best content to leaders.

When I do speak live, I love to experiment with creating new content. When a new talk I gave for the first time in 2019 about how to attract and keep high capacity young leaders generated a ton of responses from older leaders and younger leaders, I realized I’d hit a nerve.

That led me to create my next course called the High Impact Workplace, which releases next month. Had I not written a bunch of new talks in the last year, I never would have realized what a hot button issue tension in the workplace is. (You can join the waitlist for the course and download my new free staff Coaching Guide here.)

Experimentation leads to innovation. So keep experimenting.

Experimentation leads to innovation. So keep experimenting. Click To Tweet

4. Execution crushes ideation

Leaders love ideas. I do.

I talk to so many leaders who tell me one of their chief strengths is ideation. All of which is wonderful.

But in the real work, execution crushes ideation. Here’s why: A B+ execution of a B+ idea beats an A+ idea any day.

Execution crushes ideation. A B+ execution of a B+ idea beats an A+idea any day. Click To Tweet

Way too many leaders research, rethink, overthink, imagine, design, plan and fail to execute.

Dig a little deeper, you find two things lurking behind a failure to execute: fear and laziness.

Execution is hard work, and implementation can be deeply frightening. As long as your idea is an idea, it’s safe.

But put it into operation, and you people can criticize it, ridicule it, reject it and abandon you.

Or, they may do just the opposite.

The only way you’ll know is to ship it. And shipping means problems, headaches, delays, hustle and redesign. It requires courage and perseveration.

Ideas are so much easier.

Remember all the great ideas from the 20th century that no-one executed? Yeah, nobody else does either.

Ideas, by themselves, accomplish nothing. Minimum viable products beat beautifully structured ideas that never ship.

Ideas, by themselves, accomplish nothing. Minimum viable products beat beautifully structured ideas that never ship.Click To Tweet

5. Quality produces quantity

In today’s leadership culture, so many people are focused on quantity. Double your growth. Spike your sales. Triple your numbers. Explode your influence.

Often the hype around hypergrowth, if it sparks anything at all, makes you a flash in the pan. You grow—and when everyone realizes the emperor has no clothes—you fade away as quickly as you shot up.

Real leadership plays the long game. Or at least leadership worth following does. And if you want to play the long game, focus on quality.

If you can provide real value to people, you’ll never have much trouble finding people.

If you can provide real value to people, you’ll never have much trouble finding people.Click To Tweet

It’s so easy, though, to get distracted by quantity or to try to rush into it. How do we get these numbers up? is a natural question to ask, and I ask it far too often. A much better question to ask when all you want is more growht is this: How do we help more people? 

One of the fun things about quality is that these days it’s an easy game to play. When everyone else is cutting back, cutting corners, cheating, skimming and moving toward the superficial, focusing on what’s real, authentic and lasting gives you a lot of uncrowded space to play in.

You might be wondering if this principle competes with #2 above, that new beats better. Not really. There is eventually a diminishing return to better, and a certain point at which your quality is (honestly) beyond good enough. Then it’s time to move on.

But not until you’ve made something of real quality. And once you’re there, focus on the next good thing until it’s good enough for you to move onto the next good thing.

If you want to increase your quantity, increase your quality.

If you want to increase your quantity, increase your quality.Click To Tweet

Get My NEW Free Coaching Guide: 5 Questions Every Good Manager Asks

How should you coach your team?

An even better question…how should you coach your top leaders so that they throw their heart behind the mission and they end up staying for years?

I’ve discovered 5 questions that really help you develop, care for and retain top leaders. I’ve put the 5 questions and some coaching into my new coaching guide, called The 5 Questions Every Good Manager Asks.

You can download it for free here.

I’m giving the coaching guide away for free to everyone who joins the waitlist for my brand new course, The High Impact Workplace: How To Attract and Keep High Capacity Leaders in a Changing World. (It launches this December.)

Sign up for the waitlist, get the free coaching guide, and you won’t miss a thing.

Any Growth Principles You See?

