Church Website in the Covid-19 season

At this time when people cannot physically be in your church...they may be looking for an online church service.

When most people look at a website...you have 5 seconds to get their attention or they are off! And they are viewing on their cell phone!

What a great opportunity to share the gospel!

You probably already have a great website, but what is most important now is to make your ONLINE church service visible on your Home page...and easy to connect with. It needs to jump out at the viewer.

Some highlights from a previous post of  mine:

You know your vision, mission and strategy to reach your goal!

How are you communicating this to your audience?

Who is  your audience?

Who do you want to reach with your website?

Why?

When anyone looks at your website they want to see the following items clearly!

1.  Your Vision Statement

2.  Your Mission Statement

3.  Your Strategy for reaching your Mission

These need to be clear and to the point!

ON your HOME page!

When most young people look at a website...you have 5 seconds to get their attention or they are off! And they are viewing on their cell phone! 

When viewing a blog or a website for the first time, if you don't get their attention with the first 5 words in your first sentence of your first paragraph...they are off!  

Check your analytics ...Are they going to another page? 

What is your Bounce Rate?

Are they landing on your HOME page?

Most viewers do NOT come to your HOME page first!

Your site must be easy to navigate.

Did you have a focus group try to find your site? 

Do you know why people are coming to your website?

How did they find it?

What did you learn from that?

A previous post. How to get viewers attention! 

7 Steps on How to Find a Good Online Church Service during the Covid-19 Crisis

I am a Boomer and Beyond...alittle technology challenged. So churches, make it easy for us to find you and connect!

With all this free time many of us have at this time of the Covid19 virus.what an opportunity for us to see what churches are doing to serve their members and the community and get the attention of people searching for meaning in life!

Something for churches to remember!

People who search for info on the internet, do not read. They Scan for info they are looking for!

So they don't care about how great the Home page looks.
Most people do NOT go to the churches Home page.
They go to the page they are looking for.
Make it easy for us to find info we desire and need.

Church as we know it or have known it are in a period of transition!

Ok, so churches, make it easy for us to find your Online Sunday Service.

1.  We are looking for a church online service.

2..   To begin the search, we can put a search term in Google like: "Online Sunday church service in (our city) or anywhere in the world and see what comes up. Alot depends on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how the content is optimized by the Content writer of the site.
  
3  We want to immediately see the link to the online service! It should be big and bold...pop out immediately. Even with all our free time...we want to see what we want to see and now! We don't want to see the church Home page at this time. We can look at that later! If we are a current member of a local church...we probably already know where to find the link on the church website. Maybe not. If it is more than 2 clicks to find it...it is too hard.to find. We don't want to have to look at various pages on the site and click several times to find what we want.

5.  If we don't immediately see the link for the online Sunday service, we want to see the SEARCH feature. It should stand out big and bold. When we do put in "online service", we should be immediately directed to that page! If we don't find it then, we can continue searching the site, but like other people...will or may go to another church website.

6.  It may be a Live service or a Y tube service which we can view at any time.

7.  If this is a new church service for us..we can then look at their HOME page later.
 Is the site easy to navigate?
 What are they doing for people to "connect" now that we cannot meet at the church building?
 Are they making it easy to connect? Zoom or some other service?

8. IF we are members of a church and are connected, and view the online service...Great! But what else is the church doing at this time of isolation of it's members? Anyone calling and checking in to see how we are doing?

With online church services, we can worship everyday online.
Good way to see what other churches are doing at this time.
I don't think things will go back to the old "normal"
We have reached a "tipping point".


Enough said. Hope this helps.

Zoom meetings are great, but do not take the place of face to face meetings.
We need to get creative and find ways to safely meet.
As the weather gets warmer...how about meeting somewhere and everyone bringing their lawn chairs and refreshments and sit 10 feet apart. Great idea for Life groups..

Maybe you could forward this on to friends and your church leadership!
Blessings
Richard

covid19

Covid-19 and Easter Hope

 Thanks Lauri for the great article.

By Lauri Lemke Thompson

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” 

So Thomas Paine wrote in 1776, but his words fit the pandemic of 2020. The sacrifices you are personally making by following the stay-at-home guidelines may not be as great as some who fought the American Revolution, but we are at war against an invisible enemy – and you may truly save many lives. So, first – thank you. 

