Graphic Designer vs. IT Guy/Woman

Now I understand this article may put me out of a freelance job, but this is something to think about none the less. Many churches that I come in contact with will hire an IT person to their staff. Let me just say, if you can hire both graphic designer and IT person, that is the way to go. As I read more and more magazines, “Fast Times” “Entrepreneur” and others, there is a common trend happening which I believe reflects back into the church.

There is a trend that is starting to happen in our society where people are realizing that a graphic designer is a very valuable person to have on their staff. In return, they are letting their IT people go as they realize more time is required to design sharp products than is needed to maintain their networking and email systems.

I think it would be safe to say that most churches turn-out multiple printed materials each month. Some churches turn out sharp materials while others….well, not so much. Gone are the days of using cartoon clip-art and many different fonts on one publication. What can happen though, is that a church will feel it necessary to hire an IT person to maintain their emails, computer networks, etc., while the “eye candy” department, Graphic Design, goes lacking. Over the past month, look back at what your church has done. Has your email crashed or website gone offline or networks went down? Not to say these things don’t happen, but they are usually very stable. Now, let me ask you that same question in regards to graphic design. Over the past month, how many newsletters, bulletins, website updates, ministry logo’s, etc. has your church done or needed to do? Chances are that you spent more time creating attractive pieces to capture the attention of people than getting your email working again. What happens is your department leaders/staff pastors spend time creating brochures, logos, etc. that they may or may not have a gifting in and, as a result, they take time away from what their true gifting is.
What am I getting at? Many organizations and churches are finding that it actually saves them money to have only a graphic designer on staff due to the fact it is cheaper to outsource IT problems than pay someone weekly for something that is not needed weekly. What can also happen is that people confuse IT people with graphic designers leaving them frustrated because IT people really are trained in maintaining the electronic infrastructure, not coming up with your next Women’s Ministry brochure.

In the fast paced, make is short and sweet, try to attract your audience with sharp graphics world we live in, I suggest making every effort to examine and re-examine what literature you are sending out from your church. The very first visit to your church for someone may be the latest piece of mail you just sent out or a visit to your website (if you have one at all). I bumped into one pastor at a recent event who told me, “I enjoy getting your emails, but the whole website thing for me is not my gifting. I know I can hire you to do it, but, I would want to update it. So, because I do not have the time or talent to do that, I think our church will just go without a website.”

I will end this blog with a quote from “Church Marketing 101-A Revolutionary Blend of Corporate Marketing Strategy and Biblical Wisdom” by Richard L. Resing. “You see, marketing is much more than promoting things. Marketing requires thinking it through. It involves every entity and interaction that fosters the outside world’s perception of your organization. When you do not pay your bills, you’re marketing. When you do not cut the grass, you’re marketing. When you talk over the heads of your “prospects” or fail to serve them, you’re marketing. You are shaping perception in the hearts and minds of your members and your target community-that is the very definition of marketing.” And to that I would say, when people see your website or the lack of one…your marketing. When people see your brochure and it still uses 200 different fonts and cartoon clip-art…your marketing. This is the generation we live in, like it or not, we have to change the way we do things.

Are you a MENSCH!

Author Leo Rosten, author of “The Joys of Yidish” defines a mensch this way: “Someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character."

Guy Kawasaki says this, “The key to being a real mensch is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, and a sense of what is right. Responsible and decorous. “ He lays out 5 ways of achieving menschdom. I will comment on each one as well as how it relates to churches (my words will be in bold).

1. Help Those Who Cannot Help You. A mensch helps people who can never return the favor. He doesn’t care if the recipient is rich, famous, or powerful. You shouldn’t only help rich, famous, or powerful people.

As pastors we have to understand that some ministries will take and take financially and never give back…but that is ministry. Don’t give up on the needy, would Jesus?

2. Help Without Expectation of Return. A mensch helps people without the expectation of return-at least in this life. What’s the payoff? Not that there needs to be a payoff, but the payoff is the satisfaction of helping others.

You will get stiffed doing weddings and funerals. You will not always get that bonus on minister appreciation day, but you are doing what you are doing to make a lasting difference. God is faithful, He will bless you.

3. Help Many People. Menschdom is a numbers game: You should help out lots of people, so you don’t hide your generosity in a bushel. (Of course, not even a mensch can help everyone. Trying to do so would mean failing to help anyone).

Despite what people look like or dress like, we have to do our part and help. This does not mean we should delegate out work so we can stay behind our desk and check our church website webstats, check email, or update myspace. It means to leave the desk or leave the church and go help someone. Are you involved in your community?

4. Do the Right Thing the Right Way. A mensch would never cop an attitude like, “We aren’t as bad as Enron.” There’s a clear line between right and wrong, and a mensch never crosses that line.

Have you ever said, “Have you seen what that church is doing?” or “Did you hear about that church shutting down, let’s go after their members.” A true mensch would say, “Our competition is not other churches, our competition is the world and managing better the resources we have.”

5. Pay Back Society. A mensch understands that she/he is blessed. For example, an entrepreneur is blessed with vision and passion, as well as the ability to recruit people, raise money, and help change the world. These blessings come with the obligation to payback society. The baseline is that we owe something to society-we’re not doing a favor by paying society back.