What growth principles have you noticed that seem to be universal?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 (Nearly Universal) Principles That Generate Growth appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 (Nearly Universal) Principles That Generate Growth

The post 5 (Nearly Universal) Principles That Generate Growth appeared first on Passion for Planting.

This guest post is written by Angela Faith, Digital Strategist at one of our trusted partners, Pro WEBFIRE. Pro WEBFIRE spends every day on the edge of the digital space, and I’m excited to share what Angela and the team are learning.

The ever increasing shifts in culture seem to be at warp speed. That which would have taken years can now happen in a matter of months.

For example, a church with a few hundred attendees can reach a thousand or more when viewed online. Or a church with a few thousand people during a live service can turn into a church of hundreds of thousands. And while lots of people have questions about whether this is a good thing or not, the truth is, this is the age we live in.

In the past, the church has often been a late bloomer in cultural trends racing behind to keep up instead of being a trendsetter.

There are elements and shifts that are beyond our leadership that affect church growth.

You can be a good leader and communicator and yet your church can be in decline simply because you’re not making certain shifts toward the digital world. After all, everybody you want to reach is online. If you’re not there, you’re missing them.

After all, everybody you want to reach is online. If you’re not, you’re missing them. Click To Tweet

Here are 5 digital shifts that affect church growth:

1. Digital has become the New Normal

The new normal for many growing and multi-site churches is for people to watch the message on a video screen. The pastor preaches at one or maybe two services and the message is aired in other services or campuses on a big screen.

What was strange years ago, is now normal. We all consume large amounts of content on screens.

Younger adults have fully embraced a digital platform and are very comfortable watching the message digitally at a live service. This is revolutionary. Embracing the digital platform helps prevent burnout of the lead communicator (if you have multiple services) and allows for easier expansion to reach the community beyond the traditional 4 walls of the church building.

You may be asking, why would people attend a service to experience the message digitally? Great question.

Because they want a non-downloadable experience. People come for the community, live worship, kid’s ministry, relationships and to bring their friends.

Churches that understand that the platform has become digital are experiencing a reach that far extends the weekend services. The digital platform expands the reach of messages to thousands more online than those that walk through the doors of the building and can be re-lived and shared over and over again.

And online church is a front door. Many visitors watch online services for a few weeks to months before attending an actual service.

When you focus on the digital platform experience online, you can expand your reach which will, in turn, affect the growth of your live services.

Churches that shift to a mindset that the pulpit is not just live but is also digital, will reach more people and experience growth over the next decade.

Churches that shift to a mindset that the pulpit is not just live but is also digital, will reach more people and experience growth over the next decade.Click To Tweet

2. Apps Aren’t Your Front Door. Websites Are.

With the invention of smartphones came the rise of apps.

There was a short trend that suggested church apps would completely replace church websites. It was similar to those saying email would die. But today, the opposite has happened.  Emails and websites are stronger than ever.

Surprisingly, nobody visits an app to check out a church. Why? Because they Google their question, and Google leads them to websites, not apps.

The venture through the church website creates a digital experience that allows the church to have a voice and speak into the person’s life or it repels them.

The website isn’t nearly as much for the congregation as it is for unchurched people who are searching for answers.

Surprisingly, nobody visits an app to check out a church. Why? Because they Google their question, and Google leads them to websites, not apps.Click To Tweet

In today’s culture, the main purpose of the website is for the unchurched and the first-time visitor. Sure, your church website will have information for those in the church, but you could put that on an app (for attenders) or on the back pages of the site.

Websites are the digital foyer. Your website is the gateway for new people to discover amazing leadership,  preaching and a faith of their own.

Websites are the digital foyer. Your website is the gateway for new people to discover amazing leadership, preaching and a faith of their own.Click To Tweet

3. Right or Wrong, Decisions Get Made In Seconds

Digital decisions are lightning-fast decisions.

In a matter of seconds, you make decisions about whether to keep watching a video on YouTube or click away bringing the level of expectation higher than it’s ever been. Quality media is expected by those in your community for this reason.