That said, many of us are feeling some anxiety. Little wonder.  According to Dr. Frank Minirth and Dr. Paul Meier in their book Worry Free Living, “Anxiety is linked more to the future, while depression is linked to the past. Depression is the past superimposed on the present, and anxiety is the future superimposed on the present.” Not knowing what will happen in the coming weeks and months with this seemingly runaway virus quite naturally can bring anxiety.

Matthew 6:34 says “So do not be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.” (The Living Bible) This is sound wisdom and an utterly reliable promise, but conquering our anxieties can be tough.

But What Will Happen?

Linda Dillow wrote a book called Calm My Anxious Heart. In it she points out “Certainly we are to pray, plan and prepare for tomorrow, but we are not to worry about what might happen….Walking with God through today’s twenty-four hours is difficult enough.”

“It is tomorrow,” said F. B. Meyer, “that fills men with dread. [But] God is there already. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass Him before they can get to us.”

What a comfort to know that God wants us to toss our worries onto His incredibly broad shoulders. In I Peter 5:6-7 we are told “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you.” (New International Version).

Matthew 24:6 addresses our current situation and is meaningful in a couple Bible versions. “See to it that you are not alarmed” is the New International Version. In The Message it is stated thus: “Keep your head and don’t panic.” But even more clear (or blunt?) is well-known Christian Author Max Lucado’s unofficial interpretation in his book Fearless: “Don’t freak out when bad stuff happens.”

Pollyanna and Chicken Little

Further, Lucado advises: “Life stinks, but it won’t forever….Avoid Pollyanna optimism. We gain nothing by glossing over the brutality of human existence. This is a toxic world. But neither do we join the Chicken Little chorus of gloom and doom. ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ 

“Somewhere between Pollyanna and Chicken Little, between blind denial and blatant panic, stands the level-headed, clear-thinking, still-believing follower of Christ. Wide-eyed yet unafraid. Unterrified by the terrifying. The calmest kid on the block, not for lack of bullies, but for faith in his older Brother.”

Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse (the ministry that set up the 68-bed emergency field hospital in New York’s Central Park for Covid-19 patients) stated in several TV interviews “We want people to know God still loves them. He’s not mad at them, and He wants to help them through this.” 

His beloved father, “America’s Pastor,” Billy Graham, said it well in his booklet called “Victory: Preparing for Resurrection Sunday” when he declared “God never abandons us when life becomes difficult. He is always with us and wants to help us, even when things seem to be going wrong. 

“He does not guarantee to reverse every misfortune, but if Christ lives in our hearts, we have His promise that nothing ‘in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:39).”

“What a guarantee!” Reverend Graham went on. “Instead of being fearful about the future, at Easter we can trust and believe that God is working a purpose in our lives. We can have hope!”

Easter and Promises

Speaking of Easter, consider the words of Lee Strobel in his book The Case for Easter: “If Jesus overcame the grave, He’s still alive and available for me to personally encounter. If Jesus conquered death, He can open the door of eternal life to me too.” (Strobel, a journalist who was a confirmed skeptic about Christianity, doggedly researched the matter and finally concluded its claims were true).

God’s Word, the Bible, offers so many great promises to us in this extremely challenging time. Healthy fear keeps us washing our hands and keeps us out of public places unnecessarily. Unhealthy fear, though, may make us forget or doubt those great promises.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message, boldface mine).

So stand strong. We need faith-filled courage for these days. Not feeling courageous, you say? “Courage is simply fear that has said its prayers,” according to Dorothy Bernard.

Plannng and it's importance

Pray, Plan and Prioritize...then delegate.

But don't get hung up on planning...the LORD can intervene at any moment and you can change direction! Keep your ears open!

"You already know the ultimate destination of your journey: your entrance into heaven. So keep your focus on the path just before you, leaving outcomes up to Me" Nov 19th Devotion from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.

A few notes on "Planning" from the book of Proverbs:

"For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths." Proverbs 5:21

"Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD'S purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21

"The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." Proverbs 21:5

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1

We have to remember that these are observations...reality, not promises from the Bible. Our actions have consequences.


So, be sure to pray before making plans...and continue to pray!
______
My TWEETS _________________________________


Finished a good book recently: WHO  by Geoff Smart and Randy Street.

"The most important decisions that business people make are not what decisions but who decisions." -Jim Collins, Author of Good To Great.

That also goes for non profit organizations!
 Good book: Good to Great in the Social Sector. by Jim Collins

WHO
WHAT
HOW

It's relatively easy to figure out What to do and also How to do something.

Maybe a more important decision is WHY we do what we do.
What are our motives? Have we sought the LORD on what we plan to do?

