You’re starting a new Church, it’s exciting. So you’ve been assigned the role Church administrator or maybe you’re the Pastor wearing multiple hats. Either way, you realize you have to organize the administrative side of the house. Here are a few things to consider:
One: Communication
GSuite by Google is free for non-profit organizations. I’ll recommend the first step after registering and getting approved is to setup the following accounts:
Admin, Pastor, info,
Website
Today, your website is your global ID card, resume, and snap judgment object all rollled into one. You need a clean, clear, communicative and solid one. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to do it on your own. Get a professional, spend a few hundred or a thousand dollars on it and get an admin access to regularly maintain and update it.
Social Media
Church Page
Group
Youtube
Email Marketing
As an admin, though you have GSuite at your fingertips, your work isn’t done when it comes to email, you need to send regular emails to your members and guests or family and friends. The best platform in the market is MailChimp. Watch a video or two on youtube to learn how to maximize this fantastic tool, but it’s incredibly intuitive and easy to use. Learn email etiquette. Don’t bombard your audience or be too infrequent, but keep them in the know and show activity. A few ideas about what to send your audience include:
- A newsletter from Pastor’s Desk
- What’s Happening this week
- Thank you for worshipping with us
- A follow up on the sermon on Sunday
- And much more
Surveys
You need to know what’s working and what isn’t. A survey is the best way to find out how your audience or congregation really feel about your church and services. Ensure the feedback is anonymous and you’ll get real feedback. Set up a quick survey with the following tools
Google Forms
Survey Monkey
Typeform
Contact Forms
Ensure you’re vigilant about collecting everyone’s contact information. Beyond the ability to contact them, you’ll also need it for tax purposes. You want to make sure you keep a record of everyone who visits your Church each year. A lot of people prefer to donate anonymously to the Church, but in reality, this presents a headache when filing taxes. Be sure to communicate the importance of associating donations with people and you’ll have less to worry about during tax time.
Two: Events
It’s important to ensure your events are visible without your congregation needing to ask a Church staff or volunteer. Low attendance of events is almost always directly linked to low publicity. Put signs everywhere in Church, announce during service, and post on all social media platforms.
Calendar and Event Schedule
Your website vendor and social media person must ensure that all major and recurring events are available on your website, social media pages, and email campaigns
Bulletin Board
A visible board must be in your Church where people can see what’s happening each week without having to interact with a staff or volunteer. I know I’ve stated this before, but a lot of people come to Church scan the foyer and head back out. Let the information presented invite them back, at least until they’re comfortable interacting with others.
Three: During Service
EZ Worship (Computer, projector, and camera):
Keyboard:
Drums:
These may seem out of scope for the administrator, but whatever you do, ensure your Church invests in these 3 items. Don’t let anyone talk you out of it. No, Powerpoint or Google slides don’t do the same thing.
Regarding worship, if your worship remains acapella, you can expect your growth to dry up shortly afterwards. As an administrator, remember that people who come to Church take these 3 things deadly serious, their worship, Children and the word. Don’t play with any of it. Maintain quality.
Four: Donations
Tithe and Offering:
Power Church
https://www.powerchurch.com/products/pcplus/?id=123
Your Church accounting office will love you and so would the IRS. Power Church helps you keep track of every amount the Church makes and helps you get organized ahead of a tax filing or audit.
Use tithley
Tithely and many others like it, help your Church members give effortlessly. Through an app, they can schedule their tithe and offering or just give through a simple click on their phones.
Stripe
https://stripe.com
Sign up for a stripe account and integrate your Church account with it
Five: Merchandising and Revenue Generation
This may seem controversial, but if your Church was born out of a bigger Church or your membership is still small, you may want to start thinking of creative ways to fund your Church so you don’t go back to your parent Church months later hat in hand, or even worse, have most of the sermons related to giving.
You can make the sermon titles or monthly/annual themes into slogans. You can brand those slogans on stickers, t-shirts, hats, water bottles, mugs, and more. There are companies online that won’t even charge you upfront to pay for those items until they’re ordered. Encourage your members to shop at your online store. It takes a few minutes to set up, but it can really help you build a culture.
- Teespring
- Shopify
- Printful
