Challenges, commentary, and free templates to help churches create communications that help people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples.

In other words, to fully fulfill the Great Commission.

Effective Church Communications

Timeless training from Yvon Prehn to help churches create communications that will enable them to fully fulfill the Great Commission.

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

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D-Day reminds us our work is spiritual warfare for the kingdom of God.
D-Day reminds us our work is spiritual warfare for the kingdom of God.

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 everyone who is involved in Church Communications that you are daily involved in storming the strongholds of Satan to win people to Jesus.

First here is the podcast and below it the text it is based on:

To do that I want to share 3 things:

  1. A quote from C.S. Lewis and how it applies to us as church communicators
  2. A challenge for church communicators about the reality of spiritual warfare
  3. Finally, a memory of D-Day from my adopted grandfather as they were boarding the boats to take them from England to Normandy.

"A Secret Wireless" C.S. Lewis quote

Though he was talking about the church in general, whenever I read this quote I think about the work we do as church communicators—whatever part you do: preacher, church secretary, designer, anyone sharing the messages of the gospel:

Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 45-46

For how this fits into the idea of D-Day, let me continue with a challenge/devotion I wrote for Church Communicators:Continue Reading

ECC PODCAST: Father’s Day—Beyond celebration—how to make the ministry most of it to grow Dads spiritually

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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 during the church service. But did you know you can do so much more as communicators for Jesus?

We need to constantly remind ourselves in the crush of trivia and distraction that our job is not to be a holy version of Hallmark where our goal is to have the most appealing Father's Day social media and PowerPoint ever, but that our primary job in communications, as in all of life if we are followers of Jesus, is to grow as his disciples and to share his message of salvation—in other words, to fully fulfill the Great Commission. Below is our podcast where we explain how Father's Day can be used to grow men in their faith and following the podcast are notes from it and links to the resources mentioned in it.

You might wonder why a church communication article starts out by reminding you of the importance of discipleship, but as followers of Jesus that is the most important aspect of our lives and our work as church communicators is simply the arena in which we carry it out.

Ephesians 5:16-17 reminds us of this and challenges us in this way:

So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to find out and do whatever the Lord wants you to.

At Effective Church Communications, my goal is to remind you to "make the most of every opportunity for doing good" and to give you practical opportunities to do that.Continue Reading

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:

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

 

Make STRATEGIC use of Father’s Day to grow your church–by targeting YOUNGER Dads

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Reach out to young dads at Father's Day
Fathers Day is a great time to reach out to young dads at your church.

Many churches today have an ideal church member they want to recruit—the younger male, the dad with a young family, and Father's Day is a great time to do a focused outreach to them.

Make sure men are visible at your church

Men need to be greeters, the ones who do announcements, are in the children's ministry when kids are dropped off, and other visual actions at the church. This isn't being sexist--men need to see that men are doing things at the church.

Most likely they are involved in all these areas, but you need to make sure they are front and center on this day.

Invite men back for a service project

Many studies show that younger men are part of a generation that believes in volunteering, in giving back. Asking this group to be part of service projects is a great way to involve them with the men of the church. Here are some ideas:Continue Reading

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