by Ted Lowe | May 17, 2018 | Outreach, Spotlight
I recently spoke at a marriage event at Fellowship Bible Church in Batesville, Ark. The event had a great turnout, primarily because the church did such an incredible job promoting it within their community.
I was so impressed with their work that talked to Tera White about she did to promote the event. And since this is so important, I thought I’d share her answers with you.
Who did you reach out to within the community to help you spread the word?
Our Chamber of Commerce sends out a weekly e-newsletter to roughly 2000 recipients, comprised of Chamber members and other community members. You can advertise free of charge in this newsletter.
As Chamber members, we also have the opportunity to send out two “All About You” email blasts per year to the same e-newsletter distribution list. This advertisement also gets posted to their social media networks.
How did you use digital advertising for the event?
We created a Facebook event for the evening and boosted the event for a month. Boosting allows you to target an audience that you set.
The boosted post will show up in that target group’s newsfeed for the duration and budget you set. Our target was men and women, ages 18 – 65+ who live in Arkansas. This cost us only $30 for the entire month.
The main ad was a picture of Ted & Nancie Lowe, straight from the promotional material.
Our description for the event/ad:
Experience a night of comedy and laughter while exploring what it takes to make a marriage work! During this fun, exciting, ONE-NIGHT marriage event, you will hear from speaker, blogger, and director of MarriedPeople, Ted Lowe and his wife Nancie.
Don’t miss a FREE night out ON US! In addition to our fabulous speakers, we will provide childcare, yummy snacks, a photo booth, and great door prizes!
Let us know by January 21 if you plan to attend, and if you need childcare!
Some ways to let us know you plan to attend:
How did you announce the event in worship and the bulletin?
We began with a basic “Save The Date” graphic about two months out with minimal info during our announcements. We also put the graphic in our church newsletter around the same time.
After a few weeks of “Save the Date” announcements, we moved into giving more detailed information during our announcements with a different graphic. This graphic was the picture of Ted and Nancie with some basic info (date, time, etc) about the event.
Our pastor started a short marriage series two weeks before the event to prepare hearts for the event. He also gave shout outs for the event before each sermon, as well as showing the promo video.
How did you get the word out around your town?
We posted 25 posters around our town. We also put out postcards at the locations that we hung the poster.
What other advice do you have on promoting special events at church?
A few additional avenues that we used:
- Weekly community circulars that allowed us to advertise for free
- Radio spot on a local radio station
- Social Media shares on staff’s personal accounts
- Church Member Chat video that included members of our church telling why they were excited about the event
- Facebook Live video describing event and inviting people to come
How do you promote marriage events at your church?
Ted Lowe is a speaker and the director of MarriedPeople, the marriage division at Orange. Ted is the author of two books—one for marriage ministry leaders (Married People: How Your Church Can Build Marriages That Last) and one for married couples (Your Best US: Marriage Is Easier Than You Think). He served for almost 10 years as the director of MarriedLife at North Point Community Church. He lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with his four favorite people: his wife, Nancie, and their three children.
by Married People | May 10, 2018 | Resources, Spotlight
We recently released our latest pack of annual resources for marriage ministries. As with every year, these annual resources fall under one overarching theme.
The theme for this year is Game Changers: because small things make a big difference.
Because we’re so excited about Game Changers, we wanted to pull back the curtain a little and let you know more about what goes into creating these resources.