Stopping the scroll goes beyond social media and translates into your church website.

When someone lands on your church website what do they think?

Your digital presence is sending a message from you that a generation is welcome or not welcome.  This message is not done in words but the actual design of your website.  Just like stopping the scroll, the decision is made in seconds.

Your digital presence is sending a message from you that a generation is welcome or not welcome.Click To Tweet

Before they watch a message or read what your church is about, the website visitor has already made a snap judgment about the church. The decision is made visually and through the power of design.

How often do you buy a product at the grocery store for the package and you haven’t even tasted it?  You liked the packaging so that is the one you choose.  The other product may have tasted better, but you make a snap judgment based on the package.  Whether you buy it again, will depend on the taste, but trying it out was based on the brand packaging.

Today, people make a decision to visit your church because of your brand and design.  Your digital presence and design matter more than the building you meet in for services.

Again, that might not be ideal, but it’s real.

Today, people make a decision to visit your church because of your brand and design. Your digital presence and design matters more than the building you meet in for services.Click To Tweet

People have already made a decision about you before ever walking through your doors.  This changes the visitor experience and how you need to treat them in your services.

If the digital experience is one that greatly affects your weekend visitors at your services, it only makes sense to get digital right.

When someone visits a church today, they have already decided they like it through a digital experience. They are one step away from becoming part of the church.Click To Tweet

4. Outreach is Also Shifting to Digital-First

Some of you remember the days you would go door to door as a church to evangelize.

But today things have changed. Almost nobody knocks on doors anymore (except couriers) and when they do, it’s almost counter-productive. What if you could knock on every cell phone within 30 miles of your church?

The good news is you can through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

You can literally reach your community digitally and single out those in need. Then with a simple follow-up strategy in place, you could call or meet face to face with those needing prayer for a personal tragedy.

Your church has the biggest opportunity in history to reach your community for Christ. But are you maximizing the digital platform of our church?

What if your social media became a beacon in your community that said, “we are here to help?”

Over the next decade, the church that invests in digital will reach more people for Christ.

Over the next decade, the church that invests in digital will reach more people for Christ.Click To Tweet

5. Rural and Urban Have Become More Equal

Digital and the internet has reshaped the world.

Even in rural communities, people have access to the same media as the big cities.  It’s flattened our experience and broken down divides that used to exist because of geography and culture. While there used to be a big gap based on location, the average kid in the country has the same access to YouTube and TikTok the average urban kid does.

What does this mean for the church?

Churches that are intentional about creative media will be the ones who are heard in the future. Most young millennial couples will be reluctant to share a post from their church that has an outdated design?

Media brings the entire world together, and that means the geographical divide that impacted churches a decade ago isn’t nearly the factor it used to be.

Media has brought the entire world together. The geographical divide that impacted churches a decade ago isn’t nearly the factor it used to be.Click To Tweet

Want to Get Started? Some Help.

If it all starts with a google search for a first-time guest, the questions become: will your church’s website be the first to pop up? If so, does it make the people landing on your site want to go further not just digitally, but personally?

Most churches have room for significant improvement when it comes to their website.

A lot of churches wish they could hire staff, but just don’t have the wiggle room financially to do it.

That’s where Pro WEBFIRE steps in. They provide a done-for-you website, podcast, digital outreach, and more, for a monthly fee that’s a fraction of a staff member.

Plus, this month only they are providing up to 35% OFF plans for LIFE until October 31st. This special ends soon, choose a plan at www.prowebfire.com/carey.

When you work with the Pro WEBFIRE team, they provide:

Web design and management.
Monthly Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube Outreach.
Your own weekly podcast included for free.
Outreach campaigns for Christmas, Easter, and more.
Real growth in your congregation.

If you want to learn more about how these services can rapidly grow your church, check out Pro WEBFIRE at www.prowebfire.com/carey.

What Are You Seeing?

