Top Free Image Resources For Your Church Website

Welcome to ChurchSpring Live Episode 028 – What to Expect  (00:06:02)

Let’s Learn: Top Free Image Resources For Your Church Website (00:07:13)

• “Are all images I see online free to use?” Best practices for using images on your church website.

Action Item & Commitments (00:35:39): Update your church website images

Wrap Up & Closing Notes (00:40:03)

Isabelle Faletti (00:00):

Hello, hello, and welcome to ChurchSpring Live, episode 028. My name is Isabelle and joining me today is customer happiness specialist Jen, and she really does make our customers and our entire team happy. So, that title is very accurate. Jen, welcome back.

Jen Hockema (00:20):

Thank you so much and hello everybody, we are a team. So Isabelle is fully part of that happiness thing and I’m so happy to work with her. So we hope each of you had a really great Thanksgiving, and that your turkey leftovers are at a minimum. So, Isabelle, tell me, did you make it through your whole turkey yet?

Isabelle Faletti (00:39):

No, I have not. Don’t tell my mother. I’m sorry mom. I can’t finish the turkey.

Jen Hockema (00:47):

I think Isabelle’s turkeyed out.

Isabelle Faletti (00:49):

I am very turkeyed out. Yes, I ate all that I could, and very thankful for the bounty.

Jen Hockema (00:57):

That’s right, we are thankful. And we are thankful for all of our ChurchSpring members. So we are glad that you could join us today, and we want to hear from you, unless you make a comment, we don’t know that you’re actually here. So, feel free to tell us your church name and location in the comments below, we all love seeing who our regulars are that are coming back on and new names as well.

Jen Hockema (01:21):

So don’t be shy, go ahead and put your name and your church and your location in the comments below. So while we’re waiting for people to jump in, there are a few churches that I want to say welcome to, because they are brand new to our ChurchSpring family. We have Christ Community Church of Buffalo, New York, I’ve been working with Peter.

Jen Hockema (01:44):

So, Peter, welcome. We’re excited to help you get your domain name set up. And we have Enon Chapel Baptist Church of Midway Park, North Carolina. So, welcome Ronald, it was a joy to talk to you this week and to hear your goal. Isabelle, this guy has a goal of getting his website totally setup in seven days.

Isabelle Faletti (02:05):

That’s amazing. That’s so great.

Jen Hockema (02:08):

It is.

Isabelle Faletti (02:09):

I mean, he can do that with ChurchSpring. We make it that easy for a reason.

Jen Hockema (02:13):

Yeah, we’re excited to see him reach his goal there. So, Ronald we are here to help. Just reach out. Also, I want to give a shout out to New Life Christian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. This is their first anniversary. They just renewed with us, so they are starting their second year. So, congrats to New Life Christian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. Now, since we don’t know who is exactly viewing this episode, we do like to tell a little bit about ChurchSpring, a little bit about us. So I’m going to give you our little nutshell version. ChurchSpring helps churches build intuitive, truly intuitive affordable, frustration free websites

Isabelle Faletti (02:56):

Yeah, websites that you can launch in less than seven days, just like you’re helping Ronald with, Jen.

Jen Hockema (03:03):

Yeah.

Isabelle Faletti (03:03):

I love when we can celebrate new members, and when we can celebrate first year anniversaries, third year anniversaries. We need a little birthday candle for that.

Jen Hockema (03:13):

We do, or a banner, maybe we need to do signs or something.

Isabelle Faletti (03:16):

Oh, man. I like this idea a lot. Ron Gardner, looks like we have one of our regulars attending. Awesome, welcome back Ron, always happy to have you hear on the livestream. So again, if you’re just now tuning in, go ahead and drop your introduction in the comments below so that we can say a special hello. And don’t be shy in this livestream, Jen and I want to interact with you, we want to engage with you. So as we go throughout the livestream, give us a little thumbs up, one of those heart reactions, so that we know that what we’re saying is resonating with you, that you like it. If you had a little chuckle, then type, “Ha ha.” in the comments.”

Jen Hockema (04:05):

Isabelle and I are a huge fan of emojis.

Isabelle Faletti (04:08):

We very much are.

Jen Hockema (04:09):

I actually discovered yesterday how to create my own emoji in our team channel. That was cool.

Isabelle Faletti (04:15):

Yeah, that was cool. I was really impressed by that Jen. You’re going to be our new developer. Sorry Mike. Mike is our developer and co-founder.

