Easy Like Sunday Morning

There's a song that says, "I'm easy like Sunday morning." (Now it's stuck in your head. You're welcome!) I've always said that the writer of that song was never in ministry. For those of us who are, Sunday mornings aren't that easy. However, in talking about the "musts" of church marketting, we need to make sure that we are making it easy for those in our congregation to spread the word.


Often times those of us in church leadership get on our soapboxes, preaching to others about the Great Commission, leading others to Christ, inviting people to church without ever thinking that they may not even know how. Most church attenders have never been taught how to tell their story. Few have the outgoing social skills and bravery to invite complete strangers to a Sunday church service with them. That's why in this day we need to give people an easy way to invite others to church and tell others about Jesus.



When asked about this many pastors will say they have little money to produce such items. The budget just simply wouldn't allow. But the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of free ways to give your church goers an easy way to tell their friends.

Some easy examples:

1. Social Media: We will have a blog up in a few weeks about some ways to incorporate social media in
                          churches marketting but it deserves a mention here. If you're a leader and you don't have a
                          Facebook and Instagram account, stop reading right now and go set one up! It's absolutely
                          free and allows you to reach more people in a few minutes than you will probably see all
                         week.

2. Graphics: Many will say that they don't have the know-how to create quality graphics. I'm not talking
                   about professional logos here. Most of us have smart phones. There are plenty of apps available
                   that allow you to create nice looking graphics for little money. (Instaquote & WordSwag are
                   two that we use.) Put those in your bulletins and on social media and let people post away!

I'm afraid that we as church leaders have used a lack of money as an excuse! No more excuses! Get creative! God gave us all brains, let's use them to come up with inexpensive ways to make it easy for those who follow us to tell everyone they know about what God is going in and through our churches! We are a part of the most important entity of all time: The Church! Let's go out and tell the world!

Who are you?

Who are you? Everyone wants and needs to know the answer to that very important questions.  Your "brand" should always convey that. It has to be more than just a great looking logo. What is Gods calling on your ministry, your message, your mission, your passion and desire for the kingdom. Lets be honest, " Church Marketing " and "Church Branding" at times can seem like "ugly words". But they are important! Let me be blunt. This isn't a competition to see if your church attendance is greater than that of your friends church. This isn't about being the fasting growing church in your region. Its about Jesus! The life of freedom and redemption in Christ is too important not to understand how crucial it is.

 So what is Branding? Keeping it simple, Branding is communicating clearly who you are. Too many  times we can get lost in the midst of complexity. Simplicity is key and most times very difficult. Can you define your ministry in 2-3 words?  Once you are able to clearly define your ministry, how do you make sure that your community knows who you are.  Lets look at the what may seem to be the obvious but many times over looked, Consistency. You must stay consistent with your brand and your message. The people in your community need to know that you message doesn't waiver and change, that your mission stays on course. 

I was speaking with a pastor friend of mine the other day about a outreach they had done in the community.  As part of the outreach, they were giving away water bottles on a hot summer day in a busy part of town. All the water bottles had a custom sticker on them with the just the church logo, location and times of church service and simple invitation. One man that received a water bottle said  " I notice you guys are always doing things like this for our community, thanks! " People notice ministries that are consistent in their message.  

We are in a time that is vastly different from what it was only 10 years ago. 80% of people are finding a church to visit online. No longer is the family packing up in the car and driving around town to look for a church. The are going to your website.  What will be their impression of you when they get their? Make sure the message of your church is clear, simple and consistant in every aspect of your branding.  From flyers, mailings, social media, promotional items and even water bottles, the brand you convey across media, print and web is continually defining you to your community.

8 Things You MUST Do In Church Marketing: Think!

By Brandon Goff

Today we begin an 8 week blog series... "8 Things You MUST Do In Church Marketing"! Please feel free to share these posts, and help us increase our following by spreading the word of Forefront. Thank you!

When I was younger and I had to do homework, I was like any other kid, I would try to find a way out of it. So, sometimes I would need my parents help. When I got tired of thinking through the solutions and the issues at hand I would ask my mom, dad, or brother (depending on who was helping me at the time) what the answer was. My dad's response was always "I don't know what do you think?". I hated that response, so I would just throw out an off the wall answer and hope he'd just give me the correct one. But he would always respond with this, "No. Stop for a  minute and THINK about it." That was the whole reason I'm asking YOU for the answer dad, because I don't WANT to think about it! Ever been there, or am I the only one?

