The highlight of the youth ministry year is often that week everyone gets on a bus to go sleep in a cabin, play lots of games, and learn more about what it means to follow Jesus as a teenager. Lives are changed forever at youth camp. 

Easter is this weekend. Once you do your follow-up from this weekend, the final run for the ministry year begins. This is a great season for recognizing volunteers and celebrating milestones like school graduations. But, for many of us, those things are already in motion and we are looking ahead to plans for the summer. In the next few blogs I'd like to help you get started on that planning and how to use church software and Churchteams in particular to help you make it happen.  To get started, check out this model of the role of software in ministry.

In my last post I mentioned that our "Better Website" hadn't performed like we had hoped the first month. As I wrap up this series of blog posts, it's important not just to present a plan to your folks, but also to have a process in place to help avoid failure and find success.

The team has been busy the past few months adding a number of items that you may have already seen and not realized.  For power users, take a moment to review these 12 items, all of which sharpen your Churchteams experience.  

My guess is that most of you will especially appreciate the new pinned attributes.  Third on this list.

These few blogs on building a better website are really just a synopsis of my thoughts as we've gone through the process. We released our website just over a month ago and are tweaking it along the way. To be honest, it hasn't produced like we had hoped it would. But, it certainly is not a flop either. Reminds of Proverbs 16:9.

This is #4 in this series about making a better website.  The big idea is that your website needs to tell a story.  If you are not the hero, see #2 in this series, then what is your role as a church?  What is our role as a Church Management System provider?  The answer: We are the guide. 

Whether you are new to Churchteams or power users, plan to join our team and other CT users for our first ever User's Gathering on Monday afternoon, April 23rd before Watermark Church's Church Leaders Conference April 24-26, 2018. 

All stories have a bad guy.  The bad guy, of course, is the problem that the hero of the story must confront and be victorious over if the story (our software, church, etc.) is going to be at all interesting. When thinking about our website, we typically assume everyone knows who the bad guy is and start by showing the hero gaining victory over whatever problem they are facing.  That is the goal.  But, what if we add more depth by personifying the bad guy better.

This is week #2 of applying what we learned while building a better website to church websites. Last week, we established that a website tells a story. This week, we start looking at the elements of a good story and how they apply to a website. First, the hero.

On December 31, we launched a brand new, super-upgraded website for Churchteams. If you haven’t seen it, click here to check it out. We started the process 6 months ago and for those of you who are considering redoing or building a website, here’s some things I’ve learned. I am indebted to Don Miller’s work at Storybrand whose blog and book I have consumed, and our marketing partner, Lure Studios, whose team has come alongside and mentored us through this process.  For a few weeks, I'm going to share, in my own words what I've learned about how to build a better website and how I think it applies to building a better church website.  Here is the big picture:

My pastor's message this week was on the historical, Biblical perspective of Advent.  It grew out of a longing of all creation for the coming of a messiah to bring salvation, hope, and joy to the world.  Into this darkness the light of the world came.  What if all the lights on our streets were not turned on until Christmas eve?  It would communicate something different I think.  I love that we celebrate Christmas for weeks with such festive shopping, parties and other environments, but wouldn't it be cool if we waited, really waited for Christmas eve to turn on the lights?  I think that delayed gratification, that longing would give us a better feel for the coming of the Christ Child.

Last week's blog verse was based on the gospel of Matthew.  Mark doesn't do anything with the birth of Jesus.  Mark's advent of Jesus though is more like this.