church events

Top 5 Event Registration Tools

When it comes to planning church events, gone are the days of handwritten signup sheets and manually entering attendees into spreadsheets. With the use of online forms, you can now refocus your church’s attention to creating an impactful event for guests. If you’re gearing up for your next planning session, first check out these top five event registration tools to use for your church events. 1. Eventbrite Arguably one of the more well-known online event registration sites, nearly 800,000 event organizers used Eventbrite in 2018 alone. Some of its main features include professional event registration pages that are compatible on any device; organizer-friendly capabilities to collect registration information and email attendees registration summaries; and easy setup for different tiers of registration and discounts. Eventbrite also has a Facebook Integration function. This has proven to double registrations for free events and increase sales by 20 percent for paid events. Price: There are Essential, Professional, and Premium packages with varying functions depending on need. You can also try Eventbrite’s service for free before committing. 2. Planning Center Church events often require gathering several details about attendees and their needs at the event. Planning Center offers customizable options that allow you to create attendee types with their own pricing or special requirements. Using Planning Center as your church event signup also allows you to give attendees the option to purchase extras like T-Shirts, workbooks, or other special event accessories. There’s even a Church Center mobile app that congregations “can use to check in their families, give, join groups, manage their personal profile, and register for events.” Price: Planning Center is priced based on the number of attendees you’ll expect to register. Though there is a 30-day free trial, packages range from $14 to $199 per month. 3. Google Forms A survey administrative app, Google Forms has all the same collaboration capabilities as its other G-Suite siblings. It also has event registration options that allow you to collect email addresses, create polls and pop quizzes, and store all your survey data neatly in its app or viewable in Sheets. Just like the other G-Suite programs, Google Forms is free to Gmail users and allows other team members to add content in real-time. Price: Free! 4. Tithe.ly Events Tithe.ly was designed specifically with churches in mind. From simple registration forms to user-friendly online payments, Tithe.ly Events has everything you need for every type of event. Like other tools on our list, this online church event registration site has customizable features for age, merchandise, and multiple ticket types. Price: Tithe.ly has four plan options that range from $0, with no credit card required, to $99/month. Check out its pricing page to learn more about each option. 5. Your Church Management System (ChMS) Most church management software systems include the capability to create online forms for event registration (including processing payments). Check with the staff member who manages the ChMS for your church to see if it includes online event registration functionality. Price: This will likely be free since you’re already paying for church management software. With one of these tools in your repertoire, setting up registrations for your next church event should be easier than ever.

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4 Tips to Reduce Last-Minute Planning

“I have an idea…”.  These are words most planners prefer not to hear. After all, they’d prefer to reduce last-minute planning. In the context of the church, a close second would be, “Hey, let’s (insert big event idea here) next month!”.  Though these sentences often come with good intentions, all the event organizer hears is, “Let’s add more work to your already overflowing to-do list.”   As you know, planning events is a tall order. It includes promoting the event, finding volunteers, renting space to hold it, buying or making decor, securing food plans, and too many other details to list.  Add a tight deadline and a few extra “ideas” to the mix and you have a recipe for stress and late nights at the office. If you’ve been hearing those dreaded words a lot lately and feel like your team is in a vicious cycle of last-minute planning, here are four tips to break the cycle. Tip #1: Bring up the Budget When it comes to ministry, money isn’t everything.  It is, however, part of the church event planning equation.  Sometimes you have to bring up the budget to add a dose of reality.  The next time a department leader mentions a last-minute event he wants to do, kindly ask him about the budget for that event.  If he didn’t include that event in his department’s annual budget, then he’ll have to request an exception or reallocate budget dollars.  It’s my experience that if you do this often enough, your repeat last-minute offenders will start speaking up more in budget planning meetings. Tip #2: Provide Options Now, Tip #1 only works if the procrastinators report to you.  It doesn’t work if the person dropping last-minute ideas is the Senior Pastor.  In this case, brainstorm a few options on how to make his vision happen on short notice.  Those options should include the price tag, how many volunteers you’ll need, how much overtime the staff members will need to work, etc. Of course, be respectful in how you deliver these options. It’s not about trying to get the pastor to ditch the idea in light of the dollar and time costs. The goal is to make sure he clearly understands the potential impact of this last-minute decision.  I’ve personally worked with leaders who were frustrated at staff members who didn’t inform them about these impacts. When they learned of the real-time and money costs after the fact, they wished they’d known ahead of time. Then, they could have made adjustments or scrapped the idea completely. In short, know the impacts of a last-minute event before you begin to plan, and make sure your leaders know, too.  Tip #3: Listen & Be Proactive We all have different talents and abilities. Some of us are hardwired as planners while others are dreamers.  Both sides of that spectrum are important to strengthening the reach of the ministry. What’s also important is taking the time to understand each other’s perspectives.  I encourage you to get to know your visionary team members or leaders. Find out what drives them and why they tend to come up with these big ideas somewhat late in the game.  Then, help them understand how you can make their ideas happen when you have sufficient time to plan. Commit to discussing the next 3-6-12 months and use these scheduled meetings to get their creative juices flowing.  These sessions are a great way to gauge what ideas they really want to execute. From there, schedule additional session time to brainstorm specific ideas.  Tip #4: Offer Tips & Planning Tools Since some of us are more geared to plan than others, take the time to share your knowledge.  What’s important here is to look inward for ways you can help your team members. Don’t just get frustrated by someone’s lack of planning. Instead, educate them on how not planning ahead creates extra work for everyone — and ultimately costs more.   As I’ve discussed before, there are many steps to take that can help with planning events ahead of time. Once your team understands these steps and the benefits of this practice, you can greatly reduce last-minute planning. Go forth and plan ahead!

