Andrew Barris, Creative Arts Director at Calvary Chapel Westgrove found success by utilizing Display.Church as a solution – allowing his team to manage one calendar on Planning Center that would automatically update their website calendar and featured events on the homepage. This auto-sync feature made it easy and time efficient to manage their calendar in just a couple of hours each week, while the tiled options for display were exactly what he was looking for. Lastly, being able to take the next step from sharing an event to adding it to the calendar was incredibly user-friendly for their church.
Repurpose staffing hours to get more done
Having people show up to church events is a top priority for many churches, but it can be hard when staffing and resources are limited. Statistics show that even larger churches only have 1 staff member for every 46 people, and smaller churches often struggle with an even smaller staff-to-member ratio. Pastor burnout is also a real risk, with nearly half of younger pastors (those under 45) considering leaving full-time ministry last year. Because the majority of the budget goes towards staff and facilities, it’s important to make the best use of these resources. On top of that, there’s often high staff turnover, making training time extremely precious.
This makes having an easy-to-use product that promotes church events in attractive ways essential. Not only would such a product help reduce administrative hours spent on calendaring and website updates, but it could also free up valuable time by streamlining the way you ‘get the message out’ about upcoming events. Investing in such a product may be the solution to your staffing issues and could make your organization thrive!
Andrew Barris, Creative Arts Director at Calvary Chapel Westgrove faced a similar situation. He was kind enough to give us some feedback about the solution he found in Display.Church. Let’s hear Andrew’s story in his own words.
How were you communicating your events before Display.Church?
“In addition to Instagram, Facebook, a weekly newsletter and our in-service announcements, we had a clunky website hosted by a platform that required us to manage a calendar on their platform in addition to Planning Center, and it was very inefficient and redundant.”
What specifically was your goal in using Display.Church? In other words, what did you want to fix, improve on, or begin?
“I needed a solution that would allow us to manage one calendar on Planning Center that would automatically update with our website calendar and featured events on the homepage, so that we could cut down admin hours used for calendaring and web updates.”
Please describe the ‘win(s)’. Which specific aspects of Display.Church helped you?
“I was able to learn the Display.Church interface and sync with our Planning Center calendar on a brand new website in just a couple of hours. Since then, the auto sync feature has made it very easy and time efficient for our admin and communication department to use a couple of hours each week to manage one calendar internally and on our website. The tiled options for a more visually-oriented display was exactly what I was looking for, and being able to click on an event and take a next step from signing up for something, to sharing an event, to adding an event to the calendar has been so user-friendly for our church.”
Ready to make more of your staffing hours?
About the author
Jason Alexis
Jason Alexis is the creator of PastorsLine and co-author of the RethinkMinistry book. His experience as a former engineer has informed his scientific, data-driven approach, as he creates digital strategies and tools for churches. Jason is also the communication director at his church and a stay-at-home dad who homeschools his two boys. He enjoys tennis meetups and weekend biking with his wife and kids.