Then the rest becomes easy.

A good book for figuring that out is " Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

If you don't know WHY, You can't know HOW.

"All great leaders have clarity of WHY; an undying belief in a purpose or cause bigger than themselves. It's not Bill Gates's passion for computers that inspires us, it's his undying optimism that even the most complicated problems can be solved. He believes we can find ways to remove obstacles to ensure that everyone can live and worked to their greatest potential. It is his optimism to which we are drawn." P. 134

“If the leader of the organization can’t clearly articulate WHY the organization exists in terms beyond its products or services, then how does he expect the employees to know WHY to come to work?”
― Simon Sinek, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action

Let me know your thoughts!
Have a great day!

Is Jesus the only way to Heaven?

My latest blog post

System for making Decisions: : Corona Virus

Whatever your most pressing decision is: Here is a good system for evaluating risk!

 Best/Worst Analysis  

B/WA Formula

 Notes taken from the book by Ben Carson,

 TAKE THE RISK: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk.

I would summarize one of the most important insights I took from the book as “How to make decisions without leaving God out of the equation!

Risk Analysis Process

You can print this and use as a template for decision making.

Questions to ask when making a decision:

What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

________________________________

The rest of this post are My comments on his 4 questions.

Ask these questions in light of the following:

Outcomes may change over time because of changing conditions!

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

How?

Why?

Answering these familiar queries in the context of the four basic Best/Worst Analysis questions will sharpen the focus and refine the accuracy of any risk analysis process

WHERE

Where are you going? (Your goals)

Where are you now? (Your skills, your abilities, your thinking, and your attitudes)

Where will you start? (Your preparation)

WHEN

Often the timing of a Best/Worst Analysis affects our conclusion.

Always do a B/WA again whenever you think something has changed significantly: a year later, at a different point in life, or maybe after pondering some of these who, what, when,  how, and why considerations. Times change. So do circumstances. Sometimes those changes will affect your Best/Worst Analysis, modifying your thinking-maybe even reversing your decision.

HOW

You don’t have to address who, what, where, when, how, and why in any particular order.  They may need to be viewed simultaneously because they sometimes complement each other or need to be combined.

Sometimes answering one of the (how or?) conclusions may change your risk-analysis equation entirely.

WHY

It is impossible to do an effective B/WA without considering why. You need to examine, and often re examine, your reasoning in light of your motives, which involve your personal values.  Your values must be weighed carefully against you’re analyses and conclusions. 

Some Truths About RISK

1.                  Everything is Risky

2.                  The more we know, the more we worry.

3.                  A Lot of Risks Aren’t Worth the Worry.

4.                  We Can’t Eliminate All Risk

5.                  Minimizing Risk Is Often the Best We Can Do.

6.                  Each of Us Has to Decide What the Acceptable Risks Are

7.                  Not All Risks Are Bad

8.                  We Are All Going to Die of Something Eventually

 

Risk Number One-Thinking in New Ways

Risk Number Two-Weighing the Alternatives

Risk Number Three-Making Your Own Decision

Even when the Best/Worse Analysis doesn’t result in a particularly positive outcome, you are unlikely to have a worse outcome because you did the analysis, and what a B/WA does guarantee is that you consider the various possibilities in a reasonable, logical manner before making any uncertain or risky decision. That has to improve the odds that you come up with a happy solution-or at least with a reasonable and defensible course of action that will minimize the risk of regrets.

Need to weigh risks in light of my beliefs and my values. My obligations to others should be greater than any obligations to myself.

Since I believe God’s guidance and provision has brought me to this point, I should ask Him to open the doors He wants me to walk through and to give me wisdom in how to proceed.

Importance of using my talents and not allow minor interferences to derail my mission if life.

Creativity requires risk, so does exploration and innovation. Anyone who thinks outside the box is taking a risk.

In doing this risk analysis, one needs to consider the implications of any decision, not just for one’s self but for other people. How will my decision impact others?

Taking Us Out of the Middle

Once we manage to remove our egos from the equation, many of the most commonplace and unsettling personal risks we face in life become a lot less personal and no longer seem to be much of a risk after all.  That discovery frees us up to better concentrate on dealing with the real risks presented by truly important issues.

A few added thoughts: "Destiny is not a mystery. For better or worse, your destiny is the result of your daily decisions and defining decisions."  Mark Batterson. The Circle Maker.

"Along with daily decisions, there are defining decisions. We only make a few defining decisions in life, and then we spend the rest of our lives managing them." Mark Batterson. The Circle Maker. 

