A while ago, Facebook held a Community Boost Tour, a campaign with stops in thirty cities, centered around training and empowering local nonprofits and small businesses to harness all that the social media giant has to offer. Here are some highlights to recap the lessons and provide some thoughts on how everything discussed translates to church marketers – even today after so many years have passed.
Videos in this guide focus on three primary categories: leading yourself, leading others, and leading projects.
In one place- our BEST tactics for growing your church starting from scratch
Here are some practical tips to help you grow your church.
Want to reach more people and grow your church? We surveyed over 2,000 churches of all sizes, backgrounds, denominations, and locations to find out what they were doing and how successful it was (or was not).
There are some strategies that you can implement to help them address feeling overwhelmed and reduce the likelihood of it recurring.
Lessons from a Lead Pastor’s Perspective on Social Media and Church Growth
Wondering how church works in the metaverse- or if it’s really even “church”? This guide will help you explore the possibilities!
How do you create social media posts that help your church grow? You need a plan that works! In this article, we’ll outline strategies we use to create our Daily Social Media Guides, and help you create a process that works for your church!
Church planting can be difficult. You pour your heart, time, and money into creating a place where people can know the love of Jesus, often while juggling family and work life. As with anything worthwhile, there will be moments that it seems like too much. The good news? Marketing your new church plant doesn’t have to be one of them.
Worried about people becoming disengaged? Here are our top 8 ideas for boosting online attendance.
Yep, IT’S OK TO KILL YOUR COMMUNICATIONS REQUEST FORM!! Read more here.
We took time to sit down with Kristy Henry, Communications Director at Christ’s Church Federal Way, and discuss some of the reasons why church leaders often feel so overwhelmed. With twenty years experience in the corporate, nonprofit and church communications world, she’s a master at balancing the ever-increasing demands of a church communicator!
Is your church missing out on over $150,000 in resources per year? Here at Church Fuel, we want to help you get the best results from your time and money spent so we asked our Church Marketers community to help us round up some discounted and free resources for nonprofits (including churches.)
PDFs and video breakdowns of leadership books you can use to train your team
If you’re a pastor or an involved volunteer at a church, the continuous rush of events surrounding holidays like Christmas can be demoralizing. You muster your people, everyone gets excited, you run a killer event and poof! It’s over. The next Sunday, things are the same as ever- except everyone is exhausted and a little more jaded about the difference their hard work is making in the community. We call this the “Next Week Crash,” and know from experience that it’s all too real.
Help Your Church Reach More People This Easter Than Ever Before
John Weaver and Whitefish Assembly created a virtual Easter Egg hunt through their building, hiding more than 1,000 eggs in classrooms, entry spaces, hallways, and the sanctuary. This is a creative way to serve the community, engage with families, and share the Easter message in the midst of the Coronavirus quarantine.
Pastor Larry Weathers sat down with us to talk about Juneteenth + how churches of all backgrounds can thoughtfully care for the African-American community every day of the year.
6 tips to help you rock your church’s fundraising and generosity efforts.
Church Fuel Founder, Michael Lukaszewski, is hosted this class on how to create or update your 2024 Ministry Plan. You get the insanely practical Two Page Plan® template, and Michael shows you how to use it!
Want to grow your church? In this article, we’ll discuss the top 20 proven (and highly practical) ideas for marketing churches of all sizes.
Need a church marketing strategy? Here are 12 essential elements (we jokingly refer to them as the “12 Disciples”) to help you get started!
Churches are always looking for ways to create community and build bridges at any special event. One relatively simple approach we’ve had success with is doing a photo booth.
Looking for the best church website builder? Use this Ultimate Guide to Church Website Builders to find the solution that fits your church.
There’s no silver bullet that will magically make your church grow overnight… But if you get these 4 things right, you’ll be well on your way to consistent, steady growth.
When Chris Abbott was a Youth Pastor this took him months, but he found a cool hack that lets you design a Youth Ministry Logo in less than 10 minutes!