What are you learning about decision making, evangelism and online reach?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 Digital Shifts That Are Impacting Church Growth appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Digital Shifts That Are Impacting Church Growth

The post 5 Digital Shifts That Are Impacting Church Growth appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Cost-Effective Advertising Strategies for Churches

The post Cost-Effective Advertising Strategies for Churches appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: The difference between churches that are growing and those that aren’t is prevailing churches enable their people to invite friends to church.

Growing churches are full of people who invite their friends.

What separates churches that have plateaued or are in decline from those that are seeing growth is that growing churches are inviting churches.

“Invitability” describes how a church is growing its ability to have its people invite friends and family. It’s a key approach at the core of thriving churches.

How likely are people in your church to invite their friends and family to attend your church?

What are you doing to encourage your people to invite others to your church?

What tools have you given to your people to enable them to help create the culture of invitation you are developing?

Do your people understand that a part of being a follower of Jesus is reaching out to the world around them? That being an “inviter” is an essential part of every Christian’s life?

Here are five questions about church invitability to consider as you think about how this dynamic impacts the growth of your church.

Wait… invitability isn’t a real word. Right?

True! It’s totally made up. We created it to capture this idea that some churches seem to be easier for people to invite their friends to than others. I imagine a scale of invitability. On one end is a church whose people don’t ever invite friends to join them on Sunday while on the other end of the spectrum are churches that are growing because its people are constantly saying to their friends, “You have got to see what’s happening at my church this weekend!”

Even though invitability isn’t a real word, its meaning has a very real impact at your church. In fact, the invite culture of your church is at the very heart of your church’s ability to reach its full redemptive potential.

Why is invitability an important factor in church growth?

On average, only 2% of people invited a friend to church in the last year. [ref]

The factor separating churches that are growing from those that aren’t is that growing churches have a robust invite culture. They are high invitability churches. Their people are more likely to be active in asking their friends and family to attend.

A sustained strategy for church growth needs to be built around invitability. Rather than looking at the latest shiny marketing tool, church leaders who are working for continual growth focus their efforts on increasing the invite culture of their churches.

The local church is the only organization in the world that exists for people beyond its walls. Our mandate is to be constantly looking to consider the needs of other people and inviting them into a relationship with Jesus. Unless our churches have a strong approach to increasing invitability we will fail to live out the mandate that Jesus called us to in the Great Commission.

Inviting someone to church is just a first step towards discipleship and evangelism. Invitation shouldn’t be reserved for “super-Christians” who see it as their duty, but it needs to become a normal practice for all Christians!

How can a church leader measure the level of invitability at their church?

The best way to start your journey towards understanding invitability and its impact on your church is to explore your experience with inviting people to your church. Start by exploring your own experiences with inviting as well as those of people close to you. Take a few minutes and answer these questions to gauge the level of invitability at your church:

When was the last time you invited someone to your church?If it was recently, what happened when you asked? What happened when your friend came to church?If you haven’t recently invited someone, why not? What is holding you back?Think of the last time someone at your church invited a friend and told you about it. Did they indicate that it was a positive or a negative experience? What part of that experience went well?What part of that experience was negative?How urgently does your church sense the need to reach the community around you?If it’s low urgency, what can you do to increase the vision for community impact at your church?If it’s high urgency, are you connecting with and making an impact in the community and consistently inviting people to church?

What invitability factors of your church are people most likely to talk to their friends about?

A recent study by Gallup asked people to rate the reasons they attend church. [ref] It would be fair to infer from this study that these top four factors are the ones that those who are inviting people to your church talk about the most. Churches that are looking to increase their invitability would be wise to invest time, effort and energy into these four areas:

Sermons that teach you more about scripturePeople are looking for transcendent truth, not a repackaged TED Talk. This probably goes without saying, but at the core of churches with high invitability is teaching that is based on the Bible. These churches are teaching timeless truths. Sermons that help you connect faith to your own lifeIt’s not enough to just teach from the ancient text but people need us to connect it to today’s reality. Churches with high invitability have learned that when they handle the Bible their teaching also needs to answer the question, “What difference does this make in my life today?” Spiritual programs geared towards children and teenagersNearly 9 out of 10 adults will be parents at some point in their lifetime. [ref] Raising kids is a universal human experience. Every parent worries about their kids and wants the best for the next generation. Churches with high invitability know the importance of passing the message of Jesus on to the next generation in a compelling manner. Lots of community outreach and volunteer opportunitiesPeople want to make a difference in their world. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We’re eager to be a part of a church that serves the community around us.