The reality is that many times in church marketing, promotion, and evangelism we don't want to think, so we just ask God for an answer and hope He gives us one. I completely believe, however, that many times God is responding much like my dad did... "Stop for a minute and THINK about it." Think about what? I don't know anything about church marketing. I don't know how to create nifty graphics, and I don't know how to even use Facebook...so what do I think about? Try these on for size:

Think about...What does my target age talk about?
Quit looking for the easy way out and THINK for a minute. What is your target age talking about? Sports? Politics? Jobs? Promotions? Kids? Marriage? If you know what they are talking about you can speak their language even better! People talk about what they care about. And then when you know what they are talking about...THINK outside the box on how you can market your church to them? If they enjoy sports, why not market a series of teachings based on a sports theme? If they are worried about parenting why not do a parenting seminar one weekend? If they want to be more professional at work why not get a successful Christian business person to come in and meet those needs? THINK about it!
Exodus 4:10-13 - If you ask God to help you speak their language, He will!

Think about...What will grab attention?
I've heard the old saying "The Word will attract them, we don't have to do outlandish things to attract people." so many times in my life that I could vomit. The Word will TRANSFORM them, but we have to get them to a place where they are comfortable enough to HEAR the word! So, ask yourself what could get others attention? At our church we often say, "We will do anything short of sin to reach people for Jesus". (And NO that's not original with us) For Father's Day why not get a bunch of old cars and park them at the church for the men to gawk over before and after? For Mother's Day why not giveaway free family portraits? For Christmas why not have carriage rides for families? What will grab attention and get people to say, "I want to encounter that. And it's at a church!?"
If you're one of those that is against doing something crazy to attract people's attention... check out Exodus 3:1-6... The Burning Bush! Do you REALLY think that wasn't something crazy to attract Moses' attention?

Think about...What will meet a need?
It's time to stop being a church IN the community, and become a church OF the community! Here's what I mean: we're great at being a church that exists within the community and brings people to the walls of the church. But oftentimes we are horrible at being a church that exists within the community and goes out tell people about Jesus and His church! There's a BIG difference... one sees a need, the other meets the need! Meet people's needs and make it known to your church and to your community that you're there to meet needs! If you're doing a town cleanup, let the paper know about it, let social media know about it, let the community know. "But isn't that being boastful?" Not at all! What that is doing is showing people that have given up on church and God, that there are still people out there that care and love, and here's where you can be part of that! People WANT to be part of something bigger than themselves... it's our job to facilitate that!
Look throughout the New Testament...Jesus met basic needs of people - lepers, deaf, dead, and dumb people. Meet their needs and make a difference!

These are just a few things to get you thinking outside of the box and how you can market your church while doing ministry! Now go and let's MAKE HIM KNOWN!

250 Business Card Giveaway!

Alright! We are excited to begin our new Forefront series next week, "8 Things You MUST Do In Church Marketing", so stay on the lookout! Until then, let's give something away!

The person that leaves the BEST church sign quote in the comments section will win 250 FREE custom designed, full color, front and back business cards! (They can be church invitations or normal business cards)

Let the laughter begin!

You can also go to faveurink.com for more promotional products.

Passion

By Brandon Goff

The World Cup is currently in session! If you don't know much about soccer or the World Cup, different teams (countries) from around the world come together once every 4 years to compete for the best in the world, and to obtain the World Cup title! I don't keep up with soccer very strongly throughout the year, but during this time I keep up with teams, especially the USA. And it doesn't seem like I'm the only one. People from all over the US start buying team USA jerseys, hats, and tune in to watch the World Cup, all to cheer on their team. And they do it with passion!

Each Fall football stadiums across the nation are packed to the gills with screaming, painted up, passionate fans. The NBA Finals just ended and both arenas were packed full of fans passionate about cheering the San Antonio Spurs or the Miami Heat to victory. Passion is something that humans aren't void of, but are very misdirected in giving. What does Lebron James give you when you display passion? Tiger Woods? Lionel Messi? An escape from stress, sure, but what have they REALLY given you?

We've been looking at a series of blogs that discuss how to make HIM known. We've looked a lot of good, practical ways to do so (if you haven't read the past blogs, go back after this one and read them). But, there's something in 1 Corinthians 13 that breaks it all down in a real way for us:
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

The keys in all of these verses are this... LOVE! We can be as creative as we want to be in our outreach and making HIM known as we want to be, but if we don't show passion to Jesus what's the point? 1 Timothy even says that the SCRIPTURES point to Jesus... why do we often think that exempts us? The number 1, most important way we can make HIM known is to be passionate about our Savior. I mean crazy, fanatically, insanely passionate about Him.

