February 4-6, 2011 - Ridgecrest, NC
Packages available from $153:
Call 800-285-7273 for Tickets and Info
Facebook is the favored social media option for building community, making it well-suited for religious organizations.
With discipline and focus, your Facebook page can become the content hub for your event.
BUILD YOUR FAN BASE. Begin by searching Facebook for people you know who are already part of your event's community and “friend” them. Use Facebook to conduct searches of people, pages, and groups to identify people in your denomination who might be interested in your content and your event; then “friend” them. Encourage them to do the same. Promote your Facebook presence on other sites to attract people to become your friend or fan.
PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR PAGE AND STRIVE TO UPDATE IT DAILY. You must give people fresh reasons to spend time with you on the Web.
LET FACEBOOK DO WHAT IT IS BEST AT DOING, creating buzz and facilitating participant involvement.
USE TRIAL AND ERROR. Testing is a key part of refining your Facebook presence. If something is not working, change it. If it is working, improve it.
DIRECT FANS TO YOUR ORGANIZATION'S WEB SITE. Add value and make your social media fun, but also provide links to send people to spiritual-growth resources on your organization's Web site.
KEEP REVIEWING. Take time to examine what you are doing. Keep asking: Is our content aligned with our mission?
CELEBRATE SUCCESSES. Thank your team and fans and gear up for the next challenge.
THINK LONG-TERM. Facebook can do more than just build attendance for your event. Use your page as part of a strategy that will make your event a vital component of your faith community.
DO NOT SHUT DOWN YOUR EVENT PAGE AFTER AN EVENT ENDS. Instead, use the page as a perpetual tool for building connections and generating interest for future events.
LEARN FROM THE BEST AND LEVERAGE THEIR KNOWLEDGE. There are many people with a lot of Facebook experience; many are on the congregational level. Ask them to help you improve your Facebook presence.
At Ridgecrest and Glorieta, we host a significant number of senior adult groups each year. In addition, we also plan and host several of our own senior adult events. As a result, we have an opportunity to interact with a great number of senior adults and senior adult ministry leaders.
The following post was written by Ron Pratt. Ron is our national event planner and has more experience working with churches and helping them with their ministry they he sometimes cares to admit. I recently asked Ron to write an article on the changing face of senior adult ministry. The following is the first part of what he sent me.
If your ministry is working with senior adults, then I want to thank you for what you do. The most exciting days of senior adult ministry are yet ahead and I'm looking forward to them. I am one! And, so is my 84 year old mother who is very involved with a great group of senior adults in her church. Their Senior Adult ministry has made a world of difference in her life, especially since the passing away of my father just over two years ago.
Where to begin? As you are probably aware, today's senior adults bring incredible blessings and challenges to ministry. In a humorous way, I have always talked about senior adults in three different categories. There are the "go-go's", the "slow-go's" and the "no-go's".
There are those senior adults who are incredibly active, yet they have no desire to sit in a rocking chair or get on a bus for a long trip. They are physically active and want to do ministry that they can get involved in physically, spiritually and even financially. They are the "go-go's".
Next are the "slow-go's". These are the senior adults who can't wait to get on the bus, anywhere, anytime as long as they can play their card games, eat their home-made goodies and stop at some interesting points along the way. They love "going", just as long as someone else is driving or coordinating the trip and they have rest stops along the way.
Finally, the "no-go's" are those senior adults who are mostly (or totally) home-bound, yet want and need to stay connected to their friends and their church.
In future posts, Ron will share some strategies churches can use to reach each of these 3 groups. Please feel free to share your thoughts or comments with us here on the blog, or you can email Ron directly at ron.pratt@lifeway.com.
We are so excited to announce the new websites have launched for Ridgecrest and Glorieta Conference Centers. Please check them out and give us your feedback.
http://ridgecrestconferencecenter.org
http://glorietaconferencecenter.org
We can't wait to hear what you think.
How are we doing?
The church that is. Congregations have long measured success by "bodies, budget and buildings" - a record of attendance, the offering plate and square footage. But the scorecard can't stop there. When it does, the deeper emphasis on accountability, discipleship and spiritual maturity is lost. Ignoring those details, we see fewer lives changed by the gospel, more congregations fracture and the church's cultural influence wane - a situation that is all too familiar among churches today.