How can a church leader learn more about church invitability?

How “invitable” is your church?

How is invitability connected to church growth?

What can you do to gain momentum in seeing your church reach more people this year?

Invitability is at the core of prevailing churches. The first step to reaching more people is understanding how invitable is your church. Church leaders who want to see their churches grow should be wrestling with invitability and its impact.

unSeminary is launching the 5 Day Church Invitability Challenge in May to help you gain a better understanding of your church and its level of invitability.

The best part? The challenge only takes a few minutes each day.

Each day you will receive a short video and exercise that you can complete in a matter of minutes.

This challenge is designed to help your church gain momentum in reaching more people in your community. At the end of the five days you will have deeper understanding of invitability and how to increase it in your church.

[Click here to sign up for the FREE 5 Day Church Invitability Challenge!]

Source: 5 Questions About Invitability And Its Impact on Your Church

The post 5 Questions About Invitability And Its Impact on Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Social media is changing you and me in more profound ways than any of us imagine.

Like a growing number of people, I’m increasingly concerned with how addictive tech has become, and am leaning in on the arguments that some like Roger McNamee (who has a fascinating conversation with Sam Harris here) and Tristan Harris make that social is addicting us to outrage and challenging the underpinnings of what we’ve known as civilization. If you’re interested, for a good introduction on how tech is manipulating how you think, check out this article from The Guardian.

The problem with technology is that while we’re its parent, we’re also its child. We don’t fully understand what we created.

While all that is happening, I’m also increasingly sensitive to the fact that social media is also changing how leaders lead.

Especially at the local level.

The problem with technology is that while we’re its parent, we’re also its child. We don’t fully understand what we created.Click To Tweet

Almost every leader has two audiences now: the audience we know (live local and in person) and the audience we don’t (via social).

This is true for every local church pastor and for every leader who runs anything from a local coffee shop, marketing firm, Etsy shop, right on through to 7, 8 and 9 figure companies.

It’s a strange new world, that brings with it terrific opportunities and real temptations.

The key is to know how to navigate it.

Here are 5 challenges every  local pastor and leader faces with the continued rise of social media.

Every leader has two audiences now: the people we know (live, local and in person) and the people we don’t (via social). That’s where the problems can start.Click To Tweet

1. You’ll be tempted to ignore your people in search of a bigger audience

There are two kinds of people in leadership: the people you’ve reached, and the people you hope to reach.

Like most leaders, I have a bias toward growth and expansion, and that means is really easy for me to focus on the people I hope to reach instead of the people we have reached. To be fair, that is a somewhat appropriate bias for a church leader, because the church is one of the few organizations that exists for the benefit of its non-members.

It’s also fraught with problems.

People can tell if they’re a means to an end. And people can sense if you’re using them to get to something other than them. And I promise you, that wears thin fast.

Scroll through you social feed.

It’s pretty easy to spot leaders who are trying to get noticed by a bigger audience at the expense of the audience they current serve. And listen, that’s something I check in my spirit all the time.

Here’s the truth: most leaders motivated by wanting to reach a wider audience rarely reach a wider audience.

Most leaders motivated by wanting to reach a wider audience rarely reach a wider audience.Click To Tweet

You want to know what gets you noticed?

Leaders get noticed when they do the hard work in front of them. When they love serve the people they have so well that others line up to get in. When they love and care for what they have more than they focus on they don’t have, things tend to grow.

And it’s hard to love people you ignore.

