As Summer looms, thoughts of Holidays, Sun tans and Ice Creams grow, many of us will be filled with hope and excitement, but at the same time, Summer can be an incredibly busy time as you face a reduced team thanks to holidays. Maybe you live in a 'destination location' and are preparing for visitors over the summer months too.
The Summer can be a great time to bring fresh life into older practices and drive fresh attention as we strive for excellence in our ministry and service to God. So how can we help you with this, well, here’s 5 tips to bring into your new season. 
1 - Fresh Communication:
Without a shadow of a doubt, when it comes to leadership, communication is King. Perhaps this summer, you could look at fresh ways to improve the way you communicate with your Church. Whether it’s streamlining your newsletter and announcements, Inviting your community to services and events or digitising your rotas for volunteers. iKnow Church has options to help with this.
You use the Communication Suite to help with personalised communication on a large scale. Perhaps start using branding on your letters or printouts to help promote the culture and identity of the Church.
2 - Many Hands:
Just recently, I was reading an interview with Theologian, Stanley Hauerwas. In this, he mentions that so many Church Leaders from across different denominations are quitting the ministry under disillusionment and burn out largely because the expectations placed upon them are unobtainable. The Biblical pattern of a ‘Pastor’ (or Church Leader) is that they are a servant. Unfortunately, this has come to mean that they know, and therefore do, a bit of everything and often end up running the whole show all by themselves. This is far from the Biblical image. In fact, delegation and team is encouraged even in the earliest scenes in the book of Acts.
As you move into the summer, are there areas of your ministry which you’re able to move over to someone else in your team for them to champion and release you into more freedom? One simple tool available to all users of iKnow Church is Processes. Using this, you can assign whole processes or individual steps to others whilst you can still maintain oversight to ensure that the job is still getting done.
3 - Mobile App 
According to OfCom research, a staggering 78% of the UK population own a smartphone. As you look at the age range of 16 - 24, that percentage jumps to a massive 95%. That’s an enormous opportunity to share your message and get people involved with your ministry. Churches who have the full iKnow Church package have access to a mobile app to help Church Members access their personal information, check rotas and keep engaged with what the Church is up to. It can also be a great platform for you to engage with your community, invite your world to events and special services and so much more!
4 - House Groups
Why not use this summer as a springboard to launch a house group structure in your Church? House Groups can be a brilliant way for discipleship and pastoral care outside of the main Sunday gatherings. Allowing for friendship and relationships to be built in the comfort of the home environment. For many Churches worldwide, this structure has proven invaluable.
If you’ve not already launched house groups, why not give it a try?
5 - Forms
One of the great tools iKnow offers is Forms. You can embed these on your Church’s website and allow people to submit information and begin processes. This not only makes your Church more accessible, but also helps you and your administration by preventing double entry of data!
You can also build your own forms, whether its an event registration form, parental permission form or membership application, you’re able to produce these and embed them on your website or even your mobile app!
The Summer can be a time of great excitement. If you would like to know more about any of these suggestions and how we can help.
Get in touch, it would be great to hear from you.