I admit that I have neglected CCP and keeping it fresh and updated.  It’s been a busy year with iThemes – especially with us now acquiring and launching our new business WebDesign.com.  Cory Miller and I am extremely amped up about this venture to say the least but it’s taken a lot of work to get things in order.

This past year has also brought new changes to my business and personal life as well.  I shut down a successful business and joined an awesome team all while trying to finish up freelance work, keep different blogs afloat, and staying involved with church planting in some degree.  What I have discovered is that I am not one who can spin many plates and keep them from crashing to the ground.  So last week I decided to bring all of the Branding Shed’s content and products (I’m still having problems with the domain redirect) to CCP and make this a permanent home for all of my church branding and church marketing related stuff.  The fact is I love helping churches and Cory poured a lot of sweat into building an amazing resource here and I want to see this website continue to grow and help you.

I have also realized that if I am going to do this I will also have to let some things go, including domain names and other ideas I’ve held so closely for years.  While this is a hard decision, I do look forward to focusing and doing a few things well, not to mention it really is refreshing to cast off added weight.

So I sincerely apologize that Church Communications Pro has seen a lack of love and attention over the last few months and with my renewed focus (plus a need for a hobby) on investing in the Kingdom through this ministry, there will be a new injection of passion to keep CCP moving ahead and not letting Cory’s awesome vision for this site be in vain.

If you have ideas and suggestions I’ve love to hear them.  This resource is for our brothers and sisters in the trenches and it’s with your involvement we can work together for building the Kingdom through ministry and media.

Blessings! – James Dalman, Acts 20:24

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• Clover Sites
• Church Chairs 4 Less
• MailChimp
• faith Highway
• Grove Films.com

Thank you all so much for your support of our work at Church Communications Pro!

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So how are you doing?  Not in numbers or finances – but how are you holding up personally?  Has ministering to people changed during this time?  Are you still as strong in your faith as before the economic crunch?  Do you feel God will use this challenging situation for His glory and purpose?

Please know that I pray right now for you and your church.  May God show you His presence and guide you and your team during this difficult situation.  I ask that He blesses you in your mission for building the Kingdom!  Amen.

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Since I’ve joined the iThemes team, we have been blasting out a bunch of new projects which has kept us all pretty swamped.  One of the major products we released this morning is a new Wordpress theme called Flexx Theme. It is off the wall, and I believe for churches (or anyone else for that matters) it is going to absolutely change the playing field when it comes to church blogs or church websites.

Here’s just a few of the goodies that Flexx Theme is capable of doing:

• Offering 1,056 layouts variations!
• Click of the button layout and styling options.
• Easy to upload backgrounds and headers without FTP.
• No coding experience needed or required to use!
• Rotating and Fading Image Headers.
• Automatically Search Engine Optimized.
• Built in Color Picker for Background Colors
• and more things you can shake a stick at!

I will also be working on FLEXX THEME: CHURCH which will be released at ChurchTheme.com in the next week or so.  Either way you won’t want to miss getting it but if you do want the original Flexx Theme then get it now because the price will go up next week!

All this to say what ties into my headline.

We are going to load the Flexx Theme for Church Communications Pro to show it off and so you can see how it works.  So please excuse the mess as we start relaunching CCP and give it one new sweet look!

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• City Gates. Where the conversation continues. City Gates makes great church websites with a focus on building community. It combines powerful web publishing, ease-of-use, and great design…and it’s built just for churches!  You can even take the CMS for a test drive for FREE!

• Sermon Connect. Sermon Connect is an online media and communications center that will help you take your media to a new level.  You can manage it from anywhere and at anytime with excellence.  It has a customizable user interface and it’s developed for pastors and ministry leaders.

Please check out their websites as you have time and if you would like to help support CCP and get the word out about your business, consider becoming one of our sponsors.

Thanks again to City Gates and Sermon Connect!

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First of all – THANK YOU! Thank you to all of you who read Church Communications Pro, that show us link love and support, and who dialogue with us.  Thanks to our guest writers and even our critics.  We appreciate all of you!

Second, I want to discuss commenting on CCP. We love it when people get involved in the conversation and share what’s on their mind.  We really do!  However, there has been a growing trend lately of some companies trying to promote themselves through our comment sections (and believe me, you can tell the difference between honest conversation and shameless self-promotion) that I have had to make a difficult decision.

Starting immediately I will no longer allow comments to be posted that appear to be strictly promotional in nature.

