The AChurchNearYou.com Resource Hub is now full of free downloads that could help your church as you prepare for Advent and Christmas. They support this year’s theme, ‘Follow the Star: Calm and Bright’.
New resources available this Advent and Christmas
Flyer templates: Use our ‘What’s On’ and ‘Keep in Touch’ customisable templates to create flyers you can hand out at your Advent and Christmas services. Encourage those visiting for the first time to stay in touch with you or sign up to your mailing list, or provide them with a handy guide to what else is coming up in the future.
AChurchNearYou.com Cover and Feature Images: Based on editor feedback, we’re delighted to let you know that we’ve included additional resources this Advent and Christmas. In the Resource Hub, you will find AChurchNearYou.com cover and feature images. These images have been created to specifically fit as a cover image on your church or benefice homepage or as a feature image on your services and events or news stories.
Other resources available now
- Logo and Brand Guidelines: Available in various formats for both print and digital use. Logo packs for print and digital are available to download now. The branding guidelines are designed to assist churches and organisations in making the most of the spectacular Calm and Bright branding, including colour palettes and approved fonts.
- Social Media Customisable Templates: Includes customisable templates for your Facebook, Instagram, Instagram stories and X accounts. Below is an example of a template edited in Canva.
- Social Media Cover and Event Images: Provides cover and event images for your Facebook and X accounts.
- Poster and PowerPoint Templates: Each have two different customisable templates to create your own PowerPoint or Poster designs.
- Free Stock Photography: Other Advent and Christmas images to use across your church’s digital and print platforms can also be found under the free stock photography section in the Resource hub.
- Advent and Christmas Music: The Church of England, working with St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Royal School of Church Music, is delighted to provide music for you to use at Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. There are over 100 Advent and Christmas music tracks free for you to download.
- Recommended image sizes: This editor help centre article provides links to Canva templates, of the correct size, for each of the image sections on your church and benefice sites.
- Custom Image and Video Generator: The video generator tool in the Resource Hub allows you to add your own text to a short Follow the Star video. You can then use the video on your AChurchNearYou.com page, social media accounts and even for church screens!
- The Christmas Digital Planner: A guide to planning and scheduling your online Christmas content across different platforms.
- Canva Christmas card: Here’s a Christmas card template that you can customise in Canva.
List and tag your Advent and Christmas services and events
Remember to also list and tag your Advent and Christmas services and events, so they are promoted through AChurchNearYou.com – all for free! Last year we had record engagement with AChurchNearYou.com, so it’s really worth making sure your church presence there is up to date. Here’s a snapshot of last year’s traffic:
- More than 32,000 Christmas and Advent events listed – our highest number ever, up 8,000 on 2022.
- We saw more than 29,300 clicks to ‘Share’ and more than 46,000 clicks to ‘Add to Calendar’ from people looking to attend a service, five times more actions than in 2022.
- Over Advent and Christmas, there were more than 17.8 million page views – more visits to AChurchNearYou.com during this period than ever before.
- Traffic specifically to the Christmas landing page was up 33% on last year.
- From September 2023 to 2024 the site had a total of 113 million page views from the public.
- Read our step-by-step guide on adding services and events here.
Additional training and webinar resources
Upcoming Digital Labs webinars
- Special Webinar: Let’s create together on Canva: December 5, 11am-12.30pm
- AChurchNearYou.com: How to use the platform as your church’s free website: December 12, 11.30am – 12.30pm
Watch on demand webinars
- Special Webinar: Digital Giving this Advent and Christmas
- Special Webinar | Unwrapping Follow the Star: Calm & Bright
- How your church can engage with children and young people this Christmas
- Special Webinar: The Christmas Digital Planner
- AChurchNearYou.com: How to use the platform as your church’s free website
- Benefice features on AChurchNearYou.com: Demo and Q&A
More information on how to get ready for this Advent and Christmas on AChurchNearYou.com can be found here:
