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.

FREE TEMPLATES: Church Business Card Size Fall Festival and other Fall Events

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Here are some FREE Templates in Canva you can use to print business cards to invite people to a variety of fall events. This is part of the launch of many new and revised templates in Canva that you can also download and use in MS Publisher. For a video on how to use these, CLICK HERE.

Following are the designs and below them the link to Canva where you can modify them. If you simply want to download and use jpg images of them, a link for that is below the images also.

To go to the Canva file, modify or download as is, CLICK on the link HERE

To download a zip file of jpg images of the cards that you can use in MS Publisher or web applications, CLICK HERE.

For a video of how to sign up for Canva and some initial tips on editing Templates and how to download and use them in MS Publisher, check out the video here:

Game changer! The loss of comprehension of cursive—what it means to church communicators and what to do about it—Canva video included

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Contrast between cursive and block lettering
Many people today have trouble reading the cursive scripts in either print or handwriting. We need to be aware of this and design accordingly in our church communications if we want to reach the most people possible.

This is incredibly important for you to understand before you do ANY more outreach advertising, encouragements, or communications creation of any kind, if you want the the maximum number of people in your church and community to be able to read them.

The reason for my urgent message is the realization that many people today cannot read cursive writing and that includes ALL the wonderful script fonts we like to use so much in our designs for church communications. That includes the group of templates I had ready to send out to you that I need to update. (Sigh.)

This is not a happy post for me to write. I don't like change any more than the average person and to have to change something as basic and natural to me as writing cursive and using wonderful script fonts in communication design just seems like a bit much to deal with.

When I am feeling grumpy like this I remind myself that the communication I do isn't about me, but about a world that needs Jesus and NOTHING should be too much to do, little or big if it can help us reach them. So I slap myself, ask for forgiveness and write a blog about it......

First I'll give you a little background on how I became aware of the loss of the ability to read cursive and then some very practical steps on what to do about it, plus a short Canva Tutorial on some creative ways to deal with this situation on a Fall Outreach Postcard.

It is later in the post, keep reading first for more background on this situation.

[Read more...]

How to make the most of Halloween for evangelism, or the possibly negative results of switching from calling it “Halloween” to a “Fall Festival”

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Ghosts aren't real but Jesus is --Resources for Fall and Halloween church outreach
Halloween can be a great time for evangelism and a small handout like this can make a lasting impact at your celebrations.

Halloween—it has become such a contentious time in the church. Even mentioning the term "Halloween" upsets some because of its pagan origins.

In response to that, many churches have switched from calling "Halloween" events to "Fall Festivals." I get it; I totally understand but bear with me a minute and consider that changing the name in this way takes away some of the potential for using this holiday as an evangelism outreach time.

What follows is not another Christian justification as to why you should let your kids go trick or treating, but an attempt to help you see how Halloween can be used as a significant time for evangelism. It really doesn't matter ultimately if you change the name or not but I want you to understand why I even bring up this point. The Apostle Paul said we should be all things to all people that we might win some and my contemporary paraphrase of his imperative of evangelism is that we need to use EVERY opportunity, every holiday, every time that we can to introduce people to Jesus.

Please consider what I'm about to share and I hope you'll agree that Halloween can be one of the best times of the year to motivate people to consider the gospel. Following is a podcast version of this information. If you want to see the images recommended and links to additional materials, keep reading.

[Read more...]

Fall Festival and Halloween Resources, invitations, registration cards, encouragement flyers, lots more

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Resources for Fall and Halloween church outreach
This is a great time of year to reach out to your community and these will help you do it effectively.

Lots of good stuff here!

Some new, some a few years old, but all for you to use as you'd like.

Just click on the link below the title. Please pass on to other churches and friends.

A non-scary way to share your faith at Fall Festivals and Halloween
https://wp.me/pDky9-8h4

Was Jesus a zombie—NO irreverence intended, but an honestly asked question and an answer
https://wp.me/pDky9-8gP

FREE TEMPLATES for Fall Registration Cards, Invitations, Halloween Evangelism
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/templates-harvest-festival-and-halloween/

Halloween, a great time for evangelism…..really!!
https://wp.me/pDky9-6xB
Older card, good article [Read more...]

A great resource for encouragement, inspiration, and challenge—and a super affordable way of pricing them for you

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Here is a short video preview of a great ministry resource that I've recently repriced to make it affordable for any ministry.

For many years I've enjoyed creating little framed images of Bible verses or encouraging sayings and giving them away.  I realized that this could also be something shared with people as well as be a way to support the Effective Church Communications ministry.

As I started making them I enjoyed it more than I imagined and the images have increased and increased.

I also realized as they did that pricing them individually would mean they couldn't be used as much as I liked to use them and that I hoped others would. So instead of pricing them at individually, I decided to price them at $36 a year--and grant unlimited reproduction rights on them.

This way you have a growing resource 24/7 that you can have for printed images of many sizes as well as for social media. Check out the video below for a brief overview of them, but keep in mind that new images will be continuously added.

To go to the shop, click the following link: The Bibleverse Shop

You can sign up at: https://payhip.com/b/vLezC