I'm talking about the kind of passion that we can't hide, fake, or deny. The kind of passion that only comes when we realize that which we are passionate about adds a value to our life that is hard to grasp. The kind of passion that people's lives literally depends on. And you know what I'm learning? The world, every single person in it... WANTS THAT KIND OF PASSION!

Passion... it's what will change your life, and theirs...and it will bless His!

Loving Others

by Bridgett Martin

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy." -Thomas Merton

Love is at the heart of the Bible. It is the very essence of Jesus Christ. After all, God sent his Son to die on the cross for all of our sins because he loves us so much. We are supposed to love others as Christ loves us. So, what does that look like?

There's no specific formula for how to love others. It's simple. We love others best when we love God most. A big part of loving others is SERVING them. It's about community and spending time with each other. When you devote your time to loving others and serving your community, you accomplish meaning to life and the reason God put us all here in the first place. Loving others is not a one day decision; it's a lifestyle.

Francis Chan said it best in his statement, "Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made."

Get out there and show someone some love. Ask God to show you how to love others the way He loves us.

Run Your Mouth

5 Ways To Make Him Known
Part 3: Run Your Mouth
Brandon Goff

Have you ever met that person that just won't stop talking about something? It's usually one thing that has them so fixated that they can't discuss anything else. For me, sometimes that is the new NBC hit The Blacklist. I watched the first episode of the series, and was instantly hooked. I immediately began talking about it, discussing storylines with others I knew that watched, and have even gotten many friends hooked on the show since. For one friends birthday I even paid for him to catch up on the entire season so he wouldn't miss out! In fact, at a wedding this past weekend, I was telling another friend about it. I'm that annoying guy that always runs his mouth about something...something that interests him and engages him!

Down south we call that "Running Your Mouth". I think it's time we all begin running our mouths a little more actually. Sometimes we are just way too quiet. No we aren't quiet about our political stance, our opinion about the teen mom down the street, nor are we quiet about the rising prices of everything we need to survive. No... those things we are heard loud and clear! But as soon as we start talking about Jesus and the grace and mercy of God, we aren't heard many times...why? Because we are running our mouths too much about the wrong things, causing others to ignore the important stuff we say!

"What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person." (Matthew 15:18, ESV, emphasis added)

When we run our mouths about something we are actually giving people a glimpse into our hearts. We are asking them to come and see what makes us tick, makes us work. When we run our mouths it WILL define us, and it will give people a glimpse into your heart. So, I ask the question...what are you running your mouth about? If what we say is an overflow of the heart, here my is idea...why doesn't the church run it's mouth about the grace and love of God a little more?

Do you want to make HIM and your church known? Here's what you do...give people a glimpse into your heart! Don't just wait for them to come to your church, but do what the previous posts have discussed, build relationships and go to where they are; and RUN YOUR MOUTH! Run your mouth about how the cross saved your life. Run your mouth about how God believes in you so much He gave you access to Him anytime you need it! Run your mouth about how your church has given you a place to belong and a family to be included in. Run your mouth about how the Holy Spirit guides your steps, and even when you mess up He guides you in the right direction to help you grow.

This week... RUN YOUR MOUTH!!

Lets hangout at your your place

Part 2-  5 ways to Make Him know.

We all feel more comfortable at our own home. We have our favorite chair; we can fix a drink and kick our feet up on the coffee table.  Let's be honest -- it's just more comfortable at home. We reserve the,"Let's hangout at your place,"  to when our house is a wreck and needs to be cleaned, our crazy aunt is in town visiting, or we just got in another argument with our spouse. 

Why do we think that our churches are any different? I remember every time I visited a church for the first time. It always seemed to feel a little awkward. I didn't know anyone, and everyone else seemed like they were already best friends. I never felt like I was dressed right; everyone else had on their "Sunday Best". I didn't know what to expect from the guy on the stage with the title "Pastor."  I wasn't sure if that particular Sunday's message was going to be about the grace and love Jesus has for us all or if the pastor was going to call on me to stand up and point out my sins in front of the congregation.  

Churches hold all types of special events as a way to have people come over and hang out at their house. I'm not knocking it -- I know that many people have met Jesus at these events and have become a part of church families. I know a lot of prayer, time, energy, and finances go into putting these events together.

