ChurchTrac Livestream - 2/28/2024: Church Communication

Summary

The video discusses improving church communication to prevent people saying 'I didn't know about that'. It covers reasons people say this using the 'FAST' acronym - not providing Frequent updates, Audience-relevant content, Simplified communication channels, or Timely notifications. It then shares the 'LEAPS' formula for good church communication - Leadership initiation, Event listing, Active website updating, Pointed targeting, and Strategic alerting. Finally, it offers pro tips like leveraging small groups, text messaging, helping people use new technology, and using Canva for announcements.

Takeaways

• 😣 Church people say "I didn't know" when leaders don't communicate frequently or effectively enough (FAST - Frequent, Audience-relevant, Simplified channels, Timely)
• 📱 Leverage all communication channels (email, text, social media, etc) and target relevant audiences
• 🗓 Create event listings that are easy to find and keep them continuously updated
• 🏠 Small groups have big impact for sharing announcements and information
• ✅ Texting ensures messages are read quickly - useChurch Track messaging tools
• 💻 Actively update website with events, resources and needs consistently
• 🙋‍♂️ Make leaders available to help members use or access communication tools
• 🔁 Establish processes where members can efficiently communicate needs back
• 🖼 Use visual content creators like Canva to make announcements stand out
• 📋 Forms allow members to directly submit info and requests to leadership

Q & A

What is the main reason church people say 'I didn't know about that'?

The main reason is that church leaders are not communicating frequently enough or effectively enough with their congregation. Concepts like the 'marketing rule of 7' show that messages need to be communicated frequently across multiple channels for people to retain the information.

What are some best practices for church communication according to the presenters?

Some best practices include using small groups to relay important messages, leveraging text messaging, making leadership available to help members use church software/apps, using every available communication channel, keeping all leaders informed, using visual content creation tools like Canva, and enabling members to communicate back to leadership through forms.

What does the FAST acronym stand for regarding frequent church communication?

FAST stands for Frequent updates, Audience-relevant content, Simplified communication channel, and Timely notifications. Following these principles can help improve church communication.

What are some components of the 'LEAPS' church communication formula?

The LEAPS formula includes Leadership initiation, Event listing, Active website updates, Pointed targeting, and Strategic alerts. This provides a model for effective overall church communication.

Why are small groups important for church communication?

Small groups meet more regularly than the church at large. Leveraging small group leaders to relay announcements ensures messages reach church members frequently and effectively.

What is an easy way to equip small group leaders with announcements?

A Church Connect page card with a simple list of 3-5 important announcements is an easy way to keep small group leaders informed. They can then share announcements with their group members.

How can we make it easy for church visitors to get information?

Have well-trained volunteers available to help visitors use church apps, signups, etc. Also ensure your Welcome Team is fully knowledgeable about all church events, groups, and resources.

Should we use print bulletins or digital communication?

Use every channel available based on your congregation's needs and preferences, whether print, digital, or both. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

How can Church Connect help with our outdated website?

Transition website content to Church Connect. Then forward the website domain to Connect. This maintains links while directing people to updated information.

How can members communicate needs back to church leadership?

Digital form cards facilitate easy member communication about prayer requests, spiritual decisions, event registrations, and more. Members can communicate directly with leadership this way.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Introducing the hosts and topic of effective church communication

The hosts Wes and Matt introduce themselves and the live video topic of discussing strategies for effective church communication to prevent members from saying "I didn't know about that". They mention this is an interactive session with a chat for viewers to contribute ideas.

05:02

😖 Explaining why church members say "I didn't know"

Wes and Matt explain common reasons why church members say "I didn't know" - lack of frequent updates, irrelevant content, too many communication channels, and untimely notifications. They introduce an acronym FAST to summarize these issues - Frequent updates, Audience-relevant content, Simplified communication channel, and Timely notifications.

10:03

😃 Presenting the ultimate church communication formula

Wes and Matt jokingly introduce an acronym "LEAPS" to represent the key elements of effective church communication - Leadership initiation, Event listing, Active website updating, Pointed targeting, and Strategic alerting. They emphasize the website as the hub to direct people to.

15:04

📝 Sharing pro tips for evaluating church communication

Wes and Matt provide 7 pro tips for assessing and improving church communication - leverage small groups, maximize texting, offer personal help, use all channels, inform all leaders, create visuals with Canva, and offer feedback forms.

20:07

💬 Interactive feedback session on communication wins and fails

Wes and Matt encourage viewers to share in the chat their biggest wins and fails related to church communication. They provide some examples from their own experience and emphasize learning from mistakes.

25:07

❓ Answering audience questions on various communication topics

Wes and Matt interactively respond to various audience questions on topics like - using Church Connect, embedding calendars, importing Google calendars, creating explainers on complex features, and finding the Church Connect mobile app.

30:08

👋 Wrapping up with final thoughts and reminders

As they wrap up, Wes and Matt note this was a different interactive format from their usual webinars. They remind viewers to reach out for any further help needed and to stay updated on upcoming live streams.

Keywords

💡communication

Communication refers to the exchange of information between people or groups. Effective church communication is a major theme of the video, with the hosts aiming to provide tips to prevent church members from saying "I didn't know about that." They emphasize the need for frequent updates, audience-relevant content, simplified channels, timely notifications, and strategic alerts.

💡leadership

Leadership refers to the pastors, staff, and key volunteers who guide the church. The video states that good church communication starts with leadership - initiating the key messages, updates, and notifications that need to reach the congregation.

💡event

Events are the various activities, services, and programs happening at the church. The hosts stress the importance of having an event listing or calendar that makes it easy for members to see everything going on.

💡website

A church's website is proposed as the ideal single, simplified channel to direct all communication to. Keeping the website actively updated ensures people can find the latest events and announcements in one place.

💡target

Targeting communication means sending tailored messages to specific groups within the church (like youth, seniors, etc), rather than overwhelm everyone with irrelevant content. The video gives an amusing example of this.

