This summer my wife, Mandy, joined our staff for a 10-week project in which she got our children's ministry off the ground. She interviewed several children's ministers, researched curriculum, wrote guidelines and procedures, coordinated volunteers, and purchased equipment and supplies. Quite a 10-week project, huh! She did an amazing job, and the result is that we now have an awesome children's ministry.
We had two priorities for KidsPlace. First, we wanted every parent to feel that their child would be safe. Second, we wanted every parent to feel that their child was not just being babysat. We wanted them to know that their child would learn the Bible while they were at KidsPlace.
As to the safety component, Mandy researched background checks and other safety procedures. She settled on using a company called Protect My Ministry for the background checks. We paid $39 for an initial setup fee, and then $12-20 for an individual background check, depending on how exhaustive we want it to be. If you've ever looked into background checks, this is a good deal. The other good thing about it is that it's all done through their website.
Download KidsPlace Guidelines & Procedures
Download KidsPlace Set-up Checklist
Download KidsPlace Fall07 Budget
Download Comment Form
Download Contagious Illness Parent Note
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Facility and Storage
Of all of the amazing doors that God opened over the past few months, this had to be one of the best. One day Jason dropped by the Skinner Center at Peabody Park to see if they would allow us to rent their facilities once a month. The director told him that they would rent it for $100 each Sunday. That's $100 for four hours and for as many rooms as we needed! Amazing! He called me immediately, I dropped what I was doing and came over, and we signed the paperwork.
We met there for the first time on Sunday evening, September 9, and it worked out great. We had the infants in one room, the toddlers in another, and the adults in the main room. There's also a gym that we'll probably use at some point
There was also had the issue of storage to deal with. The first church plant that I was a part of was in Nashville, and I remember every Sunday morning meeting at 7:45 at the pastor's house to load up the equipment. After a couple of years of that we ended up getting office space, so then we started meeting at the office at 7:45 to load up the equipment. I really didn't like doing that.
We decided that the best option was to purchase a trailer. That way it wouldn't be in one of the pastor's homes (which would thrill our wives). It also meant that we would be able to drive the trailer right up to the door of the room we were meeting in and unload. The negatives to this were the upfront cost of the trailer (at least $2000), the question of where to store the trailer, and the fact that the sound equipment would not be in a climate-controlled environment.
When we initially signed the papers at the Skinner Center we asked about storage, and they said they really didn't have space for us. That's when we started pursuing the trailer. One evening, though, we went to take a look at the facility to begin planning how we were going to set up the room. Right before leaving, I decided to ask the assistant director once more about the possibility of renting some space. At this point she thought that might work out.
To make a long story a bit shorter, we ended up being able to rent a good sized closet for $60/month. Now we pretty much just have to take about 20 steps holding a speaker. Not bad!
Update: A few weeks ago we went back to the director to ask him about the possibility of meeting there every week beginning in February. After talking to his supervisor, they agreed to do this for $3,600.00. That’s $3,600.00 for the entire year, and for those of you who didn’t excel in math, that’s an amazing deal. This also includes storage for the year. We’ve been amazed by God’s provision for us!
Marketing - Pt. 2
We were able to write an article for the Lamplighter, our neighborhood's monthly newspaper. Shelley Thomas, one of our newer core group members, wrote the article, and I have heard lots of good feedback on it. Here's the link to the article (it's on page 29). We ran the mailer as an ad as well (page 33). It just goes to show you that some of the best marketing is free!
Marketing
We ended up going with a marketing firm based in Benton, AR. We were referred to Shaun McFarland and YourAdTeam by Hoyt Lovelace, a fellow pastor and friend who just moved to Japan.
They did our logo.
They also helped us with our domain name (www.ncmidtown.com). The one we had come up with was not very good at all.
They did our first mailer, which went out to 5000 households at the end of August. They also did our Connection Cards (aka visitor cards), our business cards, our thank you notes, and our programs for our monthly worship gatherings.
Just like with some of these other things, I would highly recommend Shaun and YourAdTeam. The best thing about the mailer is that they are a one-stop shop. They designed it, printed it, put postage on it, and brought it to the post office for it to be mailed. I received my mailer when all of my neighbors received theirs.
As far as costs, we paid $300.00 to get a mailing list of over 5000 households. We used a company called USA Data for that. Once again, I had no experience with mailing lists, but did a little google research and found them. If you're not familiar with mailing lists, most of them retrieve data based on an address, and a 1/2 mile or mile radius. One afternoon I did a lot of driving throughout Midtown and found a central address. Then I used a 1 mile radius and we ended up with 5800 households. I cut that down to 5000, then emailed it (an Excel document) to Shaun.
We paid around $3000 for our first mailer and logo, though we will be refunded around $700 from the post office because our paperwork for a nonprofit bulk mail permit had not gone through.
We are planning on doing one more mailer right before our November service.
Download NC September mailer
They did our logo.
They also helped us with our domain name (www.ncmidtown.com). The one we had come up with was not very good at all.
They did our first mailer, which went out to 5000 households at the end of August. They also did our Connection Cards (aka visitor cards), our business cards, our thank you notes, and our programs for our monthly worship gatherings.
Just like with some of these other things, I would highly recommend Shaun and YourAdTeam. The best thing about the mailer is that they are a one-stop shop. They designed it, printed it, put postage on it, and brought it to the post office for it to be mailed. I received my mailer when all of my neighbors received theirs.
