The Evangelical Network

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The Network News

41 Ideas to Spice Up Your Church

Yes, here it is 41 ideas to make a difference in your church! This newsletter edition will review the many ideas and concepts shared at last year’s conference during the brainstorming and sharing session. We hope that these ideas will serve as starting points to spur your imagination and those of your congregation to consider new and different ways to raise funds, address issues, and resolve problems. We would love to have you share information or articles regarding these areas of concern. Check these out – submit your own ideas – write an article about how it worked!

9 Events & Fundraisers – For Inspiration!

Consider these ideas as starting points for new things to do in your situation. Some of these may not work for you or some may work with some modification. If you try something and find that it was just the best – then write about it and send it in for a future newsletter. Sharing what works is one thing we definitely want to do with this newsletter.

1. Rock-a-thon – Are you hearing the music now? Well, this isn’t about music! It’s about rocking chairs! That’s right this rock-a-thon was raising money by seeing who could stay in the rocking chairs rocking away the longest. Get creative – maybe your crowd is more the exercise bicycle type – that’s fine make it a fun fundraiser.

2. Small Business Silent Auction – Seek out some donations and build an evening of fun and around a silent auction. You can serve hors-de-oeuvres, sparkling cider or champagne and let folks fellowship and bid on items.

3 Dessert Theater – A talent show and some simply luscious desserts can be a great evening - thow in a raffle and you will be adding even more to the fun and fundraising.

4. Atypical Drag Show - ala Evening of Transformation – Make it an evening of elegance and transformation. What does it take? Throw a great banquet and go all out – white tablecloths, candles, gardenias – a good meal. Then put on a show – but not just any show – let’s see some Gospel greats on stage – Vestal Goodman – Reba Rambo – turn some of those guys and gals into drag queens and kings for fun and dollars. Sometime if you pick someone real resistant and they set a dollar amount for which they’ll do drag – you’ll be surprised at how many folks will kick in to see it happen.

5. Closet Ball – This is a staple in many parts of our community as fundraisers for AIDS organizations and community based services. The premise is to get a group of folks who have never done drag – men and women – believe me there is a great tradition of drag kings out there even if you’re not aware of it – and then make an evening of fun out of it. The folks are introduced as they are at the beginning of the evening and then return to perform a number in male or female drag. Pick a winner – give an audacious trophy out – throw in a raffle – and you have yourself a great evening of laughs, entertainment and money.

6. Designated seed - Ask and you shall receive – There is nothing wrong with seeking commitment from folks in their giving. Often we are fine with asking folks to commit to specific services such as working a booth, or taking care of the ushering, but find it more difficult to say what will you commit to give financially. Sometimes making a need known and asking for a commitment is the best way to empower people to feel they are genuinely contributing to something important.

7. Itemized list of needs - provide to the church – Does everyone at your church actually know what the budget needs are and any specific needs that you have? If you’re in need of a desk for the office or two new microphones – does the congregation know that? Communicating specific needs may get you surprising results. Sometimes folks have connections we know nothing about and knowing that you need a better microphone might result in one coming to you.

8. De-emphasize legalism in tithing/offerings - speak of the blessings – What more is there to say – God promised to give back to us – pressed down, shaken together and running over – can you add to that!

9. Pennies from Heaven – Give out collection jars or mini church banks and have folks contribute their change. It adds up!