💡text

Texting is singled out as an excellent, widely-used communication channel, as most texts get read within 5 minutes. Church leaders are encouraged to leverage text messaging.

💡small group

Small groups that meet regularly are great conduits for passing on announcements and updates. The leaders can directly communicate key messages to their group members.

💡channel

Communication channels refer to the various mediums used to connect with church members - emails, texts, social media, print bulletins, etc. Using multiple channels gives more touchpoints.

💡fail

The hosts encourage participants to share communication fails - when a message wasn't delivered effectively. Learning from these mistakes helps prevent future issues.

💡automation

While not discussed in depth, "automations" are mentioned as powerful ChurchTrack tools that can schedule communications to send automatically at preset times.

Highlights

People say 'I didn't know' because churches don't communicate frequently enough or target relevant audiences.

Messages should be seen or heard at least 7 times before people will act on them.

Leverage small groups to share announcements and information.

99% of text messages are read within 5 minutes, making it the fastest way to reach people.

Be available to help people use new communication tools to increase adoption.

Use every communication channel available including social media, email, bulletins, etc.

Ensure all leaders are informed on announcements so they can share with others.

Use Canva to create visually engaging announcements and communication.

Online forms allow people to communicate needs and requests back to the church.

Failing to phase out a donation platform caused a temporary loss of giving.

Not giving enough details with announcements causes confusion.

Having outdated information between the church website and app is problematic.

Announcing an event just days before causes low attendance.

Embedded calendars work on websites but break on mobile devices.

Let the support team know if you need help or have feature requests.

Transcripts

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the

man Jes

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man

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and we are officially live hey everybody