Isabelle Faletti (04:24):

But we have a new one on the team here, Jen.

Jen Hockema (04:27):

Who knows how to transfer an image in from Google and turn it into an emoji.

Isabelle Faletti (04:32):

It’s the small things. And for all those who are listening on the live or replay, if you know someone who would benefit from today’s topic, we are talking about how you can easily find free images for your church website. So if you know any church leaders, anybody who is helping manage their church website and would benefit from this, go ahead and just share this video so that we can help get the word out. We want to help equip churches and this is one of the ways that we are able to do that, with this ChurchSpring Live. So, we will also answer as many questions as we can throughout this livestream.

Isabelle Faletti (05:15):

So as you have questions about today’s topic, or if it’s kind of rabbit trail, go ahead and just put it in the comments below, and we will get through your questions again as we go throughout the topic. So as always, we will have a replay at ChurchSpring.com/csl028. So no need to be writing down specific notes. Jen and I are giving specific resources today, so if you don’t have a notepad. You can access all the details at ChurchSpring.com/csl028.

Jen Hockema (05:54):

Great.

Isabelle Faletti (05:55):

Jen, I am excited to talk about today’s topic.

Jen Hockema (05:58):

Yeah.

Isabelle Faletti (05:58):

I am- every time, but especially today.

Jen Hockema (06:02):

I was thinking how we often hear people say they get stuck on something in their website or whatever. Well, I think images is one of those areas where they just feel at a loss, or unsure where to find modern, updated, clean looking images, maybe especially for Christmas. Sometimes I wonder, are they feeling maybe discouraged when you try to find some nice stock photography and there’s a price tag attached to it? I’m sure many of you are tired of spending time searching and searching for that perfect photo. You have something in your head and you’re trying to find it. Well, there are options for you. And that is what we are here to talk about today.

Jen Hockema (06:44):

So, Isabelle and I are going to talk about…(The term is actually royalty free image resources). So some of you may not be familiar with that term, but also, Isabelle, I mean really, can you tell us how in the world can we find, and aren’t all images… I mean, I go to Google, there’s tons of images there. Can’t I just go grab one of those for free and put them on my website? What’s the big deal?

Isabelle Faletti (07:13):

That’s a good question Jen, I’m glad you asked. The short answer is no, not all images that you find on the internet are free. I will repeat that again, not all images you find on the internet are free. There are certain websites, some of you may know, that sell images on your church website, on your communication. So, some popular websites that you may be familiar with are Shutterstock, or iStock photo. Prices to purchase these photos, they can range depending on how you’ll be using them, certain platforms that you’ll be using the image on.

Isabelle Faletti (07:58):

So again, you have to purchase some photos on these type of stock image providers. However, as I’m sure many of us have done, you can go to Google, you can search, “Christmas image” or “Nativity scene images” and you will have a ton of search results in Google or whatever your search engine would be. Those are not free. And Jen and I want to be talking about how to use images before we actually dive into some free image resources that you can use, because like Jen said, it can be easy to feel stuck in finding images for your website, and on the support side, we get customers emailing us asking about images. “Can I use this image?” Or, “I got this email from someone saying that I’m using their image on the website, but I’m not. What do I do?”

Isabelle Faletti (08:57):

So we really wanted to kind of equip all of our listeners today with understanding some best practices of how to use images on your website, how to search for images and understand, “Can I use this photo? Is it free? Is it not free? Do I have to pay for it?” So I wanted to give about just three best practices that we recommend when you are going to Google, when you’re searching for a specific image. Again, let’s just say a candlelight service image for your church website this Christmas season.

Isabelle Faletti (09:35):

So when you are searching for a photo, and again, I’m really referring to when you’re searching in Google, Yahoo, Bing, whatever your search engine is, if you’re on a stock image provider, Shutterstock or iStock, et cetera, it’s apparent that you need to have a subscription or you need to pay for that photo. Either way, don’t ever just take a screenshot of an image that you see on your screen and use that image, because you do not have permission to use that image. So if you are on Google, if you are searching for that image, always click on the photo that you like to go to that direct source. A couple things with that, so when you’re using Google image search, you will see a lot of images that will appear that are not necessarily tied back, connected, to that original stock image provider.

