It’s not uncommon to have unused tech resources in the marketing and outreach arsenal. Church leaders are always looking for new ways to tap into those untapped resources, to improve member engagement, and attract new members.
With today’s church technology landscape changing so often, it can be challenging to keep your staff and volunteers in tune with the latest advantages and benefits of digital or tech-based tools you have in the church toolbox.
What your organization needs is a better way to train and inspire members to use every last feature of tech you have available. And you’ll likely appreciate this latest list we’ve compiled, which features some of the free training resources, courses, and otherwise, that your church can be tapping into right now to improve church technology adoption among your staff and volunteers.
Social Media Training Resources
There are 3.5 billion people browsing the various social media platforms out there today. And more people trust their news and information within these platforms every day. So your church should be leveraging social media as an ideal platform to attract new members and inspire existing members. But suppose your staff and volunteers seem limited in their knowledge of social media beyond basic Facebook posts. In that case, you can certainly benefit from a few of these free training resources tailored specifically to social media outreach, usage, and management.
Visit some of these popular training providers:
- TikTok Marketing Masterclass
- Coursera’s What Is Social
- HubSpot’s Social Media
- edX’s Writing for Social Media
- Skillshare’s Introduction to Social Media Strategy
- Quicksprout’s Social Media Courses
Gateway Resource Library’s Training Resources
There are other libraries and resources available designed specifically to assist church leaders with embracing the latest trends and outreach-based technology. The Gateway Resource Library, for example, offers more than 1,600 different training videos and documents that fellow church leaders can use free of charge. Volunteer training is also available to make improvements on delegation and best practices. There are even videos for developing leaders within the children’s ministries, great for improving how church members connect and support each other in faith. Get started by creating a free account and exploring the library of resources to find the training your organization can benefit from the most.
Flatiron School
Flatiron is a school that offers courses and boot camps for people interested in switching careers into tech. But there are great benefits for any church staff or volunteers who need to improve their tech-related knowledge and application. You may look over their course list or utilize their “find the right course for you” function to get started. It’s best to focus on the online courses, online boot camp prep courses, and beginning levels when looking through the catalog. More in-depth training and coursework do come at a price. However, there are several free courses accessible in these areas.
Christianity Today’s Training Tools for Leaders
Gain access to more than 500 different training articles, videos, and downloadable resources with “Building Church Leaders” offered by Christianity Today. These materials are geared more towards church leaders or those within leadership roles. But it can be an incredibly efficient tool for exploring a better understanding of how today’s leaders continue to engage in a virtually centric world. There are annual enrollment fees for the complete package; however, there is a 14-day trial period to sample. It’s certainly worth exploring to see if there are training resources your church needs right now.
Harvard Online Learning
Harvard Online Learning provides free online courses in technology, including artificial intelligence, web programming, Python, JavaScript, mobile app development, and fundamental computer science. These topics are more for the intermediate or expert level students, but the courses are self-paced and need approximately six to nine hours each week to complete. Send your parishioners to Harvard for free to learn the latest in some of these complicated tech subject areas.
Open Life Church’s Network of Training Resources
Visit Open Life Church’s website and start discovering some of the various church-related training resources available, many of which are free or provide free trial periods. Find online resources across a variety of topics, including youth ministries, holiday member engagement, and the Church Online Platform. You might find great entry-level tech instruction your teams need right now.
Google Classroom’s Learning Management System (LMS)
Google Classroom is just one of the most common tools offered by Google that is ideal for churches and non-profits because it’s entirely free. Once you’re able to familiarize yourself with how to use it, Google Classroom allows you to create your own classes, upload videos, and develop quizzes to coach your staff and volunteers on the topics and tech engagements that matter to you.
App Sumo Is Offering TeachableU Courses for Free
Teachable is an online platform, much like Google’s version, that allows you to create courses and quizzes in developing your own tech training curriculum. It’s great with video content and earns high marks for being easy to use. If your church needs a customized training tool, this may be one of the best resources to explore first. Upon writing this, App Sumo is offering TeachableU for free.
Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Learn is a free online program that provides training and certifications on various Microsoft products. Only Microsoft goods are covered, such as Azure, Core Cloud Services, Microsoft 365, Power BI Desktop, and Microsoft Teams, among others. The introduction to the subject includes an explanation of what you’ll learn in each self-paced learning module. In addition, for different Microsoft tools and software, Microsoft Learn offers certifications that you can get for free, too. If your church software is Microsoft based, these are great training resources.
Blog Training & Best Practices
If part of your congregation’s mission includes a robust blogging or content strategy, there are some tools you can explore to help with training and blogging best practices. Sometimes the leadership examples of others can inspire your church teams and volunteers with creating engaging content for your church. The best part is, following blogs is free, and it can be a tech-based resource for new ideas and topics.
Check out these church leaders’ blogs:
Carey Nieuwhof – Experience a senior-level leadership perspective and advice for growing a congregation and church family.