It’s hard to love people you ignore.Click To Tweet

2. You’ll spend more time with people you don’t know than with people you do

It’s great to learn from leaders you’ve never met. I do it every day.

I listen to podcasts, read books, check out blogs, watch videos and connect on social with leaders I don’t know.

It’s never been easier to spend most of your life in the online world.

But wise leaders spend more time with people they know in real life than with people they don’t know online.

When was the last time you took out a local person for breakfast, just to listen, take notes and learn?

When was the last time you asked a stay-at-home mom what her biggest challenges were, or spent some time with a drywaller who’s battling cancer?

Or met with the guy running a local real estate office rather than listening to yet another podcast out of Silicon Valley or Austin?

Social media can move you into a world where you feel like you’re constantly connected, except you’re not. Not to anyone you know. Not face to face. Not real-life to real-life.

Social media can move you into a world where you feel like you’re constantly connected, except you’re not. Not to anyone you know.Click To Tweet

3. You’ll trying to impress people you’ll never meet

If you’re on social hoping to get noticed, to pick up followers, hoping to ‘get picked’ as Seth Godin writes about, you’re signing up for a lot of frustration.

For starters, you’ll likely fall prey to imitation.  You’ll spend so much time trying to be someone else that you’ll fail to develop who you are.

You’ll kill the voice and gifting God gave you and you’ll stifle your real creativity.

Imitation is also the fastest way to kill innovation. If you spend your time trying imitate, you won’t innovate. Which again, should be a by-product of engaging the people you have.

Stop trying to impress people you don’t know. Start serving people you do know.

Imitation is the fastest way to kill innovation. If you spend your time trying imitate, you won’t innovate. Click To Tweet

4. You’ll focus more on image and less on substance

One of the crazy things social has done to us all is made us think way too much about image.

Filters and apps abound that will make you look thinner, erase wrinkles, shrink your nose or slightly expand your eyes. It’s so sad, actually.

If that’s what you want your life to be about, more power to you.

The reality is we all get older. Most of us carry a few extra pounds. And every year, I get more wrinkled.

That’s honestly not what matters most.

My rule of thumb is to dress well enough not to be distracting one way or the other: not badly enough that people want to take me shopping, and not well enough that people spend time wondering how much something cost or where I got it from.

Well known leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs made decisions to wear the same thing every day (grey T-shirt and jeans, black mock turtle neck and jeans, respectively). Albert Einstein bought several versions of the same tweed suit and wore that look every day.

Einstein reportedly said his decision to dress the same every day was so he didn’t need to think about what he was going to wear.

You know why these leaders got noticed? Nothing to do with their image. Everything to do substance.

Leaders who are focused on image tend to produce little of substance. Leaders who focus on substance find image and style really don’t matter.

Leaders who are focused on image tend to produce little of substance. Leaders who focus on substance find image and style really don’t matter. Click To Tweet

5. Your sense of success will rise and fall with likes and shares

Most of us want to be liked. I do. I’m imagining you do too.

But too often we let our sense of self-worth be determined by others, and that’s a mistake.

If you’re not careful, your sense of success will rise and fall with like and shares.

And it will cause you once again to pursue the affections of people you don’t know instead of serving the people you do.

Here’s a rule I’ve had to adopt in my own life: I want the people closest to me to the people most grateful for me.

What does it matter if some follower 1000 miles away thinks you’re awesome if your spouse or staff thinks you’re awful?

What does it matter if some follower 1000 miles away thinks you’re awesome if your spouse or staff thinks you’re awful? That’s right, it doesn’t. Click To Tweet

Exchanging the love of people you know for a bunch of social likes from people you don’t know is a sure path to longterm misery and probable failure on all fronts.

The people closest to you should be the people most grateful for you.

Leaders, the people closest to you should be the people most grateful for you.Click To Tweet

Create a Better Future

How do you find the time to process things like this? To dig deeper, to recalibrate and to lead better?

Finding time to reinvent or redirect yourself can seem impossible.