Isabelle Faletti (10:42):

So, for example, this morning, I was Google… what was I googling? I think it was a candlelight service in Google images, and there are a ton of images that pop up that linked directly actually to churches and to other websites using an image that has that keyword on that image. So, you as the user, you don’t have permission to be taking a screenshot, to be downloading someone else’s photo, because they have created that, maybe in Canva, as we’ve talked about Canva before, Jen and I, or their designer created that image, or they may have bought that image on a stock provider. So, I really want to be clear in that, don’t just take a screenshot and use that image, because you don’t have permission. So that’s kind of one of the best, best practices that I would recommend.

Jen Hockema (11:37):

So you would say, just because a church is using a certain image doesn’t automatically mean you have rights to that image.

Isabelle Faletti (11:45):

Yes. That’s exactly right, Jen.

Jen Hockema (11:48):

Because they could’ve purchased the rights to that.

Isabelle Faletti (11:49):

Exactly, right, because they may have a subscription to Shutterstock and so they have paid to use that image.

Jen Hockema (11:55):

Okay.

Isabelle Faletti (11:59):

Yeah, exactly. So, when you are on a stock image provider, whether it’s one that you have to pay for or they say that they have free images, always check the license details. So they, and when I say they, I mean stock image providers, they make it pretty simple for you to view their license details, just look for something that says “license.” Nine out of 10 times that is what they call it. And it’s under the section, under the license details. That’s where you can really understand, “How can I use these images on my website?” So, if you’re not sure, are these images free? Because their marketing on their home page and it’s a little confusing. Then click on the license details and that’s where you’ll be able to see, “Oh, I need to have a plan, or I can get two images for free at first.” Or, in the license details, they will talk about the copyright permissions. So specifically, stock image providers talk about commercial versus noncommercial.

Isabelle Faletti (13:12):

We’re not going to get into that, because we’re talking… there’s a reason why we’re talking about here are the free resources today. But bottom line, go to the license details, understand what you can use the image for, specifically if they say royalty free images, that’s awesome. Once you purchase it or download it, that typically means that you don’t have any restrictions in a digital version. Sometimes there’ll be restrictions in print, but that’s why you’re looking at the license details information. And another thing that Jen and I will talk about is, make sure that you don’t have to give attribution.

Isabelle Faletti (13:52):

So sometimes on some free image resources, they say you can download for free, but you have to give credit to the photographer. Which makes sense, for all the artists out there, you want to be receiving that credit. But sometimes, honestly, when you’re using images on your church website, it doesn’t really look super smooth or modern or professional to have image credits all over. So just check if attribution is required. And then just one last quick best practice, Jen and I deal with this being on the customer happiness team, if you receive an email from someone claiming that you are using their photo on your website without permission, do not panic.

Jen Hockema (14:46):

Yes, that’s the first step. Do not panic. The likelihood is it’s a scam.

Isabelle Faletti (14:53):

Exactly, yes. That’s exactly it. It is probably a scam, not always. Again, not always. So if you receive an email from someone who’s claiming that you’re using their photo without permission, the first thing to do is just look at that email and check for a couple of things. What are they actually including in this claim against you? Do they have good grammar, or is their grammar really bad? One easy way to spot spammers is if they have super bad grammar? So that’s kind of the lowest hanging fruit to check, and then understand your image source. So, what I mean by that is understand where are you getting your images?

Isabelle Faletti (15:42):

So, do you have a subscription to Shutterstock.com or are you understanding how you’re getting… are you using the ChurchSpring Image Library, once you understand where you’re getting your images, then you’ll be confident that your not accidentally taking someone else’s image and using it on your website. In that email, whoever is sending that email to you, they should also specifically refer to the image and link to that specific page that your image is on. And when they give you a link, it should not be a bunch of garble-y gook of like “yx12.com,” it should be your actual church name. So firstbaptistofcolorado.com/whateverpage. If you don’t see your church name in that link, don’t click on the link, because it’s probably a scam.

Jen Hockema (16:37):

Scam, yeah.

Isabelle Faletti (16:38):

Yeah, exactly. And, just reach out to us, if you’re a ChurchSpring member, reach out to us and we will be very happy to help you out identifying more about that email.

Jen Hockema (16:49):

I think that’s how we got notified about a few of those is we had our ChurchSpring family send us a copy of that email and say, “What is this all about?” So, we were able to walk them through what you just explained.

Isabelle Faletti (17:01):

Right, exactly. Yeah. So, as you can see for everybody listening, there’s a lot of details that goes into selecting an online image. And that is why Jen and I put together our top four recommended sources, because there are certain things that you need to understand about using images. And I know that got into kind of really specifics there, but Jen and I are so passionate about churches using amazing content on their website and using it in ways that you won’t be receiving emails from legitimate sources saying that you don’t have permission to use this image. So, Jen, I know you are going to share one of our favorite resources for photos, but yeah, the resources that we’ve put together here, they are all free.

