by Jeff Reed: Creating meaningful social media posts for your church can feel like such a daunting task, but being intentional and taking the time to plan your content will create a much more meaningful experience for your audience!

What is God Up To – “Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.” – Psalm 96:3. Share photos from a recent event, share a story from a mission trip, share a personal story of an attender that was impacted by your church, or other ‘glory sighting’. Use your social media as a space to tell the stories that you might not have time or space in a Sunday morning service to share.
Meet The Staff – Tell us about their family, their hobbies, or how they got into ministry. This is your chance to introduce your congregation to staff that doesn’t appear on stage as often. Parents often see their child’s bible school teacher or youth leader for a few minutes before and after service, but they would love to get to know them better – they are caring for and teaching their children.
Volunteer Spotlight – This post is two fold! First, the post introduces your attendees to the volunteers that serve and challenges them to get involved. It is perfectly ok to introduce a volunteer and end the post with “Join them in Kid’s Ministry – email Suzie to get involved.” Give them a call to action! The second amazing benefit is it shows value to your volunteer – these people work hours and will feel so valued and special by being featured on the social media accounts! It helps if you can tag them or share it with them once it is posted live.
Sermon Quote or Video Clip – Take a memorable or challenging quote and provide it to your audience during the week – in text form or a bonus if you can share a video clip from the service. Whether they attended your service over the weekend or not, this could be a great mid-week check for them to realign their week with Jesus.
A Mid-Week Live Video – This can be done by your pastor or other key person. Provide an encouraging word to those that may need a ‘pick-me-up’. Preview the weekend message and challenge people to invite someone new with them. Or you could highlight an event that your church is hosting! There are so many options for this type of video and it’s a bonus that video plays so well in the algorithms.

Source: 5 Social Media Posts That Your Church Should Be Sharing

The post 5 Social Media Posts That Your Church Should Be Sharing appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: Your church moves forward largely on the backs of the volunteers you recruit.

The local church is a volunteer engagement organization. At the center of any church staff members’ role is the recruitment, reward, and retention of a great volunteer team.

Are you sharpening your skills when it comes to attracting new volunteers? Over the years, I’ve discovered several highly effective practices that have time and again served as powerful strategies for mobilizing volunteers.

Today we’re focusing on specific tactics and practical next steps that you can apply to any volunteer recruitment effort. Here are 5 overlooked volunteer recruiting tactics that you can start using at your church right away:

Thank-you postcards 

The next time you meet with a potential volunteer and ask them to join a team, pop a postcard into the mail immediately after the meeting.

The quick postcard follow-up is a terrific way to thank the potential volunteer for their time and reminds them of the conversation that you just had.

Pre-address and stamp the postcards before you even meet with people so that all you need to do is write follow-up steps or conversation reminders on the postcards and then pop them in the mail right away. (Send the postcards through the main post office in your town so that they arrive within a day or so of your meeting).

This tactic works great if you asked a potential volunteer to consider a role and then gave them a week or so to think about it. The postcard will remind them a few days after your meeting to think about the area that you’ve asked them to engage in.

Work the list

Most church leaders could do a better job at simply reviewing a list of potential volunteers, interacting with them one by one, and asking if they’d join a team.

Maybe you have a list of people who are currently in a small group at your church but aren’t volunteering. Start at the top of that list and work through it weekly to reach out to the next person and help them move closer to volunteering.

From a multisite point of view, this is a wise practice to follow particularly during campus expansion to ensure that no one is falling through the cracks. People are usually just waiting for someone to ask them to volunteer. If you methodically work through a list of potential volunteers, you’ll likely find new people through this simple form of outreach.

Promote the pipeline

The best people to recruit volunteers for your church are the people who already volunteer in your church. Encourage your current volunteers to consider who they could ask to step in and volunteer.

You could also approach some of the best people on your teams and let them know that in two or three months you’d like them to move into a leadership role but the first step of moving them into that role is to find a few other volunteers to replace them. Your conversations over the intermediate months would focus on who they think would be a good fit for those roles and how to approach potential replacements.

Make a ruckus and have fun

One of the most powerful volunteer recruiting tactics is for your existing volunteer teams to have fun. In fact, this might even be the best way! When your volunteer teams enjoy what they’re doing, they’ll attract others. Don’t be afraid of making a little noise or creating a bit of ruckus with your teams.

Here’s an idea that you can customize and implement affordably: make team t-shirts for your volunteers to wear while serving together or during social events. Then take photos of your team in their shirts and share the pictures on your social media channels. This may create just enough emphasis on fun and community that will encourage other people to join that team or other teams in your church.

Next-generation

Churches that have a growing volunteer culture have figured out that we need to open up volunteer opportunities to the next generation. Part of what we do as leaders is to find other, younger leaders to eventually replace us.

I think the healthiest student ministries in the country include volunteer service as a core part of their discipleship pathway. They articulate to students that developing their volunteer experience is a part of what it means to be involved in student ministry.

Ask yourself this: what are areas in your church where you can engage a younger leadership core? Don’t shy away from finding ways to include younger volunteers across all the ministries of your church. This is a great developmental experience for your church as well. It will inject all kinds of new life into your existing teams when younger leaders engage in a variety of your ministries.

Volunteer recruiting is a critical part of your role as a church leader. 

What ideas or tactics do you use when recruiting volunteers that you find particularly helpful in your context? We’d love to hear more in the comments below.

