Cure for the Summertime Blues: 3 Challenges Church Leaders Face

August 6, 2015

Church leaders face tons of challenges that are unique to summertime. People are very busy and mobile, often disconnecting from church activities from late May until school days begin. There are gaps in communication, finances and planning.

Here are three summer challenges you may be facing and ways to turn them into positive outcomes for your church during this season.

1. How Can You Survive Financial Seasonal Gaps?

As leaders know, church ministry doesn’t take a vacation. In fact, summer is often the busiest—and perhaps the most expensive—season of ministry activity with the greatest potential for Kingdom impact, according to an article by RSI Stewardship. They have provided an excellent fact sheet on how to avoid summertime financial slumps, which suggests that when you implement the key ideas laid out in Don’t Sweat Summer Giving: 10 Ways to Avoid a Financial Crisis During an Unpredictable Ministry Season, your church’s summer giving sets the stage for year-round success of sustainable ministry funding.

Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren also encourages another creative idea:

“I had an idea almost two decades ago and implemented what I call our ‘Summer Program of Giving,’ which advertises the amount of money it takes to fund our ministry budget during this 15-week stretch. We place it on periodicals. We give it visibility. We use some kind of visual to demonstrate our weekly status. It works. I would estimate that we have reached the goal for our summer program of giving 90% of the time. If we did not do that, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ would result in “out of money.”

2. How Can You Get Copyright Licensing Prior to Fall and Holiday Programs? After Labor Day, when the fall frenzy begins and holiday programs are on a fast track, there’s no time to plan or even think about copyright licensing. NOW is the time to catch up on your reading list. With that in mind we’re very excited to announce the publication of our newest FREE and downloadable publication, Solve the Puzzle of Copyrights: Six Keys to Learning How to Do Music Right.

Church leaders are often overwhelmed and confused by copyright issues. Analyzing your level of compliance is often at the bottom of a long list of priorities. That’s exactly why we developed this college-level copyright curriculum in a six-chapter eBook, as well as in video webinar format.

Copyright Compliance doesn’t have to scare you anymore! The CCS online, interactive Copyright Compliance Report Card helps you evaluate how your church is doing. We’ve created a fun game you can play without fear of judgement that only takes about 5 minutes to complete. This is a great place to start with a quick analysis and overview on just how “compliant” your church is and where the holes are in your licensing coverage. It also provides you with simple licensing solutions and ideas to cover your activities.

3. How Can You Keep Your Church Members Connected?

Communicate and remind your church members that they can stay engaged no matter where they travel through your church’s website. Your site may offer an opportunity to live-stream worship, or have podcasts readily available for download. With CCS’s WORSHIPcast License you can include your worship music with the sermon—you can legally stream more than 19 million songs from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Traveling church members will stay engaged if they’re able to listen to your message and worship along with your in-person service.

Pastor Warren also suggests the follow:

“Plan at least one or two major events that the entire church can embrace and participate in as a family. For example, for us, it is our Summer Freedom Celebration which is a major message and time of worship on the Sunday morning prior to July 4. Additionally, on that same day we welcome thousands at our ‘Fireworks at the Crosses,’ a fun, exciting evening event for everyone. We even use this moment to try to get everyone possible who is ‘waiting baptism’ to be baptized in our outdoor baptistry. On this evening, I will baptize each one of them.”

Remember that you can always call and talk to one of our CCS reps at 855-576-5837, if you have any questions about copyright licensing.

About Christian Copyright Solutions: CCS’s quest is to help churches and ministries “do music right.”  CCS is an expert on church music copyrights and our primary focus is providing licensing and clear educational resources to churches, as well as representation, administration and advocacy for copyright owners. Follow us on Twitter, and  Facebook. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only, and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel.

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