Since we now offer advertising to companies who want to promote on CCP, I want to provide our sponsors with the best opportunity to reach others with their quality services and products.  Self-promotional comments take away from that.  I also dislike that some people are just plain selfish and only take part in the conversation for recognition…so from now on if a comment gets submitted that falls under what I believe is only a self-promotion deal, it will be immediately deleted and flagged as spam.  Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fill in your website information when submitting a comment, but rather to not include twenty links back to your website. : )

I know that this new rule may sound harsh but I am asking for your understanding in this delicate matter.  Thank you!

- James Dalman, Editor Dude @ Church Communications Pro

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I have been talking with some awesome people who will be guest writers for Church Communications Pro and getting the details and posting schedules set. I look forward to some new insights and resources. Thanks to all who responded!

I’ve been working hard to get ahead on some projects so I can sit down, focus and finish the new edition of my book, Branded Church: Let The Truth Be Told, which has been a work in progress. I’m also getting ready to celebrate my 17th wedding anniversary with my beautiful and extraordinary wife on Monday, so we are taking some R&R.

All that to say is that starting next week, CCP is going to get some much needed love and attention again. I appreciate everyone who reads and comments as well as your patience as CCP continues to make changes.

Please have an awesome Memorial Day weekend and I pray that everyone has lots of fun and a safe time!

- James

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Here are some of the subjects and topics that I am specifically looking to develop:

• Worship Media: Choosing the right projector, what is the best presentation software, how a church leverage technology with a small budget, etc.
• Website : This stuff moves so fast I can’t keep up with it all!  What  Content Management Systems are the best or easiest to use, thoughts on design and navigation, what does a church really need on it’s website – are a few ideas I am looking to address.
• Technology: Stuff a church must have or can forget about, gadgets or software that really simplifies our lives, computer specs we should consider before buying one, etc.
• Creativity: Churches should be creative!  What can we do to utilize the creative talents of the people in our church?

Of course you can look through our topic list and see what other items we have posted about over the years and contribute on anything that helps build The Church or that may cause us to rethink the way we do things.

If you are interested, please use the submission form and provide your contact information along with the topics you would like to write about.  I’ll contact you via e-mail to discuss the next steps.

Please note:  Church Communications Pro is not independently wealthy so we can’t pay for article submissions or contributions at this time, but we can plug you and give you the opportunity to hone your skills and help many people in the trenches. We also reserve the right to accept and reject posts depending on content, alignment with the CCP vision and values, and whether you are a Barry Manilow fan or not.

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As of Jan. 2, 2008, I am taking the plunge, or leap, or whatever you want to call it … and going full-time with my web design business.

I’ve served in churches and in Southern Baptist life for almost six years now, so it’s definitely a huge step for me and my family. It was also extremely hard to tell my pastor as I loved serving under him. I learned so much from him … primarily, about being a godly man, a husband and a leader.

My job as director of communications at Quail Springs Baptist Church was and will probably always be the best job I’ve ever had because of the environment and most importantly the people.

My wife and I will still continue to serve our church home — Quail Springs — only I will not be sitting in the church office during the week. We’ve been serving in our college ministry since last Spring and it’s been such a blessed time of walking alongside our students.

ON BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR

Becoming an entrepreneur has been a lifetime dream of mine that I never thought would be realized. (Both my grandfathers were entrepreneurs.)

But I literally fell into doing freelance web design last March mostly just because I wanted to learn to do it better. God placed Brian in my life and he helped me grow and expand my business.

We were able to do some neat things because of this “side” business. And I quickly saw the opportunity to fulfill my dream of owning my own business (full-time).

When people ask me about it, I usually describe it as being “surreal.”

I also have a lot to learn.

ON MINISTERING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD

One thing I have learned though is that through my business I’ve been able to minister to people who are unchurched and lost. One of the hardest things about being on a church staff is that it’s easy to insulate yourself from the world.

Sadly, I confess … I do not have hardly any growing relationships with lost people now. And that’s my fault.

But through my business, I’ve had the opportunity on a number of occasions to share my faith and demonstrate the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

Pray for us, though … we need that support to be bold yet loving …

ON THIS BLOG

If you’re wondering what will happen with this blog, it’ll still be here and hopefully I’ll actually be able to devote more time to it. It’s my ministry to the church. Although I do make some money off of it, with more than 700 posts now, it’s loaded with free content I offer to churches and pastors.

Again, I’d love to have more people guest blog here …. if you’re interested, send me an email.

ON THE NEW VENTURE ADVENTURE

Up until now, I’ve just mentioned I’m going to focus full-time on my web design business. The bulk of my time though will be devoted to a new venture that Brian and I are working on together — iThemes.com.

I’m extremely excited to get to work on iThemes … we’ve got the windows boarded up for now, but if you’re interested, sign up for our email announcement and be the first to know when we go live.

Anyway, that’s it for now ….

Grace and Peace!

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