Jen Hockema (18:01):

Yes.

Isabelle Faletti (18:02):

So we’ve done all the research for you, these four resources are completely free. You can use the images without having to worry about tagging anybody, giving credit to any photographer, it does not cost anything, there’s no hidden fees. So it’ll just save you time, you don’t have to be scouring the internet, and you can avoid any potential legal mess.

Jen Hockema (18:26):

Okay, well, I’m sure the anticipation has mounted for our number one-

Isabelle Faletti (18:32):

Drum roll.

Jen Hockema (18:33):

Yes, drum roll. So our number one first resource that we think should be your go-to first of all, is your own ChurchSpring Image Library. For those of you who are not ChurchSpring members or do not have maybe even any connection, knowing much about our websites, we, at every plan, whether you’re a sprout member, a grow member, or a flourish plan member, we have a beautiful image library already loaded into your website. All you have to do is when you click on add an image is just scroll through the images and pick the one you like best.

Jen Hockema (19:11):

So these have all been handpicked, is really… we don’t just purchase anything, these are all free as we mentioned. So currently, there is over 860 photos for you to choose from and it’s got a variety of seasons, it’s got different events. There’s images for all sorts of needs, whatever you need to look for. In fact, big announcement in a way, we just uploaded 55 new Christmas photos. So whenever we go in and upload photos, they will always show up first when you open up the image library. So right now you’re going to have 55 fresh Christmas photos, and as you scan down, you’re going to be able to see Thanksgiving photos and as you go down… so as you go down, you’re going to actually be going back on the calendar kind of. So every quarter, we are committed to uploading new fresh images for you, and that continues to grow that library. You can find landscapes, you can find people, you can find objects, there’s a lot in there. So they’re already uploaded.

Jen Hockema (20:18):

But I want to tell you, the best benefit of starting with your own ChurchSpring library is that these images are vetted for you. So these other options that we’re going to share with you, they’re not necessarily Christian companies. So you just have to be aware that I could come across stuff that is not appropriate, and because we pretty much vet these images and we move them into your library, you can be sure that they’re going to be relevant. So it’s going to save you time and it’s also going to save your eyes from seeing something you may not want to see. So to me, that is the best benefit of just starting with your own ChurchSpring Image Library.

Isabelle Faletti (21:00):

Yeah. And to your point Jen, you are the one who’s been searching for images lately and sending them off to Mike- our developer, to upload them.

Jen Hockema (21:12):

It takes time.

Isabelle Faletti (21:12):

It does.

Jen Hockema (21:13):

It does take time.

Isabelle Faletti (21:15):

Yes. Exactly. So, Jen is an expert at picking out the images, pouring a lot of time into uploading those images. So when she says that they’ve already been vetted, 100% –

Jen Hockema (21:30):

I’m the one that vets, everybody.

Isabelle Faletti (21:32):

Yes. So yeah, I would love to know, for everybody who’s listening now and who is a ChurchSpring member, drop a comment and let me know if you use the image library, because… yeah, let us know if you’re using the image library. Again, that’s the top recommended resources.

Jen Hockema (21:55):

Yes.

Isabelle Faletti (21:55):

It’s free in any plan. So, you need to be using that if you’re not using that. I’ll be honest.

Jen Hockema (22:01):

Definitely, I was talking with a gentleman yesterday and I had pulled up his site and I’m like, “I love this picture you picked.” He’s like, “Well it’s from the image library.” And I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t recognize it because we have so many now.”

Isabelle Faletti (22:16):

Yes, I’ve done that before too. I’m like, “Well I didn’t mean to give us a pat on the back, but it was a good image.”

Jen Hockema (22:23):

Exactly.

Isabelle Faletti (22:24):

So it looks like Ron Gardner asked a really good question. Any chance ChurchSpring library could categorize photos? Jen do you want to answer that one?

Jen Hockema (22:35):

The answer is yes, sir. We have that on our roadmap. That is one of the things that — we do track your feedback, so everybody please if you see something that you feel would make ChurchSpring better, we want to hear about it. So we track feedback and that’s one that’s on our list. So I do not have a time table for that unfortunately, but I want you to know, we want it too, don’t we Isabelle?

Isabelle Faletti (23:00):

Yeah, we do. Yes.

