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; Effective Church Communications can help.

Alone time, an opportunity for extended time in prayer

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Use alone time as Prayer time
If you are forced to be alone, spend some time in intentional prayer and listening to God.

How can we make the most of the enforced time alone? Or at least time away from our regular work and school? Here is an idea that might be useful.

I was involved with the Navigator ministry through college and one of the most valuable times in it was when our group would spend a half-day in prayer. This exercise might be useful during these challenging times. We can choose to make enforced time away from jobs or school times of spiritual growth and developing a closer walk with Jesus.

In the past, we wouldn't spend the entire time praying, but would also read and journal. Below is a link to a Navigator article on spending a half-day in prayer and a PDF you can download that gives you some guidance on how to do it.

In addition to their advice, I've found it useful to ask God questions in my journal as I start time like this. In relationships, in work, in many areas of life, we often feel we have to have all the answers figured out and then we come to God with what we concluded we want and need. Decisions made,  we then present the grocery list to Him to fulfill it.

It's much better to ask and then read His Word; be still and listen.

I've found that when I do that often answers bubble up (not sure how spiritually appropriate that term is, but that's the best way I can describe it) and I can pray more confidently when I feel that God has given me what to pray for. I think that is the real meaning of:

Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.

Psalm 37:4-5 New King James Version (NKJV)

Sometimes people quote this passage as if it promises that God will give us whatever we want. But it doesn't say that. It says HE will give us our desires. For Him to do that, we have to be quiet enough to listen.

Let's make the most of this time to do that.

How to Spend Extended Time in Prayer

Note: This article was inspired around the events of the Covid19 Pandemic. It may be useful to pass on to your congregation. As with all the materials on this site, feel free to copy and use it in any way you'd like, no attribution required.

Why inviting people to “Easter” at your church may not get a great response and what to do about it

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A simple Easter card
Many of the church outreach pieces I've seen this year are similar to this. They might look nice, but what do they communicate?

A number of years ago, George Barna released one of the results of his studies where he found that over 46% of the random audience surveyed did not know the true meaning of the word "Easter."

I would imagine that statistic hasn't changed much if at all since then.

To most people, Easter is about bunnies, chocolates, and spring flowers. And though we enjoy those things, it's important to remember that Easter is about the pivotable event of cosmic history when the incarnate son of God rose bodily from the grave after giving his life as a payment for our sins.

I'm not writing this as a hand-wringing, oh isn't the world awful observation. For church communicators, it poses some serious challenges. Let's look at them along with some suggested changes.

We need to remember that our audience probably doesn't give the same meaning to religious terms we do

Let's get practical. In looking at many designs church communicators are sharing online, including the ones from some of the major marketing groups, it seems like the majority of them prominently feature the word "Easter" with a variety of designs often surrounded by flowers or colored designs. They all look good, but what do they communicate? [Read more...]

Use freely—Seven selections of free verse about the real reason for Easter

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Thought provoking free verse about Easter
Use the materials here to challenge people about the real meaning of Easter.

As a former freelance newspaper reporter (back in the day when you did an interview, composed the story in your head so you dash to the office, type it up, and get it to your editor on-time) I knew well the advice "Don't bury the lead." Translated, it means don't put the most important part of the story at the end because chances are readers won't get to it.

Here is the most important part of my advice in a previous article on the need to explain the meaning of Easter—these short pieces that I hope are thought-provoking bits of free verse to create curiosity about Easter beyond the springtime celebration.

Use however you want in any way that might be useful. I wrote them all, so I can grant you rights to use them. No attribution is needed.

Seven selections follow

How is Easter about the cross and a bunny?

It makes much more sense than you might imagine.

In many cultures, bunnies symbolize life, rebirth, and the tradition of a spring
bunny bringing gifts to children.

The cross, though once a tool for a
tortured death, because of Jesus, has
become the symbol of eternal life,
possible because Jesus rose from the dead.

The Easter bunny tells a story of abundant life, giving,
joyful living, pictures of the reality that Jesus made
possible on the cross.