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5 Steps to Planning Church Events a Year Ahead

There’s no denying it, church events can be incredible ministry tools. Unfortunately, they can also drain your budget and burnout your staff. It is possible, however, to get all the benefits of hosting events without all the trouble. How do you do it? Plan in advance. In fact, I recommend planning church events a year out.  No, I’m not saying you need to create a detailed to-do list a year ahead. However, it’s wise to decide which events your church will host for the year. By doing this early, your team will have time to get all their ideas on the table, discuss what events are best at each time of year, and determine whether or not you need to space the events out. From my own event planning experience, doing this exercise when there’s no time crunch will help everyone to stay focused on the big picture. Here’s how to get started planning church events a year ahead: Step #1: Put Everything on the Calendar This is the fun part: Get a huge wall calendar (erasable is best) and write out every event you intend to host in the upcoming year. Have each ministry department leader put their events on the calendar and make sure you include all other church-wide events. Step #2: Organize a Calendar Review Meeting Once you’ve written them all down in one calendar, organize an event review meeting. It’s important to have all ministry department leaders, the Executive Pastor, Senior Pastor, and ministry support department leaders (Finance, Communications, Facilities, etc.) participate in this calendar review.  Step #3: Discuss the Calendar  At the calendar review meeting, get to a bit more detail for each event you intend to host. Here are some questions to help you move along the discussion:  Step #4: Evaluate the Workload Dive even deeper into your review discussion by evaluating the possible workload issues that could arise with too many events. Ask these questions:  Step #5: Consider the Budget As you’re planning church events, the next thing to consider is the budget. Do you have a budget set (at least a draft) for each event proposed? If not, prepare those numbers before finalizing the calendar. You might find that you don’t have the cash flow to support several events at once. This could lead to you eliminating, scaling back, or spreading out events. Planning church events can be a bonding and exciting experience for your team, but only if you have enough time to enjoy it. With a little bit of intentional planning ahead of time, you can set your team up for success down the road.  If your team could use a step-by-step guide to planning events, I can help! Check out The Church Event Planning Toolkit book AND The Church Event Planning Course. You’ll find a proven, simple process that works for events with a few hundred to several thousand attendees. Don’t waste time trying to figure it all out on your own. Use this process (and the templates included) and make hosting church events more successful and less stressful today.

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How to Get Started with Church Project Management

From sermon preparation to coordinating volunteers and training small group leaders (and more), there’s a lot that goes into leading a church.  One way to keep all these efforts running smoothly is by implementing a project management process for your church. Before we get into church project management, we need to deal with projects.  So, what is a project? According to the Project Management Institute, a project is “temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.”  In other words… With that in mind, project management involves coordinating all the tasks, team members, and resources needed to make the project a success. How does this apply to ministry? Most churches have more vision and activities planned than they have resources.  To have any hope of not working late nights and weekends (beyond Sunday, of course), you have to be organized and efficient with what you do have available.  Using a standard process to coordinate and organize the work helps everyone be more efficient and effective. Project management is a term we don’t use much in ministry.  It sounds very corporate-y, so it tends to get tossed aside. However, after using project management principles in both corporate and church environments, I can personally attest to its usefulness. Projects such as launching a ministry program, hosting a conference, or starting a new outreach are in addition to the day-to-day responsibilities and can stretch your team to their limit.  The key to not wearing everyone out while delivering an excellent result is in planning and project management. Before I go into detail about how to use project management principles, I want to introduce you to the benefits you can reap from a church project management process: Benefit #1: Less rework Planning involves doing work on paper before you do it in real life. When you plan, you can brainstorm and think through various scenarios well ahead of any deadlines. You can make your mistakes on paper (and identify better ways of scheduling tasks or handling various situations) instead of when a deadline is looming in front of you. Benefit #2: Increased excellence It’s hard to go the extra mile when you’re already exhausted.  Planning ahead and carefully managing the plan gives you margin.  You can use that margin to do the extra things that take your event over the top and deliver for your community. Benefit #3: Ability to deliver on-time and within budget When it’s down to the wire and it just has to get done, you’re more likely to feel justified in spending the extra money to finish.  However, if you carefully plan the timeline and budget, you’re much less likely to have last-minute emergencies. Benefit #4: Less risk Part of the planning process involves considering the risks involved in the event or new program.  You may need to purchase liability insurance for the event or make contingency plans in case of bad weather. Benefit #5: More creative freedom Using a structured planning process may not sound like it would allow for creativity.  However, when you plan ahead and allow for margin within your timeline, you can create room for brainstorming sessions and a few iterations of creative concepts.  You can’t let the creatives on your team tweak the graphics or décor forever, but you should give them enough time to come up with their best work. Benefit #6: Less stress and late nights You’ve seen (and experienced) it too.  The week before a big deadline is fraught with last-minute changes and many late nights at work.  Tempers may flare, communication is spotty at best, and you’re all just ready for it to be over. It doesn’t have to be that way.  Planning ahead and then working the plan prevents this last-minute craziness. Benefit #7: Increased buy-in from the team Your team needs to understand the “why” behind this new program or event.  Part of the planning process involves defining what success looks like and communicating that to the team.  That unifies the group and enables them to communicate more effectively and make better decisions. Then they can all head in the same direction with purpose and enthusiasm. Benefit #8: More volunteers A lack of planning leads to sending out a desperate plea for volunteers a few days before the event.  The volunteers who set aside their schedules to help likely receive very little communication or training.  In that scenario, your volunteers are frustrated and annoyed. They’re serving because they believe in the ministry of your church – so much that they’ll put up with the chaos this time.  However, don’t count on that continuing for long if you repeat this process often. Benefit #9: More effective communication Invest the time upfront to plan how and when you’ll communicate this event or new program.  You’ll want to consider service announcements, social media posts, billboards, website updates and registration, emails, signage around the church, etc.  When you coordinate this communication, it will be apparent to your congregation and the community what you’re doing, why, and how to get involved. That will increase participation and make the whole launch day run smoother. Benefit #10: Peace of mind Now, I know that God is our source of peace.  I’m not taking away from that at all. In addition to trusting Him for wisdom and direction, we need to use the skills He provides and give thought to our ways.  The simple act of documenting the tasks required to complete a project brings a measure of peace. You can see what needs to be done, who’s responsible for each item, and that you have a schedule in place to get everything done on time.  Yes, you’ll have issues to handle along the way, but the volume is much less when you plan ahead. That brings peace and helps you be a good steward of the resources (time, money, and talent) that God has provided. Hopefully, by now you’re at least intrigued by the benefits of

