We know how difficult it can be to stay encouraged and find affordable resources when you are a small church. At the same time, we believe that small churches are essential to the mission God has for his Church in our local communities and around the world! Below, we have listed and linked some resources that we have found useful, and we hope you will benefit from them too!
Apps and Online Services
Rather than going back and forth to set up an appointment, what if you could direct someone to a website that knows when you are available and when you are not for them to select a date and time to meet? TidyCal gives you the ability to do that. Put a “schedule an appointment” link in your email signature, or send it directly to others. You can even use it to send group meeting polls! There is a free version as well as a $29USD LIFETIME license.
Unless you have a degree in graphic design, do the world a favour and stop using Microsoft Publisher and clip-art to create your posters, graphics, social content, etc. Canva is easy to use, contains a plethora of professionally designed templates for nearly everything you could imagine creating, and includes stock video and photography.
The free version is great, but if you have a few minutes, apply for their free, non-profit Canva Pro subscription and you’ll be blown away at the value you receive.
Get this or Microsoft 365 for at least this one feature: no longer having an email like yourchurch@hotmail.com. Instead, you can look like a modern professional with an email address like pastor@yourchurch.com. Google for non profits will provide you with free custom email utilizing your church’s web domain, 100 participant video meetings, and 30GB of cloud storage per user.
The only sticking point? Google’s attestation checkbox. You’ll know it when you see it, and the wording keeps changing, so I cannot help you work through it. If you and your church can work through the language and feel you can check the box honestly, it’s easy to get all this for free. If not, it may still be worth paying the $3.00US/month per user for Google Business Standard, which gives you your custom email, 2TB of storage per user, and 150 participant video meetings with recording.
As a (possibly better) alternative to Google for Nonprofits, Microsoft 365 for nonprofits again allows you to use an email like pastor@yourchurch.com for free. Not only that, but qualifying organizations can receive Microsoft 365 Business Premium for free. This will give you 1TB/user OneDrive cloud storage, the Entire Office Suite (online and desktop versions), Microsoft Teams, Defender, Windows Virtual Desktop, 50GB of email storage, and enhanced Windows 10 Pro upgrade rights.
What is also AMAZING about this is that, while Microsoft does have the same non-discrimination clause in their eligibility as Google for Nonprofits, your church likely still qualifies: even if you cannot say that you abide by their clause! That is because of this line here: “The only exception to this policy is for religious organizations that are exempt from laws that prohibit such discrimination.” So be sure to get on this one. It’s increasingly taking the place of Google for nonprofits for me.
Pro Tip: with 1TB of OneDrive storage, you can backup your church computers to the cloud by downloading the OneDrive app. Sync your Desktop, Documents, and Downloads to your OneDrive using the options provided, and then sync any other folder on your computer by creating a symbolic link to that folder in your OneDrive (do a google search on how to do that).
If you usually forward the church phone to your cell and you have a smartphone with a data plan, this is perfect for you. Move your church number to OpenPhone’s service and only pay $9.99US/month for your phone bill. Set business hours in which your church line will ring and outside which calls will be sent to voicemail. Set an in office and out of office voicemail, and see very clearly if it is a business call or personal call. And: now you can text from your church phone number! Well worth it for the solo pastor, and new features are constantly being added!
To get a $20 credit, be sure to use our referral link: https://openph.one/referral/NgvoC8r
If you are familiar with Planning Center, you may be about to disagree with me about this being useful for a small church, but hear me out on this one.
I have been able to save hours each month in simplified volunteer management and scheduling, my music team is remembering that they are scheduled and are in the know of what we are doing, our service orders come together quickly and can be viewed by everyone who needs it right from the web, my children's ministry has a secure check-in protocol and attendance is tracked, plus I have a solid piece of church management software for keeping track of who comes to our church, how to get ahold of them, and where in the next steps pipeline they are at.
Yes, this comes at a cost, but I think that it is offset by all the things I just mentioned. If your church is extremely small, you may be able to manage on their free account...but chances are you will need to pay.
$14USD/month will get you Planning Center Services use for up to 25 Team Members, 15 Daily children's checkins (they will allow you to go over on this once in a while without paying extra), and their People church management software.
FreeShow Presentation Software
We wish we’d known about this one sooner. Pro-level church slide software for in-house, live stream, and stage display all at once, FOR FREE and works with MacOS, Windows, and Linux? Amazing!
online giving platforms
Online giving is a necessity in the 21st century as cheques and cash become less prevalent and people are away from church more and more. We've found that most online payment platforms are not perfectly suited to church use: PayPal has no monthly fees, but it is slow, ugly, and clunky; Wave and Square are not designed for the needs of regular church giving; and solutions like Emanent, even with things like PAOC discounts, still have expensive and unnecessary monthly fees.
We have found that Tithe.ly addresses all of these issues. No monthly fees (you pay a per-transaction fee, which you would pay with all the other options anyway). No contracts. Recurring giving. Online statements. The ability to add areas of giving. Can be added to your website. Options for text-to-give (this adds an additional fee). Take registrations for Events. Note: Currently Tithe.ly only accepts credit cards or Visa/Mastercard-debit cards in Canada.
