A month ago I blogged about Open Church, a new nonprofit I am helping launch that equips global Church leaders with free ministry resources to download and ideas from all cultures.
The response thus far is exciting.
- Volunteers are signing up.
- The site is being developed (launch date TBD).
- And we have free downloadable resources from numerous organizations ranging from a large publisher to an influential megachurch to a young church plant.
It is clear that the challenge for Open Church is not finding ministers willing to contribute ideas and free church resources. The challenge is having the manpower and finances needed to scale the operations and site infrastructure to accommodate the high volume of opportunities we’re receiving to equip the global Church.
Currently, Open Church is supported by Church Relevance advertisements and Create Etc client work. This covers the basics. It allows me to focus on Open Church full-time and have the development team necessary to create and maintain the Open Church site. It also covers minimal operational costs such as government fees for establishing a nonprofit and some server costs.
Through Church Relevance’s relationships, Open Church is fortunate enough to receive thousands of dollars of professional services at no charge. Overhead is low, and volunteers will help keep it that way.
That alone is enough to make Open Church work well. Yet with more support, Open Church may very well become the world’s largest repository of free church resources.
Outside of Church Relevance and Create Etc, Open Church will only be funded by donations. We will not offer advertisements or try to sell products through Open Church because we believe those money-centered activities can at times hinder global collaboration or unintentionally steer an organization in the wrong direction.
4 Ways to Make Open Church Possible
- Donations
Your generous one time or monthly gift will help put resources and ideas in the hands of ministers around the world. You can donate online at openchurch.donortools.com or email info [AT] openchurch.es for details on mailing a donation. - Buy an Ad on Church Relevance
I would love to help get the word out about what you do! When you advertise on Church Relevance, your money goes to basic operational costs for Open Church and to put food on the table for myself and Open Church’s site development team. For more information, please email kent [AT] churchrelevance.com. - Hire Create Etc
Need a website or a logo design? Create Etc can do that. We have been creating websites, social networks, blogs, and marketing strategy for ministries and businesses since 2004. Like Church Relevance ads, hiring Create Etc helps cover the basics for Open Church. The challenge with this is it pays the bills but also takes us away from working on Open Church. For more information, please email info [AT] createetc.com. - Book Kent Shaffer to speak at your event for “free” or consult your church for “free”
I will speak at your event for “free” or consult your church for “free” provided that you cover travel expenses and make a donation to Open Church. Of course, this is subject to availability. For more information, please email kent [AT] churchrelevance.com.
Your donations help make it possible to have servers to host terabytes of free downloadable resources, forge relationships with ministries worldwide, organize hundreds of volunteers, and make big-impact ministry ideas a reality.
If you know churches, organizations, or individuals that may be interested in supporting Open Church, please send them the Open Church 2011 Vision brochure.
If you have questions about Open Church, please ask them in the comments section of this post.
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