Based on the most comprehensive study of its kind, Transformational Church takes us to the thriving congregations where truly changing lives is the standard set for ministry. Having interviewed thousands of pastors and church members, Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer clearly confirm the importance of the mindset, values and actions necessary to become a Transformational Church in the midst of God's kingdom mission. As churches and believers remain faithful to these biblical and statistically informed principles, the world will see the change:
THE TRANSFORMATION STARTS NOW.
Visit the Transformational Church website to explore all of the tools and resources available. For information on the Transformational Church Conference click here.
Before you begin planning your event, you need to ask, what do you want people to ‘go away with’ when the event is over? You must start with your outcome and work backwards. If you don’t know your outcome, how will you know if the event has been a success?
GENERAL TIMELINE -
SIX MONTHS TO A YEAR AHEAD
THREE TO SIX MONTHS AHEAD
TWO MONTHS AHEAD
TWO TO FOUR WEEKS AHEAD
ONE WEEK AHEAD
THE BIG DAY
AFTER
All conferences, however large or small, need a marketing plan. It is not enough just to inform everyone of the date. You need to plan and then evaluate that plan.
Consider this simple outline:
Market position: Who do you want to attract to your event? Will you attract them as paying guests?
"SMART" marketing objectives.
* Specific
* Measurable/Manageable
* Achievable
* Realistic/Relevant
* Time bound
Identify the Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities relating to your event.
Competition: Analyse other similar conferences/events. Follow your key competitors' progress (eg. their concept, PR/marketing, pricing policy, etc.)
Target Market: All events, large or small, must target the people who are more likely to attend. For example:
* What proportion of your guests come from the local area?
* What proportion are travelling? How will they get there?
* Do guests come as families or couples without children?
* Are they generally from one age group or a mix?
* How do they get their news? Print or On-Line
* Guest Requirements: consider guests with special needs/requirements
* Special dietary requirements?
* Children - are there play areas? What about child-care?
* Is there wheelchair/disabled access to the venue and facilities?
Business Plan and Budgets
Many conferences and events operating in a competitive environment will need 10%-15% of expenses for marketing. In the first year, this may need to be higher.
Produce plans to illustrate how you are going to attract business from your target markets.
Consider:
* Advertising - where, when, frequency?
* Direct mail - to whom, using which database, saying what?
* Internet - website, email?
Did this help you? What are you doing to market your events.
Here are some great tips on saving money when planning you next meeting or event.
1. Be flexible - If you have the ability to be flexible on your dates and better yet, days of the week you need to meet, facilities can work with you budget by working your event in between other events or scheduling you in the off-season.
2. Know your meeting's history - Not just how many guest's have attended in the past but how much was the total you spent on rooms, meeting space, food and beverage, audio visual, etc.
3. Communicate - Be as specific as possible with your needs.
4. Build Relationships - The better your relationship is with your supplier, the easier it will be to explain your budget and meeting needs and, the easier it will be for your supplier to negotiate and work within your requirement.
As many of us know well, it's way too easy to get caught up in the hectic pace of today's wired-in lifestyle. We get so focused on the next meeting, the next phone call, the next tweet or status update, that we forget the things that are really important.
Many times what gets forgotten, or pushed to the side, are our families. The following post was written by John Ashman. John is currently the Executive Director of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions and prior to that was a VP with Christian Camps and Conference Association.
As you read it I would encourage you to think about your own family. Do you need to take some time out and renew your relationships. As you'll see from this mom's perspective, family camp is a great place to do just that.
Camp is a refreshing stream along life's journey...
Laura eased open the screen door and stretched out in the rocking chair, favorite book in hand. Out on the lake, silhouetted by Monday’s sunrise, the canoe carrying her husband and two daughters glided silently through the water. A smile spread across her face as she imagined their conversation.
An earlier rain had refreshed the forest and the fragrance brought back some wonderful childhood memories. Overhead, two squirrels debated the ownership of a cache of acorns. The family from the cabin next door waved good morning and wandered off along the path to the point.
This placid camp setting was a welcome contrast to her familiar suburban scene. She glanced at her watch. Still 40 minutes ’til breakfast. She took another sip of coffee and closed her eyes. This was going to be a wonderful week.