my name is Wes my name is Matt and today

Matt we are talking about church

communication churchs but more

specifically we're here to help us all

keep people from saying those five

terrible words we've all heard them too

yes and and in the chat let us know what

are those terrible words that you've

heard from your people those five

terrible words I already know half of

you are like frantically typing in your

keyboard what that is um but those five

terrible words what are they M I didn't

know about that now we had a smart alec

here earlier that said well it's

actually technically six because it's

did cont and I was like no no no it's

five words um if I had a dollar every

time someone in my church said that I

would be a millionaire I could

retire oh man um and so that's the whole

point of this live stream today is for

us to take a lot of the things we've

learned personally the hard way from our

own experience by doing it the wrong way

and the hard way um and also taking a

lot of that we have gained from church

leaders over the years um that have done

a really good job of communicating with

their Church um and so we're going to

talk about all that today but before we

dive into all the things just a couple

things I want to remind everybody about

um first and foremost Matt our YouTube

channel yes we have a YouTube channel

with I think over 160 videos now yeah uh

with instructions for how to use

everything in church track but also lots

of other hour-long webinars like this

one and some equip videos and just other

fun things that we've been putting out

over the past few years so go ahead and

subscribe and join that community and

speaking of communities one of the best

communities I've ever seen personally is

our Facebook group here at church track

um you can go ahead ask to join that

community and it's so great because that

is a place where church leaders just

like yourself are getting involved

talking to each other working through

like different things they're trying to

accomplish with the software um but it's

more than just talking about church

track it's just talking about Ministry

and how to do ministry better uh so I

encourage you to take a look at that

Facebook you users group and then last

but not least when it comes to getting

help in the software uh the best way to

get help and the quickest way to get

help actually is to click that help

button on the top right corner of your

screen when you're logged into church

track and so when you click that help

button it'll give you the ability to go

and straight ask us a question or you

can look at our entire online user guide

uh where we have so much content yes uh

it is a lot um everything from how to

navigate the people screen to accounting

you name it um so that is how to get

help okay well today's live stream we're

kind of we're going to break it into I I

say three parts but it's technically

four because we're doing a very

different thing today see typically in

our live streams uh we are obviously

we're doing them live but we have like a

Q&A that we'll do at the end and answer

questions and stuff whereas this

particular live stream we felt like it

would be better to just have

conversation with you all and so we want

to talk about different Pro tips and

things that you all have found that work

well for your church communication and

share them with everybody here and

everything uh but before we get to that

point uh first we just want to talk

about okay why is it that church people

say I didn't know yeah I didn't know I

didn't know um about that or whatever it

else variant of that may be uh and then

we're going to look at the ultimate

Church communication formula done we've

dialed it in um and also we'll share

after that we'll share some Pro tips for

evaluating your overall Church

communication strategy and that's when

we'll also want to hear from you all to

share what you've done that has worked

really well at your church to make sure

that everybody is in the know all right

one two three let's go all right so why

church people say I didn't know um there

are a lot of reasons but after working

with a lot of churches and also just

being a part of some pretty amazing

Ministries that have kind of figured out

why they they say they didn't know yeah

um it came down to we're just not being

fast Matt just not fast enough we're not

fast so we actually created an acronym

for this because I don't know about you

I love acronyms it helps me remember

things um maybe some of you out there

maybe Jeff John Kim you like acronyms

and it helps you remember things um and

so we actually have a pretty funny

acronym for this that I thought was so

fitting um we're not being fast so the

first one is we're not giving frequent

updates and so Matt when it comes to

like frequent updates what do we mean

well just regularly informing people but

also not just regularly informing people

but repeating and talking about what

you're trying to communicate with

everyone at least seven times uh what's

you were telling me about the rule of

seven that you were reading about yes in

fact I I even have it on the big screen

Matt because it's that big of a deal the

marketing rule of seven uh this is

actually uh something I learned in

business in school but basically to sum

up the marketing rule of seven I've got

it here a message needs to be seen or

heard at least seven times by a

potential customer for it to be

effectively absorbed and acted upon um

and I I highlighted those things because

I thought they were so important for it

to be seen and heard because people us

people we we see things and hear things

and sometimes people need to both see

and hear things to be able to retain

those things but we also need to and

hear them seven times repetitively

before it finally sinks in but but it's

beyond just like it absorbing into us we

actually need to act on it and so this

is such a great thing and in terms of

getting people and and I like how Mike

says are you sure it's not 70 times

seven oh goodness come on Mike yes that

Mike sometimes it feels like it doesn't

it um and so when it comes to getting

that message out and getting it out to

people 7 time 7 S as Matt Mike said 490

times I mean there's so many different

ways we communicate with our people at

our church I mean just giving this silly

illustration here but I mean we've got

the person sitting there on the email

getting that out uh we've got you know

sending people text messages uh we've

got preaching we've got you know on our

website having announcements on our

website you got the guy in the corner

right there every social media you can

imagine whether it's you're trying to

put something out on Instagram you're

trying to put it out on Facebook very

online um you're trying to put it out on

uh Tik Tok you're trying to put it out

on oh goodness what are some other

things YouTube YouTube come what we're

currently streaming in right now is

YouTube as well um by the way if you're

watching on YouTube or Facebook right

now you can't be a part of the chat you

have to be a part of this Vimeo so make

sure you click the Vimeo link if you

want to join the chat but also small

groups Matt when people are hanging out

at small groups that's a great way to

communicate things too yeah we'll get

into that in a little bit but that's a

that's a great opportunity to share

announcements yes so all right so

frequent updates that's number one and

then it also comes comes down to

audience relevant content audience

relevant content the other part of being

fast is we're not giving people stuff

that's relevant to the audience

specifically yeah like we'll we'll send

text messages to the entire church that

should have been to like a specific

group or a particular Ministry like like

reaching out to the entire church for

something children's ministry related

instead of just sending it to the

parents at the church or one of my

favorites so I was talking to a church

leader um and he was explaining to me

kind of how he was communicating with

people with text and he was super pumped

about using mass texting because it was

just really changing the game for his

church and how to communicate with

people but um I made this meme I thought

it was so fitting um so churches be like

hey don't forget about the women's

breakfast coming up next Saturday uh and

all my husbands are like uh why am I

getting this text I'm a guy yeah I'm a

guy so and if some of you recognize this

picture it's a meme from that all state

commercial um where you know he was like

like well she she's a guy well she

sounds hideous um I thought that was so

funny because like that's so perfect and

I know like if you got a text message

about some lims event are you going to

tell your wife I would if anything I'd

be like hey did you get this text cuz I

don't know why I'm getting this

text which that also comes down to

wasting money too when we're sending the

wrong things to the wrong people

especially if you're doing mass texting

um well that cost money to do that on

any platform no matter what you're

paying to send that text so for everyone

you send text that shouldn't receive it

you're spending money that didn't need

to be spent yeah all right so another

part of the fast acronym I Love This

Acronym because it just helps me

remember it all right so we talked about

the frequent updates we talked about

audience relevant content but then the

other part of this is having a

simplified Communication channel and so

one of the things that I was actually

part of a church that struggled with

this is we had so many different places

