Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.

Don’t forget to say “Thank YOU!” to your Christmas volunteers—cards done for you to help you do that PLUS a new PRINTABLE!

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I'm sure all of your Christmas special programs are going to be an incredible success—thanks in large measure to the hard work of your many volunteers.

And I'm sure you want to take time to thank all of them, but have little energy to do it.

Effective Church Communications can help in that I have a set of Christmas Thank-You cards, illustrated in the gallery below. The main message is on the front and on the back all you have to do is write a short note in the half of the card across from the address.

After an event is over, often you are exhausted, and I recommend, if you can that you could print out, personalize, and have them ready to go right after the event. People will be immediately encouraged and you can relax.

A new free image in PRINTABLE formats

Christmas Angel as a Thank youIn addition to the cards, I added a NEW PRINTABLE FOR YOU. This is from the Bibleverse Shop, but I'm making it FREE during December. The downloadable file has 12 different formats from social media images to images in every size and high resolution from 5x7 to 8.5x11 to 24x36 that will reproduce well on office printers as well as printing services.  To download, either click on the image or THIS LINK.

Additional cards that can be used to thank volunteers

I know you don't want one more thing added to your list, but please do take the time to do this. It's wonderful for your volunteers and pleasing to our Lord who commands us, "In everything to give thanks" (1 Thes. 5:18).

Below is a gallery of the cards. Use however you want. Below the images is the FREE ZIP file to download all of them.

CLICK following to download the ZIP FILES: christmas-thank-you-cards

Last minute ESSENTIAL Christmas Communication advice and free tools to implement it

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FREE CHRISTMAS TEMPLATES, CLICK HERE
All the work is done for you with all the materials here, simply download and use!

Suddenly, Christmas is almost here and there is much to do. In the midst of all the practical, tangible organizing and work that needs to be done, I want to literally plead with you to do these things during your Christmas outreach, no matter what activities you have going on.

The activities you have planned I’m sure will give your congregation and visitors a great experience and these suggestions will give your events lasting impact.

I have Three actions listed and then so as to not add more to your incredibly busy schedule, some free tools to help you implement each of them.

#1 Share a CLEAR PRESENTATION of the Gospel, of what it means, and how to become a Christian.

Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins. That is the point of his birth and we need to make it clear to the people who visit us who may not know that is truly the reason for the season.

To help you do that, I have a handout that has helped many over the years available as a free, reproducible download for you here: https://wp.me/pDky9-6En

#2 Tell people what you regularly do, when you are not holding your special Christmas events and INVITE them back.

Visitors in our post-Christian world DO NOT know what churches do on a regular basis. You must tell them and invite them with specific information and times.

The free templates and materials that will help you do this: https://wp.me/pDky9-8l1

#3  Give your congregation the best gift you can to help them grow in their faith in the coming year—schedules and encouragement to READ THROUGH THEIR BIBLES.

The link following will take you to free downloadable schedules you can give out to help your people read through the Bible in the coming year. The www.Bible805.com website also has a free eBook you can download and share for motivation, plus podcasts and videos on why and how to read through your Bible in Chronological order.

For Free through the Bible Schedules: https://wp.me/pazrJD-cZ

Other links of Christmas interest

Nicene Creed for Christmas

Newly posted, free, newly redone flyer of the Nicene Creed for Christmas, click on the image to go to it.

You can download and use this in any way you want from social media to bulletin inserts to posters. It uses one of the Oldest of Christian Creeds to remind us of why Jesus is the reason for the season

 

SEVEN EXTRAORDINARY WAYS GOD PREPARED THE WORLD FOR CHRISTMAS The Real Advent, 7 Extraordinary Preparations God made in real history

There are many positive things about traditional Advent, with candles, hot chocolate, and devotional readings that focus our hearts on the true meaning of Christmas. As beneficial as these aspects of Advent are, Advent became even more meaningful to me when until I did some in-depth historical study about all the extraordinary things God did to prepare the world for His Son, Jesus.

The results of that study are incredibly exciting and not only in preparation for Christmas, but I trust that listening or looking at this content will also give you trust and assurance in how God works through history.

This content goes over the 7 Extraordinary Preparations God made in real history that when you look at them all together are an amazing testimony to the power of God and the reality of the divine origin of Jesus.

This topic is so important, I also created a podcast, two videos, notes, a printout of maps, a free encouraging printable, and more all linked for you at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-jh

 

Free Christmas graphics inspired by Christmas Carols, formatted for Instagram and Postcards

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Free Christmas Card Social media images based on Christmas Carols
Christmas carols are inspirational for more than singing. They can also inspire our Christmas communications.

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 images 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...]

A Free Template of the Christmas Story and short gospel presentation based on “Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”

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Christmas evangelism bulletin insert size
This is a set of bulletin insert-size Christmas evangelism publications--please share!

This has been one of our most popular communications for Christmas—it's an upbeat, but thought-provoking presentation of the good news about Jesus for Christmas based on the popular hymn, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing!" and I wanted to share it with you this year.

When I first created the piece it was a full-size sheet and in a 3-panel brochure format, but after sending that out (CLICK HERE for original article and for 8 1/2 x 11-inch size flyers and for brochure size) I got a request to create a bulletin insert-size piece. What a great idea! And I was happy to do that. The images are below and below them a ZIP file for everyone to download ready-to-print PDFs, the editable MS Publisher file, and images of the pieces.

I wrote it and created the communications and you have my permission to share or use it in any way you want.

Be creative in how you use it

Of course, you can print them up and use them at Christmas outreach events or as a bulletin insert.

You can also copy the text or the entire communication and share it on social media for your church or personally.

It's also useful to make copies for your congregation to put into their Christmas letters. Either with the templates here or the ones in the link above (where there is a full-page version), you have my permission to upload any of the PDFs to your church websites for your people to download to print at home and share with their friends and family. I've printed them out for my Sunday School classes and people have greatly appreciated it.

Encourage your congregation to put them into their Christmas cards or enclose with gifts (remembering Jesus is the greatest gift of all!).

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A Christmas letter you can use to share Jesus with your church, friends, and family

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8.5 x 11 size Christmas Evangelism PDFs images_Page_2
A Christmas letter that explains the true meaning of Christmas is an essential outreach tool for your Christmas events.

We want our people to share their faith and this communication gives them an easy and non-threatening way to do it. One year, I posted the material below on our Adult Sunday School Class website and gave out a sample to our adult class. I printed the black and white image on a blue parchment-type paper. I encouraged them to go to the website and print it out for their Christmas letters and to share with friends. You are welcome to copy any or all of it and you can put them on your church or class website for your people to share.

Below the sample that I shared with my class are some color versions, spot-color separations, and versions that are in a tri-fold brochure format. All of these are available in two ZIP files at the end of this article. This letter/brochure or any other piece that clearly explains the reason for Christmas and the meaning of salvation in Jesus is essential for your church to share at all your holiday outreach events. Jesus came to save us from our sins, not to give us reasons to buy stuff or even so we can have wonderful family celebrations. We need to be clear about the true Christmas message to people who may only come to our church at this time of year--this piece gives you an easy and effective way to do it. [Read more...]