At the urging of some friends from church, Laura’s family had decided to spend these six days at a Christian family camp. The place offered cabin or lodge accommodations, three family-style meals a day, horseback riding, biking, hiking trails, a challenge course, dirtboarding, fishing, canoeing, swimming, beach volleyball, a well-known Christian band, an impressive list of speakers, and more.
But the part of the brochure that caught Laura’s attention was “time out from the rush of life for spiritual renewal.” She needed that, and so did her family, much more than anyone knew.
Finding Time
These days, few of us wash dishes in the sink and ponder the world through the kitchen window. Instead, we stack the plates and utensils in the Maytag and rush to the next task. Come end of day, rather than sit on the front porch and contemplate, we click the mouse or remote and “process.” We live in a hurried, harried world. Freeways, cell phones, business appointments, micro-waves, school functions, online transactions, late-night news, and alarm systems form the borders of our behavior.
Our children aren’t strangers to stress, either. Pushed by parents or peers to perform beyond their years, they’re rushed into maturity by Madison Avenue and the media. It’s no wonder many kids emerge from their teen years frustrated, fearful, and fatigued.
Just over the hill, across the meadow, or through the woods, Christian camps are offering experiences that can arrest our runaway routines. Spending a week at a Christian camp, or conference center, will not immediately unbundle the anxiety of the twenty-first century lifestyle, but it will provide a refreshing break with a chance to relax, reflect, recreate, and re-evaluate priorities.
Time, which seems to be a rare commodity in the “real world,” is abundant at camp. There’s time to eat together, play together, and talk together. Parents can use time to assess family progress and form new goals. Kids can spend time enjoying the miscellaneous pastimes of childhood. So much can get done when there’s nothing pressing to do.
Finding God
At camp, God does not hide in the chapel, waiting for the evening service so He can reveal Himself. His presence permeates the program and property. God speaks on the ropes course, helping people discover the truth about trust. He’s present on the trail, teaching people through the intricacies of nature. He’s there in the person of a child’s counselor, bringing peace through the demonstration of patience. The messages spoken and songs sung from the platform are just added benefits.
Chuck Swindoll, author, radio pastor, and chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary, has long been a supporter of Christian camping for the entire family. Some time ago, he spoke about the value of total family involvement.
“All the Swindolls have enjoyed and benefited from Christian camping for many, many years,” he said. “In fact, I can’t recall an unhappy or unrewarding experience that we’ve ever had.”
When families get together in a camping situation, they relate eye-to-eye, maybe for the first time in months, without the distraction of television, radio, or phone in the background, he observed. They have time to think through their values and their priorities. And they have the opportunity to establish or strengthen their relationships with Jesus Christ.
The testimonies around Friday night’s flickering campfire stirred the hearts of the households gathered in its glow. Tears welled up in Laura’s eyes as her own husband of 16 years stood to his feet and uttered soft-spoken words of recommitment to Christ and family.
Following the service, the girls ran ahead to the cabin to pack for departure. Taking the long way back, Laura and her husband walked hand-in-hand, then arm-in-arm, speaking without talking. It was a wonderful week. Spiritual renewal did indeed take place. God’s voice was heard.
It wasn’t that He spoke any louder in the serene camp setting. For some reason, it was just easier to hear Him.
What about you? Has family camp played a part in your family's heritage? If so, would you mind leaving a comment and sharing it? If not, I encourage you to consider attending a Christian family camp this summer. You won't regret it!
This past month we hosted a brand new event at Ridgecrest, Youth2Christ - The Urban Connection. It was a weekend event aimed at urban youth and was attended by over 200 youth and adults. From all accounts, it was a successful event. Everyone had a great time and more importantly, lives were changed by the Holy Spirit.
Plans are already under way for next year's event and details should be up on our website soon. In the meantime, please take a couple of minutes and watch the video below to experience a little of this year's event. You'll even get to enjoy a great Kirk Franklin soundtrack!
Byron Hill
Executive Director, LifeWay Conference Centers and Camps since 2001. I live in an empty nest in Hendersonville, TN with my wife of 30+ years and we both serve at Long Hollow Baptist Church.
http://twitter.com/byronhill
Melissa Inman
Marketing Specialist for LifeWay Conference Centers & Summer Camps. I am a wife, mom, daughter, sister and friend. I love Jesus, I adore my family and I laugh often.
http://twitter.com/melinman
