Unlimited Resources

I have worked in churches of all shapes, sizes, and locations. I've done the small country church thing and the big suburban church thing. When I was at the smaller, country church, one of my feelings about  the large suburban churches that I was frankly jealous of was their seemingly unlimited resources. They could afford to do cool computer graphic stuff and videos and all sorts of things that didn't even seem like a possibility for me.

It wasn't until I got to the big suburban church that I learned the true dirty secret of where their unlimited resources came from: the internet. Yup, the same internet that I had at my small, country church was the rich well of computer graphics, videos, and set designs that had seemed so far out of reach to me before. The only difference was that these people knew how to find what they needed on the internet and make it work for their church.

Today, let me give you 4 secrets to mining the vast wealth of internet resources for your church, no matter what your size.

1. Stop reinventing the wheel. For the last 2000ish years, pastors have been preaching sermons. You might think you are coming up with a brand new slant to something from the Bible. You probably aren't. (If you are, you might want to check and make sure it's from the Bible.) Chances are, someone has already done what you are about to do. Google it! Maybe your seminary professors told you that was wrong and you should only do totally original stuff for your sermons and series. But even your original stuff probably isn't original. It's made up of stuff you learned from others and pieced together. I believe the Holy Spirit can inspire you through a Google search. You don't have to take what someone else said or did word for word, and you probably shouldn't, but there are a vast number of resources out there, and to me, it's a waste of your God-given time and energy to recreate something that's already been created.

2. Ask for stuff. One of the greatest lessons I learned working for a larger church that did make some of our own graphics and videos now and then is that these churches are usually incredibly willing to just give their stuff away for free. They created something great, they're done with it now, and they would love to see it still be put to use. If you find that a church did a series that you're going to do, give them a call and see if they have any resources that they would be willing to share. 9 times out of 10, they'll just give you the stuff they have. You just have to call them.

3. Collaborate. If you are reading this, you have access to the internet, meaning you also have access to the other people on the internet. You know, people doing the same stuff you are. Right now I'm collaborating with two other pastors on a Lenten series. We're sharing resources through dropbox. Maybe your church is in the middle of nowhere. If you've got the internet, then you have means to collaborate with other churches. You don't have to do this alone.

4.  Share your stuff. When you do come up with something original, share it with others. Add to the beautiful treasure trove that is online sermon material. It's good to be proud and protective of your own intellectual property, but there is also something wonderful about helping reach others beyond your own church with the stuff you have come up with.

What do you think? Do you share and make use of resources from other churches that you find online?

Facebook Advertising for Churches

If you don't work at a church, this post probably will not be of any interest to you. I don't want you to feel like you wasted your time clicking this link, so here's a picture of my daughter in a rainbow afro.

Ok, now for you people who work in a church. For crying out loud, use Facebook advertising.

Can you tell when I ran my two ads?

The easiest way to advertise on Facebook is to promote a post. After you post something, click the "promote" link under your post. There are a couple of quick links to be able to promote your post for $5 or $10. It just causes your post to show up more often on relevant news feeds of your friends or friends of friends. The great thing is you only pay when the ad shows up on someone's page or they click on it, and when you reach your set limit dollar amount, the ad stops. Basically, you pay when it works.

You can play around with your ads and get even more targeted. Maybe you only want to contact people who haven't already liked your church's Facebook page but live within a ten mile radius of the church. Maybe you want to target just men or women, or maybe just people who mention "church" in their "about" section of their Facebook page. You can really target it in so that you are reaching the people you want with the info you want.

Play around with it, check it out, and see if it works for you. For me, it's been really efficient and pretty simple to figure out. And, it's way cheaper than putting ads in the paper constantly and not knowing if anyone is actually reading them. Facebook gives you the statistics to see whether or not it's working.

Haters Gonna Hate

This meme started a while back. The first instance of the phrase I could find was in 2000 from a 3LW song called "Playas Gon' Play." I'm sure that's in your iPod.

Since then, and with the addition of the above drawing in 2003, the phrase has taken on a life of it's own.

Haters gonna hate.

For those of you not as well versed in the hip-hop vernacular as I am, let me break it down for you. A "hater" is someone who simply cannot be happy for the success of another. They are likely jealous. And the phrase "haters gonna hate" refers to the attitude those who are successful must have, in spite of those who are against them. Frequently, musicians, celebrities, and athletes will use this phrase to describe their demeanor towards the anti-fans who ridicule them.

But then something unfortunate happened.

Everyone started thinking that as soon as someone criticized them, the critic must be a "hater."

How dare they question me! They're just jealous. I don't need them telling me how to live my life. I'm right, they're wrong. I'm going to be me. I don't need to change for anyone. I'm good the way I am. Better than them, at least. I don't need their advice, criticism, or critique.

They're just haters.

Really? Are they?

The "haters gonna hate" attitude is going to kill us, people.

Look, I'll be the first to admit I have an ego. I'm proud of who I am and what I can accomplish. And frankly, I don't always welcome criticism.

But I sure need it. I need people around me who are willing to get in my face when I mess up. I need people who care enough about me to confront me when I need to change. I cannot and will not be successful without the counsel of people I know and trust.

Too often I have failed to take critique from people who really care about me and my success in all areas of life: work, family, relationships, spiritual life, etc. I have believed myself to be wiser than I am.

I'm getting better at it. In fact, I have found the value of asking others to tell me the things that are hard to hear. I have given permission to those I trust and whose opinions I value to speak difficult truth into my life.

Confession: it still stings. But at least I know now that they aren't "haters." In fact, they love me. They value me enough to try to build me into the person God created me to be.

Maybe you feel like you're surrounded by haters. Maybe you feel like everyone is against you.

Or maybe they really love you and are trying to break through your massive ego to help you become who God created you to be.