Here at faithHighway, we had our share of updates, improvements and new releases. This year we gave a facelift to the admin panel and improved your webmail system. We also launched the Customer Rewards Program, which we hope you have taken advantage of!  We released Flex Themes and have created several eBooks as a resource for you!  Our blog continues to grow in readership and we hope you continue to take advantage of all the great resources found here and share them with someone that you think could use them.

Our top blog posts for this past year are:

1. Go Live of the Week: The Potter’s House of Denver
2. Taking Church Attendance- How do you Do it?
3. Facebook Fan page vs. Website
4. 4^th Of July Staff Party
5. The Q: What’s a QR Code?
6. faithHighway Tools: Prayer and Share Wall
7. Presenting faithHighway’s New Webmail System
8. 6 Tips for Successful Internal Communication with Your Church Staff
9. 10 Things you Should Know About Facebook Fan Pages- part 1
10. The Intersection: Larry Shaw from Life Springs Worship Center;  Lexingington, SC
11. Attract Visitors to Your Website
12. Free Christmas Media Stuff
13. The World is Shrinking
14. Church Website Resources
15. The Intersection: Lake Houston UMC

I look forward to the year 2012 and seeing what adventures it takes us on!

Happy New Year!

We are so blessed to work alongside churches, ministries, nonprofits and businesses that are striving to build the Kingdom. Enjoy rest and precious time with family.

Please note that our offices will be closed Friday, Dec. 23rd and Monday, Dec. 27th to allow us to spend time with our families.

One of my clients in particular has worked extremely hard this season.  Ken and Jen at Church at the Beach in New Smyrna Beach, FL were not only trying to optimize their outreach efforts this holiday season, but just opened the doors of their church plant in November!  In the past two months, they’ve held their first service, launched a new website, created a Facebook page for the church, introduced a new logo and brand to their community and on top of that have done not one but two direct mail campaigns!

Check out their site at http://churchatthebeachnsb.com/.  I must admit though, Jen is a pro at this website building business!  Within a few days, she had content loaded and formatted well. She had studied other sites, asked for consultation and picked up a few tricks from previous websites she’s done with us in the past. This custom site is great and really captures who the church is – Church at the Beach, where friends meet.

While many are frantic with the hustle and bustle of Christmas, gift giving and party going, we know you’re busy trying to keep the focus of the season on Christ and His love for all.  We continue to pray for you and your church and the outreach efforts you’re making.  Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your ministry!

This article offers you the “how to” on getting your Timeline switched on and published.

Unfortunately, news is that, despite the excitement marketers, nonprofits and business owners have for this revamp to the Facebook look and feel, Mashable reports that “the social networking giant isn’t letting brands create Timeline pages just yet and hasn’t given a date on when that will happen.”

So, I say we get our feet wet, explore the good, bad and the ugly of this Timeline, so once brands are allowed to create this page, we are all experts to help tell the Ultimate Story through our church and ministry Facebook pages. Share your experiences as you explore this fun new app.

But how do you get the word out to your whole community that you’re having an event?

There are a few free ideas:

Facebook- this is the obvious one. Create an event. Invite your congregation and encourage them to spread the word. You can upload the event flyer as the event picture, so all the details are right there.

Community Event Calendars- Local newspapers usually have an online calendar filled with community events. Take time to submit your event. You’ll probably need to plan ahead for this one and submit it Two or three weeks before the event, in case it has to be approved .

Local Adventure website- some cities have websites that are filled with “free, local fun.” Do a little investigation and see what your city has to offer. Start by Googleing “free events in “your city”.

What other places can you think of?

Social media is one way that we can connect with people throughout the day, despite the hurried schedule our culture leads. See if any of these engagement activities tickle your tinsel (yes..I did just say that….I’m sorry?).

1. Repost and Comment on Natwivity Updates – An organization is going above and beyond to help people see into the lives of those from the Christmas story. Each day characters from the Christmas story tweet/share on Facebook  – add your commentary and engaging questions as you repost this information. Helping people see the humanity of the story allows real connection and makes the miracle of Immanuel even more impactful.
2. Create a “What if it’s true?” Campaign – We know how many amazing miracles, prophesies and stories surround Christ’s birth – but many in our culture (and even some in our churches) struggle with believing these truths.  Try posting a statement from the Christmas story on your Facebook/Twitter page and leave it open with the question “What if it’s true?” Let people comment and pose follow up questions, opening the door to conversations that would have never happened in the first place. But – be ready for the hard questions! They will come…
3. Have a Church-Wide Tweet Up (or ministry-wide depending on church size) – It’s the holidays! Who doesn’t love to gather together for coffee, hot chocolate or cider.  Create a welcoming environment for guests and members alike by inviting people to spontaneously meet up at a coffee shop, café or mall. Allow people to build those important, intentional relationships to strengthen the body of Christ.
4. Use Social Media to Empower Community Cause – Check your community calendar for fun Christmas festivities and join in the fun.  When you use the power of your social media reach to publicize community events, it will be noticed!  Plus, it’s an amazing way to connect with unbelievers to create new relationships.
5. Make Up Your Own 12 Days of Christmas- Never hurt to get a little creative, right? You can choose to incorporate the real Christmas story…or just do something off the wall and fun to get attention and start conversations with your followers.