Brainstorming
- We start thinking about our next strategy pack during the summer
- There were several theme ideas that we kicked around before deciding on Game Changers
- It takes a dozen or so creative meetings to develop most of the ideas behind our resources
- We make sure the feedback from our partners shapes how we develop the content
- These creative meetings are attended by our other colleagues at Orange
- We throw all of our ideas up on a creative board to get the creative juices flowing
Example of a creative board
Creating
- We work with a local creative agency called PullSpark to produce all of our communicator, story, and promotional videos—this is by far the most time-consuming part of the strategy pack
- The creation of all videos involves writing film scripts, recruiting local actors, renting a location, and lots of video editing
- We partner with some of the foremost leaders and speakers in the country as the communicators for our events—learn more about the speakers in this year’s pack
- For our small group study, we partnered with our friend Shaunti Feldhahn to customize the content from her book, The Kindness Challenge
- We created the small group study videos in partnership with another video agency called Between the Pixels—these videos feature real couples
Delivering
- Finishing all of these resources takes about 6-8 months in total
- After all of the content has been finalized, the files get uploaded to our new online store and content delivery system, where they can be downloaded by church partners
- This year, we’re introducing a new concept—two tiers of partnership; now you can either sign up for a Starter Pack ($249) or an Annual Pack ($399)
- There are over 500 individual files in the Annual Pack, which equate to more than 17 GB worth of space—that’s a lot of content!
- The one exception to this is MP Monthly, which gets sent to church partners every month
What’s your favorite part of the Strategy Pack? What else would you want to go behind the scenes on?
Married People exists to help your church help marriages. We provide resources, training, and community to church leaders who work with marriages and families.
by Married People | May 3, 2018 | Spotlight
Every month, we want to profile a church leader just like you. This month, we’re featuring Todd Graham.
Todd has been the Family Pastor at Eastside Baptist Church in Marrietta, Ga., for the last 14 years.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
I most enjoy getting to teach married people and parenting.
What are some challenges you face at your church?
It’s often a challenge getting other staff members on board with the direction of our family ministry.
How has MarriedPeople changed how your church works with married couples?
Prior to Married People, our church didn’t do anything for marriages.
What’s one helpful tip you’d like to share with other church leaders?
You can do this! Everyone knows every marriage needs encouragement & direction but the thought of leading a marriage strategy can seem overwhelming, but anyone can pull off an excellent marriage growth strategy with the tools from MarriedPeople.
Are there any other helpful resources you’d recommend people check out?
Anything from Homeword, Parent Cue, or MarriedPeople.
Want to be featured on the blog?
If you’re a MarriedPeople partner and want to be featured on the blog, just fill out the form here and we’ll be in touch.
Married People exists to help your church help marriages. We provide resources, training, and community to church leaders who work with marriages and families.
by Married People | Apr 12, 2018 | Resources, Spotlight
Every year, MarriedPeople releases an annual strategy pack that provides your church with a ton of great resources to impact marriages. This includes everything you need to put on large group experiences, host a small group study, send couples on date nights, and send them a monthly email.
This year, the theme of our strategy pack is Game Changers—because small things can make a big difference. We’ll be examining some of these little issues in marriage that can have a huge impact.
To help us with this, we’ve enlisted the help of some tremendous communicators. They’ll be delivering messages for each of the four large group experiences. And we wanted to introduce you to each of them.
CARLOS WHITTAKER: Kill the Spider
Carlos Whittaker is a People’s Choice Award winner, a former recording artist signed to a major label, a social media maven, and currently spends the majority of his time writing books and speaking on stages around the world.
It really began when the Whittaker’s found their family in America’s spotlight with appearances on shows like CBS Early Morning, The Today Show and more when their viral video “Single Ladies Devastation” went viral. But for Carlos, his wife Heather and their three children, this viral moment was just a snapshot of the bigger picture.
Recommended Resource
Kill the Spider by Carlos Whittaker
ANDY STANLEY: What Happy Couples Know
Communicator, author, and pastor, Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries in 1995. Today, NPM is comprised of six churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 50 churches around the globe, collectively serving nearly 90,000 people weekly.
A survey of U.S. pastors in Outreach Magazine identified Andy Stanley as one of the top 10 most influential living pastors in America. The author of 20-plus books, Stanley holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from Georgia State University and a master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary.
Andy and his wife, Sandra, have three grown children and live near Atlanta.