Well, maybe not. It’s very possible…and I’d love to help you get on top of your everything so you can get your life and leadership back.

If you’re trying to find the time for what matters most in life, my High Impact Leader course, is my online, on-demand course designed to help you get time, energy and priorities working in your favour.

Many leaders who have taken it are recovering 3 productive hours a day.  That’s about 1000 hours of found time each year. That’s a lot of time for what matters most.

Here are what some alumni are saying about The High Impact Leader Course”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for providing the course again. It has absolutely made an impact in my life and family already that I can’t even describe.” – First Priority, Clayton County, North Carolina

“Carey’s course was the perfect way for our team to prepare for the new year. Our team, both collectively and individually, took a fresh look at maximizing our time and leadership gifts for the year ahead. I highly recommend this leadership development resource for you and your team.” Jeff Henderson, Gwinnett Church, Atlanta Georgia

“A lot of books and programs make big promises and cannot deliver but this is not one of them. I have read so many books and watched videos on productivity but the way you approach it and teach is helpful and has changed my work week in ministry in amazing ways.” Chris Sloan, Tanglewood Church, Kingston, North Carolina

“Just wow.  Thank you, thank you.” Dave Campbell, Invitation Church, Sioux Falls South Dakota

“A game changer.” Pam Perkins, Red Rock Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Curious? Want to beat overwhelm and have the time to reinvent yourself?

Click here to learn more or get instant access.

What are your temptations?

What are some of the temptations you feel as you wrestle with social media?

I’d love to know. Scroll down and leave a comment.

The post 5 Challenges With Being a Local Pastor (or Leader) in the Age of Social Media appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Challenges With Being a Local Pastor (or Leader) in the Age of Social Media

The post 5 Challenges With Being a Local Pastor (or Leader) in the Age of Social Media appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: As part of the branding process, you’ll be working with a designer to create a logo. When it’s finalized, you’ll want to get these 12 church logo files from your designer.

You’re going to need to use your church logo in lots of different ways. You’d be surprised at what a challenge that can be. Even just across the social media sites, you need:

one with landscape orientation for banners and headers
a square version for the avatar/thumbnail
one with a transparent background to overlay on other images
and the list goes on…

To be ready for all of those scenarios and challenges, make sure your designer sends you all of the following versions:

Versions of Church Logo Files

the primary logo (typically in color and landscape-oriented)
the reverse logo (if your logo is light-colored, this will be a dark version, and vice versa)
the primary logo in B&W
a reverse B&W
a square version (color)
a square reverse
a square in B&W
a square in reverse B&W
just the icon in color (no words, just the ‘mark’)
just the icon in reverse color
just the icon in B&W
just the icon in reverse B&W

But wait, there’s more!

Different Church Logo File Types

Your graphic designer will probably use either Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop (or less commonly, Corel Draw). They’ll be in file types that us regular folks can’t do much with. But you still need to have them. You’ll want to get at least all 12 logo versions above as master files.

Master File Extensions to Look for:

.ai (Adobe Illustrator)
.psd (Adobe Photoshop)
.cdr (Corel Draw)
occassionally you’ll see an .eps file (not software-brand-specific)

But you’ll probably want them in the following versions, too:

Print-Quality File Extensions to Look for:

.jpg or .pdf (300dpi resolution or higher)
does not support transparent backgrounds
great for printing but not great for online applications because they can make pages. load. s-l-o-w-l-y.

Online-Quality File Extensions to Look for:

.png or .jpg (typically 72dpi but no more than 96dpi – they’ll load faster)
make sure your .png files have a transparent background
great for digital media but not great for print applications because they’re low resolution

You’ll eventually want to end up with each of the 12 logo versions in each of these file formats. That will be at least 36 actual files. Whoa. But trust me, you’ll end up using them in various contexts.

Back Them Up

The original church logo files can be all but impossible to recreate years later (unless maybe you have a simple text logo). You can’t risk losing your originals if your computer crashes, so save all of the original church logo files from your designer to your hard drive and to your cloud storage (iCloud, DropBox, Drive, etc).

