The Sermonator
On our church's Website, we have a password-protected page called "The Sermonator." It allows our teams to build our worship services online, many Sundays in advance.

As pastor, I begin with a theme, key Bible verse, and direction.

Later the teams—worship, production, greeting, drama, and anyone else involved in the service—can visit the page, click on a date, and update and interact with that Sunday's planned material. They add thematic elements such as drama, movie clips, participatory experiences, background music, lighting levels, songs, special music, and more.

This gets everyone on the same page without lots of extra meetings.

Scott Jones, Dryden, Ontario

A Pastoral Nudge
I'm using the Internet to send out a teaser about the coming Sunday's sermon. It's difficult to make frequent personal contact with everyone in the church, but now they get a weekly note from me. I get them thinking about the text I'll be preaching on, and I ask a few questions in hopes they'll read their Bibles more.

Paul Turek, Sidney, Montana

Men's E-accountability
The men at our church found it a challenge to cultivate close, meaningful relationships with one another. So they drafted a covenant of accountability, and they use e-mail to support it.

Each week a member of the men's group sends short, uplifting messages to the other members of the class—Bible verses, quotes, and prayer requests. Other members are encouraged to reply and frequently do. It has met a real need.

James Sizemore, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Church Phones Go Unanswered
Nobody's manning the phone in more than one-third of Protestant churches in the United States. Calls to 20 percent of churches went unanswered by humans or machines in five attempts during business hours. And 16 percent have answered only by machines in five attempts.

More than half answered: Mainline churches, National Baptist, Southern Baptist.

Fewer than half answered: Other Baptists, Holiness, Wesleyan, Nazarene, CMA, Christian/COC, COG-Anderson, COGIC.

If you want to talk to a real person: Call churches in Western and Mountain states (65% live answers in five attempts), but skip the South (only 36%).

Conclusion: You may be missing ministry opportunities (or a lot of pesky survey calls).

—from Barna survey of 3,400 churches.