Are you in need of a stunning and meaningful logo for your church but don’t have hours to spare? Look no further! In this video, we’ll show you a quick and easy step-by-step process to create a beautiful CHURCH LOGO in LESS than 10 minutes.
We’re committed to creating resources that encourage a Biblical approach to evangelism and discipleship while using modern marketing tools.
This Lab will give you step-by-step instructions that will result in a thorough plan for Christmas at your church.
This was recorded in October 2020 so there are many references to Covid-19 and holding virtual services, but many of the same principles can still be applied today.
In this Lab, our Ministry Coaches help you create an Easter Plan that will not only impact your current members but increase the return rate of your first-time visitors.
This was recorded in February 2021 so there are many references to Covid-19 and holding virtual services, but many of the same principles can still be applied today.
Want to start offering custom merch for your church (or just wondering what other options are out there?). We’ve created this guide to help you figure out all the logistics!
In this guide, we will give you an overview of why website privacy policies are important and what they include. In addition to the template above, we’ve included tons of examples and links to legal resources where you can get additional help.
The Digital Strategy Course guides you through a sixstep framework to lay a solid foundation for your digital ministry, all held together with a one-page template. The course is designed to help you overcome being confused by buzzwords and wasting time chasing tactics to instead create a plan to reach more people online and increase engagement from your congregation.
Even passionate, inspired leaders who buy into the vision of your church need to refocus from time to time. Without this kind of alignment, growth will stall and competing agendas can take over.
The Team Alignment Toolkit includes three videos and seven resources to help you get your team on the same page, keep them aligned on what’s most important, and help them grow in skill and commitment. Every team – staff, leaders, or Elders, will benefit from these practical exercises and training.
This sermon series focuses on some of the world’s largest religions, from Islam to Mormonism. The resource package also includes pictures and sermon graphics.
This sermon series is based on controversial questions people ask. The resource package includes editable teaching content and graphics.
Done-For-You Leadership Development! LeaderPulse includes meetings and retreats, staff development exercises, skill-based training lessons and every piece of content you need to develop all the leaders in your church.
At Church Fuel we feel best equipped to serve Jesus-Centered Evangelical Churches. Many Evangelical churches ask about the Non-Discrimination Clause that Google uses when they apply for their Grant Program. Here is our recommendation.
For many churches, an online presence only started when Covid-19 hit. As with anything new, it is hard to know where to start and if you’re doing it right. In this Webinar, Michael discusses five steps to reaching people online, how to understand your audience, what sharing “helpful” content really means, measuring the right things, and more.
Running an effective Facebook ad is more than clever words and a good picture. You have to know who you’re talking to, what you want them to do, and give them clear and compelling reasons to do it. If you’ve ever tried to create a Facebook Ad yourself, you know how easy it can be to get lost, and with constant updates to the platform, tutorials are often out-of-date and useless.
We brought in a leading expert, Chris Abbott of Church Growth Agency, to guide you through the why, the what, and the how.
In this Lab, you’ll learn the ins and outs of an effective Facebook Ad, as well as create your own ad for review.
Explanation is the art of not just packaging facts but presenting them in a way that answers the why question. Why does it make sense to do this? Why should I care? It is the art of showing why the facts, laws, and specifics make sense. It puts facts in perspective and leads people to deeper understanding or decisive action. They shouldn’t just lead people to know . . . they should lead people to care. What do great explainers have in common? Empathy. Great explainers have the ability to picture themselves in another person’s shoes and communicate from that perspective.
Here are the type of photos you should take at your church to use on your website and social media.
Get your goals accomplished with Annual, Quarterly, Monthly, and Weekly planning pages. Evaluate the previous season, and transition into the next season organized, with clarity, and with confidence. Download the zip file below for all four PDFs.
If you knew you could easily double your church’s regular attendance due to a special event by following a preset framework, would you follow it? That’s the vision behind creating this GROW Special Event Ads Playbook. By following the strategies and framework offered, you can be sure you’ll double your attendance and get those visitors to come back and keep attending.
Everything you need to do for a fully online service.
Here is a guide for your student ministry leadership to use as you format your core values, guidelines, and discipline.
