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.

Canva—a GREAT way to edit MS Word Newsletter Templates!

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Tutorial on how to modify MS Word Templates in Canva
It is incredibly exciting that you can modify an MS Word template, in this case, a newsletter, with Canva. Changes that make it look so much better are SUPER EASY!

I confess, I did not know you could do this!

I was looking up a totally different task and I found a video about using Canva for teachers, and it showed how you could modify an MS Word document in Canva. I tried it, it works fantastically, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you!

I have used MS Word literally since it was invented and though I love it for word processing, to try to do much else with it is an exercise in frustration. Images are a nightmare to try to place, columns do funny things, and any kind of layout with images is a huge challenge.

The “templates” available in MS Word and online might be useful if want to keep something almost exactly the same and only change wording, but sometimes you want to do more than that. When I heard you can open an MS Word template in Canva it seemed almost too good to be true. Then I tried it and was incredibly excited about what you could do!

After a little more experimenting on a newsletter, I created a video to share with you showing how EASY it is to make major design modifications on an MS Word document in Canva.

As always in the Effective Church Communications Canva videos, I’m showing you how to do things with real-world projects, in this case modifying a newsletter, and not simply a demonstration of tools in the program. BE SURE to subscribe and hit the notification bell on the YouTube channel so you'll be notified when I post the new Canva videos as I often get them done a few days before I sent out a newsletter notification.

Check out the video and have fun!

Reality of our situation—challenging spiritual warfare

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Devotion #1 for Church Communicators

Do you ever feel like you are fighting a battle when you sit down to do your church communications?

If so, that is a realistic view of your situation because you really are fighting for the kingdom of God!

In this devotion/challenge I want to help you focus on God’s Word, the incredible calling you have to share God’s message of salvation, and to strengthen and encourage you.

Most importantly, I want remind us all that we are involved in spiritual warfare as we create communications that will help fully fulfill the Great Commission.

The reality of our situation—challenging spiritual warfare

And our key verse for it is: 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Eph. 6:12-13)
Working for the Lord in church communications is hard.

The bottom-line reality is that we are in a war. And in any war, one of the first things the enemy tries is to knock out the communications equipment of their opponent. You aren't just "doing the bulletin" or some other isolated project. You are the communication center for spiritual warfare for your church. When you got into communications work for your church or ministry you entered one of the most intense areas of spiritual warfare raging today. Satan wants to knock you out.

Troubles with hardware, software, and co-workers are to be expected. Especially people problems should be no surprise because Satan is "the accuser of our brothers" (Rev. 12:10) and one of the easiest ways to cripple you in the battle is to get you fighting with your fellow soldiers. Don't let him win; don't take on his job. [Read more...]

How Christians are like Pumpkins—a fun object lesson for adults and kids to grow as Christians together

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Pumpkin Carving and faith building project
Use this pumpkin carving lesson as a time to teach children about Jesus.

This is just the cutest, fun thing for Halloween!

But first the serious reasons behind it:

In the Old Testament, Jewish parents were commanded to teach their children about God's law during all of life.

Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates. Deut. 6:7-9 MSG

In the New Testament, we are all commanded to do a similar thing—

Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Col. 3;7, MSG

Though we are commanded to make God's Word and doing His will part of every area of life, that isn't an easy command to fulfill.

Holidays can help, even ones we wouldn't normally think would help us to grow in our Christian lives.

How pumpkins can help us understand the Christian life, what Jesus has done for us, and how we can live for Him.

We don't often think of Halloween as a time to learn about the Christian faith, but with a little imagination and creativity, it can be! Here is a pumpkin carving project that will help kids learn about Jesus.  Below is a short video that goes through the project and below the video is a link to a  ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print Pumpkin Project sheet, editable MS Publisher files, jpg images, and an MS Word file of the text if you want to create your own version.

Click on the following link to download a ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print Pumpkin Project, editable MS Publisher files, jpg images, and an MS Word file of the text if you want to create your own version: Pumpkin Project & Poem

The Teal Pumpkin Project is a great service to kids and families with allergies

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The Teal Pumpkin Project is a great service to kids and families with allergies.

One in 13 kids have a food allergy and for many of them and their parents, what is a fun candy fest for most kids becomes a nightmare of fears about sometimes life-threatening allergic reactions.

In response to this situation and because her son had severe allergies, one mom decided to do something about it. Here's her story from USA TODAY:

Back in 2012, a Tennessee mom named Becky Basalone had an idea: What if Halloween could be made a little less tricky for kids with food allergies?

Her idea became what is now the Teal Pumpkin Project, a nationwide effort to encourage families — whether their own kids have food restrictions or not —  to offer up some non-food treats on Oct. 31. Participation is simple: You just put a teal-colored pumpkin or sign outside your door and offer trick-or-treaters glow sticks, spider rings, Halloween stickers or other non-food goodies, along with or instead of the traditional candies.

Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), a non-profit advocacy group, first promoted the idea nationwide in 2014, with the help of a viral Facebook post, says Nancy Gregory, senior director of communications. In 2015, about 1 million people visited the group’s website to get information, and about 10,000 of them — probably a fraction of participants —  put their homes on an interactive map showing teal pumpkin sites, she says.

This year, the group is thinking bigger, Gregory says: “Our goal is to have a home on every block in America with a teal pumpkin. We hope that it becomes a new Halloween tradition.”

from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/10/23/teal-pumpkin-halloween-food-allergy/92285680/

For more of Becky's story: https://allergicliving.com/2014/10/23/the-origin-of-the-teal-pumpkin-project-interview-with-becky-basalone-facet/

How to participate

[Read more...]

Church Bulletins are STILL a vital piece of Church Communications, plus links to Four (one free) eBooks about them

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As many churches work hard to build back ministries decimated by Covid, complete and frequent communications that contain the essentials of what is going on in the church are extremely important. Your church bulletin is a unique communication piece in how it can be accessed by anyone and can contain a tremendous amount of material along with links to where to find out more.

For decades I've taught, written about, and helped many churches make effective bulletins and have collected much of the material in the eBooks below.

***Check them out for both strategy and practical implementation ideas.

Four books on Church Communications, all from the Effective Church Communications Library

The first one is a FREE DOWNLOAD and is highly recommended as a foundation for why church bulletins are STILL ESSENTIAL communications for churches. Just click on the cover to go to it.

Are Printed Bulletins still needed in the church? eBook
In the time of digital communications and social media, many want to get rid of bulletins, but this short booklet might help you think again.
Church Bulletins, an archive of tips eBook
The church bulletin is often the first piece of church communication an unchurched person sees--what does it say? This book will help the experience be a positive one.
Church Bulletin Gospel Presentations eBook
The Gospel, the good news about Jesus is our most important message, here are examples of how some churches share it.
This is a collection of articles from Effective Church Communications about church bulletins that are both strategic and practical.