One of the hardest parts of any major event your church sponsors, such as mission trips and community service days, is raising the funds, especially because each event seems so isolated. Expenses for utilities and rent are predictable and you can often plan ahead, but the cost of mission trips changes year to year.
So, to make things easier for you, and to help you support as many projects as possible, we have put together a few fundraising ideas based on what we’ve seen work. Continue reading
As Christians, we have the obligation to support and encourage people recovering from all kinds of struggles, but how do we do this without endangering our children? Below, you’ll find tips designed to help you provide the best security for your children, in a manner that is unobtrusive and inviting to guests of all backgrounds. Continue reading
When people think of church vision statements, there are usually two related but different things they picture. One is a vision statement, and one is a mission statement. These documents are related and most churches end up combining them, but for the purpose of discussion, we’ll treat them separately (You can read the mission statement tips here). The difference is that a vision statement describes how you and God see your church. It focuses on the personality of the church. A mission statement describes what actions will result from your vision. As you work on your vision statement, here are a few things to keep in mind: Continue reading
When people think of church mission statements, there are usually two related but separate things they imagine. One is a mission statement, and one is a vision statement. The difference between these is that a mission statement is very practical in its scope. It focuses on what you will accomplish and how you will do it. A vision statement is designed to be more abstract. It focuses on the personality of the church and how God sees your local church fitting into the larger context of the global church.
The distinction is subtle, and many churches end up combining the two, but for the purposes of discussion we’ll just address the mission statement here. Continue reading
For a lot of people it can be difficult to find a place where they feel comfortable serving. This type of dilemma is the reason so many churches struggle to get their youth involved. It’s hard to find opportunities that are age appropriate. In some cases, you may have to find some tailored jobs made specifically with the youth in mind. Continue reading
We all want our church members to get plugged-in, planted and flourish. This isn’t going to happen for everyone automatically. You need to have clear pathways for people to get involved. Continue reading
Excellerate was originally designed in collaboration with one of the largest small group churches in the U.S. and, though we have since broaden our scope to become just as functional for churches that don’t use as many small groups, we have never lost our passion for helping churches run effective small groups. In fact, you can see our heart for small groups in the funny spelling of Excellerate. Continue reading
It feels like threats to our children’s safety are increasing all around us. As a church, we’re trying to help overturn that, along with all other problems in our society, but we wouldn’t be good stewards if we didn’t do everything we can to protect the children in our church. Here are some of the top safety and security concerns with ministering to children in church – Make sure you have a solution in place for these…
We at Excellerate have been working with churches for many years now, and in that time, we’ve seen how growing churches are finding success in retaining more visitors. Read through these practices and think about how you could implement them in your church. Continue reading
If you follow up with your first time guests within 24 hours, you’ll greatly increase your retention rate. That’s a small window, are you hitting it? Most churches don’t have a clue if they are.
What about the percentage of visitors not contacted? Everyone gets a busy signal occasionally. How often do your connectors manage to do the follow-up? How often do they forget? Again, many churches have no idea. But, people could easily be slipping right through the cracks, unnoticed, a hole unseen. Continue reading