The Five Steps Strategy #1: Create multi-channel communication
In this time of ever-changing options for communicating in our churches, it is easy to be overwhelmed and we naturally want to simplify our communication workload. This is expressed by the question I get frequently in my seminars and through email when people ask me, “What is the best way to communicate with people today? [...]
The Five Steps Strategy #2: Divide your communication team into two production levels
You need a team of communicators to get all the work done you need to in any size of church. Some may be paid staff, some volunteers, or they might be all volunteers. Whenever I mention volunteers in my seminars there is a gasp and the spoken or unspoken fear expressed, “What if I can’t [...]
The Five Steps Strategy #3: Always be who you are, where you are
God called you to a specific church, in a specific location, with a specific audience to reach for Jesus. As part of creating communications specifically for your audience, don’t try to make your communications look like those from any other church and be cautious in the use of glossy, pre-done, nationally sold pieces. The same [...]
The Five Steps Strategy #5: Do not confuse irreverence for relevancy.
We serve a holy God.
There is a tendency today for some in church communications circles to use shocking or flippant language or advertising with the excuse of making the church appeal to the unchurched, or to make their communications appear cutting edge, professional, and contemporary.
This is wrong. As Jesus’ ambassadors and representatives our words and [...]
The Five Steps Strategy #4: Don’t let money be a determining factor
The Five Steps can (and I have seen examples of this many times) can be implemented in any size church and on any budget. If you have (or are) a faithful communication creator who uses only MS Word, or WordPerfect, or MS Publisher or whatever—wonderful, useful communications can be created. You do not need to [...]
Foundation of The Five Steps: Disciple-making
We all know we should obey Great Commission and that the Great Commission commands we make disciples, but beyond the personal spiritual significance of that command, it’s easy to forget the practical power of disciple-making in church growth. Building disciples isn’t only what we are supposed to be doing, it’s how to grow people and [...]
Chart: The Five Steps of Effective Church Communciations & Marketing
The Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing
This chart is the visual representation of Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing, a church communication system created by Yvon Prehn that helps churches fully fulfill the Great Commission.
Instead of church communications consisting of scattered pieces (any one of which might be wonderful on its [...]
Measure success correctly—or why a big turnout doesn’t necessarily mean a successful event
How do you measure success in a church outreach event? Immediately after any event is a great time to evaluate past actions and plan future successes.
A great turnout doesn’t equal great results
I recently looked at a church website that celebrated the great success of their fall outreach by listing the number of hot dogs served and bags [...]
Why you might not be interested in this ministry or The Five Steps of Effective Church Communication
As I was working to put this website together, I found myself wondering why so many churches don’t create communications that systematically lead people to Christian maturity and discipleship. So many of the things I talk about on this site and that work really well to do that are not difficult or expensive. To repeat [...]
Introduction to the Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing
We serve a great God—the creator of heaven and earth. We have a great salvation—paid for by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and freely offered to all who believe in him.
We have extraordinary tools to communicate this message with computers in church offices today that are more powerful than NASA had when they [...]
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The Five Steps of Effective Church Communications and Marketing
The Heart of Church Communications
Back to Basics, foundation communication skills for church communicators