When was the last time you collaborated on a project with someone outside of your organization? Or when was the last time your church collaborated with another church?

If you’re like me, you have a natural tendency to “do it yourself”. For me, the reasons are many and varied, but chief among them are my excuses:

I can do it faster by myself.

I don’t want to have to explain it to someone.

I must have total control over my project.

I don’t have the money to hire an outsider

I believe strongly in this project, so I must be the one to get it done.

These may all actually be true statements, but are they the right reasons?

It Takes More Than You

Even if you can do it by yourself, is that best? What if you brought in others for creative input? How would you receive critical feedback? Are you withholding the blessing of allowing someone to serve with their gifts because you won’t let it out of your hands?

Though not everything can or should be shared, I would submit that much of what we do could be better if we did share our projects. Here are some examples of where collaboration could be a game-changer for your church:

• What would happen if a group of churches did a billboard campaign – as one – in your city?

• Could your sermon be better if you used a creative team to plan months in advance on sermon series?

• What would happen if you shared musicians and vocalists with smaller churches each month?

• How many more volunteers would you have if you offered to include them beyond weekend services?

• Where else could you make an impact in your church and community if you collaborated?

Facebook page? Check.

Twitter account? Check.

Doing more than posting status updates or re-tweeting the pastor? Uhhhhmm…

Those are all good actions and activities, but as checklists go, they’re simply tactical. That’s motion without progress; or, if there is progress, how can you know if it’s in the right direction or getting the right results?

The 30/50/20 Rule I outlined for pastors in my previous post is partially tactical, but it’s built around the idea that pastors will start to see value (ROtI – return on their time investment, which is minimal) through conversations. However, to fully take advantage of Social Media is to see beyond the actions and tasks and engage the individuals using these near real-time technologies.

7 Crucial Elements of Social Media ROI for Churches

I will briefly touch on these, as it’s too much information to put into a single blog post.

1) Know How Social Media Integrates the Vision of Your Church

2) Decide What’s Measureable – and What’s Not

3) Define ROM (Return On Ministry)

4) Which Metrics Matter?

5) Empower Every Ministry with Tools & Training

6) Drive People to Decisions

7) Share Success Stories

Having a strategy for your church’s social media efforts goes beyond the tactical and produces a plan to do something with the opportunity. Deciding to measure the return on investment (mostly, time, since churches are not selling product or service) will take time, effort and above all, consistency. However, the results can be very impressive when a strategy is employed.

Learning from the business world helps give context to this kind of dedication, consistency and effort. The folks over at MarketingSherpa polled 3,342 consumer and B2B (Business-to-Business) marketers, giving us valuable insights about how these firms are using social media to engage audience, build brand, generate leads and drive sales. Based on the survey results, the overall average ROI reported by those who are measuring it is 95 percent. One-quarter said they have achieved 100 percent ROI. Higher percentages were reported, too. Twelve percent said they have achieved 200 percent ROI; two percent reported 1,000 percent ROI.

While local churches aren’t looking to generate sales, they are interested in connecting with their communities (loosely translated as “leads” in the business world). The principle here is the point: a consistent social media strategy will yield results.

How is your church approaching social media? With a more tactical or strategic mindset? What have been your success stories and learnings?

If your pastor is new to Twitter or hasn’t found a good rhythm of how to use it, try my 30/50/20 rule for Pastors on Twitter:

30% message application: drop hints in your weekend message that you’ll be tweeting life application from the sermon topic every day for the upcoming week.

50% family/personal life: people want to feel like they know their pastors. Since you live in a glass-house anyway, offer them the view you want to share as you live life transparently.

20% inspiration/information (including ReTweets): You don’t have all the answers, and you’re learning, too. Be human and share what’s inspiring/challenging you and who you’re learning from.

More data continues to add to the pile of information that’s showing how mobile connections are shaping the lives and habits of Americans. According to the Performics 2011 Mobile Search Insights Study, conducted by ROI Research,  57% of us use the mobile Web more than once every day, with a whopping 77% of us using mobile search more than five times in the last month.

Overwhelmingly, satisfaction and adoption of mobile search holds true throughout the study:

• 75% said mobile search makes their lives easier
• 63% said access to mobile search has changed the way they gather information
• 32% said they use mobile search more than search engines on their computers

81% of respondents reported evening use of mobile search at home, 80% reported weekend use, and 59% reported use before work while 61% reported using mobile search at work.

Churches, the future is now and it’s on the mobile. I just can’t say this enough: rethink how people are finding your church, activities and resources and make it easy for them to do it while on-the-go. Chances are, you’ll need to do at least a few of the following:

• Build out a mobile version of your church website
• Integrate your Small Group finder tool (a part of your church management software) for mobile browsing
  
• Conduct a poll and find out how many of your attendees use smart phones
• Use mass email tools that have a mobile version output
• Have people “check-in” to your church via Facebook or Foursquare when they arrive. Sharing this information creates free visibility to their friends who may not have a church home.