Jen Hockema (23:01):

We want that categorization as well, or a better search function. We understand that, so thanks for sharing that with us.

Isabelle Faletti (23:09):

Yeah, definitely. Oh, Jen, looks like we have… awesome. Quite a few people here who are commenting that, yes, they use the library. Ron Gardner, “ChurchSpring library is great by the way.” Sheila, hey there Sheila.

Jen Hockema (23:23):

Hi Sheila.

Isabelle Faletti (23:23):

Yeah, she says, “I have used it already.” Tom, “Yes, I use one of them.” Awesome.

Jen Hockema (23:30):

Good, we’re glad you can.

Isabelle Faletti (23:30):

That’s great. Yes. Yeah. I love to see our ChurchSpring members using the platform that we’ve built to truly save you time. So thanks so much for sharing about that you guys.

Jen Hockema (23:45):

Yes.

Isabelle Faletti (23:46):

So I want to share one of my favorite imagery sources. Again, it is completely free. So we’re not going to be throwing a curve ball on you and say, “This one website is $100 a month.” No. My favorite one is Unsplash.com. It is one of the largest free photo search engines and resources. There are a ton of images on Unsplash. That is where I usually go when I’m looking for images for ChurchSpring social media, or actually for ChurchSpring Live.

Isabelle Faletti (24:23):

For any images I use for that, I go to Unsplash, because they have really updated images, they are constantly updating their image library. So you’ll never see stale, outdated images. So, if you’re looking for Christmas images, go to Unsplash, there are some beautiful kind of wintry theme, tons of Christmas light images. The only downside I would say is that because there are so many images, you might spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect image like I did.

Jen Hockema (25:00):

You always find the best ones Isabelle. I love the images you pick for our blog section of our ChurchSpring website. They’re great.

Isabelle Faletti (25:07):

Well, I probably spend too much time. And eventually all the Christmas light photos do look the same except for that one little light. And Unsplash, they make it really easy to create collections, so if you manage communications for your church website or if you have a communications team, you can create little collections in Unsplash. You can create an account, it’s completely free, again. And so you can start adding images as you find them. So for example, let’s say you have kind of a general Sunday collection, Sunday worship collection, and as you’re scrolling through Unsplash, if you find some great images, you can add that collection to use at a later time. So, I love collections, it makes easy to categorize.

Jen Hockema (25:59):

Nice.

Isabelle Faletti (25:59):

Yeah. And then I know this feature here is available on some other platforms. So you can search on Unsplash, you can type in your search, and you can search specifically for horizontal, vertical images, a specific color. So let’s say you guys are super hip and modern on your church Instagram account and you only use your specific brand colors, like a blue and a yellow, let’s say. You can say… I’m trying to think of a non-Christmas related image, but I only have Christmas on the brain as you can see from my Christmas decorations and Jen’s Christmas background.

Jen Hockema (26:40):

My lights, I love my lights.

Isabelle Faletti (26:42):

Yes. So, if you want to be searching for baking cookies with a blue template, then you can search for a blue. So, you can get really nerdy on Unsplash, so those are a couple reasons why I just absolutely love Unsplash.com.

Jen Hockema (26:59):

Yeah. I’m going to jump into our third resource we recommend, and it is Pexels.com. I’m going to spell that because you might not be familiar with that term, P-E-X-E-L-S.com. Pexels has a huge library of photos, and great search engines. In fact if you typed in the word “Christian,” it automatically gives you different related categories. So when I typed in Christian, all of the sudden a category called Cross popped up and a category called… there was Manger, there was all sorts of subcategories that were collections that you could go and take a look at those and see if you can find the picture that you wanted.

Jen Hockema (27:44):

So I scanned a lot of Pexels images for our most recent Christmas image update to our library. I wanted to let you guys know that when… so there’s individual photographers are giving Pexels the right to give away their images for free, so when you download, a little window opens up and it will say something like, “Say thanks to Josh.” Or whoever it is, and it’ll say something about, “Our creators love hearing from you and seeing how you use their photos, so show your appreciation by,” and then there’s some options. There sometimes is a donate button, so if you want to give Josh $5 as a thank you, you can donate and do that, but you are not required to do on Pexels.

Jen Hockema (28:36):

So just know that option is going to pop up, and don’t sit there and be like, “Oh, am I supposed to pay?” You know? You can just follow him on Instagram, because he might have an Instagram account, or Twitter. But they like put in, I think it’s actually the photographer’s choose what buttons go on that little window.

Isabelle Faletti (28:56):

That’s nice.

