Category: Church Life

By: Ted Vaughn

(Note: This is our second post on church strategy and branding from Ted Vaughn. CLICK HERE to see the first one – about why your church needs to stop trying to reach everyone.)

Most every church has a mission, vision, and/or purpose statement. The best of these statements inspire and give high level perspective on why the church exists. They motivate and compel their members to action. Below is a great example from a local church I recently worked with:

“We exist to help move people into a deeper relationship with Jesus and we are a community of believers who love God and others, look for ways to express and deepen our faith, and proclaim hope to the world and this community.”

I love this statement. Phrases like “love God” and “proclaim hope” are very inspiring and motivating. They are also broad statements that could potentially encompass myriad ministries, staff decisions, events, programs, and resources. (more…)

By: Ted Vaughn

As a trusted partner to many churches, I often hear the following, “our church serves EVERYONE; our doors are open to ALL; our ministries serve CRADLE TO GRAVE.” I love the heart and passion behind these words…and I do not doubt for one second the pure motive and intention. Unfortunately, limited resources often call into the question the viability of this ministry paradigm. After all, how can any one organization possibly reach, with effectiveness, EVERYONE?

Many of my clients are struggling through this question today. They want their church to be seen as a trusted brand where anyone and everyone in the community can find a home. They also realize that, by definition, their local church exists PRIMARILY for it’s NON-MEMBERS; those not reached yet. And even that audience (non-members) is of a size and scope too large for any single church to entirely reach. Which begs the fundamental question I help churches think through: “Who, outside of your existing membership, has God best positioned you to reach?” Because you cannot – you will not – reach all of them. No brand can reach everybody….not even Apple (this is hard to admit). (more…)

Can I tell you a quick story? It’s a story about giving. More specifically, it’s about a giver. Even more specifically, it’s about me.

It was late 2010, and – for what seemed like the 50th week in a row – my pockets were empty as I watched the offering plate come down my row. If it was a good week, maybe I’d have $10.00 I could toss in. More likely, though, I just let the plate pass by while making silent promises to do better next week. But then next week came, and…well…you can probably guess how that turned out.

It’s not that I didn’t want to give. It’s just that I – like so many of my peers – was still figuring out how to manage bills, student loans, savings, and a social life. All too often, it was my giving that got shortchanged. On top of that, I never carried cash, and I hadn’t seen my checkbook since college! So my giving habits ended up being determined by “whatever I have leftover.” This was hardly the life of faithful stewardship I had imagined for myself. (more…)

Next to the employees at your local mall, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone working harder this month than a pastor or church administrator.

There are Christmas concerts and nativity pageants to be coordinated, extra services and outreach opportunities to be planned, not to mention all of the traveling, shopping, and family get-togethers that pack an already crowded schedule!

With so much going on, it’s understandable that “non-essential” things like digital giving end up taking a back seat for a few weeks. But they shouldn’t!

With dozens of family-members and friends visiting your church for the first time this month, and with givers scrambling to get their year-end donations in before the 31st, it is no exaggeration to say that the gifts you receive in December can make or break your budget. (Fun Fact: Nearly 18.00% of all charitable giving and over 22% of online giving takes place in the month of December alone!) (more…)

A quick glance at the “Recent Posts” column to the right makes one thing immediately obvious: we talk a lot about giving on this blog! And it’s not hard to figure out why. It’d be silly to call ourselves “Mogiv” if we weren’t passionate about mobile and online giving.

It also doesn’t hurt that we have so much to brag about! With Mogiv’s embedded giving forms, integrated mobile giving, and endless campaign options, we believe that we have created the most effective digital giving solution for the church and we want to shout about it from the rooftops!

BUT…we also understand that churches do not live on giving alone. There are dozens of tools and resources you require on Sunday mornings and throughout the week to make your church run. While we can’t provide all of these tools for you, we want to help direct you in the right direction whenever and wherever we can.

With that in mind, we want to let you know about a brand new integration we’ve just completed with Proclaim Church Presentation Software. (more…)