As far as costs, we paid $300.00 to get a mailing list of over 5000 households. We used a company called USA Data for that. Once again, I had no experience with mailing lists, but did a little google research and found them. If you're not familiar with mailing lists, most of them retrieve data based on an address, and a 1/2 mile or mile radius. One afternoon I did a lot of driving throughout Midtown and found a central address. Then I used a 1 mile radius and we ended up with 5800 households. I cut that down to 5000, then emailed it (an Excel document) to Shaun.
We paid around $3000 for our first mailer and logo, though we will be refunded around $700 from the post office because our paperwork for a nonprofit bulk mail permit had not gone through.
We are planning on doing one more mailer right before our November service.
Download NC September mailer
Video Equipment
This was one area that I was pretty clueless in. I first began researching projectors, and was told by one person that I would need to spend at least $3000 on one. That was $2000 more than I had first estimated. I ended up buying a Dell 2400mp projector for $1000.00. That included a three year warranty. It's a 3000 lumen projector, and I've been very happy with it thus far. I purchased it here.
After spending ten to fifteen hours on a projector, I thought I would just order a screen and be done with it. After going to this site, I quickly learned that you can spend anywhere between $100 and $5000 for a projector screen. That site alone has almost 10,000 screens to choose from. Needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed.
I ended up going with a local company after not having much luck with the customer service at the above site. I stumbled onto Bluff City Electronics after doing a google search (Praise God for google, right). They were extremely helpful, and I ended up purchasing a Da-Lite tripod projector and case for a little over $200. After getting a 50-ft VGA cable, my video purchasing was complete at under $1300.00, which, by the way was just a little more than if I had purchased the projector from Dell.
After spending ten to fifteen hours on a projector, I thought I would just order a screen and be done with it. After going to this site, I quickly learned that you can spend anywhere between $100 and $5000 for a projector screen. That site alone has almost 10,000 screens to choose from. Needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed.
I ended up going with a local company after not having much luck with the customer service at the above site. I stumbled onto Bluff City Electronics after doing a google search (Praise God for google, right). They were extremely helpful, and I ended up purchasing a Da-Lite tripod projector and case for a little over $200. After getting a 50-ft VGA cable, my video purchasing was complete at under $1300.00, which, by the way was just a little more than if I had purchased the projector from Dell.
Sound Equipment
I probably know a little more about sound than the average church planter because my background is worship leading. However, I still needed help in this department. I researched several church planting websites, and discovered that many sound budgets exceed $30,000. I knew that we could only do a fraction of that, so frugal shopping was essential.
I did most of our shopping at Yarbrough's Music. They spent a lot of time helping me design the system, then teaching me how to operate it once it came in.
I'll post our sound budget soon, but I can tell you that we came in under $5000.00, and I feel like we got a lot for that amount.
Download Neighborhood Church Sound Budget
I did most of our shopping at Yarbrough's Music. They spent a lot of time helping me design the system, then teaching me how to operate it once it came in.
I'll post our sound budget soon, but I can tell you that we came in under $5000.00, and I feel like we got a lot for that amount.
Download Neighborhood Church Sound Budget
Website
For most churches, the hub for information is the weekly service. People come every week and hear what is going on during the coming week. Because we are starting out with monthly worship gatherings, we knew that we needed a great website to serve this purpose.
We ended up going with a company called Ecclesia 360. I cannot speak highly enough of these guys. This company was started by church planters and their product is targeted towards church plants. The primary thing you are purchasing from them is a Content Management System. I know just a tiny bit of html, but definitely not enough to design a website that would serve the needs mentioned above. I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed putting this website together using their CMS. Jason and I did all of the writing, but I got to play around with the site.
We ended up paying $2500 for the site, and we'll pay $50-60/month for the hosting. That also includes the use of the Content Management System.
I'll let you read more on it, but I highly recommend them. If you'd like to see our website, here it is.
We ended up going with a company called Ecclesia 360. I cannot speak highly enough of these guys. This company was started by church planters and their product is targeted towards church plants. The primary thing you are purchasing from them is a Content Management System. I know just a tiny bit of html, but definitely not enough to design a website that would serve the needs mentioned above. I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed putting this website together using their CMS. Jason and I did all of the writing, but I got to play around with the site.
We ended up paying $2500 for the site, and we'll pay $50-60/month for the hosting. That also includes the use of the Content Management System.
I'll let you read more on it, but I highly recommend them. If you'd like to see our website, here it is.
Post-Launch Thoughts
Our first service was this past Sunday evening. Getting ready for that service was so much more work than I had first thought, and now that I've gotten caught up a little, I thought it might be helpful to others down the road if I began putting some of what we've learned down on paper (electronic paper that is).
So I'm going to use this blog to compile a procedures manual, so to speak. There is so much that we did not know going into this. I'm sure that's always the case, no matter what kind of task one is doing. However, I hope that some of the steep learning curve can be made a little less steep for other church planters.
So I'm going to use this blog to compile a procedures manual, so to speak. There is so much that we did not know going into this. I'm sure that's always the case, no matter what kind of task one is doing. However, I hope that some of the steep learning curve can be made a little less steep for other church planters.
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