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Source: 5 Overlooked Volunteer Recruiting Tactics for Your Church

The post 5 Overlooked Volunteer Recruiting Tactics for Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: Have a specific plan to celebrate temporary launch team members as you send them back to your supporting church. There’s a lot that is riding on it.

If you’re recruiting temporary launch team members from a supporting church, start with the end in mind. And that end is not getting people to come and serve your church.

There is a direct correlation between how well you celebrate them and:

how they feel about having served
the kind of leadership and initiative they take after they return to their sending church
the chances that they’d volunteer for another plant in the future
how likely the sending church will be to help another planter in the future
the health of your ongoing relationship with the sending church
to what degree your indigenous workers will step up to fill the gaps that are left
…and probably some other things, too

Whatever the agreed upon time frame, you need to publicly celebrate their contribution. Probably even if they decide not to stick it out for the whole term. They joined you on mission and they are heroes of the Church.

The great news is that it’s not difficult or necessarily expensive.

Celebrate Temporary Launch Team Members

Bless them as you release them back to the sending church. And if some stay on and make your church plant home, bless them publicly, too.

Here are some ideas to celebrate temporary launch team members:

acknowledge them from the platform during a worship gathering
call them forward and pray a blessing over them during a worship gathering
record a video of one of the above and send it to the supporting church or post it online
throw a dessert or party (a surprise party?); just don’t make it a potluck
give them each a gift card and thank you note
give them each a memento or trophy
contact their sending pastor and brag on them
post a picture of the whole group on social media

Pick several of these ways to celebrate temporary launch team members. Everyone wins when you do.

The post How to Celebrate Temporary Launch Team Members appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: How to Celebrate Temporary Launch Team Members

The post How to Celebrate Temporary Launch Team Members appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the most remarkable churches across the country over the last ten years. Perhaps one of the greatest honors is that I have witnessed the incredible leadership in these organizations personally. Working so closely with churches, I’ve noticed several hidden habits that many of the largest and most healthy churches in the country maintain. These are habits that, while they have a profound impact on their ministry, remain largely unseen by the masses. Here are five of the most prominent and recurring healthy habits that I have encountered:

Leaders Park Far Away // Arriving a few hours before a church service begins can tell you a lot about the leaders of a church. If they are all parked right up against the building it indicates that they don’t instinctively think about their first-time guests or people outside the church. Leaders who park their cars at the farthest away spot and stroll over make a symbolic statement; a guest’s needs come before a leader’s. These leaders are actively living out the fact that the first will be last in their churches. This attitude ultimately weaves its way through the organization as people see humility and servanthood lived out in a million small ways!
Limited Green Room Time // Most church leaders have room or area within their church dedicated to providing them respite from people. While setting aside some time to gather your thoughts is an important part of serving at any church, it is important to limit the amount of time leaders are away from “the people”. Recently, I took a friend to visit one of the largest churches in the country and we arrived about an hour after an evening service had wrapped up. As we stepped into the main auditorium, it was humbling to see their lead pastor still talking with people at the front of the church. There was a leader of a church of tens of thousands of people who knew that slowing down and serving people one-on-one is vitally important part of leadership. Get out of the green room and talk to the members of your congregation more this coming Sunday than you did last weekend!
Lots of Thank You Notes // I’m still convinced that the thank you note is one of the most powerful tools a senior leader has at his/her disposal. Slowing down to handwrite a quick note to someone conveys so much in a world of depersonalized digital communication. It doesn’t take long and the notes you write are often held onto for months, or even years, later. Many leaders in thriving churches have a thank you note writing regime where they regularly identify people within their community to reach out to through this medium. All you will need is a stack of simple cards and a pen; just half a dozen notes a week and you’ll start to see all kinds of benefits within your community.
First In. Last Out. // Running a church is challenging work. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to “do” ministry. One of the things I’ve noticed in thriving churches is that their leaders are often the first to arrive when the church is doing something and the last to leave at the end of the event. These people want to be part of what’s happening and ensure that their presence is felt and known on “game day” when the church is at its best. This selfless act demonstrates to your people that you are as deeply committed to the mission as they are. Churches are fueled by a group of amazing volunteers who are giving up their personal time to make the mission happen. Then how much more committed to the mission should the “paid staff” be that are leading the mission? Sure, you have lots of places you could be but your team is choosing to serve with your ministry so why not show them some love and care through your presence with them while they serve?
Do for one what you wish you could do for all. // As a church grows, a natural pressure creeps in. The scale of the ministry starts to push to the point where the leader can no longer provide the individual care and support that they used to when the church was smaller. The natural pull is towards not doing individual care for people because of the mass of people attending the community. But healthy and thriving churches are led by people who figure out a way to serve individuals in their church in a way that they wish could serve everyone at the church. Rather than being paralyzed by the dual pressures of the scale of people attending the church and your desire to serve them all individually, healthy church leaders look for places to slow down and care for people at a personal level. They understand that although there are a lot of people attending church, people have individual reasons for journeying with a church. Taking time to slow down to send flowers, make a phone call, help with meals or attend a funeral are never a bad idea to ensure you, as a leader, remain connected to the people.

I’d love to hear from you. What are some “hidden habits” that you see being lived out by church leaders you admire!? Let’s share those stories.

Source: 5 Hidden Habits of Healthy Churches

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