Something to pray about!

My Tweets for the day 

 

Important decision to make! 

Sunday afternoon. What's next?

Maybe if we are believers...and attended church this weekend...we may be contemplating the message we  heard. How important is that to us? 

Any connection to the other 6 days of our week?  

Soon it will be Monday morning...and some of us are off to work or are we?

Someone once said that if we are doing what we are passionate about...it's not work!

Sunday and Monday...any connection?

Our work: How important is it to us?


Who are we really working for?

Are we worshiping our work and working at our worship? 

Are we finding joy and peace in our everyday work?

Is this talk about finding peace confusing? 

How to find peace with God!

10 Steps to Finding a Position of Your Dreams...Using Linkedin as a Tool!

 Over the course of time...past 20 plus years...working with people looking for a job...meeting with individuals as a group and also one on one, I have proposed the following process in some way, shape or form:

This is WHAT I would do IF I were looking for a job.

I never got a job with a resume. 

AND your probably wondering if anyone got a job following my advice.
Don't really know...My good friend Wayne said once. "You can teach a person what to do but you can't make them DO what is in their best interest to do". That's a paraphrase of his comment after my voicing disappointment that with all the help & advice I have given many people especially about updating their Linkedin profile few people follow through.  

You don't get a job because of your Linkedin Profile. It's just a tool to connect with the right people who can help you.  AND to see who the people are that are doing the job you might love to do...but only better!

So, here are  my 10 steps to Finding a Job You Can Love!

1. Identify your passion. What are you interested in...What makes you get up in the morning?

2. What company or  non profit would you ideally love to work with...NOT for. 
There IS a difference.

3.  Explore their website. What is their mission  and vision?

4. Connect with people working for that organization. It's really not hard to do.

5.  Take your new "connections" out for coffee...Again not hard to do. Use your creativity.

6.  What are the challenges that organization is facing...short term and long term.

7.  After taking the Strengthfinders. 2.0 Assessement...you now know or have a clue to your "Strenghts' and HOW to use them!  So you are now going to use your "Strengths"to solve their most pressing challenge!

8  Remember, You are unique! There is no one else like you.

9. Forget about  the "job description" IF you are pursuing a job with an opening... It's just a clue to their perceived needs! 
Positions that are advertised are probably already taken. Why compete...It's a losing game. 
So don't spend alot of time with that goal of submitting applications to job openings. You can do that, but...  

10. So you are now going to use your "Strengths"to solve their most pressing challenge! AND
You are going to create your own "position". 

On your journey...

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

 On our journey with Jesus! "The trail is long, and we won't arrive at our destination in this life. Still, we're on the journey with Jesus for the greatest thrill of our lives." Zig Ziglar

Remember, You Are Special and Unique!

Why I Get Up in the Morning

 To continue in my relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ, so that  I can:

1.     Be close to Him

2.     Worship Him

3.     Be a fragrant offering to Him

4.     To be a reflection of God into the world

5.     Be Holy as He is holy

6.     Show His love to the world…my family and neighbors

7.     Be an encouragement to people who He brings in my path

8.      

Pastor Matts sermon on August 25^th 2019  Prayer as Soul Shaping

     Prayer As -Soul Shaping With God.

Praying regularly for others

My limitations do NOT limit what God can do in prayer!

Colossians 1:9 

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^[

Praying for knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding…

Praying to Live Worthy of the Lord

Colossians 1:10-14

 ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^[a] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1                 Bear fruit of the Spirit

2                 Knowledge of God

3                 Patience

4                 Joy and gratitude

Bottom Line:

Living it out…not just knowledge or words, but Blooming Where I am planted …now.

A few of my favorite worship songs!

   "In the great orchestra we call life...it's always good to have a song in our heart." Max Lucado

First heard this song in the early 70's.

One of the questions in our Faithwalkers Saturday morning Men's Bible Group:

1. The Spirit-filled believer sings and makes music to the Lord in their heart.  Are you a singing Christian?  Do you have a song in your heart?

Yes, and I am posting just a few of my favorites... Not in any order of preference.
More later.

¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ²⁰ giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:15-20

We are one in the spirit...

This song was sort of an anthem among the Jesus People in the '60s and '70s

First heard this song in the early 70's, See prior post

 

The heartbeat of our mission...is still the same!

 

 

 

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My top 10 worship songs at this time...I guess I went past the 10...always subject to change.

Leave a comment...with a favorite worship song!

Finding peace with God