Join us for our Easter celebration—we’ve got bunnies and candy for the child in all of us, but we’ll also share about the creator of bunnies, and all things joyful and life-giving—Jesus. [Read more...]

Clarify the meaning of Easter in all your communications

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It's not just about Bunnies!
It's not just about Bunnies! We need to be intentional to explain the true meaning of Easter to our communities.

It starts with candy. When shopping for Easter basket goodies, you may notice that you seldom see the chocolate crosses that were sold in the past—today, it's all bunnies and chickies and happy little candy eggs.

Even more than at Christmas time, we need to remind our communities that Jesus is the reason for the season. Easter is the pivotal point of our faith. It is the turning point of all history, when the God who became man in Jesus died on the cross and ROSE from the grave. That is what we celebrate, not a bunny dispensing chocolate eggs. [Read more...]

PLAN NOW for what you will do for the Sunday AFTER Easter, so people will return

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Invite people to engage with you after Easter
Invite people to engage with you after Easter for a lasting impact on their lives.

One of the biggest challenges for churches is how to get people to come back to church after holidays and special events. There are many things you can do that I'll be sharing but now is the time for the most important thing you need to do to get people to come back after your Easter celebrations.

You need to schedule an event to give people a reason to return.

No doubt you'll do a fantastic job in your Easter celebration, but think about the people who perhaps came to your Easter service because a friend or family member asked them or the church was holding an event for their children. Easter may have brought up questions. People new to the message of Easter may find themselves asking:

Did Jesus really rise from the dead? And if he did, what does it mean to me?

Plan ahead for your church to answer those questions

There are many ways you can do this. Some that have worked well for churches in the past include:

  1. A sermon the Sunday after Easter entitled "Is there really life after death for me?" The pastor of a large church in Colorado Springs preached a similar sermon for many years the Sunday after Easter, they advertised it well at the service and to the community. As a result, they always had as large of a turn out than they did for Easter Sunday. If you've done a good job of presenting the resurrection of Jesus, answering the question of "what does it mean to me" is a natural follow-up.
  2. You can invite them to a series of seeker Bible Studies. They can be something created by your church looking at the life of Jesus or you can use a program like Christianity Explored, which is an excellent presentation of the life of Jesus for people outside the church using the Gospel of Mark. I highly recommend you look at it.
  3. You can invite them to "Latte with the Pastor." I've recommended this a number of times and in many situations, but the basic idea is to follow up with guests (you did use connection cards, didn't you? If not, please see the materials on them and use the free downloads for them) who gave you their information with coupons for a free latte or two and an invitation to join the pastor to "ask any question you want about the Christian faith" at your local coffee shop. I've made a set of postcards to help you do this. Here they are and the link is at the end of this article:

There are many variations of this that you could do: asking people to come to a dessert at church for open-ended discussions, or for people in the church to have small groups in their homes or whatever would appeal to the age group or community you are ministering in. Whatever you choose, the idea is to do something to engage people outside the church to return to ask questions they have about Jesus.

DO THIS NOW

As you get closer to Easter itself and in the midst of Easter celebrations you'll be too busy to think about what to do after Easter. You need to plan ahead. You need to get all the materials done and ready for it or it won't happen.

Of course, you'll be tired after Easter. Exhausted most likely.

Many pastors take the week off. Taking that time off to rest is understandable, but if you do you miss out on an incredible opportunity to make a lasting, perhaps eternity-changing connection with the people who came on Easter Sunday.

This year, push through the exhaustion, remembering Jesus, "who for the joy that was set before him, endured" and connect with the people you challenged at Easter and lead them to an eternal relationship with Jesus. That is what He came to bring about. It's your task to make it happen in your community.

For follow up materials, go to FREE TEMPLATES for Easter follow up here: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/easter-templates/#toc-3

While you are there, look around—there are lots of FREE TEMPLATES you can download and use for all aspects of your Easter Celebrations.