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.

PODCAST: Strategy for Summer Communications

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Summer Communications
The summer communications from our churches should be clear and kind and this podcast will give you some tips on how to make them more effective.

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 and special events, there is a lot of work to be done.

Hi, I'm Yvon Prehn and welcome to the Effective Church Communications Podcast.

In our podcast today I'll give you some tips for more effective summer communications. CLICK HERE for FREE TEMPLATES of communications that you can use for effective outreach this summer.

For the original article that forms the basis of this podcast, go to: https://wp.me/pDky9-7pK

Strategic Summer Communications, an eBook and Video to help you make the most of special summer celebrations

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Strategic Summer Communications
Fun is expected at summer events, but we can do so much more at the ones hosted by our churches. This eBook and video will show you how.

Summer is a time when people expect to have fun at special events. When we host events at church, we can do that, but as with every holiday or special event we put on, we can do so much more if we are strategic about our summer communications!

One of the core teachings of Effective Church Communications is to remind you that holidays and special events are key times to both—grow your church in numbers and your people in spiritual maturity!

Doing more than stopping at fun only is what distinguishes how we have fun in the summer from other worthwhile places. There is nothing wrong with fun, but we also have the opportunity to perhaps change the course of the eternity of people in our communities by our strategic use of the opportunities people come to church in the summer.

This eBook and video on Strategic Summer Communications will help you do that. [Read more...]

How to make Bible school more than a happy memory—strategy and materials to connect with Parents

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VBS return to church flyers
Kids always have a wonderful time at VBS, but you must be intentional in inviting families back if you want that great week to have a lasting impact.

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 wonderful week, but thoughtful communications can extend that week into a continuing relationship with the church.

There are several ways you can do this, but the over-riding idea is that you need to intentionally communicate to connect with parents, to let them know what else is going on for their children at the church, and invite them to take part in it.

Why this is so important

If you asked a person in the neighborhood of your church, who does not go to your church, "What does our church do on Sundays for children?" you would most likely be met with a blank stare. Most people who do not go to church have no idea what people do in church other than the media picture of people standing around singing with their hands in the air.

The parents of the neighborhood children you worked so hard to reach so their kids would come to VBS are no different. To many of them the church is providing a nice summer community service and they get a few hours of free (or almost free, as many VBS programs charge these days) child care for a week. That the church has anything else of value for their kids is probably something that never crossed their minds.

For the church staff putting on VBS that's difficult to imagine, but it's true and though you want people to so love VBS they will bring their kids back on Sunday to your children's program and begin a relationship with the church, this won't happen unless you are intentional about it. Here's how to do it: [Read more...]

Strategy for summer communications, remember visitors, delete hidden jargon, don’t host a money-divided event

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Summer Image
Your church will have visitors this summer, be sure your communications make sense to them.

LINK to FREE Summer Templates is at the end of this article

Looking ahead to planning summer communications, 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 community, and we can't forget out-of-town visitors. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out with the gospel and the love of Jesus and here are some strategic tips to help your communications make the most of this opportunity and some strong cautions about what not to do.

Jargon watch

We know we shouldn’t use church jargon terms like justification and sanctification in our church bulletin, web, or social media when we are writing for people visiting our church, but so much of our church jargon we don’t even see. Using acronyms we don't explain, talking about events that we do year after year and assume everyone knows about, insider jokes, assuming people know times and locations—all these things are confusing and unkind to someone visiting. We don't want our language to keep someone with a free night in our city to miss out on an opportunity to learn about Jesus.

[Read more...]

Bulletin inserts or social media content for Father’s Day; poetry, challenges, encouragements

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Dads come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Here is a selection of bulletin inserts that celebrates many of them.

Dad's come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and the selection of Bulletin Inserts here reflects that. The overall theme of the insert is general thankfulness for Fathers and you can put any message, event, challenge, whatever you'd like on the other side.

Below is a gallery of the inserts and below that a ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print PDF, plus editable MS Publisher files of all the inserts.

The content or the entire image can be used in social media in any way you'd like also.

Here is the Gallery of images of the inserts:

Below the images is a text file you can copy to use however you want in your Father's Day communications.

Click here to download the ZIP file with MS Publisher and PDF files:Fathers Day Bulletin Inserts 2017

Text file for the Father's Day Prayer

 

We never outgrow our need for Fathers.

Because we are never too big for

Fathers to stop holding us, nurturing us.

That’s the character of a Father.

Even Jesus, King of Kings, our Lord

Bowed and cried, Abba, Daddy, Father.

Today we thank our heavenly Father for giving us the gift
of earthly Fathers.