we posted everything but we didn't have

one single place where you knew that all

that information ultimately would be and

so when it comes to us in a church

environment uh the best place for that

is our website yeah because our website

you can take all these different mediums

of communication and just point them to

one place yes and and that's the best

way to do it and so when you're sending

out emails to people whenever you're

teaching people um in Sunday school or

small groups whenever you are preaching

on a Sunday when you're putting stuff on

social media when you're sending out

those mass texts all of it pointing

right back to a certain area on your

Church website it helps out tremendously

so that's the simplified Communication

channel and that's it also streamlines

things that way everyone's getting the

exact same message rather than the game

of telephone playing the game of

telephone throughout your church yes um

and not to be confused with the

targeting obviously because you still

want to use these different mediums to

Target people in different ways but you

ultimately want to have one place where

all that information is living in terms

of like what the events are going on at

your church and the resources you're

trying to get your people to know about

and the needs you have for volunteers

stuff like that um and then the last

part of fast time T the timely

notifications yes um uh you need to give

people enough heads up so that they can

react properly and make plans uh rather

than last minute I'm very last minute

I'm not good about staying on top of

things weeks ahead of time um I have to

have everything scheduled out in order

to stay on top of that you you have to

have timely notifications for your

members as well um like talking about an

event several weeks ahead of time just

to make sure that they can plan that Wes

has another meme that he created I'm

just full of memes today um scheduling

at some Churches hey can you serve at

VBS tomorrow am I a joke to

you I got work

man but it's so true though I mean I've

been a part of a lot of Ministries and

I've also sat in on churches that will

do stuff like this um and sometimes it's

just kind of a because we become

reactionary and we kind of don't get as

intentional as we want to be or maybe

we're just not as organized as we need

to be to plan things out now most

churches are not falling into this

drastic situation where you're asking

people to serve at VBS the day before um

but it's still kind of the joke that

there's still a lot of situations where

we kind of fall into those situations

where we are um and so that's a big part

is just being timely and and doing all

that but all right so we've talked

talked about the reason why church

people are saying I didn't know about

that cuz we're not being fast we're not

fast enough we're not fast enough um I

I'm really I'm probably going to use

that acronym for like other stuff in the

future I'm just going to like repurpose

it um but we have another acronym uh

because ultimately acronyms make me

remember things and it also makes it a

lot easier to present this stuff um and

by the way I just want to really

reinforce this isn't like us coming at

you like we're no ad alls or anything

yeah um this is us just bringing the

culmination of really amazing feedback

that we've received from churches

working one-on-one with churches all

around the world and how they do

ministry and being able to take you know

all this great stuff we found from

church leaders also the bad stuff and

learning hey what doesn't work well and

stuff to really help us make these

resources to be able to streamline our

church communication yeah and we would

love to hear your ideas on what works

and what doesn't work in the chat in

this video a little later yeah when we

get to that okay so we've got the

reasons let's talk about the ultimate

Church communication formula shall we um

now this formula uh it it's not as cool

as the fast one but I think it still

works pretty well um and we have called

this one in fact let me just go to this

formula um in fact I'm just going to

leave it here and I think we're done so

there it is there is the formula for the

ultimate formula in fact for church

communication leaps so leaps at L plus e

plus a Time p over s and that's that's

it so now you know how to communicate

with your people I think we're done here

so we'll send you all have a good week

no kidding so leaps all right so what

does this mean all right team bring us

the acronym so it comes down to having a

few things set in place and it all

starts with our leadership is really

what it comes down to and but what I

mean by that is initiating what it is we

need to know in our leadership of what's

going on at our church the needs we have

at our church um the things that we're

trying to provide to our people us as

leadership we have to get together at

our staff meeting or whatever that

meeting is that we set for this and

really hammer out all that stuff yeah

and then the E is event listing which is

making sure that it's easy for your

members to know where like what all the

upcoming events are at your church so

it's not just you all having like a team

calendar and you all collaborating and

planning things but you have to publish

that and make it easy for everyone to

find it all in one place so they can

stay up to date and you know make notate

their own calendars and make their own

plans yeah and I was actually talking to

um David who is the gentleman that's

behind the the scenes here running all

this stuff and we were talking a little

bit about how the church that he used to

be at did a lot of their event listing

and it was almost like a like excuse me

if I like a Battle Royale in a way David

where like church leaders are basically

saying hey this is what I have going on

in Min my Ministry and this is why I

think it's important and they would kind

of determine okay like these are the top

things that we need to like announce to

the entire church but then these are

like the secondary things that we want

to announce in these situations and then

these are like the third things that we

want to announce here and they had like

kind of a a method to when they would

announce things and and where they would

announce things and everything which is

very strategic very very very smart yes

and speaking of being smart so then so

we got leadership initiation we got

event listing the next one is active

website updates um this one hits very

near and dear to me Matt uh because we

work with a lot of churches uh where

we'll go on their website because it's

just part of like what happens when you

know we're helping churches get set up

with church track and everything we'll

look at their website and we see a lot

of churches that have a website where it

either like doesn't have any information

about the events going on or the needs

of the church or resources the Church

offers or it has stuff but it's like

incredibly outdated and kind of cryptic

in some cases yeah and so being able to

like all right as leadership we figured

out what we want to do we've listed

everything out now we start updating our

website accordingly and I use the word

active just because a website isn't

something that's just static where we

just let it hang out there's even been a

couple questions in chat um like Shirley

just asked website versus Church conect

connect which is better for simplified

Communication channel we use the app

more than the website Chad said we love

having our website but I feel like the

app seems like a better tool yeah

honestly when it comes to websites

whether you're using the church Connect

app or U you know a public website on

some other platform um we recommend

picking one of those channels and just

focusing a lot of your effort on that so

if you're finding that the Connect app

is easier to manage because it's already

right there in church track then yeah

just use that and direct people D to the

app and basically treat it like what

we're recommending for the website

that's because it is a website it is a

website yeah um yeah and so Bey once we

get everything in the website and then

we get to that pointed targeting which

we kind of talked a little bit earlier

you know about not sending the women's

event text message to all the dudes in

the church but you know being targeted

with that um and you know not only

targeting the right people but also

targeting the right situations yes

because if you're constantly messaging

people for things that aren't relevant

to them they're eventually going to

either tune it out or actually block it

out and unsubscribe altogether from

communication yeah and unsubscribe both

figuratively you know and literally in a

way yeah they might actually hit the

unsubscribe button but they'll also just

click check out and be done well and a

lot of times in church service when you

see people their eyes kind of start

glazing over during the time of

announcements they just like mentally

unsubscribe during the church service um

so pointed targeting and then last but

not least strategic alert

uh we we're being strategic about

alerting people at the right time um and

like not waiting till that day before

VBS but doing a few months in advance

but also not sending a text out at like

6:30 in the evening yes cuz no one's

going to read that they're eating dinner

send it like at lunch or at maybe 7 in

the morning or 8: in the morning or

something like that before their commute

uh whatever you do don't send it at 6:

a.m. on a Saturday please don't ever

don't ever send anything at 6: a.m.