Let us know which one you try…or if you have a plan of your own!

Photo by JollyUK.

My favorites from their list are:

WorshipHouse Media- 12 Days of Christmas.- Visit their site on the days marked with a bow on their calendar and unwrap your free gift.

Igniter Media-  Giving away a free Holly Branch Loop

Muddy River Media- All their stuff is free. They’ve got Christmas Trivia slides, music videos and more!

My additions:

Amazon.com- 25 Days of free Holiday Music- visit this site each day for a new Christmas song.

CreativeNerds.co.uk- Give your website a splash of holiday with these Social Media Christmas Icons

It is a great time for us to be able reach people with the true meaning of the season along with helping them find a church home to settle at. So though our thoughts and efforts are often on production of services or events, but we cannot forget to focus on promoting all these great happenings to our communities we are called to reach.

As a Pastor myself, I sometimes am also tempted to kick back and just take it easy around this time instead of doing more outreach. However I cannot forget, and we as the body of Christ cannot forget, this can be a wonderful time for reaping the harvest.

Christmas services, or more specifically Christmas Eve services, are statistically the #2 most attended time of the year for us. People are either excited to go to a service and celebrate or they are downright depressed about their life and looking for hope. So what are we doing to reach people and get them connected to the Lord along with what He is doing with our ministry efforts?

Your church website is going to be the central hub that people will flow to for service info, events, and finding a place to connect. You want to make sure, first of all, that you have a quality web presence. Churches also want to make sure they are highlighting events on the home page effectively at least a couple of weeks before the event.

Generating a buzz and community from your social networking efforts like Facebook or Twitter that lead people back to a great website are critical to generate more visitors and involvement right now. If yours is the kind of church that is big on the Christmas dramas and productions then why not stream these things on your website with video that will bring people right into the experience.

Is your website updated with key events and happenings this season? Is it giving people the impression you want them to have as they are considering reconnecting with God? Enter into the New Year with the right tool in place to reach today’s culture.

Photo By: theogeo

“Try to make a site that is so fantastic you become an authority in your niche.” – Matt Cutts, Head of Google Web’s SPAM Team.

As a church, what is your niche? By now, most established churches can accurately define what they offer to the community and who it is they are trying to reach (niche).

A lot of churches think that if they have a website that looks good to their audience, that it’s enough. The truth is, if we as the body of Christ truly want to be the source of hope to our communities, we have to be the authority in our niche.

If your church is absolutely excellent at something, like feeding the hungry, helping addicts, offering financial management classes, etc., your community needs to know about it. How will they know to turn to you for that need if they don’t know you offer it.

This will take more than just great graphics to let your audience know.  The truth is, you need several elements for your site to be an authority of anything.  Consider content for a minute, if your content is stale and hasn’t been changed in the past six months, it’s no longer helpful in your Google SEO.  With the recent surge of social media activity, Google and other search engines are placing more weight on current content to ensure its formula is pulling the most relevant, up-to-date websites.

The 5 Keys to a Great Site require these elements:

• Visual Design
• Structure & Navigation
• Functionality
• Interactivity
• Content

We have a free video library with tons of research for the 5 Keys to a Great Site to empower you in the area that interests you. Let’s not be left in the dust, but rather pave the way in our community, utilizing technology to not only get the word out, but spread the greatest Truth the world will ever know.

Photo by KidProQuo

• Responded with an overall better product for churches
• Developed solutions that are budget sensitive without diminishing the quality of product
• Our output remains number one in the nation for custom websites for churches and parachurch ministries
• Responded to the specific online needs of churches and have been able to show through our consulting of ministries how much we care to deliver cutting edge goods that have been promised
• Churches have responded in unprecedented numbers with inquiries into our company and faithHighway has responded with “Here is an excellent way to get the job done”
• faithHighway has responded with consultation offerings and site evaluations that are “cost free” and valuable to help churches establish a brand and cutting edge software
• Our team has continued to prayerfully show churches that if they are willing to get their message out into the community and the world that we are, very simply, ready to help them

Thanksgivng at faithHighway is exciting and rewarding. It is the place to be for those that are in ministry and to serve those that are on the front lines of getting the message out to those that are in need. Thank God for the churches that are getting the “Good News” to their communities and the world.

Photo By: Carl M.