Eventually, using an option like Tithe.ly (above), you may find that the transaction fees being charged to your church add up to a significant sum. That is when switching to RebelGive may be a good option. Beautiful, simple, and powerful, RebelGive is a highly recommended platform that charges a set annual fee to the church and the smallest transaction fees on the market direct to the donor. In addition, they have a super-simple application process for small churches to get a yearly scholarship on their annual fee, bringing RebelGive in as an option for churches of nearly any size.
New: Churches of under 50 adults average attendance pay only $290USD a year. Larger churches now only pay $490USD a year.
Note: Because of the current system Canadian banks use to process funds transfers, RebelGive is only able to process credit cards and Visa/Mastercard-debit cards in Canada.
Groups
Tons of helpful articles, information, and support for leaders of all sizes of churches looking to reach their community for Jesus.
The Rural Church Pastors Network is a group of pastors from rural churches who are looking for ways to encourage each other and help each other succeed. They offer online resources, regional gatherings, occasional training events, and mentoring relationships: all geared toward the realities of rural ministry.
Ministry Curriculum
We are beginning to catalogue and upload our Pre-K and K-6 Kid’s Ministry Curriculum to make it available to any church that would like to use it for their own Kid’s Ministries. If you find it helpful, spread the word and be sure to let Pastor Embree know you appreciate the resource!
I kid you not, no single tool has had as significant of an impact on my marriage, my relationship with Jesus, my leadership, and my church as Church Renewal’s Pastoral Mentorship program. Some may think it starts off too slowly or too basic, but that is the point: it is creating a deep and lasting foundation that begins with the lead pastor, is transmitted to the church’s leadership, and then slowly leads and mentors the congregation.
Weekly online group mentoring puts you with a small group of other lead pastors as you work through transformative materials and implementation while also providing support to one another.
To get started, register for an upcoming Church Renewal Presentation or CR Retreat at their website!
Whether you need new Sunday School curriculum that utilizes video, games, and more or just need a sermon video and bulletin handout for while you're away on some much needed holidays, check out open.life.church. Life Church, pastored by Craig Groeschel and the organization behind the YouVersion Bible App, has made it their mission to give as much content away for free as they can.
Podcasts, Blogs, & Articles
Most of the encouragement and information on pastoring and leading a church is put out by large churches sharing large church principles. Sometimes they can even feel like they look down on anyone who has not been "blessed" enough to have a church that is quickly growing into a larger church. Not these guys. Their blog and podcast are essential tools for the small church pastor's tool belt.
Karl Vaters is a small church pastor and prolific writer. His book, The Grasshopper Myth, is an easy read that you are sure to find helpful. He also has a website and blog, newsmallchurch.com, which has now become a regular feature picked up by Christianity Today!
While not geared toward small churches, this Canadian company has a lot of free educational content regarding church communications and media.
Check out their blog, their youtube channel, and their audio podcast.
Web Platforms (Build a church Website)
If you don't have a website, you're missing out on an important outreach and advertising tool. Experts are calling the church website "the front door to your church." That means you need one, and it needs to look good. It also needs to be up to date and easy to keep up to date!
Stay away from the options from companies that make websites for churches (like sharefaith). They are clunky and usually don't look great. Instead, give Squarespace a try. We have found that they are always up-to-date, are super easy to use, are reliable, and have beautiful and customizable templates. Yes, they cost money. But 10% off codes can be found all over the place, and no matter what, a good website is going to cost you.
If you stay under 20 pages on your site, you can even subscribe to their personal instead of business package. This includes your hosting, all their main features and templates, and a free year of owning a custom web domain (e.g., mychurch.com) for $144 USD a year. If you're new to having a good website, that may sound expensive, but it's worth it and we truly believe every small church should spend that money each year.
Worship, Media, & Music
With FlyWorship ceasing production of new songs and their support team going silent, this is the least expensive option for worship tracks I have been able to find. It does not seem to require a subscription, but it is not as straightforward to use as a solution like Multitracks.
Multitracks
By far my favourite “band in a box” option, if you can stomach the price. Multitracks charges for high quality tracks, and seemingly every feature hides behind a pricey add-on subscription. But it is stable, user friendly, and high quality.
Books to Read
A greatly encouraging book for the small-church pastor, the Grasshopper Myth asks the question, what if being a small church isn't a bad thing? In a society that tends to look up to massive, fast-growing churches and look down on those in smaller ministry settings, it is a breath of fresh air to be reminded that just because you're small doesn't mean you can't do big, impactful ministry!
A simple, practical read on taking care of one's own soul. In the process of caring for others' souls, it's easy to forget about your own.
Despite its provocative title (which is explained at the very beginning of the book), Naked Man Running contains short and highly applicable chapters on a host of important topics for the small church pastor. Drawing from years as a small-church pastor's coach, Dave Jacobs has created this great reference guide that will help with the various needs of a small-church pastor.
Big churches get all the love. Articles, books, conferencesthey mostly feature leaders of large congregations. Yet big churches are a small part of the ecclesial landscape. In fact, more than 90 percent of churches have fewer than 200 people. That means small churches play a big part in what God is doing in North America.
Small Church Essentials is for leaders of these smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church