The future of mobile is wide open for churches. Think through how the life of your church can (and should) be anytime, anywhere for ministry.

There have only been a handful of technologies that fundamentally changed how churches function on a day-to-day basis: Electricity, Central A/C & Heat, Telephones, the Internet, Email and, most recently, mobile technologies. I believe that mobile technologies will eventually force churches to change from a “come to us on our terms and our location” mindset to one that says “we’re available to meet you wherever you are”. In order to help churches embrace this change, I’ve outlined some of the reasons why I believe this change is coming – and coming faster than most realize.

More Than a Phone

Some would argue that mobile- and smart-phones are merely an extension of the telephone, but I believe the familiarity of the phone aspects cloud the bigger, and inherently better, value of mobile technology. A telephone was only ever a phone, though it did act as a transport medium for faxes and dial-up Internet connections.

Mobile devices, on the other hand, have redefined nearly every communication and transactional interaction of our lives.

The research firm comScore released their 2010 Mobile Year in Review report and revealed some very interesting and telling trends that, I believe, will bring a tidal wave of change upon nearly every local church. The report highlighted the increasing functionality in mobile phones. One of the fastest-growing uses of mobile devices? Online banking & online giving. “The U.S. mobile market displayed the most mature mobile banking market reaching 11.4% of mobile users,” cited the report. In addition, mobile wallet capabilities – using mobile phones in place of debit or credit cards for in-person purchases – are beginning to come onto the scene. The report cited the example of Starbucks, which, in early 2011, announced that “customers in thousands of locations can pay for items with their phones via an application that can be scanned across a reader at check out.”

People are using the near-constant availability of their mobile devices to connect and share instantly; a facet of digital life that the local church must embrace.

For example, 24.7% of U.S. mobile users access social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device, showing the continued rise of online connectivity. With 93% penetration in the U.S., mobile reach has connected the vast majority of Americans, with 2.26 trillion (yep, with a ‘t’) minutes of cell phone calls logged and 1.81 trillion text messages sent in 2010 alone. Further, 24.5% of U.S. households are now wireless-only.

This kind of saturation leads to one obvious conclusion: we have the ability to find, connect, communicate, share and purchase from anywhere at anytime.

Mobile Usage Intersects with Life in Churches

As mobile devices continue to sell at unprecedented rates, the increasing usage to an ever-widening user group has certain categories showing massive double-digit growth.

In the not-too-distant past, churches could pretty much get by with a “build-it-and-they-will-come” mentality. Today, churches can’t assume their venues, activities and events will be the hub of people’s spiritual lives. Remember when:

• New to town & looking for a church? Go to the street with all the church signs & try one.
• Want to share life with those who share your belief? Join a church Bible study class or small group.
• Need to tithe? Drop it in the offering plate at church.
• Desire to be in a mid-week discipleship class? Go to church.
• Need to share a prayer request? Go to church & post it on the prayer wall or meet with a pastor.
• Want to serve in a community outreach event? Go to church and sign up (on a piece of paper).

Today, every single one of those can be done through online technologies, all of which can be accessed on a mobile device. It is because of this near-limitless functionality, and the fact that it’s almost always on their body, that people are finding so many ways to use their mobile devices. Take a look at the top mobile activities over just a three month average:

What’s more, social media continues to expand into a larger audience, fueled by the handy accessibility of their connected mobile devices. The number of U.S. users accessing the Facebook site via mobile reached roughly 44 million as of December 2010, while YouTube and Twitter held the second and third position in the U.S., growing 74% and 71%, respectively.

Mobile is Now, Churches

In much the same way that building a website was a critical component for churches in the 1990′s, developing and using mobile applications will be one of the biggest needs (and challenges) for local churches. In fact, starting with a new website design today is probably a great starting point, as a mobile version of the site not only makes viewing it on a mobile device easier to read, the site navigation decisions that drive mobile design are excellent ways to trim the fat off of church websites.

Other mobile applications are readily available, many of them free, for churches to equip their staff & members. Some of my favorites include:

• YouVersion
• TruthCasting
• Planning Center Online
• F1Touch (iPhone version)
• Foursquare
• Facebook
• Twitter

Mobile will continue to grow and make church attendees more acutely aware of how much your churches does NOT have available (or at least visible). In time, I believe that mobile technology will be leveraged to make some percent of a church’s experience location independent. Anytime, anywhere is where people’s lives are moving and church should be an active, mobile part of life.

Do you think churches will change because they want to or because they’ll have to?

