Do you remember where you were in 2004? I can tell you that Facebook had just launched at Harvard, the Friends finale aired, the Summer Olympics took place in Athens, George W. Bush and John Kerry were locked in a presidential race, and that massive tsunami hit Southeast Asia. I was only a few years into my tenure as a communications director, and boy was I excited to see Church Marketing Sucks hit the scene.
The first blog post went up on Church Marketing Sucks in July of 2004. We’re celebrating 10 years of church marketing, and we’re inviting you to join us in the celebration all month long! We’re going to have big discounts on products and resources. We’re going to be giving away lots of great stuff. We’ll hear from voices who have been instrumental in the evolution of communication in the church. Trust me when I say that this is a celebration you don’t want to miss.
A couple of things to note:
- You can keep up with all things anniversary-related on our 10 years page (go there for discounts!).
- We will be asking the question, “Does church marketing still suck?” and getting responses from some of your favorite church communication pros. It starts today with thoughts from Meredith Gould (and a chance to win a copy of her book, The Social Media Gospel—see, free goods already).
- You can be a part of the conversation as well. Tell us your thoughts about church marketing, whether or not it still sucks, and how we’ve helped over the last 10 years. Also, I’d love to hear from you about what you’d like to see from us in the next 10 years. You can post a comment or hit us up on social media with the #cmsucks10 hashtag.
- You can learn more about everything we do and how you can get involved.
Can you believe there was no iPhone when we started? There was also no Twitter and no YouTube. WordPress was only one year old. Look how far we’ve come… thank you for taking the journey with us. We wouldn’t be here without you.
So let’s blow up the virtual balloons, grab a piece of cake and celebrate all month long!
Steven Gliebe
July 1, 2014
Wow, Chuck. Congrats on that. You don’t see anything stick around for a decade too often. And this is a good thing to have around.
Kevin D. Hendricks
July 1, 2014
Thanks Steven. I still have a hard time believing we’ve been doing this site for 10 years.
Grace McCrorie
July 8, 2014
Congratulations CMS! I discovered you guys right after design school. What I learned here piqued my interest, and laid a path for my service today. I’m grateful.
We have something in common: an anniversary in July! One year ago this month, I acquired Church Website Ideas. Time does fly, doesn’t it?
Here’s to God’s glory, and grace for another year in His service!