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12 Worship and Music Cues

1. CD's are available with or without background vocals. This can be great for the church that doesn’t have a worship leader. You can sing along with the CD’s vocals in church or if you have someone who can plan ahead, you could try it without the vocals. Using these CD’s without vocals is also good for doing outreach activities in the park or even for use at church functions or for special music for offertory. Don’t’ be afraid to play around with them and use them in different ways. Another great tip is to use CD’s with vocals & have a person or team of people “sign” the song in sign-language.   2. PowerPoint Programs are Available for Song Presentations. Let’s face it, the church is going high-tech. You can fight it all you want, but it a reality and our community is getting used to more and more high-tech in their own lives. Just about gone are the days of the Melodies of Praise hymnals. PowerPoint (by Microsoft) comes included with many of the MS Office suites. Using PowerPoint or projection software is great to put up the words to the songs you are singing, key scriptures in a sermon & even church announcements.   3. Be sensitive to the Spirit as to who God is sending. Not everyone who comes is sent of God. Ok, just about all of us can recall Dear Brother so-and-so or Sister Iwanna Be. As the head of the music department, you have to be careful to encourage those with Musical Gifts, but you also have to understand that many come just looking for their 5 seconds of fame in front of the church. Develop a new members manual for your worship department Have new worship members start out by coming to rehearsals and just observe and learn the music and process. Add members to the team slowly by doing overheads/PowerPoint, Sound, or backup vocals. And don’t forget to have them sing or play for you before you put them up front in church….I learned that the hard way. It can really embarrass them if they aren’t really what they claim they are.   4. Be Creative. Again, don’t limit yourself to what you grew up with. If you have someone who loves rap music, and they are good at it, find a sermon they can write a song about and do a rap for that service…this is also great for outreach. Other creative things you can do are with DVDs, lighting, drama, & other forms of “the arts”. I attended a worship & creative arts conference last year and people brought in their art work and were also encourage to create worship out of clay…it was awesomely powerful.   5. Various Christian Artists Produce Accompaniment Tracks, Music, Etc. This is great for special music for church and offertories. It also works well for that voice that is not really worship team material (blending) but is more of a soloist. This also works real well for encouraging duets, trio’s, or small groups to sing.   6. Prayer! A necessity for Praise and Worship! This is a given. A team that prays together, stays together. When we think of the worship department we often just think of getting the music together for service, but it’s SOOO much more. The team leader needs the prayers of the team, in order to plan & remain tapped into God. The team needs to have a time to come together and be family with one another; lifting up the needs of those on the team. Prayer helps the team stay united & focused on their calling, which is be in God’s presence and lead the congregation to that place.   7. Make sure your musicians and worship leader flow together in the Spirit. This comes together in several ways. One, as individuals, the team members need to be sure when they come to practice or to service, they are spiritually in the right place. They need to work out their differences with their teammates, spouses, bosses, etc or be able to set that aside and not bring it into the team. If they can’t, they need to remove themselves until they are in a better space, be that for a while, the night or permanently. Second, as a team, members flow together by working together. This includes the musical aspect but also the God aspect. As people work together & share God-experiences with each other there is a development of flow that I believe stems out of family & support for one another.   8. Praise and Worship sets the stage for what God desires to do in any given service. Many people have come to God thru the vehicle of a hymn or worship song. In biblical days, the worshipers were sent out front before the battle really got going. That’s speaks volumes. It prepares peoples hearts to open up and receive what God wants to say to them, and/or do in the service.   9. If you don't have musicians – Turn on the organ, lift the lid on the piano each week as an act of faith that God is sending someone! Don’t be afraid to put your faith into practice for that worship team you desire to have. If you are a new church or a church without a musician, step out in faith that God will answer your prayers….(and don’t forget to listen to what He says to do).   10. Networking with other churches and internet for materials; i.e, 8thday.org. There are just hundreds of resources out on the internet that you can download, view, read, listen to, etc for materials on worship. Go and check out other churches in your area and see what they are doing. Often I’ve gone to local churches in my area to see what resources they have available to them. It’s a great tool for growth. (and for you out there saying, “but there are no gay churches in my area”…that’s my point...who care’s… it’s not about gay church, it’s about God’s Church.)   11. CCLI. This is the Contemporary Christian Licensing company. They require that if you print or project any music or lyrics in your services, that you be licensed. The License price is based on the size of your congregation and is not terribly expensive. They have an additional service that allows you to download lead sheets to songs (whereby you can also change them into different keys for all you that don’t like the key of E). Additionally, CCLI has a video licensing program too, for those churches that wish to show videos in their churches, be that to the kids for children’s church, a video snippet for pastoral illustration, or full on movie for movie night at church.   12. Worship Leader Magazine. This is a great resource for Worship Leaders and a great gift for your Worship Leader…(hint, hint). The magazine covers timely and applicable information on a number of subjects pertaining to music/worship in the church. It also has resources in the back of the magazine about new music coming out and the web locations to buy or listen to it. There is another Worship Leader Magazine package that also includes the Song Discovery subscription. With this, you get both the WL Magazine and a CD of 12 new worship songs. In addition to the audio songs, it also has lyrics & lead sheets that can be printed from your computer system, Worship Leader articles which can be viewed from your computer and often times it will have educational & other sales pertinent information on the CD. It’s a good investment…and usually during the renewal time of the year, they will let you renew & get a second subscription for a friend for FREE. I did this the past two years & each year gave it to a worship leader friend that I knew of that wasn’t receiving the magazine/CD.

