Effective Church Communications
Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission
We all need inspiration and this week I got a catalog in the mail that greatly inspired me with new designs and color combinations. I decided the best way to tell you about it (it is about visual design after all) was to do a little video, which I did and which is below.
Below the video are links to the websites I reference in the video.
Enjoy!
https://www.flor.com/area-rugs/show-all
https://glowsly.com/pantone-fall-2019-colors-trends/
August is the last month of vacation for many and in many churches the time when attendance drops to an all-time low.
Though understandable, sometimes all people need is a reminder that God doesn't take a vacation and neither does the church. The set of postcards here are part of a FREE ZIP file (link below the images) that you could send out to people who perhaps have been sporadic in their attendance during the summer. The cards are upbeat and encouraging and an easy way to let people know you are thinking about them.
You could also make up extra cards for members of the congregation to address and send to friends that they know may have missed church in the summer.
The FREE ZIP file below the images has ready-to-print PDFs of the cards, an editable MS Publisher file, and images of the cards you could use on your website or email newsletters.
Click the following link to download the cards above: SUMMER POSTCARDS church reminder
Many churches hold end-of-the-summer events. Ours ours does a Lemon Festival with a free community BBQ and a huge lemon dessert contest. We are a neighborhood church that was built in a former lemon grove and the festival is a fun and fitting way to invite the community to the church one more time.
If your church is doing something like that, make the most of the event by giving everyone an invitation card that invites them back to church. If you are truly reaching out to people who don't normally attend church, they have no idea what else you do or when you do it.
A card that gives details and links to your website and social media can make all the difference.
Below are some FREE templates for you to use to make business-card size back-to-church reminder cards and you can personalize them by putting your information on the back. The ZIP File for them has a ready-to-print PDF, plus editable MS Publisher files and image files in hi and low resolutions.
To download the ZIP file that contains the cards above, click this link: Back to church invite cards for summer events
Please take a few minutes to make up something like this for your end-of-summer events, it can make all the difference for a guest who needs to find the Lord.
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For more SUMMER Templates: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/summer-themed-templates/
I recently attended a church event where I was extremely uncomfortable.
Mind you—I'm a church person, one who grew up in the church, loves the church, is there every week. My father was Catholic, my mother Protestant and I'm comfortable in many types of services.
But I wasn't at this one.
I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to embarrass the church, but the reason I was uncomfortable (church person that I am) is that I had NO idea what was going on or what would happen next. It took place on a Sunday morning with additional things going on in their regular service.
We didn't know what was happening; what would happen next; how long it was supposed to go on, what we were expected to do. We had no idea who the various people were who got up to speak (and there were a number of them on this day). We had no idea what they were talking about when they briefly mentioned upcoming events.
I got a sense of what it is like for an unchurched person to come into a church. I try in many ways to remind people of how confusing it can be if you did not grow up in a church of any kind to make sense of what goes on in any church.
However, in most instances, a total newcomer is saved because when they come in they are handed what to them is "the Program." Most of us call it the church bulletin, but even if the guest doesn't understand all the terms they have a sense of the cast of characters and the order of the events that are taking place. They also get an idea of what the church is about and what else is going on there.
What goes on may seem odd—perhaps like a play to someone who is unfamiliar with that type of play or the actors, but they can follow the structure if not the details in content. Without a Program or explanation of any kind, the uninformed audience member may walk out.
Even the most simple bulletins make a stranger to the church at least feel comfortable with a small sense of what is going on, who the people are, and what's next.
But it wasn't changed for us. When my husband went to ask for the bulletin (perhaps we came in the wrong door we thought), he was told, "oh we quit doing those."
I confess to fighting anger and irritation, but I kept reminding myself, "This is what it feels like to not know—to not be one of the "insiders" at this kind of religious meeting.
I know there are many blogs and chats that tell you they aren't necessary—that everything is digital and nobody reads them anyway (which simply isn't true–just because someone doesn't want to come to something you advertised, doesn't mean they didn't read about it).
But printed bulletins are still important. I don't want to repeat myself more than necessary on the reasons why, but below are links to two FREE e-books about church bulletins and why they are important.
Please read them and consider what they have to say. I'm a church person, I love the church and I'll be back. If I was a lonely, confused visitor, I'm not sure I would be.
