Effective Church Communications

Free Christmas graphics based on Christmas Carols, formatted for Instagram and Postcards

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One of a set of Christmas images
Inspired by my pastor's talk, I created a set of Christmas images you can use for postcards, Instagram, and however else you want.

Christmas carols are not only wonderful to sing this time of year, but many of the lines in them are both inspiring and encouraging to our faith.

My pastor recently preached a sermon challenging up as to whether we had room in our lives for Jesus. In addition to finding it personally motivating, I also realized it would make a great theme for a Christmas graphic, Instagram image, and postcard.

As is usual with these things, one thing led to another, and I created an entire set of images that you can use for whatever you want, plus they are formatted for Instagram and postcards. In addition, I did a layout of the postcards in MS Publisher and created ready-to-print PDFs that you can print off and use.

Below are pictures of the images and below the image are links to download a ZIP file that has them in various formats.

If you would like to create your own Christmas communications using Christmas Carols

Little Christmas angel
This is another one of the images in the Christmas set below.

All of the wording for the images below came from Christmas carols that are now in the Public Domain and that you can quote freely. Following is the link to a website that has a useful list of Christmas carols, both those that are in the Public Domain and those that are still under copyright protection:

https://www.easysonglicensing.com/pages/help/articles/copyright-law/christmas-songs-in-the-public-domain.aspx

Note: if a song you want isn't on the list above, simply google it, as I had to do for one I wanted.

After you know which ones are free to use, it is then helpful to have the words printed out. Here is a site that has that for you:

http://ldsguy.tripod.com/Christmas.carols.html [Read more...]

For GIVING TUESDAY—my gift to YOU—dozens of FREE CHRISTMAS Templates!!!!! No strings attached…..really FREE

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Free Christmas template
This is just one of the dozens of Free Christmas Templates we have for you--links at the bottom of this article.

Note: I wrote this last year, but still feel strongly the same way and decided it was worth repeating

Giving Tuesday was created when two organizations, the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation came together in 2012, about a month before that year's Thanksgiving. Their intention was to set aside a day that was all about celebrating the generosity of giving, a great American tradition.

I do love the idea and the motivation behind it, but I must admit many of the ministry requests for giving to various organizations that I support that came in the midst of the crush of demands for Black Friday often felt like one more case of financial badgering. I know that isn't true. I'm glad many ministries I support double donations on Giving Tuesday.

I understand the need to raise funds whenever possible.  When I was senior editor at both Compassion International and Young Life, I wrote many of those fund-raising appeals myself.

I thought about doing a plea for support for the Effective Church Communications Ministry.

But I just couldn't. Then I realized......

This is an opportunity for me to GIVE to YOU!

It isn't anything new really, just a reminder of the many TEMPLATES and especially the Christmas ones I have for all of you for FREE!

Here are some of the ones I have (links to all is at the bottom of this article):

[Read more...]

How Christians are like Pumpkins—a fun object lesson for adults and kids to grow as Christians together

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Pumpkin Carving and faith building project
Use this pumpkin carving lesson as a time to teach children about Jesus.

This is just the cutest, fun thing for Halloween!

But first the serious reasons behind it:

In the Old Testament, Jewish parents were commanded to teach their children about God's law during all of life.

Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates. Deut. 6:7-9 MSG

In the New Testament, we are all commanded to do a similar thing—

Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Col. 3;7, MSG

Though we are commanded to make God's Word and doing His will part of every area of life, that isn't an easy command to fulfill.

Holidays can help, even ones we wouldn't normally think would help us to grow in our Christian lives.

How pumpkins can help us understand the Christian life, what Jesus has done for us, and how we can live for Him.

We don't often think of Halloween as a time to learn about the Christian faith, but with a little imagination and creativity, it can be! Here is a pumpkin carving project that will help kids learn about Jesus.  Below is a short video that goes through the project and below the video is a link to a  ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print Pumpkin Project sheet, editable MS Publisher files, jpg images, and an MS Word file of the text if you want to create your own version.

Click on the following link to download a ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print Pumpkin Project, editable MS Publisher files, jpg images, and an MS Word file of the text if you want to create your own version: Pumpkin Project & Poem

Free excerpt of the ebook Halloween, a great time for evangelism

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Halloween a great time for evangelism ebook
The Apostle Paul encouraged us to "make the most of our time" to share the good news about Jesus. This ebook will help you do it at Halloween.

One of the core teachings of Effective Church Communications is that we can take any seasonal celebration and use it as an opportunity to share the gospel.

It might seem that one of the more challenging holidays to apply that teaching is Halloween but in reality, it is one of the easiest ones. That's because this is the one time of year when people are thinking about the afterlife, of life after death. Granted the secular view of this is distorted, but it does make a great bridge to a discussion about the reality that we are eternally existing souls.

Most people believe they will live forever, but the question is, if we are going to live forever, what neighborhood will we live in?

Halloween acknowledges there is a neighborhood of hellish horror and evil. Though people might make fun of it, they can't help but wonder what truth there is to the existence of demons and everlasting punishment. Along with that is the almost universal belief or wish, if you will, of an afterlife of light reunited with loved ones.

But how can you be sure?

Halloween gives Christians the opportunity to share why they believe that Jesus is the only Savior who conquered death and who can give us eternal life and peace and a home in the neighborhood of joy if we trust Him as Savior.

The book, Halloween, a great time for evangelism is filled with ideas, tips, plans, and communications that will help you do that.

For a free download of an excerpt of the book, click the following link: Excerpts from Halloween Book

The complete book is part of the Effective Church Communication Library; click the following link to sign up for the ECC Library and download it: https://yvonprehn.podia.com/ebook-halloween-a-great-time-for-evangelism

Don’t forget the people left behind in the rush to make all things digital

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Yvon's note: I admit, I was a bit cranky when I wrote this. Well, not so much cranky as sad, but I know I can come across cranky at times when I want to cry but end up yelling (ask my husband). I wanted to acknowledge that and ask for your forgiveness if the following comes across too harshly. I seem to be over-reacting a lot these days or maybe it’s an appropriate reaction to the over-the-top stresses of these days. I’m not sure, but I trust the following gives us thoughtful pause as we work to adapt to changing challenges while serving “the least of these.”

It’s been a wild ride in church communications and it isn’t going to smooth out any time soon as we try to figure out what to keep, what to modify, what new things to try, and what old ways of doing things we can toss out. Much well-deserved emphasis and discussion have been on new ways to conduct worship online and that will continue as churches work to figure out how to juggle the challenges of meeting physically together (while properly social distancing apart) and continuing an online ministry for those who cannot meet together.

While these discussions are going on, I’d like some recent thoughts.

Imagine you are older; imagine your health is compromised in some way and staying home is a necessity. Most likely this has been an extremely fearful time.

If you weren’t entirely comfortable with technology, it might have been a challenge to figure out how to participate in an online Bible study or watch a Sunday service.

Imagine that despite your fears, you are just now starting to feel comfortable taking communion with crackers and juice at home and singing along with the worship team on the computer. But on Sunday you are told this will stop. Well, maybe not stop entirely, the church will try to “stream” the service as they meet back in the building, but they are letting people know ahead of time this might not be the same and they made stop doing the online service. [Read more...]