Jen Hockema (28:57):

Or you can just close it. The other thing I like to do, if I’m consistently finding the same photographer has a theme that I’m following, you can click on that photographer’s name and it will show all of his work. I found, I think it was about six months ago, I found so many great photos just by following the same photographer who was doing Christian photography. It was a lot on churches, on scripture, he took a Bible and placed it in a variety of places, but just following that guy, that line of his work, I just found a ton of photos that way without having to search deeper.

Jen Hockema (29:40):

So I do like that about Pexels, that they allow you to kind of take a deeper look at what the work is that’s available there. So, that would be my tip on Pexels that, yes, if you find a photographer that you like on there, go ahead and click on their name and take a look at all of their work.

Isabelle Faletti (29:58):

Yeah. I really, really like that tip. And then that can help save time, because you like the photographer’s look, you know that if they have at least one Christian themed photo, the chances of them having more is pretty high.

Jen Hockema (30:13):

Very high. Yeah. Very true.

Isabelle Faletti (30:14):

Yeah. That’s it. It’s a really good tip. And I know Jen you and I have talked before about how on Pexels, on Unsplash, on some of the other free resources, free image resources, they are free because they are crowdsourced. So that means that photographers, as Jen just mentioned with Josh, good ole Josh, wherever you are. Shout out to Josh. They are uploading their images, their photographs on these websites for free.

Isabelle Faletti (30:47):

So, if you are a photographer, continue to bless the church in this creative way. You can take your photos and upload them to Unsplash, to Pexels.com, probably there’s a whole slew of others. These are the most popular ones I would recommend using these two. And yeah, you can bless the church in that way with your creative gifts.

Jen Hockema (31:18):

Yeah, I think that’s a fabulous tip. Even if you’ve got kids in your church who have a photography hobby, what a great project to give them. Say, “Could you work on some church type photography and upload it?” I think that’s a great way to use it. We have so many gifted kids out there with cameras.

Isabelle Faletti (31:36):

Man, I feel like I missed out on a homeschool project when I was younger.

Jen Hockema (31:43):

See, the homeschool mom just keeps coming out in every area.

Isabelle Faletti (31:46):

I know, yeah.

Jen Hockema (31:48):

Hey, here’s a project for your kids. Assign them, they’re all home anyway getting educated via satellite. So, give them a job.

Isabelle Faletti (31:55):

It’s true. I’ll add that to a note. When I’m a mother… So, the last resource that I wanted to include is called Freely. So, the URL is Freelyphotos.com. So I’m popping that URL up on the screen here. So Freelyphotos.com. They have all Christian themed photos. So it was founded by a believer in the UK. It is not a large collection, I’ll be perfectly honest in that, but they do have kind of the basics of some Christian themed photos.

Isabelle Faletti (32:40):

So for example, they have some really great Easter photos. They have some good kind of landscapes of churches, they have some great options for scripture, bible close up photos. They have more landscape photos than people, so if you’re searching people worshiping or church volunteering, Freely may not be the best option. We would recommend Unsplash, Pexels, the image library of ChurchSpring. But, it’s a great way to kind of dip your toe into the free image world. Yeah. So we wanted to include at least one kind of Christian themed resource. Honestly, we struggled finding an online free resource for churches.

Jen Hockema (33:35):

Right.

Isabelle Faletti (33:35):

So what Jen and I were saying before of, if you’re out there, if you’re a photographer and you’ve been blessed with the gift of photography, man. Upload your photos to these resources, because that’s a way that you can be helping churches in a really cool way in this world that we live in.

Jen Hockema (33:55):

Yes. Yeah, I love that.

Isabelle Faletti (33:57):

Yeah. So Freely, Freelyphotos.com. I would love to know, for those who are listening, or if you’re on the replay, have you ever used any of these resources? So, put in the comments below if you have ever used any of the free image resources that we just covered. So, again, the ChurchSpring Image Library, looks like we have some members who use that. Unsplash.com, Pexels, and Freelyphotos.com. So, type in the… yeah, no. Go ahead.

Jen Hockema (34:33):

I was just going to say, if they have a resource for Christian photos that they use, we’d love to hear that as well.

Isabelle Faletti (34:40):

Yes. I love that. Yeah, and I’ll include that in the show notes. So, yeah. Put your favorite image resource that you use in the comments, and I will include that in the show notes for all of us to share with each other.

Jen Hockema (34:54):

That would be great.