Graphic design is one of the most vital evangelism tools we have in the kingdom. It allows you to introduce Jesus to people in a way that makes them want to meet him.
For a team to run at its full potential, it’s important for everyone to know what they are responsible for, who is accountable for decision making, who needs to be consulted with, and who just needs to be informed. RACI is a highly practical process that takes the guesswork out of who should be doing what, and when.
Use this short guide alongside the Job Description template to craft roles that are clearly defined, effective, and get people excited to be part of your team.
Project management is an essential skill for church leaders.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to stop doing a ministry. In this article, I want to layout one principle and three action steps to help you stop doing a ministry or program.
Here are five sermon illustrations you could use in an upcoming message, devotion, or church-wide email.
Here are three practical ways you can develop leaders on your church leadership team
Here are six ways you can develop leaders across all levels of your church.
Here are seven systems every church needs, along with a few ideas and next steps for each one.
After years of working with and observing different churches, we’ve come up with five habits of the healthiest churches.
Here are three important things about learning from others without just copying what they do.
One of the most common questions we get from pastors as they consider whether or not to Church Fuel is, “Will this work in ________?” The question comes in a variety of flavors. And here’s the real answer: I have no idea but probably yes because it depends on you.
Now is a great time to plan your next church staff retreat, so as you put together the agenda, here are five things to include.
It’s all about the vision. You need to clarify your purpose. You need a mission statement.
Out of all the programs, ministries, and special events, which ones make the most impact? These are important questions. Asking and answering them is tough. Making adjustments based on the answers is even tougher. But this exercise can make a world of difference in your ministry and help you accomplish your mission.
Here are four things you can do when you don’t have enough leaders.
We asked pastors three crucial questions about their strategy to develop leaders, and their answers might surprise you.
Teaching your church to invite is one of the most important things you can do as a pastor. It’s one of those keystone habits, and it affects nearly everything else in the church. When your members invite others, good things happen.
Does your leadership team have success setting and reaching church-wide goals?
This course has seven lessons that are designed to help you optimize 7 systems or frameworks that will help you reach healthy sustainable growth. Each lesson has several short videos – those are the meat of the course. Each lesson also comes with several resources, documents, spreadsheets or downloads. The resources give the videos handles and will help you take action.
The team at Church Fuel is best equipped to serve Jesus-Centered Evangelical Churches. Church Fuel is designed for churches that align with the beliefs in this document.
Are you wondering how to start a church youth group from scratch? Where do you even begin to do this? Find out what you need to not only start but also grow your church youth ministry by watching this video!
The Two Page Plan helps you plan for every ministry in your church and create a longterm strategy and goals.
Use this template to create a policy for staff working remotely.
On this Webinar, Michael shared practical tips that will help re-engage your congregation. He covers: A useful, measurable definition of the word “engagement”, How to re-engage your donor base so they keep supporting the ministry, How to stay connected with volunteers through all the shifts and changes, How to get people excited to invite again.
An insanely practical PDF to help you plan every week with purpose. The Pastor’s Planner is a resource to help you prioritize the most important actions, keep you focused on the most important people, and help you remember what’s coming soon. With one page for each week, it will help you stay focused on what (and who) matters most.
If you’re looking for ways to align all of the individual ministries in your church and make them more effective, The Ministry Course is for you. It includes video training that you can watch or share with your team, plus tools that will help them get organized and focused on the mission of the church. These resources equip leaders to make important changes and structure ministries for alignment and success.
How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean I first read this book a couple of years ago when I was working on ways to be a better team leader. At Church Fuel, we’re a small team. And to be honest, I’m not a great manager. The thought of hiring someone else to do all the management was attractive, but not realistic. So for us to keep growing, I was going to have to get better at managing people, including products, tasks, and expectations. A friend recommended this book. And I’m glad they did. Right off the bat, it put me in my place. Management was my job. And I needed to be more comfortable with being the boss. I needed to learn how to give guidance in the form of feedback. I needed to own the responsibility to develop our team. And I needed to focus on the results. Pastors need to do this too. There are parts of your job where embracing the role of boss would help your church stay on mission. As you read these notes and watch the ministry insight video, it’s helpful to think of the kind of boss you want to be. But also let the author push you a little to embrace the two sides of the coin.