happen um okay so that is the formula um

now granted there are so many churches

that do communication so well um they

may not do like this exact formula but

the variant of what they do kind of

encompasses what we've just gone over

here in the leaps formula U but it it

just I I love it just because you set

that foundation with getting leadership

on board and then you have that time of

listing everything out and then you

actively put everything in your website

you target everything you strategically

alert people and people hopefully stop

saying I didn't know about that I didn't

know about that but to help uh to help

you all uh with your quest of hopefully

getting people to not say I didn't know

about that uh we've got some Pro tips to

help you out um some of these include

are hard one pro tips yeah yeah the

these are really good Pro tips um in

fact I think probably one of my

favorites is the one you've got here but

uh let's start with all right we got

seven Pro tips number one small groups

have big impact yes um so small groups I

mean you we were both a part of the same

church that we used to go to the small

groups was like probably I think the

best way the church communicated the

important things that needed to be

communicated yes um I'm to be honest

that's you're interfacing with your

small group more than the church because

you're texting them throughout the week

you're hanging out with them you know

once a week or however often you meet

with them but you may also have other

times where you're meeting with that guy

from the small group or your wife is

hanging out with one of the ladies from

the small group or something like that

yeah so you're interacting with these

people even more often throughout the

week than you are with the church itself

the institution so leverage your small

groups have the small group leaders make

announcements to let people know about

upcoming events or what the church is

trying to accomplish yeah and one really

good way in church connect to kind of

get your small group leaders or just

your entire small groups up to speed on

like important announcements I would

recommend creating like a page card in

church connect so I'm just I've got my

church app here already loaded up but I

just created a quick page card it is not

pretty it is not fancy I would encourage

you to get crazier than I did but I just

named this one weekly announcements it's

just a page card and it's just giving

hey announcements this week and then

there's like the top three announcements

potluck on Saturday tell your friends

early service is now 9:00 a.m. and there

are two spots left for a Uganda mission

trip I mean obviously you can take this

to another level and stuff but this is a

really good example of like how you can

just have all your small group leaders

in the know that hey all the

announcements they need to say they're

going to be on Church connect when they

get on Church connect they're going to

be right there and they can tell them to

their small group and even encourage

their small group hey get on Church

connect yes yes so that's a really good

way to utilize small groups to have big

impact so Dwayne that answers your

question how would you use Church

connect for event listings also as you

add events to church track in the event

screen if someone logs into their

account in church connect they can see

that in the upcoming events tab on their

profile so it's also there twice

essentially for those people all right

you got a good one Matt yes uh texting

is best in the US just remember text is

best uh uh

99% of all text messages are read within

the first five minutes after they're

sent that means this is texting is the

best opportunity and the best medium for

getting the word out to your people at

least very quickly yeah um way better

than email it takes like it takes days I

think it takes two days for 99% of

emails to be open and read so definitely

use texting as a way to communicate with

your members as often as possible uh in

church track you can go to the people

and family screen and at the top there's

a messaging tab this is where you can

send emails as well it's I we still

recommend doing emails but you can also

send text messages and what's really

cool is we actually have a built-in way

to send targeted messaging by in that

choose who to include section on the

bottom left you can select a smart list

or even just a tag that you've applied

to some of your members and reach out to

just those people yeah and disregard the

estimated recipients this is just a test

database um but you may have you know

100 people you're sending a text to or a

couple hundred people however many um so

texting is best um Now Matt another one

that you did at your previous church I

thought was so incredible tell me about

that one well what I did and this the

the recommendation by the way Pro tip

three is just be available to help um

what I did at my church when we launched

our church app is for a few weeks ahead

of time I would get up behind the pulpit

and announce that we're working on an

app and it's coming and here's the date

that it'll be available um and then the

day of I we had the QR code we announced

it woohoo don't everyone download it but

I said hey if you have any questions if

you need help downloading it if you want

to help creating an account or setting

up this or that or the other come to me

I will be in the welcome area out front

bring me your phone and I will help you

out and people would literally hand me

their phone and I would download the app

and then together we would set up online

giving and create their account and just

make sure that they were set up for

success with the app that way more

people got to download it I like the

adoption rate of the of the app went

through the roof be like 95% I mean yeah

I mean we basically doubled the

potential number of people cuz we we had

a mix of older and younger people the

younger people jumped right on it but

the older people just wanted to make

sure that they were doing it right or

this or that so by me making self

available and helping them they all

jumped on that platform that's how we

help all of our members do virtually

anything whether it be sign up for an

event or be in the know about something

or just do something that we want them

to do is to like make ourselves

available so what we recommend is that

either you or some volunteers at your

church get really well trained on

whatever it is you're wanting to help

the members do so that as they leave

they can be in that welcome area and

interact with them and help them do that

I would say that probably whoever is

running your welcome Booth um or your

welcome center whatever you may call it

they may need to be the person that's in

the know the most in your entire church

just because they're the person who

everyone's going to come to about hey

what events are going on here hey what

small groups are available hey you know

what resource how how do I download the

sermon stuff like that and they can

point them to all that yep um all right

so that's a good one Matt I think that's

probably one of the most powerful to be

brutally honest but um Pro tip number

four leverage all all available channels

of communication um and what I I mean by

this I mean preaching i' I've list out

here announcements in service pre- and

post- service slides the bulletin

bulletin is still strong and does a

really good job uh small group text

email Instagram Facebook Twitter snail

mail Church track mail by the way Church

track mail you can send emails in church

track um let me show you something

really cool just because leveraging all

your available channels of communication

that's a lot and thankfully you can

schedule some of these things in church

track because the reality is you're not

going to have time to just like when you

need to get the message out a specific

time just quick do that so what I

recommend is back on the people screen

in that messaging tab like let's say you

have an email you want to send to your

people and so I'm just sending out an

email but we have this option down here

when I go to send a schedule or an email

which I actually need to type something

in my email for it to actually send so

I'll just say Hi and then email blah

blah blah and so when I go to send an

email I can send it as soon as possible

or I can schedule the message to send

later and then I can say I actually want

this email to send out maybe on the 7th

of March and pick a certain time and go

from there uh this is just such a great

tool because I see a lot of church

