31/01/2024
Holy Week is the second busiest week of the year on AChurchNearYou.com - and 80 percent of visitors are visiting the site for the first time. This year, for the first time, we will be using the Church of England’s national social media accounts to drive the public to a dedicated Lent and Easter homepage. You can use AChurchNearYou.com to promote your services and events this Lent – all for free.
How can I easily add my Lent & Easter services to the churches in my benefice?
There are two ways in which you can get your services and events to appear on multiple churches in your benefice.
Option 1 is to create the content at benefice level, from within the relevant benefice site, where you will be asked to choose which church(es) should display the content.
Option 2 is to use the 'copy' functions after you have created the service or event at church level.
The benefit of option 1 is that if you need to make an edit it will be reflected in all the copies at once, whereas with option 2 you would have to amend each copy individually.
Option 1 (benefice site)
Create the service or event on your benefice site. Show me how.
- After filling in the title and description, you get the option to tick the boxes of the churches you would like to display your service or event. This will then publish the service or event onto those church site/s as well as your benefice site.
- You can decide if they will show on the benefice site and all church sites, or the benefice site and only some church sites.
Note: Any changes made to the service or event will be displayed across all church sites.
Option 2 (copy)
In a recent AChurchNearYou.com Advent and Christmas survey it was mentioned that it would be useful to be able to copy services from one church to another within the benefice and be able to make some small edits to each church listing.
This is possible if you create the service or event on one of your church sites.
- Create the service or event on your church site. Show me how.
- On your ‘Services and Events’ page, click the pencil in top right of the item you wish to copy to another church.
Scroll to the bottom of the page that opens and click copy.
- Select the church(s) that the item should be copied to.
- Click copy to save.
Note: The service or event will appear in the service and events section of each church selected. Once you have copied items to other churches, any subsequent changes to the original event will not be carried through to the duplicate events.
Tip: The copy button doesn't appear when you are first creating an item. Once you've populated all the details, save your service or event or news article or notice sheet and it will close. Then open it again by pressing the little pencil symbol on the top right of the event tile, then you will see the copy button.
Don’t forget to tag your Lent and Easter services
When you get to the 'tags' section of the event form, choose the 'Change tags' button, check the relevant tags, and then click 'Change tags' (yes, again!) at the bottom of the screen.
Tip: Remember to add the ‘Lent’ or ‘Easter’ tag so your service or event appears under the ‘Lent & Easter’ tab on your church’s services and events page.
Wait, there's more!
While you're logged in, also visit the Resource Hub within AChurchNearYou.com. It offers useful free Lent and Easter downloads, including music tracks, graphics, and posters.
Our video generator tool in the Resource Hub allows you to add your own text to a short Watch and Pray video. You can then use the video on your AChurchNearYou.com page, social media accounts and even for church screens!
- Alessi Burnham, Digital Officer
