1. Use Canva.

Canva is free and super easy. With it, you can design blog graphics, presentations, Facebook covers, flyers, posters, invitations and so much more.

2. Borrow designs.

You don't have to design everything yourself. There are great church designers out there giving their designs away for free. Here are some great ones:

NewSpring Church Resources

Seeds Resources

Elevation Church Resources

3. Stop using cheesy stock photos.

Use these free resources:

Makerbook Photos

Freely Photos

4. Use Squarespace for your church website.

I really don't see why most churches use Wordpress. Yes, it is one of the best options for a church who has a designer on staff; however, the great majority of churches don't have access to a professional. Wordpress has so many plugins, themes, and templates; it's strength? Customization. It's weaknesses? A huge learning curve and lots of room for design mistakes. Squarespace is amazing, because it doesn't allow a great deal of customization. It doesn't allow you to venture too far from the template; in the end, this forces you to make good design choices. Also, Squarespace is $8/mo.

5. Be consistent.

When people visit your church website, are they going to see current service times? The current message series? Is the calendar updated? Good design is consistent. If you don't have the right and updated information on your website and on the slides you show in church, they are essentially useless.

6. Minimize future work.

Don't create too many designs that you'll have to update each week. Be self-aware and realize - you're not going to have time to spend 5 hours per week on graphic design. Don't create a Small Groups design with just the dates for the upcoming week - instead, go with the 1st/3rd Thursday or 2nd/4th Friday method.

7. Ask for help.

Chances are, someone you know is a graphic designer. Ask them to design something for your church, or just ask them to proof and critique your designs!

8. Never stop learning.

Listen to the Pro Church podcast. Sign up for Skillshare. Join the Visual Church Media Facebook group. Follow designers and big churches on Instagram.

Have you checked your email today? Have you posted on Instagram? Have you ever used Dropbox?

Unless you're stuck in a cave somewhere, you probably use the Cloud on a daily basis - you're just not using it as well as you should be.

Here are three ways you can use the Cloud better, and how your church can benefit:

1. Take better notes.

Remember your last staff meeting? You went over plans for the next sermon series, or you brainstormed how you would raise funds for your next church event. If you're like me, you forgot to take your notepad, and therefore forgot everything said during the meeting.

If this is you, you should download Evernote right now. I mean it. Download it on your phone, your tablet, and all your computers. With Evernote, all notes, checklists, reminders, and voice memos can be organized and shared with your whole team. Instead of carrying a paper notebook around everywhere you go, you can now use the phone in your pocket to create virtual notebooks that are accessible on all your devices, everywhere you go, at all times.

And one more thing - it's free.

2. Collaborate seamlessly.

Most churches use ProPresenter and and MediaShout for their worship presentations. Although these software programs are awesome, they have one downfall. They aren't cloud based. This means only one person at one delegated computer at one time can edit the worship presentation - and usually, that's done right before service. With Proclaim, ministry volunteers and leaders can share the load by collaborating on each presentation. The worship leader can import their song list from Planning Center, and the speaker can use Logos to select any Bible reference or media to automatically build a slide. It's almost too good to be true.

Collaboration on the Cloud is the wave of the future, but it's certainly not new. In fact, it was made famous with the launch of Google Docs in February of 2007. Basically, Google Docs is a Cloud based alternative to Microsoft Word. The cool part of the sotware? Any Google doc can be shared - meaning, your entire team can edit it. Let's say you're creating this week's announcements. Instead of individually contacting each ministry leader via email, you can simply create one Google Doc and share it with your entire team. Then, each team member can edit as they see fit.

Google also offers Sheets and Slides, providing cloud based alternatives to Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint.

3. Say goodbye to software CD's and upgrade costs.

Adobe is my favorite example of the shift from CD's to 100% web-based software. For a while now, Adobe has been the global leader in digital media solutions; basically, they provide the best graphic design and video editing software out there. Ever heard of Photoshop? That's Adobe.

Adobe used to offer their entire digital media software package as a disc download. You would purchase the collection online for around $2k, they would ship the CD to you, and you would download the software on your computer.

Well, they don't do this anymore. You couldn't buy the new Adobe Creative Suite if you tried. Why? Because they pivoted to a subscription model. You can have the entire Adobe Creative Suite at your fingertips using the new Creative Cloud. If you're a student, you can get Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, InDesign, and more for just $20/month.

And next time Adobe has new software - you can just download it - for free. No more upgrade fees, physical CD's, or worrying if your software is outdated. Everything is simpler, cheaper, and better.

And that's it! I hope I've convinced you to give Cloud based software a chance. I promise - if you learn to use it correctly, it will save you money and boost productivity.