Six Ways to Keep Your Church’s Momentum Going This Summer
By Jonathan Howe Summer often means vacation time and travel for many church members. It also means lower attendance and participation numbers in many churches. While you’ll likely experience some...
View ArticleSeven Summer Social Media Ideas for Churches
By Jonathan Howe Last week on the blog, I tackled ways your church can maintain momentum throughout the summer. While there will be an expected summer dip, I covered ways to mitigate that summer slump....
View ArticleSix Memories from the 2017 Southern Baptist Annual Meeting
By Jonathan Howe This week, more than 5,000 Southern Baptists convened in Phoenix for the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. While I realize the audience of ThomRainer.com is a diverse one,...
View ArticleFour Common Gifts Churches Give to First-Time Guests
By Jonathan Howe As we’ve seen churches become more intentional about guest assimilation, many give away a small gift to guests to make an impression and to convey appreciation for their visit. If your...
View ArticleSix Items to Include in Your Guest Welcome Packet
In podcast episode 300, we briefly touched on guest welcome packets. Following the interest in that episode and after last week’s post on guests’ gifts, it seemed only prudent to expand on the topic....
View Article10 Content Suggestions for Your Church Newsletter
By Jonathan Howe Every church can and should have some kind of email communication or newsletter for members and guests. And while many churches may do a monthly newsletter, a weekly newsletter might...
View ArticleSix Content Landmines for Church Email Newsletters
By Jonathan Howe Last week, I discussed 10 content suggestions for churches to use as starting points for creating weekly email newsletters. This week, we turn to content that might cause issues in...
View Article10 Outreach Ideas for Your Church This Fall
By Jonathan Howe Outreach events for churches can be predictable in the fall. Your church likely has a back-to-school event for kids, a fifth quarter for students, and a fall festival for families...
View ArticleFive Reasons to Consider Online Registration Forms for Guests
By Jonathan Howe We are routinely asked about the most effective ways to get guests to fill out communication cards or to turn them in. What if your church could get information on guests before they...
View ArticleSix Small Tweaks That Make Big Differences for Your Church Website
By Jonathan Howe Earlier this week, I spoke with a worship pastor about his church’s website. He has just been hired to lead the music and media ministry at his church and is new to web work. He was...
View ArticleSeven Facebook Growth Hacks for Churches
By Jonathan Howe So I had a lunch meeting with Chris Martin yesterday. For those of you who don’t know Chris, he’s one of our social media geniuses at LifeWay and the brains behind LifeWaySocial.com....
View ArticleSix Communications Blunders That Will Cost You Volunteers
By Jonathan Howe If you’re on staff at a church or a leader in any way, you likely interact with volunteers on a daily basis. And unfortunately, you’re probably not sitting on an endless supply of...
View ArticleSeven Qualities of an Effective Church Communications Coordinator
By Jonathan Howe Church communications is a burgeoning field. And the position of church communications director/manager/coordinator has become ubiquitous in many large churches. But it’s not just the...
View ArticlePopular Google Searches That Lead Readers to ThomRainer.com
By Jonathan Howe When you have a blog or website that gets as much traffic as ThomRainer.com does on a daily basis, a great deal of the website traffic will come from search engines like Google. People...
View ArticleTen Facebook Promotion Tips for Churches
By Jonathan Howe Your church is likely entering a busy season. School has started. Members are in a routine again after the summer. Fall festivals details are being finalized. And Christmas season...
View ArticleWhen It’s Time to Redesign Your Church Website
By Jonathan Howe Depending on who and what you read, you can find different opinions on how often you should redesign or refresh your website. If it’s a website design company, the answer is probably...
View ArticleHow to Handle Negative Facebook Comments about Your Church
By Jonathan Howe When churches have Facebook pages, negative comments will come your way. Whether it’s a former church member, someone from the community, or an online troll, it’s likely that at some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Week 8 College Football Recap
What started out as a very ugly day in College Football turned into an upset special for a couple of undefeated teams late Saturday night. And the theme of the weekend: White Helmets. Very pro Baylor's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Week 9 College Football Recap
With Saturday being Halloween, there was so much going on for most college football fans—and much of it had nothing to do with football. In fact, I barely had a chance to watch any of the games and...
View ArticleWeek 10 College Football Recap
What was billed as an epic matchup between LSU and Alabama turned into a rather routine win for the Tide. Elsewhere, Duke got hammered, Clemson rolled FSU and Ole Miss lost on one of the strangest...
View Article