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.

A free “Civility Code” inspired by the Global Leadership Summit

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A Civility Code, free download
The darkness of public discourse in our world today is a wonderful opportunity for the church to be salt and light. This Civility Code might help.

There is an obvious lack of civility in our world today and this is an opportunity for the church to be salt and light, not only to those outside the church, but to each other. I've got something for you that will help. First a little background.....

My husband and I recently attended the Global Leadership Summit put on by Willow Creek Church and at the keynote address, one of the topics addressed by Bill Hybels was the lack of civility in our world today and he suggested that churches consider creating a "Civility Code." I took some of his notes as inspiration and created one for you.

CLICK HERE or on the image to download a copy of a PDF of my example.

For a ZIP file that has a PDF, a jpg image of the Civility Code, and an editable MS Publisher file, click the following link: Civility Code

For more about the talk that inspired this and the conference, go to my new blog: www.yvonprehn.com and check out the series of posts on the Global Leadership Conference. More about this new site coming, but if you want to get notices on the entries put on that site, you have to sign up for the separate newsletter there.

Social Media for Churches, where to be and how to use it

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MinTech article on Social Media
If a social media ministry is a challenge for your church, check out this article for ways to make it manageable.

Ministry Tech Magazine just published my article on Social Media for Churches and I wanted to pass on the PDF to you, CLICK HERE or on the image to download it. One of the most valuable things about this article is the advice by Holly Veturis from Saddleback Church on putting together a team of people (advocates, she calls them) to be the primary creators of your church social media.

I heard her talk about this at the Saddleback MarCom Church Communicator's conference this summer and just loved the idea. It seemed to me that it is a fantastic modern-day example of how the Body of Christ can work together. No one in the church office has time to do all the print and website work required, PLUS all the social media that is a vital part of any church communication program today.

At the same time there are people in every church who just LOVE to be on social media. They are good at it and enthusiastic in what they share. Rather than trying to add additional burdens to the people in the church office (unless they happen to be the kind who spend every break and lunch on social media), consider following her advice and putting together a social media team.

Of course you want to set up guidelines when people are putting out social media in the name of the church, just as you would for any kind of communications work volunteers do for you, but with those in place and periodic meetings to encourage and inspire, a social media team can be an effective outreach tool for your church.

A reminder of the features and flexibility of MS Publisher

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MS Publisher for Churches
MS Publisher is a great program for churches and this e-book shows many of the reasons why.

I just finished an article for Ministry Tech magazine (if you haven't signed up for the FREE subscription to it, CLICK HERE) and as part of that article talked about how and why years ago I switched from using primarily Adobe PageMaker to MS Publisher to teach and equip church communicators.

As part of that explanation I mentioned an e-book I created years ago to illustrate all you can do with MS Publisher and how in many ways it can equal the design capabilities of far more expensive graphic design and layout programs. I wanted to share the e-book and you can download it by clicking here or on the image at the start of this article.

Some of the material in the book is a little out-dated, as Publisher has continued to improve, but it is still a useful reminder of how flexible and useful this program is for church communicators. [Read more...]

Church Communication Teams, how to successfully combine staff and volunteers

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Work Effectively as a Church Communication Team
This article will help you work effective with your church communication team of staff and volunteers. CLICK on the image to download it.

How do you work together as a communication team when it is a combination of staff and volunteers who work from a variety of locations? I recently did an article for Ministry Tech Magazine where I summarized many useful insights on this that I've collected over the years. They liked it so much, they made it their featured story for this issue.

I LOVE how they lay out the stories and since they distribute them in free PDF format, I'd like to pass on the article to you.

I'm doing this so you can print it out and share it with your staff and volunteers. You might first want to talk about it with your staff and come up with guidelines based on it.

We all have more than we have time to do in communicating the messages of the Kingdom of God, but putting together a team with clear guidelines and procedures, not only makes it easier for each member, but more people get to hear about Jesus and grow and mature as disciples.

Click HERE or on the image to download the PDF.

Why improved announcements or marketing may not get more people to attend church

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Church doesn't have to be on Sunday. Consider other options if you truly want to reach people in our busy world.

If you can't get people to come to church on Sunday, it may not be the fault of your communications is my conclusion after reading Thursday Is the New Sunday a thought-provoking article that underscores something I've encouraged churches to do for a long time and that is to have a service on a day other than Sunday. From the article, here are some of his statistical reasons for doing this:

A third of the American workforce works on the weekend. At least 60% of families with children between the ages of 6 – 17 take part in organized sports, with many of those having weekend events. We are in an area where a large number of people have camps/vacation homes that affect their attendance during the summer. Throw in both parents working and chores to be done, lawns to be mowed and families just wanting to spend time together, and church on the weekend wasn’t always making it on the calendar.

Not only statistically, but personally this resonates with me

My husband and I have served in churches in bi-vocational roles for many years and now, to support our ministry habits, my husband sells manufactured homes. A majority of his work (and I help) takes place on weekends and Sunday afternoons. With all we do at church I sometimes find myself dreading having to put in the hours at church on Sunday before continuing to work the rest of the day. Though we do it, we don't have to juggle children at home or in activities into the mix. If we had that, church on Sunday would most likely be impossible.

Work schedules are not choice for many people today. Unlike when I was in high school and I was able to take Sundays off because Tasty House (the family cafe I worked at) allowed me to, most employers today don't consider wanting to go to church a valid reason to take the day off.

Application to church communicators

Before I make some other suggestions (and I urge you to read the article above for their great ideas), an important thing for church communicators to realize is that no matter how hard you work to communicate about an event or program at your church, no matter how complete the social media campaign or how compelling the graphic design of your marketing materials, if the only time your ministry is offered is on Sunday morning, many of your target audience simply cannot attend.

I recently heard a church leader talking about how one program on Sunday morning was had very low attendance and his solution to this was to have the Pastor announce it more often and more forcefully. I didn't even bother to comment as I knew the church he referred to give the announcements before the service started and most people were still walking in and didn't hear any of the verbal announcements, no matter how important they might be. In addition, pastoral authority to motivate people is not what it used to be—people may like and admire their pastor, but authority figures in any area of life have little influence on behavior today.

Beyond these reasons, even if people did listen to the announcements and do what the pastor suggested most of the time, if their child has a game or they have to work, attendance simply isn't an option. Following are some ideas that might be options in our world today. . . . .

[Read more...]