You can edit this ready to use Staff Evaluation to reflect your team’s needs using Adobe’s Acrobat DC Software. Or, print it off and use as is!
The ultimate planning meeting is made easier with this Quarterly Meeting Guide. Download this practical PDF and Google Template Doc to get your quarterly goals and plans in order.
The biggest growth barrier churches are facing today isn’t changing cultures or declining attendance—it’s leadership. And when we asked pastors about their challenges, developing leaders was at the top of the list. The Leadership Course will give you a plan to develop yourself and your team while finding and training new leaders to do the work of ministry. The ideas, training material, and resources will help you take action and lead at every level.
Church teams are working harder than ever: serving, leading, pivoting, and trying to keep the church going. All this hard work makes people tired, and if you’re not careful and intentional, burnout comes next. This toolkit will give you and your team the coaching you need and the resources to make things better.
Data Fueled Church is an introductory level, on-demand course that combines best practices and real-church examples, giving you a better understanding of how churches can use big-data, insights, and analytics to make better ministry decisions. This course is not overly technical; instead, it focuses on practical applications for ministry, leadership, and reaching people.
In this course, Jenni Catron walks you through a framework for leadership that will be an anchor in your growth journey. Based upon her book, The Four Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership, this course will provide you with the secret to standout leadership found in the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
This two page PDF is a great way to look back on a year and ahead to a new year. It’s a personal reflection exercise that can help you get incredible clarity moving forward.
Once you have a one page plan for your church, it’s time to align every ministry to that plan. Your children’s ministry, student ministry, worship service team, women’s ministry, discipleship groups, and everything else that formally exists needs to take this step.
Patrick Lencioni says the advantage is not products, services, or budgets. In the church world, it’s not ministries, programs, or giving. Being a healthy organization with a healthy leadership team is a huge advantage. By building a healthy leadership team, creating clarity, reinforcing clarity, and communicating clarity, you can have a healthy organization. Of course, these principles apply to church, which is so much more than a business. With so much at stake, health and clarity really matter for each of us. So as you read through these notes and watch the ministry insight video, I hope you’re challenged to pursue this kind of clarity. -Michael
When a leader wants to influence results, there are two principal options: strategy or the ability to execute that strategy. A clear strategy does not automatically mean the team will execute it. The real enemy of execution might be your day job. That’s called the Whirlwind. It’s the urgent, everyday tasks related to sustaining the business day-to-day. It’s easy to lose track of the wildly important in the midst of this whirlwind, but that’s what you must do. The Four Disciplines will help.
What do the most dominant teams in sports history have in common? That’s the question Sam Walker asked and answered in this part-sports, all-leadership book. He combines 20 years of being a sports fan with scientific analysis of teams throughout history in a well-written, interesting book that can help any team or leader. Even though the book breaks down the indispensable qualities of the 16 best sports teams of all time, this really isn’t a sports book. It’s a leadership book whose setting happens to be the sports world. Here’s the book in a sentence: It’s not the quality of the players nor the coach on the sideline—it’s the captain of the team that makes the biggest difference. As you read through these notes and watch the corresponding Ministry Insights video, here are two things to keep in mind. 1) The lessons here are transferrable to all teams. If you’re part of a group of people working together, there is something you can learn here. 2) One person on a team can make a difference. If you’re the coach, the superstar, the captain, or a player, you can make a huge difference.
Applying the right content and technical strategies can make a huge difference in your services. In this Live Class replay, Steve Dirks from Twelve:Thirty Media gives a tutorial to help you effectively use Pro-Presenter.
The 12 lessons in this guide focus on three primary categories: leading yourself, leading others, and leading projects.
These lessons include practical definitions for each topic, points to consider, biblical application and examples, examples from pastors, suggestions for related resources from Church Fuel, book recommendations, individual and group activities, action steps, and worksheets.