Courage to Lead – Led by Shawn Lovejoy, this blog focuses on coaching-related topics and connects church leaders for insight collaboration.
Ron Edmondson – Immanuel Baptist Church’s Ron Edmondson offers ministry coaching advice with daily blogs posts. Find tactical, strategic, and technology-related strategy advice for all church sizes.
Podcast Insights & Church Training Resources
Today’s church leaders can also find tremendous value in podcasts. Explore a few of these podcast conversations among church leaders and stay in tune with the latest strategies for engaging and attracting new members. These topics often address common challenges and offer insights for specific technology training resources and best practices, as well.
Tune in to some of the popular podcasts for free and wherever you choose to subscribe:
Craig Groeschel’s Leadership Podcast
Carey Nieuwhof’s Leadership Podcast
Josh Gagnon’s Leadership Podcast
Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast
Exploring YouTube Training Resources
If you really want to learn how to do something, like troubleshoot a broken toaster, you likely check out some of the “How To” videos available on YouTube. When it comes to embracing and training for church marketing and technology, YouTube can also be an incredible resource for team members and volunteers. Watch a few of the videos offered by these influential church leaders and others to learn something new or innovative that you can implement into your church right away.
These educational videos can help your associates grow into tech adoption techniques:
Mac Lake – This YouTube channel focuses specifically on leadership systems within the church environment. The content here comes from a coaching and consulting perspective.
TEDx Talks – Browse the arsenal of today’s top leaders in all industries and topics relevant to the digital engagement movement. These discussions are all rooted in personal experience, making them great training resources.
John Maxwell – This YouTube channel can be a fountain of leadership wisdom based on building faith in the community.
EdX
EdX is a non-profit organization that offers university-level courses created by non-profit organizations, schools, and businesses. Programs on EdX are completely free, and you can find courses from institutions such as MIT and Harvard. Interactive learning activities, video lessons, online forums for students to interact and ask questions, and online textbooks are all part of the coursework. And it’s a great way to improve everyone’s comfort level with all things tech.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is a digital learning and education-based platform that offers courses in a variety of tech areas. You can browse and choose from a variety of skills, software, and learning paths to explore tech issues such as programming fundamentals, CSS training, web development, networking fundamentals, data science foundations, and more with courses on topics like HTML training and R programming. This training does require payment, but there is a free trial worth exploring to see if it’s precisely what your church volunteers need.
Udemy
Udemy is a popular online ecosystem and learning platform that offers more than 10,000 tech training courses, 1,000 of which are free of charge. AWS, database and SQL queries and basic cloud computing are all subjects covered in these available lessons. In addition, you may discover specific skills and tools to learn about, such as RPA, Linux, Tableau, Salesforce, and more.
Codecademy
Codecademy provides free basic accounts that allow users to explore various paid and free online courses related to all-things technology. Whether you’re a digital novice with a basic understanding of Facebook or a seasoned pro with a little coding background, there are courses for every level of expertise on various subjects such as web development, programming, data science, design, and game development, as well as specialized languages like Python, JavaScript, SQL, C#, and Swift. It’s the ideal method to learn how to code or brush up on a programming language for your CV. You may also pick from classes that focus on various abilities such as data analysis or creating chatbots with Python, creating video games with Phaser JS+, visualizing data, and developing websites using HTML/CSS/JavaScript.
Coursera
Although Coursera isn’t completely free, it does offer over 1,400 free courses on its site. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Coursera extended its offer of an additional 100 free lessons. Python, machine learning, data science, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, programming, web development, and a range of other topics are covered in Coursera classes. These training experiences can be great for church staff with on-demand streaming video courses, self-paced exams, and hands-on projects. You also have access to the Coursera community for feedback and questions. While not everything on Coursera is free, certain programs come with a free seven-day trial, allowing your teams to sample the subjects that matter most.
Why Today’s Churches Need to Embrace Technology
Church leaders increasingly use technology to reach out to the masses with the gospel. With a few clicks, you can connect with your targeted audiences via website interactions, social media interactions, blogs, and media.
Technology can share your church’s story and vision, attracting new members ongoing and even when you’re not at the podium. New potential members can experience your church experience with an online engagement or be inspired by stories of your good works.
Technology allows people to connect who otherwise struggle to engage. With anxiety and depression rampant in today’s society, the looming fear of judgment alone can keep individuals from reaching out for help. It’s your church’s technology outreach that can bridge the gap between the lost and the found, bringing your message to countless potential members from the comfort of their own homes.
There are countless benefits for embracing the latest technology trends and member engagement strategies. But if your church staff and volunteers are behind the times, you may be interested in finding training and resources designed to help everyone feel confident and understand the online tools you need. Equally important is finding those resources that are free and affordable. Hopefully, some of these resources we’ve shared can offer the solutions you need. And if you need more help enhancing your church’s online presence, digital outreach, or tech platforms, let us help!
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