PLEASE let people know ahead of time about regular special offerings
Many churches have special offerings that they take up regularly. Though the staff in the church office can tell you all about them in their sleep, they often come as ...
What you need, no matter what technology you use, to be a successful church communicator; on the relaunch of Devotions for Church Communicators PODCAST
I've been doing church communications for a long-time—bear with me for a few minutes for the reason while I tell you my history, there is a reason for it: My ...
Communications for a good continuing relationship with your volunteers—please don’t suddenly become Mr. Grumpy
Every church is desperate for volunteers. It's not only important to effectively recruit them, but after they are recruited, it is equally important to work hard to keep them. Unfortunately, ...
Why upbeat interviews work better than desperate pleas for recruiting volunteers
Desperation isn't pretty in volunteer requests. If you feel like shutting down the children's ministry if new people don't sign up or closing the bathrooms on Sunday morning if no ...
Why you shouldn’t be satisfied with less than 100% volunteer involvement in your church—the fallacies of the 20/80 often quoted statistic
There are many reasons why churches aren't successful in recruiting and retaining volunteers, but one of the most damaging may be that we have an underlying incorrect assumption about how ...
A Case Study to help you be more successful in recruiting volunteers, using Trunk or Treat as an example
Yvon's note: though this material and the video is several years old, it has some extremely useful material that will help you be successful in your fall outreach. Consider the ...
See You at the Pole—challenges for the church to pray—bulletins, flyers, social media images
Let’s be honest, it would be terribly scary to pray in public around the flagpole of your school. But that is what the organizers of See You at the Pole ...
Cautions about auto-responders with church visitor follow-up email
Churches sometimes use auto-responders—the messages that are sent out automatically with your email programs to people who either join a church mailing list or who have been entered into a ...
Get a head start on Fall Communications–many FREE TEMPLATES to inspire you
Labor Day is over and suddenly it's Fall! Though we will be doing lot's of new things for the upcoming holiday season, there are many resources in our Template Section ...
Who are you inviting to your church events? Would the guest list please Jesus?
One of the most horrifying memories I have of a church leader is when he told me and my husband, who was the Single Adult Pastor at the church, that ...
Postcards for Kids! A great way to encourage families to come back-to-church this fall!
Kids love to get mail especially in the days of almost all electronic communications and social media. A letter or postcard addressed to them is something very special because they ...
Color and Design Trends for Fall 2019
We all need inspiration and this week I got a catalog in the mail that greatly inspired me with new designs and color combinations. I decided the best way to ...
Don’t let August vacations include times away from church–FREE POSTCARD reminders to help
August is the last month of vacation for many and in many churches the time when attendance drops to an all-time low. Though understandable, sometimes all people need is a ...
Back-to-church invite cards for late summer events–Free Templates and PDFs
Many churches hold end-of-the-summer events. Ours ours does a Lemon Festival with a free community BBQ and a huge lemon dessert contest. We are a neighborhood church that was built ...
How to make Bible school more than a happy memory—strategy and materials to connect with Parents
Some of the happiest times of my life as a child were in summer Daily Vacation Bible School and that wonderful experience continues in many churches today. Kids have a ...
If you truly care about visitors to your church—keep doing a paper bulletin
I recently attended a church event where I was extremely uncomfortable. Mind you—I'm a church person, one who grew up in the church, loves the church, is there every week ...
FREE e-book download: Are written bulletins still needed in the church?
From my email: "We're doing our announcements on PowerPoint and we have all the information about our weekly activities on our website. We are an outreach oriented, contemporary church and ...
Still useful: archive articles on Church Bulletins
Church bulletins remain one of the most important pieces of church communication and this book features PDFs of articles by Yvon Prehn all on the topic of how to create ...
PODCAST: Strategy for Summer Communications
Whoever wrote that song, "Summertime and the livin' is easy" did not work in church communications. The pace and type of activities change in the summer, but with Bible camps ...
DON’T EVER HOST A MONEY-DIVIDED EVENT!!!!
Ed. note: this is an excerpt from a longer article on summer communication strategy, but I feel the topic is so important, I wanted to post it on it's own ...
Strategy for summer communications, remember visitors, delete hidden jargon, don’t host a money-divided event
This summer your church will get lots of visitors, some of whom are friends of church members who might not regularly go to church, others may be from the surrounding ...
4th of July, Canada Day and GRACE for all nations: slides, videos, handouts
"God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love." is one of my favorite definitions of grace and as Jesus's disciples, grace is an attribute and action ...
PODCAST: D-Day and Church Communications: D-Day and Church Communications: with words from C.S. Lewis and memories of my Grandfather as they left England the morning of D-Day
Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day and while we commemorate and honor the sacrifices of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy I think it is appropriate to remind ...
ECC PODCAST: Father’s Day—Beyond celebration—how to make the ministry most of it to grow Dads spiritually
It's easy to look at Father's Day as just another holiday to do up a special bulletin and social media for and to say a few nice things about Dads ...
