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.

Why the emphasis on evangelism and discipleship for Mother’s Day

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Mothers Day Resources
Celebrating Mothers is important on Mother's Day, but we can do more to reach out to unchurched families at this time.

The reasons for doing more on Mother's Day that focusing solely on celebrating Moms has to do with the overall approach of the Effective Church Communications ministry.

Bear with me for a few minutes while I explain (and if you are super busy, just go HERE for free Mother's Day Templates).

Brief background of the philosophy underlying Effective Church Communications

I never imagined when I was astounded with the technical ability of the IBM Self-Correcting typewriter that I'd be communicating today creating images in Canva, doing podcasts, and training videos for church communicators on the web that reach the world.I imagine those starting out with the technology we have today will look back, should they and this world last, and be amazed at what they will use in church communications five decades from now.

Tools are essential, but often a distraction

Though technology and the tools we use to communicate have continuously changed from the use of clay tablets to the Internet (though the pace has accelerated greatly), a human tendency continues to focus on the tools as THE most important ingredient to communication success. At one time it was radio that would reach the world, then television, then the Internet came along and gave birth to the myriad of technologies today.

A bulletin with color added was a big deal at one time; now churches worry that they aren't posting enough on all the latest social media channels.

Each time a new tool appears we loudly proclaim THIS IS IT! Conquer this or that tool and the world will be reached for Jesus. Or at least we'll have a new tool to try. [Read more...]

One Mother’s Prayer, a new set of PDFs to share for Mother’s Day and anytime for prayer groups

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One Mothers Prayer--a true story of the power of Prayer
Prayer is the most powerful gift we can give those we love. Read this true story and be encouraged in your prayers.

This true story has been one of the popular pieces on this site because it is an encouraging reminder of the power of a Mother's Prayers.

Whether someone is a mom biologically or spiritually, our prayers are the most powerful gifts we can give to those we love.

As this true story shows, prayer can totally change the direction of a life and turn someone who may have been openly hostile to the Christian faith into a powerful witness for Jesus.

Below are some new images of it I created recently in Canva. The ZIP file is of ready-to-print PDFs and jpg images.

If you want some of the older images, editable files, and the text file of One Mother's Prayer, go to: One Mother's Prayer, a free and inspiring story for however you want to use it for Mother's Day

To download the ZIP file of the ready-to-print PDFs and jpg images, click the following link: One Mothers Prayers 2020

 

 

PODCAST: Mother’s Day–Make the Most of the Untapped Potential for Evangelism and Outreach

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Mothers Day Outreach opportunitiesWhen we think about Mother's Day we think about doing special things for the moms in our churches and that's wonderful, but we can do something for them that makes flowers and chocolate pale in comparison.

We can help their kids and spouses who may not know Jesus have an opportunity to hear about him and connect with the church to find out more. But to do that, we need to realize that Mother's Day has the big attendance it does (just behind Easter and Christmas) not because of all the moms who are there because they are there every week or because random moms show up for the goodies. The visitors on this day are unchurched children and spouses who show up to make mom happy and we need to tailor the message and what happens that morning with them in mind.

This PODCAST talks about how to do that and the FREE TEMPLATES at the following link will give you the tools you need: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/mothers-day-templates/

You can listen to the PODCAST below and you can sign up for it on iTunes or many other podcast sources.

Don’t forget the people left behind in the rush to make all things digital

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Yvon's note: I admit, I was a bit cranky when I wrote this. Well, not so much cranky as sad, but I know I can come across cranky at times when I want to cry but end up yelling (ask my husband). I wanted to acknowledge that and ask for your forgiveness if the following comes across too harshly. I seem to be over-reacting a lot these days or maybe it’s an appropriate reaction to the over-the-top stresses of these days. I’m not sure, but I trust the following gives us thoughtful pause as we work to adapt to changing challenges while serving “the least of these.”

It’s been a wild ride in church communications and it isn’t going to smooth out any time soon as we try to figure out what to keep, what to modify, what new things to try, and what old ways of doing things we can toss out. Much well-deserved emphasis and discussion have been on new ways to conduct worship online and that will continue as churches work to figure out how to juggle the challenges of meeting physically together (while properly social distancing apart) and continuing an online ministry for those who cannot meet together.

While these discussions are going on, I’d like some recent thoughts.

Imagine you are older; imagine your health is compromised in some way and staying home is a necessity. Most likely this has been an extremely fearful time.

If you weren’t entirely comfortable with technology, it might have been a challenge to figure out how to participate in an online Bible study or watch a Sunday service.

Imagine that despite your fears, you are just now starting to feel comfortable taking communion with crackers and juice at home and singing along with the worship team on the computer. But on Sunday you are told this will stop. Well, maybe not stop entirely, the church will try to “stream” the service as they meet back in the building, but they are letting people know ahead of time this might not be the same and they made stop doing the online service. [Read more...]

We are at the half-way point with Lent and here are 40 challenging images for you to use however you want

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Lenten Set of images from Effective Church Communications
This is the first of 40 images for you to download and use during Lent or anytime to help people grow in their walk with Jesus.

Lent isn't just for Lent. What I mean by that is Lent is a specific time when we can focus on denying ourselves so we can live more fully for God.

It is about so much more than giving up chocolate or social media or whatever other external thing we choose during this time. At its best, Lent is a time for quiet self-evaluation so we can grow more deeply to become who God wants us to be.

In that self-evaluation, it's time to add virtues, practices to our lives that will help us become more like Jesus.

What I have for you to inspire you during Lent

To guide you through Lent, I created a set of 40 inspirational images and I then wrote a brief challenge or thought-provoking idea to go with them.

I put the challenges into a free downloadable journal for you, plus they are on daily Instagrams, and in my favorite form, on a daily short YouTube video (less than a minute), where I read them to you along with a challenge and prayer. Please check that out--CLICK HERE to go to the channel. [Read more...]