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Project Management Software for Churches: How to Choose the Best One

Many church leaders see the potential value in using project management software for their teams. Popular tools include Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, and others. However, there’s often a level of disappointment that happens once a church staff starts using the tool. Why isn’t this making communication easier? Why won’t the whole staff use the tool (and stop emailing me or dropping by my desk with a “quick” request)?  Here’s the deal: Those issues probably have nothing to do with the tool and everything to do with the process.  What do I mean by that? (Prepare yourself for some tough love here…) You can’t put a shiny new tool over a broken process and expect an incredible result. I don’t care how many features the tool has, how much you paid for it, or how “cutting edge” it’s supposed to be. If you don’t have a good process in place it still won’t work. So if that’s true, then what is all this process stuff about? Let’s say you’re looking for project management software to help your communications team put tasks into a central location, assign each, add notes about the tasks, send email reminders about upcoming tasks, etc. Before you sign up and start adding projects, consider this: How does your staff currently receive, manage, and complete communications projects? In other words, how does your team go from receiving a request to providing the final product? Notice I haven’t addressed any special software features here. If you don’t already have the answers to these questions, that’s where you should start before you evaluate any online tools. Here’s how to document your process: Step #1 – Create a rough draft Take a first cut at sketching out your church’s current process (whether you think it works well or not – just write down what IS). Step #2 – Review Meet with your team to see if they agree that what you’ve written down matches how they think things currently work. You may be surprised by where you have disagreements or different understandings. That’s another reason why documenting the process is helpful – it gets everyone on the same page. Step #3 – Improve Ask the team what they think should change about the current process and incorporate that into the documentation. Step #4 – Review with a wider audience Review the proposed process with other departments and/or individuals who’ll be impacted by the changes. Tweak the process until you get something you think will be more efficient. Step #5 – Evaluate Use the process for a few weeks without adding a planning tool. Work out a few issues, update the process documentation, then create a list of which steps you’d like a tool to help make more effective such as: Now it’s time to check out project management software options: Once you have a solid process and you know what you want out of an online project management tool, THEN it makes sense to start reviewing options. One easy way to start comparing options is to visit Capterra.com. You can select up to four tools to compare key features side-by-side. That will help you narrow down the options. Next, visit the website of each vendor to get a better idea of what each offers. Most of the software providers offer a free trial. I highly recommend you sign up for the free trial and have 2-3 people use the tool for that time period. See if you really like the tool, if it helps you manage your process more efficiently, etc. Once you land on a tool your team will actively use and finds helpful, then start rolling it out to more people. Make sure you explain WHY you’re asking them to use a new tool. Help each individual understand how this tool will make their job easier and how it will save them time and stress. Train each individual and answer their questions in the first few weeks. Don’t expect everyone to fall in love with the new software on day one. It may take a while for some to see the benefits. Be persistent, provide more training, and respond quickly to their questions. Yes, this approach will take more time up front. However, by documenting your process and identifying how you’d like to use a project management tool you greatly increase your chances of selecting the best one for your team. Complete the form below to receive a free Project Management Tools Overview guide (including information on the top software vendors):

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