But, how about we just go hang out at their house? As we look through scripture we see that Jesus made it a point to go where the lost, broken, and hurting were. (John 4:1-26,  John 5: 1-15, Mark 2:15-17)  Let's do the same. I'm not talking about going around the neighborhood knocking on doors and inviting them to our church. I am not talking about standing outside the movie theater handing out tracks with our church information stamped on the back. Once again, nothing is wrong with either of those options. Why don't we just try something a little different? Let us set up in front of our local Wal-Mart or grocery store and give away free hotdogs &  hamburgers and let people know that Jesus loves them. How about a REAL FREE car wash? Everyone gets a little note that reminds them that His grace sufficient. Maybe we could give out water bottles on a hot summer day at the traffic light in town or hot chocolate and coffee on a cold morning. Let's attach a reminder to the cups that tells them Jesus has a plan for their life and longs to be in relationship with them. Let's tell them that He loves them no matter where they are from, what they have done, and how far they feel away from him.  Are we willing to hang out at their place?

5 Ways to Make Him Known

Part 1 - Real Relationships

I grew up in a church that had all the traditional church programs: Sunday School, Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. We had 2 revivals a year for the adults, vacation bible school for the kids, and summer camp for the teens. Oh, and we did Homecoming: complete with a campmeeting style speaker, potluck dinner on the grounds, and a 2 o’clock Southern Gospel Singing!

We had everything a church was SUPPOSED to have…

        BUT we didn’t like each other.

        We didn’t go on vacation together.

        We didn't attend each other's sporting events.

        We didn’t even eat meals together. (Except Homecoming!)

We attended church together but we didn't  DO LIFE together!

Maybe you’ve experienced surface relationships like that in church. You spoke on Sundays but really didn’t know much about their lives, their kids, or their hobbies. And you SURELY didn’t know anything about their struggles, their doubts, and their fears. Because faith was a private issue,  you didn’t know where they were in their relationship with Jesus.

Jesus never intended for us to live life that way. Actually, when Adam was in the garden of Eden, God said "It is not good that man should be alone..." (Genesis 2:18) God created us to live life in close relationship with other people. He even went so far as to say that people would recognize that we are His followers by how we display our love for each other. (John 13:35) 

We at Forefront wanted to start this blog off with a series discussing what we think are the top five ways to make Him known. What better way to start than by recognizing the need for real relationships in our lives so that others may see and know that we are HIS by how we relate to each other. 

You need relationships. You need REAL relationships. It will not only help you grow in your faith, it will help others see Christ in you.

What would it it look like if you and I were to put down our Christian facades and started being real with one another? What impact would it have on our communities if we stopped pushing the latest fad or program and pushed past the surface friendships that have been fostered in our churches? How would it make a difference in your life if you invested in just a few other people and then allowed those same people to see beyond the mask that you tend to wear? 

 Would you be willing to give it a try? Let's get real. 

Welcome to the Forefront.

Here We Go!

Written by Brandon Goff

Welcome to THE Forefront! You've heard about us. You've seen our logo. (Or we hope you have!) Now... what is Forefront?

Forefront is a one-stop shop for Pastors, Church Leaders, Business Leaders, and Promoters to get practical help in Making HIM known! Who is Him? JESUS! The one that gives us our breath, our life, our very being. We have a team that is ready to serve you, serve Him, and make HIM known! We are blessed to have on our team 2 graphic designers (James Atwood and Bridgett Martin) and 2 pastors who are serious about promoting Jesus and His church (Chuck Barrineau and Brandon Goff). We are a resource for you to learn how to market, promote, and grow the awareness of your church/business and His love and grace!
Here's what you'll find from Forefront beginning this week:

- A weekly blog post by one of our 4 contributors about something practical, helpful, & encouraging.
- A chance to order top notch, cutting edge, professional resources at a fraction of the cost of most printers/designers.
- Humor, Fun, Love, and FRIENDS!

Fill out the contact form below OR EMAIL US for a VERY special deal we have created just for those of you that checked out our Launch Blog!

We are here to help you! We are here to serve you! We are here to be friends with you! We want to HELP you market your church and Jesus with excellence and power! Here's a a little bit about Forefront (a ministry of Faveur & Faveur Ink):
Forefront is tattoos and three-piece suits. Blind to ethnicity and culture. Blind to politics. Blind to socio-economic boundaries. Faveur is the gift of power to the broken – the bridge from weakness to strength. A compass for the crooked roads. Don’t get lost in the rear-view mirror. The journey is ahead. Never set limits to your potential. No one else can. Each of us exists for a purpose. You have a unique set of opportunities. If you don’t take them great things will go undone. You were put here for this.

Not only were YOU put here for this... the people in your church's community, homes, and pews were as well. And we were put here for you. We can't wait to walk this journey with you!