I hold weekly online office hours on Wednesday afternoons. A set-aside time where I open up the virtual doors of my office and say, “Come, child. Let us discuss the matters of life.”

Anything is fair game, but mostly we end up talking about blogging, social media and velociraptors. Yes, velociraptors.

At any rate, a question came through from a reader who asked,

Do you have any PRO TIPS for branding a church plant?

I liked the question because I don’t think enough church planters think this through before they start. Frankly, I don’t blame them for not putting design and branding at the top of the list. With Bibles, budgets and buildings to be worried about, design slowly sifts to the bottom of the list.

Although it may not be on the top of mind, it should be. In the words of my high school football coach, “You look good, you play good!”

Branding is easier now than ever before. And for the most part, it’s free or low-cost. We’ll be talking more about this topic at the BeDeviant Social Media Summit, but here’s how I answered the question:

First, get specific. If I were to start a church tomorrow (I’m not), I’d find out as much as possible about the city that I’m planting in. I’d build off of something unique about that city. For instance, here in Des Moines we have the Gateway Park downtown. One of my friends, Paul, planted a church downtown and named it, you guessed it, The Gateway Church (http://TheGatewayChurch.com). This tells people, “Hey, we care about this city. We’re here to stay.”

Second, I’d invest in killer design. One of my undergrad communication professors said, “Presentation is half the battle.” I’ve never forgotten it. If your church brand is aesthetically pleasing, the better the chances are that people will come and visit. This works on a subconscious level mostly. Good design cannot be overstated. It’s a must.

Finally, use that awesome branding and invest in a good website. There are simple solutions for church plants (http://CloverSites.com) that take the hassle out of having a good web presence. Get your location, times, staff, and about page rocking and then send everyone you meet to the site. Get cards printed up with your site on it. Put it in your email signature. Grab a Twitter page with your URL (e.g. XYZChurch.com = @XYZChurch). Do the same for a Facebook page. Get a web presence started immediately and push your community there. Chances are you won’t have a building right away, so let the online sphere serve as your collective “gathering space.”

Hope that helps!

What would you add? What churches have you seen with a great brand that extends across multiple platforms (i.e. website, Twitter, Facebook, blog, etc.)?

If you missed it, I was fortunate enough to take part in the M2 LIVE webinar last week while at the ECHO conference in Dallas. We talked shop for 45 minutes:
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Ron Edmonson wrote an article for Catalyst recently that’s still making me think. The article’s titled, “7 Reasons Leaders Quit Your Organization“. You should read it. Now.

Ron was spot-on with his reasons. You can tell this is a guy who has been down the road a little bit and doesn’t want young ones to make the same mistakes he sees the people around him making. I appreciate his wisdom and willingness to identify the elephant in the room. His list was great in and of itself, but I wanted to add a few of my own reasons why leaders quit organizations.
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Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you look around and think, “I have no idea how I got here?”

In college I was part of a student-run news station called UNI-TV. In one of my less-than-stellar moments in life, I decided to dress up as Cupid for our Valentine’s Day special. My “costume” consisted of nothing more than heart-shaped sun glasses, the word “Cupid” drawn on my chest, and a “diaper”–white gym shorts rolled up entirely too short. Don’t believe me? Here’s visual proof:
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At the advice of a friend, I just started reading Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. He’s taking a social media and ministry class at Luther Seminary and this was one of the books assigned.

His teacher knows what she’s doing.

I’m two chapters in and Shirky has already grabbed my long-haul attention. The basic premise of his book is that the world is changing. We know this already, don’t we? More specifically, he suggests that the world is changing (drastically) because human communication is changing via the social Web.

He asks a question at the end of chapter one that I’m still thinking about:
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Here’s the thing: Most of us know, in some form, that the social web has implications for how ministry is done in the 21st century. Some may even say that understanding social media is important enough to spend time and resources on. Ministry resources, even.

• What if there was a gathering that focused exclusively on understanding the social web in order to be better ministers?
• What if you could spend a day learning, discussing, imagining the possibilities for your church and the social web?
• What if you could have some of your questions about social media answered in a clear, concise manner? In a way that didn’t make you feel like a dope. In a way that honored you.

Would you want to go that event? Would you want to be a part of helping build that experience? Would you be interested?

No, seriously. I’m really asking. I’m feeling more and more the need to make the social web accessible for all people, not just the ones who currently “get it.”

The social web is flattening everything. I feel like people should have an understanding of what that means and the implications for ministry. One of the first steps I want to take to make this happen is planning a summit. A social media summit. But I don’t want to put my hand to the plow if people aren’t interested.

That leaves me with two questions:

1. Would you be interested in coming to an event like this?
2. Would you be interested in help making this event happen?

Let me know. Either in the comments below, via Twitter, or email. I’m serious. I think it’s time for this to happen already. Who’s with me?

You may have noticed the posts on Deviant the past two weeks have been a bit sparse. Well, there’s a good reason for it!

A few months ago, I joined the team at the Center for Church Communication (CFCC) as a Project Catalyst. “What’s that?” you might ask. Basically, I help make stuff happen. I’ve been working on tying up some loose ends for this project, thus the lack of daily posts here on BeDeviant. That said, I’m really excited for what’s coming down the pike. . . .

My first project is a church communication recognition initiative called Firestarter. It rolls out live on Monday, so make sure you check it out here. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some highly talented, highly encouraging individuals who have made the past few months with Firestarter so much fun. Cynthia, Kevin, Michael, Josh, Tim … You guys are real pros. A pro’s pro, even.

If you have a second, surf on over to CFCC’s website for the low-down on Firestarter. Then, check back starting this Monday as we reveal the 2010 Center for Church Communication Firestarters!

Having my iPad now for about a month, I feel like I’m just starting to explore some of its abilities. The popular critique of the iPad has been that it’s a beautiful piece of technology without a problem to solve.

I beg to differ.

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This is a guest post by Mike McArthur. I asked Mike to share his experience after reading some of his posts, particularly this one. Check it out!

“We are too small to be able to afford to pay a pastor, the church will have to close.”

Bad call!

Employing a pastor is not a necessary requirement of a healthy church. In many cases it is really a convenient way to make life easier for the elders and church members.

Many small churches are struggling to balance budgets, yet the last expense to be cut is usually the pastor’s salary. As an elder myself I would never want to make a pastor redundant, but after our part-time pastor resigned a year and a half ago we did not employ anyone to replace him. Despite some doubters, our congregation is still thriving, we have an excellent Sunday school program, great sermons and heartfelt worship singing each week.

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Your church should have a Facebook fan page. If they don’t already have one, you should start it. Yes, you. (As the saying goes, “If not you, who? If not now, when?”)

You’ve probably heard the stats by now, but just in case you haven’t:

• More than 400 million active users
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• Average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events
• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

As you can see, there are a lot of people using Facebook. People near. People far. People who live in your city or town and may not have heard about your church.

You really should change that. Like, now. The good thing is that it’s easy. Real easy.
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