Click the link following each title to go to the article to download the book:
Are written bulletins still useful in the church? https://wp.me/pDky9-t3
Archives of church bulletin tips, articles, advice https://wp.me/pDky9-1Gv
From my email:
"We're doing our announcements on PowerPoint and we have all the information about our weekly activities on our website. We are an outreach oriented, contemporary church and our staff has been wondering-do we still need a written bulletin in this age of technology?"
This is a great question. The answer is more complex than a simple "yes" or "no," so let's take some time to explore the issues.
Before we look specifically at the bulletin, it helps to look at the context of church and ministry communications overall. At my church communication seminars, I am often asked, especially by churches involved heavily in technology, if there is ONE way to communicate that works best for churches today: it is the web, email, PowerPoint, and texting, or through blogs, podcasting, twittering and social networks?
Understandably churches feel overwhelmed by the volume of communication that needs to take place and if they could just concentrate on one or two technologically powerful tools, church staffs often feel life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, ministry communications isn't an area where church life can be simplified. The reason is in the church today we have people who span every level of involvement in technology from those who are never unhooked from their web-enabled cell phone and who check their email as it comes into those who will live long, happy and fulfilled lives and never go online.
If we follow the biblical command to "be all things to all people that we might win some," yes, we need the latest tech tools and means of communication, but along with the killer website, witty and engaging social media, and fantastic slide shows at worship, handwritten notes from the pastor and printed calendars are still useful-and so is a written bulletin.
We live in an age where we do need to keep adding forms of communication technology to our ministry, but where we can't really do away with anything. We need to communicate through every available channel so that no matter where people are in terms of technology they can understand and respond to our message.
If a church is truly outreach-oriented, and if newcomers are attending each week, though we may feel that cutting-edge technology is useful for the worship service and image, it may not touch people who are new to the church.
For example, if someone comes in late, if they had trouble parking or locating childcare, they may not make it into the service to see the announcements you've just shown on PowerPoint. Also, a new person may not even know you have a website or what is on it. Your bulletin might be the first place they learn you have a website. Without a written bulletin they will have no idea what sort of activities you offer during the week or what is happening in the worship service itself.
For a truly unchurched person to visit your church, for a service to start with 30 minutes of people singing songs they don't know, and then watching an often amateur skit, all with no explanation of what it's all about and not knowing what comes next isn't particularly "seeker-friendly." I often remind pastors that it can be a mentally challenging obstacle course for a new person to make it to the part of your service where you get a chance to present your relevant and life-changing sermon. A written bulletin can explain the process and purpose and put the worship activities in perspective from the minute a visitor sits down.
For regular attendees, even if they see the PowerPoint announcements before church, chances are when Thursday night comes around and they need to remember what the kids are supposed to bring to youth group and where it's going to be held, they won't remember the PowerPoint, no matter how beautiful the graphics. For regular attenders, if it isn't on the refrigerator in the form of a postcard or bulletin insert, the chances of them attending an event late in the week are greatly reduced.
The website is a fantastic tool to refer to in the bulletin-many church members haven't visited it and don't know it has anything for them. Your church web site can be a great place to store the pastor's sermons for downloading with accompanying notes in PDF format. It can give in-depth discussion and links of a topic the pastor mentions in the sermon. In addition, if the website is continuously updated, it can provide background, directions and more information about weekly events.
PowerPoint can be a powerful worship tool and sermon learning tool. In addition, it can work well for announcements at the beginning and end of the service for things that are going on immediately after the service, such as to invite people to the Fellowship Hall for coffee and questions.
Bottom line: though we need every tech-savvy tool to illustrate our message and for the impact and repetitions they provide, written bulletins are still a useful tool for ministry communications. They are often a visitor's only link to understanding what is going on at the service and in the church overall. They can hold tangible message reminders such as inserts to put on the refrigerator, sign-up forms for camps and conferences, and sheets for taking sermon notes. They can be scribbled on by children, read by anyone, sent to the homebound, and used as reminders of events.
Keep exploring, using and improving every new tool to enable your church to better communicate the gospel message, but don't let go of the time-tested and reliable methods such as a written church bulletin.
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For the FREE ebook, Are Printed Bulletins Still Needed in the Church? CLICK HERE: Are written bulletins still needed in the church