LEE & MARTICA JENKINS: Love and Money
Lee Jenkins is the president of Lee Jenkins Group—a ministry outreach, financial education, and consulting firm. He is also the Founder and Senior Pastor of Eagles Nest Church outside of Atlanta. Previously, Lee had a 25-year career in the financial services industry. His financial advice has been featured numerous times on CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates, as well as in USA Today.
Lee is a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee where he was a standout defensive back on the football team. After graduation Lee was drafted by the the New York Giants of the NFL. Unfortunately, his football career was cut short by injuries.
Lee is in high demand as a speaker at conferences, churches, and to college and professional sports teams. Additionally, Lee has authored several books on personal finances over the last fifteen years. Lee was named one of the 70 Most Influential Black Christians in the U.S. by the Black Christian News Network.
Lee has been happily married to the love of his life, Martica, for 28 years. They have three grown children, a daughter Kristin, and two sons, Martin and Ryan.
Recommended Resource
On Money by Lee Jenkins
TED & NANCIE LOWE: The Chase
After serving as the director of MarriedLife at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., Ted Lowe started MarriedPeople, the marriage division of Orange.
Ted is the author of two books—”Your Best US” and “MarriedPeople: How Your Church Can Build Marriages That Last,” which he co-authored with Doug Fields.
Ted lives in Cumming, Ga., with his wife, Nancie, and their three children.
Recommended Resource
Your Best US by Ted Lowe
You can also meet the communicators from last year’s annual partnership: CLEAR
Married People exists to help your church help marriages. We provide resources, training, and community to church leaders who work with marriages and families.
by Married People | Apr 5, 2018 | Spotlight
Every month, we want to profile a church leader just like you. This month, we’re featuring Laura Wright.
Laura has been the Family Ministries Director at First Baptist Church of Gray in Gray, Ga., for the last 10 years.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Seeing the social media posts after an event of people who had a blast or felt like it meant something in their life. Even better when they quote something or share a resource because you know the ministry is making a difference.
What are some challenges you face at your church?
Finding volunteers! People are so busy these days, which comes to the other challenge of getting people to sign up and buy in.
Whether it is a date night, night out or even an email, you can’t make people stop long enough to pay attention. Getting them to want to use the resources is a challenge.
How has MarriedPeople changed how your church works with married couples?
It provided us a framework to do ministry proactively and not just reactively.
Before MarriedPeople we did not have a ministry to couples outside of a few couples Sunday School classes. With this we are now keeping marriage and the importance of marriage in the forefront of what we do.
What’s one helpful tip you’d like to share with other church leaders?
Find a few people in your church that are passionate about seeing marriages succeed. Often, they will be people who have felt the pain of divorce or adultery or drift either in their own family or with someone close. Allow them to own the ministry and use that passion to drive the ministry.
Are there any other helpful resources you’d recommend people check out?
Francis Chan’s You and Me Forever book was very helpful for our family. We actually listened to it on family vacation while the kids watched movies.
Want to be featured on the blog?
If you’re a MarriedPeople partner and want to be featured on the blog, just fill out the form here and we’ll be in touch.
Married People exists to help your church help marriages. We provide resources, training, and community to church leaders who work with marriages and families.
by Married People | Mar 8, 2018 | Spotlight
Every month, we want to profile a church leader just like you. This month, we’re featuring Heather Matarazzo.
Heather has been the Director of Family Ministries at Rolling Plains UMC in Zanesville, Ohio for the last six years.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
I love equipping families with resources that can actually help them.
What are some challenges you face at your church?
We live in a very rural part of Ohio, so our community deals with a lot of poverty.
How has MarriedPeople changed how your church works with married couples?
This is actually the first time we have had a marriage ministry at our church. So it’s helped us get started.
What’s one helpful tip you’d like to share with other church leaders?
Find those people who have circles of influence in your church and get them on board even if it is just to attend the events.
Want to be featured on the blog?
If you’re a MarriedPeople partner and want to be featured on the blog, just fill out the form here and we’ll be in touch.
Married People exists to help your church help marriages. We provide resources, training, and community to church leaders who work with marriages and families.