This guide is a comprehensive resource that will not only help you develop an agenda, but provide you with the content for every activity and training to build into your team. Check out our video below on how to utilize this resource.
These are people who are gifted at studying and creating curriculum and would use their gifts to contribute to message prep, but wouldn’t teach on a Sunday morning. Use this job description to help define their role.
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
A consistent stylistic approach will have a positive impact on the efficiency, consistency, clarity, growth and overall excellence of your church. This guide is an example of what you could create for your church in regards to print and web media, in order to facilitate a consistent look and brand that represents your church.
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
Personas help you clarify and communicate common traits and motivations of specific groups within your audience—and help you from a strategy to connect with each group in a relevant way. In this resource, you’ll find tips, cheat sheets, guidelines, and templates to create your own congregant personas.
The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen. When I first read this book in 2020, I thought of the pastors who spend the early parts of the week just putting out fires. I remember the days of problem-solving and the feeling that I could never get ahead. Just when we got one thing working right, something else broke. This book helped me understand that I was spending most of my time solving downstream problems, not working to eradicate them before they surfaced. As pastors and church leaders, we desperately need to get to the root issues, not spend all our time chasing tactics. Because our mission matters so much, this kind of work is critical. -Michael
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
This one-page PDF is a great tool to help people put plans to their goals. Imagine the accountability that can naturally emerge when everyone uses this document for their own leadership roles, and then shares it with others on the team.
Pull out this document at the end of the year or the beginning of a new year, and think through how you want to get better.
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
n a style similar to our Pastor’s Planner that you know and love, The Parent’s Planner is full of encouraging and applicable wisdom that parents in your congregation and your community can take in as they plan their weeks.
You can use this ready-made resource as a piece of helpful content to give away and a tool for connecting with people online. Because we all know that doing so is more important than ever.
To be clear, this isn’t necessarily for YOU to use, but it’s for you to give away to your members. Share it with your church or set it up as a giveaway for when people subscribe to your email list.
In this Live Class Replay, Matt McKee and Titania Jordan talk about the challenges of parenting in today’s digital age. They give practical tips for parents that you as Senior Pastor, Family Minister, Youth Ministry Volunteer, etc. can use to help your members navigate parenting in a tech world.
You can edit this ready to use Job Description to fit your church’s positional need using Microsoft Word and Mac Pages software. Or, print it off and use as is! Questions? Contact your Ministry Coach for details on how to make this document work for you.
This sermon series is focused on some of the “outrageous” claims that Jesus made and is great for reaching new people. The package includes teaching content and graphics.
Finish the year strong and prepare for next year with this bundle of resources. The New Year bundle will help you follow-up with year-end donations, and prepare for an impactful year of ministry.
Everything you need to offer a 90-minute financial workshop to your church or community.
Here’s an example of a monthly financial report you could create for leaders and givers. Creating something like this is a great way to communicate with those who need to hear how the church is doing financially.
Now more than ever, people in your community need help managing money. And your church members are constantly bombarded with financial messages that lead them away from generosity and toward consumerism. It’s time for your church to step in with helpful financial advice and become a helpful resource in your community. The Money Bundle includes the More than Money financial workshop, plus many other giving resources all in one place.
What does the staff member or volunteer monitoring your church’s online chat and messages need to do and say? This document includes a list of best practices and comment/engagement question templates, and can be easily customized to fit your church’s policies.
You can customize this Job Description to fit your church’s needs using Microsoft Word or Mac Pages software.
This practical, hands on Lab explores Creating Marketing Funnels. We discuss what is a marketing funnel? How can I use it? How do I create it? Then, after a couple weeks, we show what we’ve done, celebrate others’ progress, get feedback, etc
It’s helpful to evaluate every ministry and program in your church for effectiveness. This form will help you take an honest look. Maybe your resources are better spent elsewhere. Or maybe your ministry needs a tune up. Start with this form.
Once you have a one page plan for your church, it’s time to align every ministry to that plan. Your children’s ministry, student ministry, worship service team, women’s ministry, discipleship groups, and everything else that formally exists needs to take this step. Check out the video below on how to best use this document.