So what are we doing outside of the church for our society? As pastors, we need to ask ourselves , “Is our church a blessing or curse to our society?” Here is a question, if your church was to pack up and close down, would anyone be upset? I am a police chaplain, on the board for the Chamber of Commerce, and a Jaycee member. Doing these kind of things helps me to keep my focus on others and keeps me asking, “What can I do to help the city?” This is when outreach happens.

These are just some thoughts….feel free to weigh in with comments.

Innovation Without Technology

Sometimes to be relevant, it does not require technology. Being a pastor myself and volunteer police chaplain I get to engage in some pretty interesting conversation. If your church is like the one I pastor, our kid's ministry has a check-in system. The parents step up to the computer kiosk and click on their child's name and out pops a name tag that goes on their back. This is a great way for the teacher and helpers to know the kid's name, and it gives parents a number to watch for on our number box should their child need some attention.

In talking with people and considering the world we live in, it has caused us to change our system a bit. Due to the increase of pedophilles in our neighborhoods, legal people are suggesting that churches that have the last names of children on the name tags, to remove them. We now have the child's first name and the last name initial on their tags. This is one of those steps you can do to be relevant and show parents that you are always keeping a mindful eye on protecting our churches most valuable assets...our children!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I can remember my first job at the age of 16 being for a national toy chain at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, WI. I vowed that I would never work the fast food business and went on to work for a Christian bookstore and software stores as well. One of the most valuable lessons I learned about business that I apply to our church and I think is a good principle for any church/business is change.
Sometimes when we visit stores we notice they change things up, this can leak over to online stores and websites as well. Why? Why take something that looks sharp already and change it? The fact is we get flattered with our own websites, blogs, podcasts, etc. But, the people who visit our website or church eventually get bored with the same look. Changing things causes the "sticky" factor as they call it for websites. Stickiness is what keeps people coming back to your website and therefore seems pretty important.
What needs to change? A question we should always ask ourselves to keep people coming back .
Please feel free to comment with your thoughts.

Window Shopping

If there is one place that my wife and I like to go on vacation, it would be New York City. The business, traffic, tall buildings, the smell (both good and bad) all add to the buzz of this electronic paradise on the east coast. It is one of few places that you can look in one shop window and enjoy watching a good New York styled pizza being made, go a little further....look in another window and see people in China Town selling natural remedies. You can walk a little further and find your self at Trump Tower and the shops around it that sell priceless jewels from the finest jewelers like Tiffany's.

People are by nature window shoppers, we enjoy looking around and seeing what people have to offer. If it is appealing, we will spend time looking at it. In fact, we may go in and become a consumer of what that business has to offer. There is a flip side to that coin, however, which is not so appealing. You can find your unkept store fronts with faded, out of date material in the windows. It is not hard to turn off consumers when they can clearly see that the owner feels that up keep is not necessary.

All this talk about window shopping got me thinking about this time of year when people's hearts are soft and looking to go further on their spiritual journey. It could be that many are not plugged into a church and might begin window shopping for a home church. What are they going to see when they come to your church? How is your website? Do you keep it up to date or will they find your current calendar is really all of your summer activities. What about your voicemail message when they call your church? Will they hear an updated message or find themselves wondering what year you recorded that in? When a family comes to your church for the first time, does your church say to them..."This is the future of the church right here" or will it turn people away.

It is important for us to occasionally take a step back and reevaluate how a new person views our churches. Let's do our best to keep the window shoppers this season and not send them on their way.

Creation

I had a friend send me a link this morning via "Facebook" that really caught my attention. It has to do with Ben Stein whom I have liked since "Ferris Buehler's Day Off" and "Win Ben Stein's Money" on Comedy Central.
This movie is a documentary that has to deal with creationism and how schools are banning science teachers who go against Darwinism. This could be a real spring board for churches and youth groups to dive into this topic. Check out the trailer at www.expelledthemovie.com

You Are Already Marketing

I am excited for in just a few days my wife and I will be attending the "Wired Churches-Innovate 2007 Conference." With speakers like Mark Beeson, and Tim Stevens who authored the "Simply Strategic" series that many churches use. This conference is all about being relevant in today's culture. It exposes you to how the church needs to market itself in a relevant way which got me thinking.

Whether you knew it or not, if you are a pastor of a church or owner of a business...you are already marketing. The question is...what are people saying about your marketing? When you pay your bills on time or not on time...you are marketing. If people walk by your church and see the shape of your building or how your grass looks, what is it saying to people? You are marketing whether you know it or not.

I was intrigued by an article in the latest "Outreach Magazine." In an article entitled, "How Important Is a Building" by Thom S. Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III, they said, "Churches that did not have adequate or attractive buildings were perceived by the unchurched as under-funded. But the credit for attractive facilities was given to the leadership of the church."
You don't have to have a big building to make it attractive. You just need to simply look at the place as a whole and say, "does this represent the future of our church?"

Again, whether we know it or not as leaders of churches...you are marketing. The question is...what message are you sending?