Isabelle Faletti (34:55):

If anybody has any questions about photos, about using images on your church website, go ahead and add a question in the comments here below, and we will make sure to get to that. It looks like Ron Gardner said… awesome. He uses ChurchSpring’s image library, Unsplash, and Pexels. That’s great. Way to use the resources. Sheila, she’s used Unsplash, awesome. Oh, that’s so great. I love to see people using the resources out there that are free so that you don’t have to be spending your budget on these items.

Isabelle Faletti (35:39):

So, as always, we like to have an action item at the end of any ChurchSpring Live, because the fact that your here, taking notes, listening, learning, is amazing. And so now, we need to take that into the next step and put it into action. So, my challenge to you is update your church website with some new photos. We have talked a lot in previous episodes about kind of best practices for updating your church website. And one of them is updating your website with seasonal modern non-blurry images for your website, because your website is your first impression that you’re giving off to guests, to even members.

Isabelle Faletti (36:32):

So we’ve just given you four super awesome, completely free resources to use for your church website images. So, upload new photos on your website and send us an email at support@churchspring.com when you’ve uploaded a new photo, and let us know so that we can celebrate with you, we’re all about celebration. [crosstalk 00:36:57].

Jen Hockema (36:57):

Yeah. I think we need to celebrate Tom, Isabelle, remember?

Isabelle Faletti (37:00):

Yes.

Jen Hockema (37:01):

We got a notification or an email this week from Tom Lo, and he shared with us how he used Canva to create some really great images. He did a Christmas one, and he… it was like an announcement -and then he also created an Easter one which was my favorite. So, good job Tom.

Isabelle Faletti (37:23):

Yes. Man, we really need like confetti.

Jen Hockema (37:29):

Can we just get a sound thing in the back, like the crowd goes wild? You know?

Isabelle Faletti (37:31):

Yeah. So Tom, picture that, picture we have the crowd going wild.

Jen Hockema (37:36):

The crowd going wild.

Isabelle Faletti (37:40):

And then it looks like Ron Gardner said, “If you love Christmas images, check out our site, all Christmas.”

Jen Hockema (37:46):

Oh, good.

Isabelle Faletti (37:47):

That’s awesome.

Jen Hockema (37:48):

Yes.

Isabelle Faletti (37:50):

Ron, if you could just put, if you don’t mind, if you could just put your church URL in the comments and then I’ll pop it up here on the screen and share it in the show notes and people can check out to see what your Christmas images look like on your website.

Jen Hockema (38:08):

Well, he turned it into a Christmas website he’s saying.

Isabelle Faletti (38:11):

Yeah.

Jen Hockema (38:12):

So you’re right.

Isabelle Faletti (38:14):

So much Christmas.

Jen Hockema (38:16):

That’s right.

Isabelle Faletti (38:18):

So, if you’re not a ChurchSpring member yet and you kind of like the idea of having your own image library completely free as part of your website and church management options, I encourage you to learn more about ChurchSpring. We offer a free demo webinar at ChurchSpring.com/demo. Our co-founders Mike and Ron, they do an amazing job, and they really take you behind the scenes of ChurchSpring and walk you through the process of how easy it is to manage your website. They show you the image library, so you’ll see for yourself how it’s just a part of your platform.

Isabelle Faletti (39:02):

So go ahead and check that out, ChurchSpring.com/demo. If you have any questions, we have live chat during 8:00 to 5:00 Central, Monday through Friday. You’re looking at the people who manage that often. So, say hello if you’re in the demo webinar. And then if you just want to go ahead and try out ChurchSpring yourself and just kind of get in there yourself, then you can sign up for a free seven day trial at ChurchSpring.com/trial. Completely free for seven days, you can cancel that any time during your seven day trial, and as Jen had mentioned earlier with the image library, that is a part of every single plan.

Isabelle Faletti (39:44):

So when you sign up for the trial you have access to all the features of that plan, you have full access to the support team, you can ask questions, setup a phone call with us to walk through kind of what your goal is for your website. So you can check us out, ChurchSpring.com/trial.

Jen Hockema (40:03):

Great. Isabelle, I have a question for our viewers. So tell us in the comments, have you noticed any changes in the support side of your website? Have you seen anything a little different? Because we are really excited to give an announcement today. I’m going to pause and see if anyone says anything.

Isabelle Faletti (40:26):

There is always a lag too from live stream to when the comments pop up.