* Sources include CITA & comScore

Trust equity is perhaps the most difficult thing to earn from people. It can take years to build this equity up and it can take mere moments to wipe it all away. Though I’m not living in condemnation, I have been reminded of times when I’ve dropped the ball and failed to follow through. These painful moments are stark reminders of the importance consistently earning trust. They’re also times when it’s so encouraging to have friends that will love you in spite of what you do, not because of what you do.

The kind of friends that will go to the mattresses with you (Godfather reference) are those that will be there with you when you’re wrong – and tell you so without leaving your side. I count these friends – covenant friendships - as invaluable. We all go up and down, we all make mistakes and we all grow from those mistakes. These are the same friends that will also be with you on the highest points of your life to celebrate with you.

Jesus said it best in John chapter 15, verses 12-13:
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

If you’re one of my friends that I’ve dropped the ball with, or someone I’ve lost trust equity with at some place or time, then I want to tell you that I’m sorry. And I want to ask for your forgiveness.

I don’t want to go through life with someone having anything to hold against me. I desire to have the humility to admit when I’m wrong, the character to do what is right and the relationship to be a friend through thick and thin.

As we all do life together and share in the world of ministry, it’s imperative that we work harder on our relationships than we do on our skills.

I want to repair the breach.

If I’ve done something that needs correction in your life, please let me know.

If you know someone who has wronged you, offer them forgiveness.

I’m thankful for God giving me a holy discontent and gently urging me to rebuilt trust equity and repair the breach. But for the grace of God, go I.

I’m a fan of tech arts leaders in local churches who focus more on people than they do on gear. One of these guys is rather unassuming when you meet him, but he’s a leader of leaders in the church tech arts world. His name is Todd Elliott, and he’s the Technical Arts Director at Willow Creek (yeah, that Willow). He’s filling some mighty big shoes that have been worn by Bruce Smith, Chris & Jill Gille and the legendary Marty O’Connor.

Todd wrote a short, introspective blog about taking an Enneagram Personality test with some other staff and thinking through what it meant to him. You can read the post here.

But what I wanted to highlight was a couple of paragraphs of Todd’s that highlights what all Technical Arts leaders should be about:

My heart beats fast for the production person in the local church. For how that person uses how God has made them to accomplishes His purposes on this earth using their gifts. I also feel like one of the largest issues that this group deals with is a disconnect between them and the programming team, stage personalities, talent, musicians, actors, artists, etc. These two groups couldn’t be more different and yet we work so closely together.

I want my life to be about bringing these two groups together. Not only bringing them together, but maximizing the impact we can have together. Do things work when we don’t get along?  Generally. But the vision of how things could work so much better if we could learn to see each other’s POV so that the Gospel can be presented in new and creative ways, and so that we could live in a genuine Acts 2 community, gets me excited like nothing else. I want to shrink the divide. I want to bridge the gap.

My heart beat faster just reading that insight into Todd’s heart and mind! So, how are you bringing those two diverse groups of people together in your church? In what ways are you shrinking the divide and bridging the gap?

I don’t normally make predictions, but this is one I see coming like the light of a freight train in a tunnel. I believe that there will be a need (and eventually a demand) for a Pastor of Social & Digital Communications.

I’m not putting any bets on when churches will make this move, but when church leaders realize that social media isn’t a fad but instead a fundamental shift in interpersonal communications, the need for such a position will become apparent. Ironically, I believe that churches have a significant leg-up on just about every other social media market due to the fact that there have been the core makeup of social media segments in churches for thousands of years. Said another way, churches already have multiple small groups of people with similar or same affinities, needs and goals. The church social network existed long before it was made real-time anytime, anywhere by digital technologies.

What Defines A Pastor of Social & Digital Communications?

In my opinion, it’s more than a job description (though that’s helpful to a point), the position is a reflection of the unique DNA and needs of a church in context to their local and glocal (globally local; time and venue are almost entirely irrelevant on the Internet) communities.

Update: I don’t believe this will be the same as the current role of an Internet Pastor, which I believe is more similar to today’s multi-site campus pastor. Also, after additional consideration, I don’t think this will be a position at small or possibly even medium sized churches. To take a guess towards the future, I’d say this position might be more oriented towards the Communication team with a pastoral bent.

If a church is a focused on outreach through projects, social justice and equipping, I believe the role of an SDC pastor (Social & Digital Communications) will largely be around coordinating online event registration, making community connections and helping organizing logistics.

I also believe the same position at a church that’s more discipleship focused will most likely have more of their time coordinating between ministry leaders to ensure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and working with a robust database of church members, attendees and community leaders & organizations to help raise awareness, make personal connections to the right leaders and managing multiple channels of information dissemination and communication.