leaders um I feel like they they've just

like figured out a not not just like a

life hack but like a Ministry hack of

just scheduling so many things ahead of

time um and that email tool will help

you out with that I haven't even talked

about automations which is for another

day but automations could blow your mind

too if you check out our video on that

um so that's a good one so being able to

leverage all of your channels of

communication yeah in fact Donnie you

mentioned bulletins were still great

Donnie even said like your church is a

primarily senior adult so you're still

printing a weekly bulletin yeah uh and

somebody else said same with us so yeah

uh definitely leverage everything

whether it be a bulletin that you're

handing out some some Churches probably

have a bulletin board even still yeah

definitely use all of those points of

contact to reach out to your people well

and just like I don't want to get on too

much of a soapbox of this but when you

hear people that are like Professionals

in Ministry they they deem themselves

Ministry professionals which we do not

we just deem ourselves people that like

to learn from churches and give you the

information and help you uh but when

people say like oh the bulletin is dead

and bl no no no every church is unique

every church is different and what works

at some churches may not work at other

churches what works phenomenal at one

Church may not work the best at another

and so that's why it's good to to know

all the different ways we can

communicate um all right now Matt uh

this is a good one this next one all

leaders must be in the no yeah don't

ever leave any of your leadership team

whether it be staff or Volunteers in the

dark on what's coming up at your church

so yeah like even we we we joked about

sending a text to all the men in the

church about a women's event but have

all your men volunteers and leaders know

about the women's event so that as

they're shaking hands and hugging people

and interacting and laughing and joking

and having a good time at church they

can still share that information with

anybody um do that across your

leadership team make sure that all of

your leadership team knows about all of

the upcoming events and important

announcements um in church track you can

make this really easy on yourself by

like we we showed you in church connect

having that card for all the upcoming

events the big things that they need to

know about but also using using your

smart lists and your tags to segment

your members for all like your leaders

and your volunteers so that you have an

easy way to just send a text to

everybody in that group or an email so

that you can send them a quick

announcement let them know what they

need to be sharing with the rest of the

members at your church yeah and and

that's so key like if you don't already

have a tag or a smart list you use to

designate who all the key leadership of

the church is so you can quickly send

emails and texts to them go ahead and do

that today because it's just going to

make your life so much

group text because there's always that

one in group Tex that just like responds

every time and then your ph's blown up

all day so I like that um okay so that's

a good one Matt um my favorite though

this is yeah my favorite I love canva we

we like are canva evangelists and canva

doesn't even know we exist and they're

not even a Christian company it's just

explain canva to those who are don't

know what canva is well the simplest way

to put it is it's Photoshop for dummies

and I say that lovingly because I'm one

of the dummies I don't know how to use

Photoshop it's a platform where you can

create really great graphic images or um

uh just visual content that allows you

to and like they even give uh their Pro

subscription like their paid

subscription for free to nonprofits yeah

so you can have the full power of that

tool without having to pay anything for

your church I use canva every day just

here at church track uh and also for

like the the church that my wife and I

were going to uh Church plant that we

were serving at a couple years ago um it

was a great way to have really

professional images and graphic content

and visual content for the church yeah

um definitely use canva to just make

your image make your images but make

your announcements really stand out

check out some of our we we've done a

few videos on canva that was one of I

think it was our most watched video was

the one we did on canva for churches

we've done we've done two actually we've

done one canva for churches and then

canva templates for churches both of

them are really really great for

understanding how to use canva and how

to get it for free but also like how to

use the templates and instructing you on

on just the way it works so definitely

check those out yeah that's a good one

all right Matt so we've talked about so

many pro tips I think we have one more

oh yes forms how can I forget the most

underrated thing in church track um all

right so forms the underrated and most

powerful Church communication uh because

the whole time we've been talking about

us communicating to our people and us

talking to them uh but forms are one of

the most powerful ways for them to talk

back to us yes and creating forms in

church track is much more than just like

having a like I'll just show it real

quick on my phone here but it it goes

beyond having just a standard like

connection card I mean obviously if you

don't have a digital connection card I'd

highly recommend making one today uh you

can check out our user guide and it

shows you how to do that and walks you

through the process but this goes beyond

just getting people's information

because they want to maybe learn more

about our church or make a spiritual

decision no this is giving them the

ability to do things like submit prayer

requests uh this is a really really

important thing being able to provide a

way for our people to let us know how we

can pray for them so I'd recommend

creating a form card for that I'd

recommend creating another form card for

maybe volunteers uh where your

volunteers can sign up to be a part of

the worship team or maybe they want to

serve in the children's ministry or the

connections team at your church whatever

it may be uh the form card The Humble

form card is probably lowkey the most

powerful tool in terms of church

communication because it ultimately

brings it back to providing our people a

way to communicate with us which we

don't want a one-sided communication it

needs to be that's not because that's

it's a conversation I mean you're you're

in a relationship with these people and

you can't have a one a relationship if

it's a one-way Street uh so yes

absolutely leverage all opportunities

for them to communicate back to you and

forms are a great opportunity for that

whether it be a physical form or a

digital form we recommend the digital

form though simply because you can

change that and update it anytime yes

physical forms you have to like send

that to the printers and that could cost

money well especially when you're like

coming up to Easter we we've got a blog

post on like making your church connect

ready for Easter and everything but

that's a great opportunity to have like

specific question that's geared towards

your typical Easter crowd um to really

just make that experience better for

people um I this chat is I think it's

going to be insane we've never done this

before like typically we do like a Q&A

where we just start answering questions

but we're going to shift into this

different time where right we've talked

about the pro tips I want to hear from

you all and I want to see like what are

some of the things that have worked well

for your church and your ministry in

terms of communicating with your people

um what are some things you've done

terribly bad let me know I mean so so

how about this um help us learn from

your mistakes so preface whatever it is

you tell us by either a win or a fail so

say like when and then what it is that

was a big win for your church and if it

was a fail say fail and then what was it

that made you fail epically in your

church communication and this isn't to

laugh laugh at your failures it's more

so to help the whole class here learn

from your failures so we don't make that

same failure um so this is going to be

interesting so y'all bring us all of

your wins in church communication as

well as your church communication fails

in the chat uh now if you're watching

this at a later time hello future U you

can't actually join in on the chat