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6 Pastor/Leader Points to Ponder

1. Vision - find the vision! Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." – What does that mean? We are all familiar with the famous speech of Martin Luther King, as he stood before the crowd and declared, "I have a dream!" He proceeded to share his dream, his vision, of the kind of country America could be. His dream, his vision, gave people hope. It gave people direction. It gave people inspiration and purpose for living. The vision spoken of in scripture is a spiritual vision, a sight that goes beyond our physical capacity to see. Moreover, it is this kind of vision so desperately needed in the Church of Jesus Christ today. A vision serves to guide, empower and unite the people. Do you know and does your congregation know where your church is going? What is God’s vision for your church? Where do you see the current folks in your church being spiritually in five years – even in one year? Do you know where you are going? If you do not know where you are going – then you are wondering in the desert. 2. Location/location/location - people will not come to church if they have to worry about their car being broken into in the middle of service. Even if it stretches your budget this is not the place to go for broke or to save every penny. Find a balance. 3. Keep Your Congregation Informed – No one likes to feel they are operating in the dark and when communication fails then rumors start – so it’s always best to keep people informed of any changes and why. This doesn’t mean that you have to spill the details if someone in leadership needs some time out but find a way to present it so that it does not create more problems than it should. 4. Remember - it is God's work - not the Pastor's work. It is easy to take on all the issues, try to resolve the issues, and make it perfect, but we are all only human. The truth is if we are doing God’s work then eventually it will work out because He is with us. That does not mean there will not be difficulties but it does mean we have to keep our eyes on the goal, which is to keep ourselves, and the church focused on Christ – not the budget or the latest crisis. Yes, those things must be tended to in order to keep things running or to resolve a crisis but they must be kept in perspective. 5. Questionings OK - Answers not required! It is OK for folks to wonder what is going on or what is happening in times of change. It is OK for the Pastor to question what is going on too. That does not mean that every question has an answer. Sometimes walking in Faith is about just that. There is a plaque that states – Faith is not knowing that God is able, but that He will! Remember, Faith is the evidence of things not seen. 6. Pastors Steadfastness - Assure the congregation that the Pastor is not going anywhere! It is easy in times of stressfulness for folks to worry about the pastor bailing too – so make it clear you are there for the long haul. And, if you are not – then tell the board, and tell the church and help with the transition. It is always going to be more difficult if someone else has to stand up in church and announce that the pastor has resigned or left.

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14 Outreach Events

Three Ways We Want to Hear From You!

IDEAS!	Happenings!	TEN
What IDEAS do you have to share from your local area or church? What worked for you? Or didn’t work for you? Email us: evangelnet@aol.com	Is there something coming up at your church that we need to know about? Let us know and we’ll get it in the next newsletter!	What do you think of the new newsletter? What suggestions do you have for TEN? What topics would you like to see covered in the newsletter?
Email us at Evangelnet@aol.com

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            In Review