The post Get These 12 Church Logo Files from Your Designer appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: Get These 12 Church Logo Files from Your Designer

The post Get These 12 Church Logo Files from Your Designer appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: As you’re creating the brand for your new church plant, one of your challenges will be to claim consistent social usernames.

Learn from my mistake. I already have this problem:

On Twitter I’m @plantingtactics
And on Instagram I’m @plantingtactics
But on Facebook I’m /churchplantingtactics
And sadly on Google Plus I’m /113079890154934621964 (I think that means I’m a Storm Trooper)

Why Claim Consistent Social Usernames

My son tells me it’s as important as having consistent gamer tags across gaming platforms. Hopefully the benefit of consistency is at least somewhat obvious: it makes it easy for people to find your church from one platform to the next.

But a second advantage is if people @tag you in their post and have cross-platform automation set up, the other platforms may recognize you as the same user.

And rumor has it that consistency across your digital footprint can help your search engine ranking.

3 Tools to Claim Consistent Social Usernames

Thanks to the Pro Church Tools podcast, I learned about these sites that make figuring out which usernames are available across platforms:

namecheckr – “check domain & social username availability across multiple networks” (53 domains & platforms by my count)
namechk – “see if your desired username or vanity url is still available at dozens of popular Social Networking and Social Bookmarking websites” (I counted 35+ domains, 122 social platforms plus the US Trademark database)
knowem – “Search over 500 popular social networks, over 150 domain names, and the entire USPTO Trademark Database to instantly secure your brand on the internet” (for a fee, these guys will do the registering for you)

Twitter has the shortest limit at 15, so keep your proposed social username to 15 characters max. Try different versions of your church’s name and see which is/are available. Throw in your city’s name or common abbreviation (like the airport code) if you need more options.

Until today I didn’t know tools like this existed. Use one and you’ll know in advance if the social username (and even website address) you want is available. Then go and claim your social usernames like it was the Oklahoma Land Rush.

The post 3 Tools to Claim Consistent Social Usernames appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: 3 Tools to Claim Consistent Social Usernames

The post 3 Tools to Claim Consistent Social Usernames appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: A church website privacy policy would be a page on your website that explains how your church  collects personal information and how you use it.

Even an initial site for your supporters might be set up to collect information. Most church websites offer some or all of the following data collection forms:

Email newsletter signup
Contact us
Online donation

If someone signs up for your newsletter, do you make it plain what you’re going to do with their email address? Do you set a cookie on their browser (even ethically) so that they’ll see your online ad before a big event you’ll promote?

I’m a little torn on this – on the one hand it sounds a little over-the-top for small, startup, volunteer organizations to go to this kind of trouble. My first reaction was, “For real?!?”

Which is maybe a little contradictory because personally I’m pretty security and privacy cautious. I’m not prone to hand out my own info willy-nilly. And there are even mobile apps I won’t use because they grant themselves way too much access to every bit of sensitive info on my phone.

But let’s take it a step further – do you encourage everyone to fill out a connection card (paper or electronic) and then get that information into a church database? Would guests be creeped out to know you even have a church database that isn’t disclosed anywhere?

Examples of Church Website Privacy Policy

This has never really been on my radar, so it was a little to my surprise that it was pretty easy to find a church website privacy policy on prominent sites:

Elevation Church
The Rock Church
Saddleback Church
North Point Community Church

Resources for Creating Your Own

Make your own decision about whether you’ll include a church website privacy policy now or someday. When you do, here are some FREE resources that should help:

FreePrivacyPolicy.com which I used to create mine
RocketLawyer.com
Better Business Bureau
UpCounsel.com

I’m interested to hear your take on this. Join the conversation on social media and let me know!

The post Do We Need a Church Website Privacy Policy? appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: Do We Need a Church Website Privacy Policy?

The post Do We Need a Church Website Privacy Policy? appeared first on Passion for Planting.