Understanding Channels & Communication Mediums

Because this role has an emphasis on social media and Internet technologies, it most likely prove necessary for this staff position to have a strong communications background, leveraging social monitoring tools and clearly understanding demographics. Though the term “targeted demographics” sounds like pure marketing speak, what it represents is a truth in every church and organization:

The need to get the right information to the right people at the right time in the right way or ways.

Churches deal with this week in and week out today…

• Making phone calls to senior adults
• Sending postcards to first-time visitors
• Sending HTML-rich emails to Gen X’ers
• Sending SMS text messages to Gen Y’ers
• Sending a combination of emails, postcards and personal phone calls for people who miss serving or attending (such as children’s classes)

The Matrix of Social & Digital

These channels of communication must be managed through a matrix of frequency, demographic, medium and priority.

Frequency is how often a need, activity, event or opportunity occurs. It also must represent the number of times the message is communicated across different mediums with different content.

Demographic is the target group, from church wide all the way down to an individual. Sub-demographics are the methods for slicing up a target group (young adults) into other, more specific parameters (single, married, attends X-often, has not attended since Y, has or has not served in a similar activity in the past or has signaled an interest that is saved to their profile (an attribute such as “like volunteering with other kids” or “wants to serve with other single mothers”).

Medium is the kind of content and the distribution channel for the medium. From video to email to text message to Facebook to Twitter to phone calls, defining the technology/vehicle options that best reach a certain people group(s), the content can be customized and delivered at the right time to the right people.

Priority defines the urgency of the information and the authority to remove, replace or reschedule other communication and/or engagement.

Is This Really A Dedicated Person?

Why I think this will become a common new position is the combination of talents, technology integration, leadership and interpersonal relationship capacity. While I do believe certain staff members may be able to “double up” on some of these roles today, I also believe that the velocity of change in technology combined with the need for near real-time communication will require a dedicated person who can meet the unique requirements of this role.

So, what do you think? Am I too early on this prediction? Are most churches so far behind the culture and technology curves to make this any kind of near-term need? Share your thoughts and speak into my prognostication.

A couple of days ago I wrote a post calling “Loving Your Volunteers.” In it, I encouraged Technical Arts staff to pick up the phone and make a simple call to love on a volunteer. Within a day, I heard an inspiring story of a technical director named Justin Kirk from a church in Tennessee. If you needed any encouragement to follow my advice and love your volunteers, this will surely provide it!

Anthony, I read your post entitled “Loving Your Volunteers” yesterday. It hit home with me because I’ve felt like I should’ve been doing what you suggested for a while.

On my way to the church this morning, I heard on the radio about Lifestar (the helicopter ambulance company) being dispatched to a wreck. I immediately thought of one of my volunteers that is the operations manager for Lifestar at UT hospital. So I called him to see how he is doing. When he answered, we just chatted for a few minutes and then I asked him “is there’s anything I can do for you? any help i can give you?” That’s all I said. He told me about his job and about some family issues that he really would like prayer for. I told him about being on the way to work and hearing about Lifestar and it made me think of him. He then told me that the helicopter was 90 seconds out from the hospital carrying passengers from the wreck I heard about and he was waiting to unload it. We took about 60 seconds to pray. It really touched me that I could step in and be a part of his day and, hopefully, encourage him.

Feeling the rush of praying for my guys and the connection…I called another.

He’s an older guy with minor health problems. Nothing major. After his last little stint of throwing up blood and going to the hospital back in the summer, I thought he was OK now.

We were talking and I asked him if there’s anyway I can pray for him. He then proceeds to tell me that he has two types of cancer and that no one in the church knows. Only his family knows. We have over 1500 members and over 1000 people attending services on sunday morning. I asked him why no one knows and he said he didn’t want any sympathy.

Wow. I was shocked. He serves with the deacons, the kitchen crew, the media team, and the transportation ministry and no one knows what’s going on but me! I felt honored that he let me in on something that is so private just so I could pray for him. We prayed and then he had to get back to work. After talking to him, I realized that I hadn’t followed up with him after he told me about having to go to the Hematologist back in September. That’s when he found that he has a lowgrade Leukemia. Just three weeks ago he found out that he has another, more major, cancer.

I really felt guilt for not checking in with him more often and asking him if I could pray for him.

Both of these phone calls together were right at 11 minutes. 11 minutes out of my day that have changed me and hopefully them.

I’ve been at this church for 3 years this past January, and I’ve felt like nothing more than a person that tells these guys how to push buttons and turn knobs. Today, however, I felt like I could actually make a difference in their lives! I feel like my job actually has meaning rather than just making it look pretty and sound good. I’ve felt like more should be done on my part but I really just didn’t know where to start. Thank you for that start!