Check out this post from Gary Lamb, on “Thoughts Keeping Him Up”. It contains thoughts that are keeping him awake at night as they prepare to launch their first satellite campus. Here a few good ones.

• What is the bottom line cost we can launch campuses for without compromising our vision, style, and excellence?
• How quickly can I launch campuses?
• How important is the role of campus pastor?
• How do you duplicate the buzz and energy of our main campus?

Check out his post for more of his thoughts and questions about it.

#2 - Throw a BBQ

I know it probably seems like a lame idea, right? Well, not if you do it a little different. Try setting up at the local park, or local venue for fireworks, and throw a FREE BBQ. That’s right, free, as in no strings attached, no donations accepted, no tracks passed out, no attempts to promote the church - other then telling people who ask, no preaching, teaching, or anything. Just FREE.

Why do this you ask? What benefit does this have for the church? Well besides just being a great thing for your community, it does promote your church. people will inevitably ask why you are doing this and who you are. At that point you tell them the truth. “We are (Your Church Name). And we are just out here to do something nice for the community”. You will probably even have some people ask when you meet and such so you should have some small, and I stress small, invite cards handy to give those that ask.

It may not seem like muc for the amount of work and money involved, but hey serving the community should be blessing enough.

And on a side note please go to a public place to do this, not your church parking lot. If you do this from the parking lot you will miss a huge opportunity to reach people who will take the opportunity in a park, but would drive past a free BBQ in a church parking lot.

***Another easier variation on this would be to only hand out free (cold) sodas/waters to people.***

#3 - Do A Giveaway For Military/Vets

Our active duty military give up a lot to serve our country and often times aren’t acknowledged or rewarded very often. Go out and get some things to offer in a giveaway to active duty military personnel. Weather you have to buy it or ask for donations. It is a great way to say thanks to those who are currently protecting us.

Some things you could give away:

• Gift Certificates(Restaurants/Movies/Sbux/Retail Stores)
• Video Game Consoles/Games
• I-pods/MP3 Players
• Gift Baskets
• Anything and everything you can get donated in new condition.

How would you get some of these items? Well besides buying them as a church or asking attenders to donate them, you can go around to businesses and ask them if they want to sponsor the giveaway by donating items, advertising (for newspapers/TV & Radio Stations/Websites), money, promotional materials.

Once again try to run this event in a public place on the 4th as you are more likely to get more participation then running it at your church. And once again mention that church is running it but don’t make that the main point. The main point is that you are wanting to honor service members and you shouldn’t care who gets the glory.

If you have good relations within the community then you would be suprised at the amount of support you can get. Every business want to be associated with honoring the military esspescially on the fouth of July, it is just good advertising for them. and great community service by you.

In the next few days I am going to share some of my ideas, some ideas gleaned from others, and some overall just plain good ideas for church blogging, and how to do it successfully, creatively, and effectively.

Idea 4

Get the readers to do it. If you want your church blog to be successful you have to get the reader involved. Post entries that ask readers questions and encourage them to respond, In doing so you will encourage a dialog on your blog. Other ideas are to have your readers tell you what topics they want you to write on, you could do a survey via a polling add-on. Regardless of how you do it, you need to try to encourage visitor participation. In doing this you offer the reader something more then just words to read but you give them a chance to be heard. You will make them want to come back so they can be heard again and again.

So remember just do it, do it regularly, have guests do it, and get your readers to do it.

In the next few days I am going to share some of my ideas, some ideas gleaned from others, and some overall just plain good ideas for church blogging, and how to do it successfully, creatively, and effectively.

Idea 3

Have a guest do it. One of the best ways you can garner interest and lighten your own blogging load is to invite guest bloggers to write posts.  One of the best examples I have seen of this is over at The Swerve Blog. The Guys there at Life Church know a thing or two about successful technology ministry, so why not take a cue from them. Who could you invite to guest blog you ask? How bout another ministry leader, or a church member, or gasp a non member who might have some insight. You could even make guest blogging a part of your regular blog schedule.  To lighten the load even more have a guest blogger do a series  of related posts.

The key to this idea is just getting out there and asking some folks to get involved and share their thoughts.  I am sure that for most any church there are at least a few people other then the pastor whohave something insightful and helpful to share. For example one of LifeChurch.tv guests bloggers was the pastors secretary(administrative assistant), who did a very good 5 part series on how her ministry in helping the lead pastor is so important.(it is!)

So remember, just do it, do it regularly, and have guests do it.

In the next few days I am going to share some of my ideas, some ideas gleaned from others, and some overall just plain good ideas for church blogging, and how to do it successfully, creatively, and effectively.

Idea 2

Do it regularly. One of the best ways to garner and then keep interest in a blog is to do it regularly. Post daily or at worst two to three times a week. If you can’t think of what to post then check out Part 1 of this series for some ideas, or come back here daily for some more ideas as this series continues. But the key is to do it often enough that people have a reason to come back and read what you have to say. If you only post once a week then you will only get people coming back once a week. If you post daily you instantly drive traffic to your blog and increase peoples awareness of it.

So remember, Just Do It, and Do It Regularly.

In the next few days I am going to share some of my ideas, some ideas gleaned from others, and some overall just plain good ideas for church blogging, and how to do it successfully, creatively, and effectively.

Idea 1

Just Do It!. if you are reading this and you have not yet started a blog for your church, well there is no excuse. Go start one. There are too many free places to blog to name, so go out and set up a blog. If you are not sure what a blog is all about well, first off what are doing reading one? Secondly, a blog is all about YOU and what YOU want to tell people. Are you a Senior Pastor, then start blogging about your visions for the church. A youth pastor, blog about cool stuff going on. A children’s pastor, blog about stuff happening to keep parents in the loop.

Regardless of your place in the church, your church needs a blog so to get you started here are a few things you can use a blog for when it comes to a church environment.

• Announcements
• Daily devotionals
• Events and post event pictures
• spreading church vision
• and even your personal life stuff

See there are a multitude of things you can blog about, but the key is this JUST DO IT!