uh and do this because you're watching

you know after this is done but uh is as

always if you ever need me help with the

software uh just click that help button

uh and you can reach out to our team to

get help we have a very great team um

and also if you're like me you like to

learn how to do things like by watching

a video actually learn how to do spark

plugs the other day in my car by

watching a YouTube video yeah nice so

very handy you can learn how to to put

spark plugs in your car or you can learn

how to craft your church connect uh for

Easter Service whatever it is in between

um on our YouTube channel uh so a lot of

great stuff okay so let's take a look I

want to see some wins I want to see some

fails um y'all let me know or if you

just have some random questions as well

so you can just preface that with

question and let us know what your

question is too um well I to be honest

I'll go ahead and share a fail uh we a

while back um at my the church that my

wife and I were serving at for a couple

years a couple years ago uh we were we

had multiple platforms to give online

okay one of them included zel and we saw

some things about zel that made us kind

of suspicious about how secure they were

and we we were worried that our our

church account would get compromised so

my pastor like pulled the rug out from

zel and said no we're we pulled the plug

on zel and said no we're not we're not

offering zel anymore and cut that

opportunity of online donations off

but it turns out that like most of our

online donors were using zel and so all

of a sudden we lost all of those

donations and some of them we never got

back oh wow like you know they they

didn't they didn't start giving online

on another platform so we didn't have

the

timely yes we just it was all of a

sudden my pastor kind of panicked and

said oh we we can't we can't take this

risk anymore we have to cut this off uh

rather than giving people time to

transition from zel to another platform

and and obviously there are situ where

we can't be as timely as we want to be

um but that's when we have to really

leverage all those communication

channels and be able to have that place

where all that communication lives and

again give time for people to react to

what we're trying to tell them and and

and to do uh so Phyllis let's read some

of these answers Phyllis you said reals

on your website that's pretty cool so

like not only on social media but you're

sharing them on your website thems

that's actually a pretty good way to

drive traffic to the website yes it is

but also get people to engage in the

content elsewhere from your website

that's awesome I love that well and

especially too because we live in such a

visual age where video trumps everything

now at this point when it comes to just

engagement um I mean that's why we're

doing video right now but full

disclosure yeah but but doing reals

that's a really great idea and having it

on your main website I like that idea

good idea um what are some other ones we

got here Matt Jean said my biggest

frustration is people in the no assume

that everyone else knows yes and so they

don't give enough info to draw others in

yeah um yeah you have to like bring

people along with you and catch people

up on your knowledge that's a big

challenge is knowing how much to

communicate so thank you very much for

sharing that that's a good reminder uh

Shannon at the moment our church Connect

app is the most up to- date but our

website doesn't reflect the same

information and it's up to date and it's

up to date at all is there a way for

church connect or church track to

overtake our website so that when

community community members go on there

they can also see what what the church

is up to well sort of what you can do is

you can take all the content that's on

your website that isn't yet on Church

connect and just go ahead and add that

to church connect and then go ahead and

phase out the website but you can keep

your domain so that when people use that

domain or type in that URL or click a a

link somewhere else online that has that

URL in the button it'll still take them

to your church connect site so you can

domain forward to church connect that

way you still maintain the usefulness of

the the main website but direct people

to where things are actually up to date

and one thing too I'd point out um so I

don't know if you know this but you can

actually take your calendar and you can

embed your calendar on an existing

website yes um and so that way you can

just keep everything updated in your

church track calendar make life easy by

by the way Church TR Church track

calendar um not only is it a standard

calendar but it gives you the ability to

create registrations and stuff um but

then you can embed that calendar on your

main website so that way anytime people

will go to your website and they go to

the calendar page where you put that uh

it's always up to date because it's

embedded in there and it's pulling

directly from church track yes so that's

a really great way to do it as well um

all right read read both of Chad's this

is actually a really cool win and fail a

really good example so Chad your win as

Chad sits at Chick-fil-A eating his

lunch um ring on the Lord's internet

when having events in the events

calendar on Church track so people can

see them when they tap coming events and

see all the events with one tap yeah

it's such a great thing Chad to have

that um fail not keeping those events up

to date on the calendar in church track

so people couldn't see them when they

tap upcoming events and can't see all

the events with one tap face

palm so I I take it your fail caused you

to learn from your hard mistake and then

became a win

eventually um so Jack you're asking what

is reals um so reals I tell you what re

uh ask ask in the chat and they'll tell

you we we'll let the chat help you out

with that um so office Lisa I'm trying

to pull up the other chat here um

because we've got more questions I'm

just not seeing them

yet all right uh let's see grace glor

and Lutheran you said um we have a link

from our website to church connect Plus

have embedded the calendar on our

website yeah so Jeff you said fails new

Bible study not sending email until 3

days before first class yes so you

probably had very low attendance um I've

seen some Churches do something like

that just forget to announce it until

like right before and the attendance was

of course zero yeah um it happens it

happens stuff slip stuff is it's pretty

easy for things to slip through the

cracks so we understand that yeah I I

appreciate your honesty Jeff just

because um you know it's sometimes it's

tough to admit when we mess up um in

church leadership and when we didn't get

things things out on time and when we

didn't tell people you know the right

information and stuff like that um so I

appreciate your honesty and I know there

there's so many I if I could count on

you know how many times I've failed in

church communication just like in a

particular week I mean it's crazy I mean

there's so much going on when we're

trying to communicate with our people um

that it is easy for things to slip

through the cracks um that's why it's so

important for us to have that place

where we we write everything down we get

with leadership we have it all written

down so we know exactly what's going on

and we also know okay what is the

importance of these different

announcements we want to get out there

um yeah any any other Pro tips from you

all things that you have found worked

really well in your overall Church

communication um do you do you have an

example like is there is there a fail

that you've seen at your church or any

churches you've been to um mine was

actually um it's funny Jeff said that

because I actually did the exact same

thing when I had a small group at my

house a while back um and so that's a

big fail for me um the other fail I did

so when I was leading worship at my

previous Church um I was having a like a

a party kind of get together for for

like basically whoever wanted to come

for Super Bowl uh the problem was I like

didn't tell

anybody um like I I I basically thought

I had told everybody but like I didn't

actually talked to anybody about it in

the leadership meeting and stuff so none

of them knew but I talked to like people

on the worship team and stuff so then it

ended up just being like a worship team

thing it was kind of a blessing in

disguise but like it still was one of

those situations where like I wanted

other people to be a part of it but

because I didn't do a good job of

