One of the most interesting things I've heard from a lot of church leaders is that their Sunday numbers are almost back compared to pre-Covid, but the crowd is different.  There are lots of new faces.  And a lot of the old faces are missing.

Last week we focused on our new Text upgrades rollout, which, by the way, is a game-changer if you missed it.  This week, I'm back to my Life Happened series talking about how technology can help the church navigate the change we've seen the last three years.  The 7 topics for this series came out of the voice of the customer research we recently did to try to pinpoint what actually changed.

Just this week I received texts from my dentist, doctor, city utilities, a political survey, Verizon, Chase Bank, Honda, and Eddie Bauer.  I can even text my dentist back if I have a question or need to change my appointment and they respond personally!  I bet you've had the same experience. 

Blended worship in 2019 referred to the style of music in services.  Should we offer contemporary, classic, country-western, or blended?  This has been an issue for decades.  

In 2022 blended worship, however, refers to the channels through which worship is offered.  What combination of live worship, Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo, Churchstreaming.tv, or other streaming services should we use?

Change through challenging times is an important part of what it means to walk with God. As the Serenity prayer instructs us, "hardship is the pathway to peace."

One of the reasons hardship leads to peace is that there's a significant part of that path where we're disoriented and uncertain about the terrain on which we're travelling.  It's along this section of the road that faith is built, that is, peace with God.  Covid 19 has been such a roadway for the church.

It is clear that something is different about church since 2019.  I mentioned this related to our voice of the customer research in my last blog.  But is this difference good or bad?  And, how can technology help?

Happy new year to you and your church teams.  May the Lord give you new insights for reaching people in the almost post-pandemic world of 2022.   

As part of our planning for the future, we recently contracted a Voice of the Customer researcher to interview eight of our most active customers.  There were lots of insights but two stood out to me that I'd like to address talk about in this blog post. 

You've spent significant time and energy to find, recruit, interview, verify, train, schedule, and track volunteers.  But, there is one last, and maybe most important, part of the volunteer process - caring for them.

On Saturday, boot tracks in the snow will mean only one thing.  Santa Claus has dropped off gifts meant to bring joy to you and your family.

The time your volunteers spend serving is a gift to your church.  But, it's also a reflection of the spiritual gifts God gave them.  That word in Greek is charisma. 

If you've ever done it or had a spouse who has done it, you know that scheduling volunteers to serve on a consistent basis on Sundays is a complex and often grueling task.  It can often mean Saturday night or even Sunday morning phone calls from someone you were counting on who needs to back out.  And you have to find a replacement.  This is stressful for everyone involved.

Last month I started this series on how to organize and build an effective volunteer system within Churchteams from start to finish.  As a reminder, here are the seven parts of this system.

You've cast the vision for a new year, a new building, or a new missions opportunity.  You've asked people to pray to determine the part God would have them play in investing in this vision over the next months or years.  Now, it's time to let them respond.

The cardstock pledge cards have been handed out.  With them you gave out some really cool, branded pens as swag. The cards are collected and expectantly prayed over.