Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.

Give your Operation Christmas Child an opportunity to give and expand the joy

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Anyone can give and everyone should have the opportunity to give, as the Apostle Paul reminded us:

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,  they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.  And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 2 Cor. 8:1-5

When most of us are working on our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, we primarily think about what we are going to give the one child. But you can not only do that, but by the addition of a few items you can also give your child the opportunity to give. This isn't hard or expensive to do.

Here's how:

You can do this by buying and putting into your Christmas child package items that are packaged together and can be broken up and shared. When you do this, you give your Christmas child the opportunity not only to receive, but to share and give to others.

The 99cent and Dollar Stores have packages of these and many other that would be great to put into your shoebox. Many of the items below don't hardly take up any more room--for example, a package of combs or a couple of toothbrushes instead of just one, take up very little additional room.

Here are some ideas of items you can buy to give your Christmas Child a chance to give:

  • Buy a package of colorful combs in various sizes and colors
  • Buy a package of toothbrushes
  • Buy pencils in a package
  • Buy hair ornaments of all kinds in a package
  • Buy several packages of gum
  • Buy soap bundled together

You can copy any of this information and expand this idea to put into a bulletin insert, email or newsletter to pass on the idea to your congregation.

As always, pray for wisdom and that the Lord will lead you to wonderful things. Pray for your Christmas child that he or she would know the joy of sharing and giving in addition to receiving this holiday season.

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If you would like more information about the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child, CLICK HERE.

Why Marketing isn’t evil—or doesn’t need to be anyway

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As often happens, marketing is currently taking a bashing in some ministry magazines and blogs. Though I am one of the first people to decry the evils of untrue church marketing—in my mind epitomized by the commercial website headers of mostly white, all thin, happy folks—when few folks at the churches I know look anything like that—especially when you look at the church universal and the tragedy of hunger domestically and worldwide...but I digress.

As I was saying, though marketing can be used in untrue, unworthy of the gospel ways, to bash "marketing" with a broad brush as evil is like saying because Jim Jones of Jonestown massacre was a preacher that all preaching is evil.

Chapter Four: Effective Church Communication Marketing

Intro note: The following material is from the book, Ministry Marketing Made Easy, by Yvon Prehn.  A PDF of this material is available as a download, by CLICKING HERE and at the end of the article. You have permission to make as many copies as you need for your staff, congregation, or volunteers.

Some church people are genuinely concerned about marketing and wonder about the appropriateness of marketing in the church. This is a valid concern and an important one to address. This chapter presents a biblical view of respectful marketing and provides biblical and practical examples of appropriate uses of marketing in the church.

I strongly recommend you take time to go over this chapter as a staff and with the leadership of your church. If you don't and people in your church have concerns that are not answered, you can be certain they will come out and often, not in pleasant ways.

You want everyone (as much as is possible) in the church to be of one heart in your communication and marketing efforts. Yes, it takes time to explain why you are doing what you are doing, but the oneness of heart that should be the result is worth it.

Marketing misconceptions defined and defused [Read more...]

Editable Halloween MS Publisher materials, a FREE preview PDF for all, editable files for members

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Cover of Overview of the Editable MS Publisher Files
Click here to download the PDF. It is an overview of the editable MS Publisher files and how to use them for effective Halloween Outreach.

The publications illustrated here cover every aspect of preparation for, what to use during and follow up for effective Halloween outreach including:

***Motivational bulletin insert
***Invitation Cards
***Case-study, volunteer recruitment brochure
***Sign-in cards
***Cards to give out as people leave your event

Click on the PDF for a free overview of all the communications with ideas on how to use them.

Effective Church Communication members can click on the links below to download the two ZIP files that contains editable MS Publisher files for all the publications illustrated. The first file has all the PR, invitation, outreach, sign up and follow up cards. The second file has the brochure. If you are not a member, this is a great time to join and have access to all these files. CLICK HERE to go to the MEMBERSHIP area.

Just download and save the ZIP file on your computer, click to open it and then you can open and edit any MS Publisher file there. You must have a copy of MS Publisher on your computer for this to work.

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Click here to download the ZIP file

Click here to download the Brochure for Trunk or Treat File

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Church Newsletter Samples, three great ideas for your church

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Newsletters in all kinds of formats and to a variety of audiences in your church are still one of the best ways to communicate with your people. Following are three samples of newsletters that were sent in on one of our Great Idea Swaps. Below are images and then at the end of the page is a downloadable PDF of all of them.

  • Three of the church newsletter samples that were sent in, illustrations only.
  • The downloadable PDF file of the newsletters is normally only for Effective Church Communication Members. but I'm making this a free sample for everyone. Communication downloads like this are just one of the great advantages of membership! CLICK HERE for information on how to join, it's only $9.99 a month or $99 a year for all the communicators in your church to be able to use the site.

Newsletter Samples

Flock Talk NewsletterFlock Talk
This is a sample PDF emailed church newsletter. I just love the name and the header and logo, plus the colorful, yet-easy-to-read layout. So much is here: updates, prayer requests, humor, ministry needs. You don't need a lot of space to communicate a lot!

Flock Talk
This is a sample PDF emailed newsletter. I just love the name and to much is here: updates, prayer requests, humor, a lot!Flock Talk

Mission Thrift Newsletter
Mission Thrift Shop Newsletter

Ministry inspiration is one of the core reasons we do the Great Ideas & Sample Swap and this newsletter is tremendously inspiring. The stories, the policies, the ministry overall is an inspiring example of caring in the name of Jesus.

The stories, the policies, the ministry overall is an inspiring example of caring in the name of Jesus.

Family newsletterFamily Newsletter
Some of the most effective newsletters your church can produce are ones that target a specific ministry and this one does a fantastic job of that by providing ministry updates, resources, tips for parents and family inspiration. Often the church staff does not have time to produce niche newsletters like this, but they can be a fantastic job for a volunteer.

Oftunteer

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OF PDF FILE OF THE NEWSLETTERS shown above.

Postcards: For Missing Members & how to get people to come back to church

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Miss you CardPostcards are a great way to contact people to let them know they are missed at church and you want them to return.

They work so much better than a letter because they are easier to read—you don't have to open an envelope and even if you don't read the whole thing, chances are you will at least get the message that the church cares about you. If you'd like to see a brief video that discusses this and gives you a preview of the other cards, CLICK HERE.

Click on the image to the right to download the free PDF of this card. It is ready to be printed and you can personalize it on the back.

Editable templates, other versions of the cards in PDF and hi and low resolution images

In addition to the design above, the postcard designs below are available for Effective Church Communication Members. At the end of this article is a ZIP file that contains:

  1. Editable MS Publisher files so you can change them any way you want
  2. Ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs if you want to use them as is
  3. Both hi res (300 dpi) and low res (96 dpi) so you can use the images themselves in any way you want: printed publications including your newsletter, online, on email newsletters or your website.

Here are the additional images available:

Miss you Card #10

Miss you Card #6Miss you Card #3Miss you Card #5Miss you Card #7

Miss you Card #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miss you Card #8

Miss you Card #9

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Below is the link to the ZIP file that contains the PDF file, Editable MS Publisher Templates and the hi and low-res images of all these postcards.

 

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CLICK here to download the ZIP File.

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