communicating that and letting our

leadership know that hey I'm having this

big party where everyone can come over

and watch the game and just have a

cookout and stuff yeah it just kind of

ended up being a fail um so question I

think we got a question here um is there

a video on YouTube and how to embed the

calendar I think she's asking about how

to embed our calendar on a website I

don't think we have a video on that

that's a good idea Shannon thank you

yeah we may need to make a video on that

job

security um all right so we currently

use Google Calendar for staff and then

our web and visitor Church newsletter

can we easily Import in into the

calendar in church track I noticed it is

asking for a Google Calendar yeah so you

can link a Google Calendar and have

those events added into your church

track calendar we have a user guide

article on the steps to to do that it's

it's a little more involved than what we

can get into in this video definitely go

ahead and check that out and have those

events brought into your church track

calendar that's that's a good question

yeah I see so Shannon yes please do a

video on that R Ray said please do so um

Can can you write in your notepad for me

just because I'm incapable of

multitasking we're going to do that

we'll we'll get a video going for that

just to make it easier um in fact just

to kind of throw this out there um

because we're really big on support at

church track I mean it's kind of like

it's a part of our core values um on top

of you know making a software that's

really easy to use but if you ever find

you know a situation where you're like

man I I I can't quite figure out how to

do this and there's no like guide that

shows me how to do this in church track

or it would be really cool if Church

track had this they offered this

whatever it may be we love to get

feedback from people uh because

ultimately we don't build the software

for us we build it for you we build it

so that way your church has the tools

that you need to build the body of

Christ and so if you ever have any

feedback for us please let us know um

Chad you're amazing stop it you're great

Chad come on Chad um Chad I actually

need to give you a shout um probably

maybe in the next week or so I'm going

to give you a shout about some things uh

but I love the fact that like we've been

able to just develop this relationship

with all of our church leaders and and

really just we're all doing this

together you know we're all trying to

figure out how we can best communicate

with our people how we can better manage

our churches um to ultimately be able to

push the name of Jesus in our

communities absolutely um so this is

great um all right so Jeff you have a

win uh Google Calendar can be embedded

in onor Squarespace site yes it can fail

it falls apart when it is on a phone yes

it does um you know Jeff that's it's

funny you say that um there there is

this weird thing right now in a lot of

platforms when it comes to putting a

calendar on a mobile device um we're

actually kind of working on this to make

this better um just because sometimes it

doesn't always look the best on a mobile

device because of how the ineds work um

that's part of the reason like when you

go on Church connect just to quickly

show this on my phone um this is so key

like if if your people when they sign in

to church connect so I'm going to sign

in as a church member real fast to show

this and so now I'm logged into church

connect as a church member so when

whenever they click that menu on the top

left and they go to upcoming events they

can see all these events that are coming

up and then if I have any other events

like I've only got one on my test church

here but like I If I had all these

different events where people can

register and stuff like that um they

would see those and then they can click

on those events and take a look at them

and register for them if they haven't

registered or cancel their registration

if they've already registered um which

is a great thing um speaking of church

communication mant um this is still I'm

going to this is kind of like a weird

gray area of church communication but

I'm going to allow it for myself okay so

so we talked about how like form cards

are a way for church people to

communicate with us and you know Church

leadership um another way that people

can communicate with us is by

communicating when they can and cannot

serve so when your people go to those

upcoming events in church connect yet

another reason why Church connect is so

powerful and an important tool for

having all of your people use so when

they go on upcoming events they have the

ability to update their availability I'm

sorry I clicked that so fast let me go

back so update my availability and so

from here I can put in dates that I'm

not available to serve at my church and

so that way I don't get scheduled and so

right now I've got a ski trip where it

automatically put in all those dates

I've blocked off but then I can add

other dates in which I'm unavailable to

serve so I can say hey I'm actually

going to be out of town April 3rd 4th

and 5ifth and I'm going to say I'm at a

conference because I will be at a church

planning conference I'm just going to

put that there and there we go save

those dates and so now I've got those

dates saved so really great church Comm

it's you know obviously it leans on the

side of scheduling but it's still a way

for church people to communicate with us

um so yeah um any other good stuff we've

got in here no that's I think we've got

enough I think we've heard from

everybody about their their wins and

everything that they've done um so we'll

go ahead I think we need to um if you

have any final questions definitely drop

that into the chat we'll we'll answer

them um I know we've had a few questions

like Jeff you said we're new to church

track where can we find the church

Connect app like I mentioned in the chat

though it's it's fully included in your

it's fully included in your account and

also if you're looking for it to like

download it right there within the app

itself like church go to the church

connect feature in church track that

link at the very top or if you go to

connect menu and then choose view your

QR code and URL that'll take you to

where you'll find the url and the QR

code it'll take you and your member

directly to your Church's app so that's

how you get it downloaded on your phone

but thank you for asking that Jeff yeah

yeah and church connect I mean that

really it's the Hub of communication at

churches when you're using Church

connected it's fulls capacity um and I

think what I love about it most of the

fact it's a website it's an app it's

both of those things fused together it's

kind of crazy don't know how the

developers figured it out but they did

um and so it just makes it simple where

you're just updating everything in one

place and it's just showing all the

things for your people to see um great

well this was a different format um a

little different than what we usually do

and I like this because it kind of has

the heart of our getting started live

streams which by the way if you haven't

joined a getting started live stream we

do these every single week um where it's

focus more so people who are getting

started obviously with church track and

we just kind of walk through a lot of

the core features of the software and

everything um and it we purposely keep

those much smaller so like this one I

think we had like 120 people at one

point give or take with those ones we

purposely keep them around a dozen to a

dozen and a half people just because we

want it to be more and more

conversational uh and so if you haven't

joined one of those and you're new to

church track you definitely should join

one of those um but yeah this this kind

of had that feel Matt where even though

we had a lot of people in here today

basically the size of like you know good

size Church in here today watching this

live stream we're having some good

conversation back and forth here I love

it um well I would say speaking now for

forever hold your peace but they can

reach out to our support team and get a

answer in like literally like 30 minutes

or so even less in most cases yeah so

reach out to our sport team if you need

any help with anything else um stay on

the lookout because we're going to be

announcing future live streams yes we

dive into other cool stuff of how to

utilize the software and ultimately just

continue to build the body of Christ and

your local community so Matt this was

fun we'll see y'all

later