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; we can help.

GIS: Christmas communication ideas from America, Australia, and Canada

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Door-Hanger for Christmas
Door-hangers are a great way to invite people to your Christmas events at church.

When you are planning your invitations for Christmas, don't forget to create door-hangers. As this great idea from Gayle Hilligoss (yes, the same wonderful lady who writes articles for ECC, she also does communication work at her church), shows, door-hangers are a wonderful way to invite your community to your church for Christmas services.

No postage is needed and you can give them out to church members to share around their neighborhoods.

In addition I've included other some Christmas samples from many places:

  • A beautiful Christmas Women's Ministry Invitation from Texas (the big red one in the samples below). Note the well-done combination of fonts used in this postcard—lots there, but appropriate and each one functions well to communicate the overall message.
  • One of my favorite Christmas bulletins from Abbotsford Pentecostal Church in Canada. This is so beautiful, it's more like a well-designed poster than a bulletin and a real inspiration on what you can do in bulletin layout.
  • And then a 36-page newsletter from Australia. Initially it will make many people in North America smile because (though we forget this) Christmas takes place in summer and so their Nativity Scene is one at the beach. In addition to that, please take time to look through this newsletter as a challenge and inspiration. This church has a number of ministries that I hope will challenge you to begin similar ones. I particularly like their ministries to the homeless, which is one of the most wonderful ways at all to celebrate Christmas.

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Thank-You Cards for any occasion for Church Volunteers

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Church Volunteer Thank You Card
This is a FREE card for church communicators to download and print out when you want to thank volunteers at your church. CLICK on the card to download the PDF. A larger selection of cards is available for ECC Members.

We always intend to say "Thank You!" to the people who serve in our churches and these postcards will help you do that. These cards take away valid reasons for not getting thank you cards done such as:

  • No appropriate cards that fit your church
  • No time to write long messages
  • Costs too much to buy nice cards

Each of the cards below is 1/4 page size—nice enough and room enough to write a little message on them, but not too much room where you don't feel like you have to write a lot. A quick  "We couldn't have done it without you!" and signed by the Pastor or head of the volunteer worked with will mean so much to any volunteer who receives them. [Read more...]

29% of people attend church once a week, BUT 65% celebrate Christmas by going to a church service!

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Below are some great ways to make the most of the statistic in the headline and use the Christmas holidays to grow your church! At the end of the infographic are links to all the publications illustrated and how you can download, modify, and make them your own!

How Christmas Communications can Grow your ChurchTo go to links for all the communications in the infographic above, CLICK HERE.

GIS: A Christmas Outreach that communciates kindness and love to your community

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Christmas gifts
There are many ways to communicate Jesus' love at Christmas and some should be tangible.

In addition to what we print and share, there are many ways to communicate Jesus' love to our community during the holidays. The following example came from someone who sent along this idea along with printed examples in our Great Idea Swap:

The church that I attend, has for the past two years put on a “Festival of Hope” Christmas Celebration.  This has taken place the 2nd Sunday of the month, during the afternoon, from 3 to 6 pm.  We take a special offering in November and with that money, we purchase as many toys as possible for families in our community that may not be able to afford gifts.  Instead of just a gift giveaway though, we make it a BIG Christmas party celebration, with many of our church family participating.  As soon as our morning worship service is done, we transform our sanctuary into an indoor play area with a bounce house, several game stations, face painting station, Christmas cookie decorating station, a refreshment table with hot chocolate, lemonade, and Christmas cookies, a seating area with round tables decorated in Christmas style, and live music performed on the platform during the whole time.  Families register when they come in and give us the names & ages of their children, each child getting a ticket for a free toy that they pick out (toys are organized according to age and boy/girl).  Our church family mingles with those who come and everyone is welcome, we don’t turn anyone away and we don’t ask any questions regarding their financial circumstances.  We trust God to bring us those who need this.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot to put this together and asks for a big commitment from our church family but it is so much fun to do!!  I have been blessed to help both years and our church just loves doing it.  To see the faces of children light up when they get to pick out exactly what they want and the parents eyes well up with tears of gratitude is priceless!  Getting to know some of these people is also an added blessing.  Yes, some of them don’t smell so good or behave the way you’d expect but we just look past that and share the love of Jesus with them.  It’s really impacted our church and community in a positive way.

Shared by:
Dot Ralitz, Faith Fellowship

I LOVE hearing about ministries like this! There are so many ways we can communicate the love of Jesus and please let me know if you have ones you'd like to share. My email is: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

GIS: Christmas Sample: a Christmas flyer that answers Jesus’s prayer

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Christmas flyer JOY Story side one
Side one of a flyer from a number of churches, that illustrates not only the Christian message of Christmas, but the unity of the Christian churches that sent it.

Just before Jesus went to the cross, part of his prayer was for us. It is astounding to think that just before he faced the horror of the cross, he was praying for how we would represent him. Here is part of what he said:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" John 17:20-23

Think about that—Jesus prayed that the world would see our oneness and from that they would come to know Jesus. [Read more...]