Jen Hockema (40:30):

So, behind the scenes, Isabelle, (I’m going to give a lot of shout out here to Isabelle) has been working hard to improve our support platform. And so that being said, we did transition last week into a new platform, we’re still phasing out the old one. Some of you did send us a note and said, “What happened?” So we know some people have noticed. So, we are now on a new support ticket system. And we are very excited. Tom noticed, thanks Tom for noticing.

Isabelle Faletti (41:01):

Yes, and Ron.

Jen Hockema (41:02):

Ron noticed, great. Tell me exactly what did you notice? I’m waiting for someone to say a specific little piece, but I won’t delay any longer. Okay, so we listened to our ChurchSpring members and I want you to know we do listen to you and we heard a common theme where you really preferred tickets to be accessible through your email. So, we want you to know that one of the benefits now is when you click on that little green button, that’s what I was waiting for someone to say. The little green button in your website, you can send us a ticket and you can manage that ticket through your email.

Jen Hockema (41:36):

So you either send us an email at support@ChurchSpring.com, or you click on that green button, you can find your help desk articles are in there, or you can send us a request asking, you know, “What’s going on, I need to know this.” Or whatever your question might be. So, yeah, just click on that bright green button on your website to send us a ticket or email us at support@ChurchSpring.com. We’re very excited about this about, it’s been kind of a mind change for us, because you get in a groove of how you give support and now we have… I think we’ve made our adjustment pretty well, we’re just waiting for everybody else now to adjust with us. So we’re excited to support you this way. We hope it’s really a benefit to you.

Isabelle Faletti (42:20):

Yes. We are completely loving the new system to just email you. So if anybody has questions, I just popped up our email, support@ChurchSpring.com. Shoot us an email. We’re here for you. So, yeah. It’s been really fun. The whole team at ChurchSpring put in a lot of time and energy to making this shift. So huge shout out to the ChurchSpring team. We love making our platform even better to serve the church, to serve our members.

Isabelle Faletti (42:56):

So I do have a quick announcement before we wrap up here for ChurchSpring Live. We will be kind of putting a pause on ChurchSpring Live in December. We are planning on coming back for ChurchSpring Live in the new year. We’re kind of in the planning phase and making some amazing updates to our platform, the new support ticketing system was kind of the tip of the iceberg. So our team is working so hard behind the scenes on launching some really, really cool features for the church management, for the church website aspect, in the new year.

Isabelle Faletti (43:39):

So first off, be on the lookout for that. If you are a member, you will log in and you’ll see that you will have a little upgrade to some of your features. So because of that though, we’re just kind of… we need to be focusing on some projects this month, and so ChurchSpring Live, again, we’ll be putting it just on pause for this month, planning on again, coming back in January. When we go back to going ChurchSpring Lives, we will notify you. Don’t you worry about that. We’ll shoot you an email, look for it on social media, and app notifications in your website. So, and you can always check out any past ChurchSpring Live episodes at ChurchSpring.com/blog. Let me pop that up here.

Jen Hockema (44:31):

And the variety in that blog is great- as you go through it, I send customers over there all the time to go through and find a topic they need to learn about.

Isabelle Faletti (44:40):

Yeah. That’s true, we have covered so much in 28 episodes. I mean, images, Canva, we love Canva.

Jen Hockema (44:49):

Well, a lot of people are interested in the live streaming episodes you guys did. I get a lot of hits on that live streaming episodes.

Isabelle Faletti (44:58):

Yeah, that’s true. And Google analytics, we did a couple for that. That’s been super helpful, specifically for churches, because there’s not a lot of resources, there’s Facebook marketing, Google ads, Google analytics, for churches, and we put together some live episodes for that. Yeah. So go to ChurchSpring.com/blog any past episodes. Again, you can catch this replay on ChurchSpring.com/csl028. So thank you for everybody coming out, we’re here to serve you.

Isabelle Faletti (45:34):

So even though we may not be doing ChurchSpring the rest of December, we are here for you. So, please reach out to us with any way that we can partner with you, with a prayer request, any website updates, any new feature requests, any way that we can help support you. We are so encouraged with every interaction that we have. Jen and I have morning meetings, and we are constantly encouraged and blessed by our customers. So thank you, and know that we are here for you. We’re praying for you.

Jen Hockema (46:13):

We are. Wishing you all a super merry Christmas, and like we said, reach out to us in tickets.

Isabelle Faletti (46:21):

Yes. All right, thank you all for coming out here and have a very merry Christmas. Bye bye.

Jen Hockema (46:28):

Merry Christmas. Bye.