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.

Three reasons why your technology can limit your ministry

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Technology in the church
Though technology can be a tremendous help in the church, it won't help our people if they don't know how to use it.

We engage with technology in our churches to improve ministry—to enable online donations, to handle scheduling and volunteer activities. We do this to make work in the church office easier and more efficient and it usually does that. However, a problem arises when the congregation needs to be actively involved for the system to work. When this happens, instead of helping, your technology can actually limit your ministry.

Below are three reasons why the congregation does not embrace and may even resist the technology you want them to use. After the reasons are suggestions to increase acceptance of the technology and keep peace in the Body of Christ.

Reasons #1: The congregation doesn't have the same problems you do.

The congregation most likely is not searching for a system to improve the efficiency of how they volunteer or give. The system they have used for years to sign up for volunteer work, turn in their weekly tithe, stay updated on the news of the church is working just fine for them. They don't have to manually do the schedule, send out emails and track responses—they don't spend the hours in church office doing that.

When you introduce a new technology that will change their routine, and make life so much easier for you, they are not happy with it. "Why should the congregation do the work the church secretary was hired to do?" was the response one frustrated church secretary shared with me.

Solution suggestions: We can't assume anyone in the congregation understands how time-consuming and difficult various church tasks are. Before you launch a new system, spend some time communicating to the congregation why it is needed. Prior to informing the church "here is the new system—now use it," conduct a campaign to help them get ready for it. Help everyone to see the needs for all the church that the software will solve.

For example:

  • Let the congregation know how many hours recording and tracking donations, volunteer positions or any other process you want to automate in the church. Most members of the congregation honestly have no idea.
  • Share what happens when these tasks don't get done in a timely manner—how it hurts the financial integrity of the church or how people's needs may be unmet.
  • Help them see how technology can make the pastoral staff more effective shepherds by making up-to-date information always available. Show how technology can prevent financial mistakes and provide current and correct accounting.
  • Calculate how the technology will save time that more staff will not have to be hired and the cost-savings to the church because of it.

To make this campaign to help your congregation accept new technology effective requires more than one or two announcements from the platform. Explanations on your website, emails, social media, PowerPoint—repeated messages through all channels of communications are essential. Start several months ahead to be sure to your reach all the people, some of whom may not attend every week. It won't seem like you have time to this, but if you don't take the time ahead of launching a new system, you'll be forced to take the time afterwards when people have questions, objections, and outright anger at unexplained changes.

Reason #2: The congregation may not have the required technology.

"Everybody is mobile" is the current headline of an advertisement for church management software. That sounds good if you are selling a product that can be managed with a smart phone, but the problem is that when software developers think "mobile" in reality, they usually mean smart phone which greatly narrows the available audience. It is instructive that even though the age group they show with the largest usage (25-34) has a 62% usage, it means 38% of that same age group don't use a smart phone. The same chart shows that one of the most available groups for volunteers, 65+ is exactly reversed, 38% have one, and 62% do not. To adopt a system that will automatically leave out 38% to 62% of your congregation may not be a wise choice.

Suggested solutions: Before you adopt any new system, do a survey of your church to see how many have the required technology to take advantage of your proposed system. It may still make sense to adopt something that only part of your church can use, but do so with a plan to communicate the same information or services of the church to the people who don't have the required technology.

For example if you find that 50% of your church has a smart phone, but almost 90% access email regularly, you may want to get the technology that allows you to communicate to smart phone users, but also be sure you send out an email on the same topic. Or you can send out an email message and let people who have smart phones know they need to check their email through their phone.

Reason #3: Even if they have the needed technology, they may not know how to use it.

In the scenario above, even if people have smart phones, they may not know how to use all the features available to them. My nephew had to show me how to listen to sermons on the iPhone I got as a 99 cent upgrade with my phone plan. It was a very simple task, but I had no idea where to start. I know there are many other tasks I haven't taken time to learn how to do on the phone, including how to check email. I'm in my office far more than out and about with the phone and it's simply much easier for me to check email there.

Or imagine this scenario: a church does all the scheduling of mission trips for the church the church through an online scheduling system. Potential volunteers are told they must use this system—no exceptions. Potential volunteers for the trips will be informed of the schedule and all trip details through the online scheduling system—again, no exceptions. The church does not provide training on how to use the system, volunteers are told to look at the company website (that is complex and confusing) to learn how to use the software. The church is constantly frustrated because though people express interest in the trips, few follow through.

Suggested solution: the most important solution here is for the church staff to realize that not everyone today is comfortable with the computer, even if they have a computer. Not everyone accesses information in the same way even if they have the tools to do so.

These situations may be hard for young, tech-savvy natives in the church office to understand, but that's reality. Many of the Baby Boomer generation may have a computer in the house, but in many instances they will use it for one or two reasons, such as checking out pictures of the grandkids on Facebook or looking at sports scores, but they aren't comfortable with using it to accomplish tasks. They also don't use it every day and though they may have an email account, they may not look at it regularly.

At the same time, many Baby Boomers take early retirement and have the health and finances to do mission trips and other kinds of ministry in the church. If the church does not take the time to find out what technology tools people in this group uses and is comfortable working with, and perhaps training them to use new tools, they may lose invaluable resources in people and in giving.

Yes, it requires more work to do this, but in today's world of ever-changing technology training and accommodation is part of "equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry."

In addition, we do well to remember our Lord's commands to be a servant to all, to be all things to all people, to care for the "least of these" in the area of technology. It will take extra time and effort to teach people how to use the new technology you have, but much more than church efficiency is at stake here—it is a very practical way to show the world we care for each other and are more obedient to our Lord than the demands of efficiency.

On a practical note, one way that may help tremendously is for the church to demonstrate how to use the system by using Camtasia, a software that allows you to demonstrate how to use software by enabling you to create a video of you using it. If you create a video in your voice, using your church as the real example, you can then load it up to YouTube and make it available to your congregation. CLICK HERE to go to a short video that shows how this works.

In conclusion, technology can give our churches and ministries with great options for outreach and efficiency, but at the same time, we need to keep in mind the needs and responses of our people. As long as we make loving people our primary motivation, we'll figure out ways to make our technology a servant for all of us.

Three of the most common church communication mistakes

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Every year I interact with many church communicators and every year it seems like some of the same mistakes are made by many churches that keep them from being as effective as they could be in communicating the gospel message. Following are three of the most common ones I see consistently. I don’t want to only point out problems in this list, because none of us are perfect and we all have things to learn. I'm using these as a spring-broad for improvement, so along with the mistakes are suggestions and links to how-to articles that will help you correct them.

Church Communication Mistake #1: Thinking that simply having a website is enough

As I have evaluated many church communication websites, I have lost count of the number of websites that obviously were created by a company selling a template (my apologies to those companies, it is not your fault what is done with them after you sell them) that look good, but that are failures in communication.

The problem is that the church seems to think that just having a website and buying a fancy template or using professional graphics means something. The websites usually have great looking graphics on the home page, scrolling notices of various sorts, lots of labels, but if you click on any of them at most you find a paragraph of content. You never get a sense that a real person cared about anything other than certain slots be filled. No explanations of the why of the church or faith, no evidence of a personality behind the tiny amount of content and most dangerous of all, usually nothing is up-to-date in any ministry area.

Simply having a website isn’t enough—a website is a minimal expectation for any church today and as essential as an entry in the phone book in the past. But if your website says little more than a phone book entry, it won’t accomplish much more either. What is really sad about this is that a church that only fills in informational blanks is missing a HUGE opportunity for outreach.

In addition to the mistakes of an incomplete website, keep in mind that websites do not replace the tangible week-by-week communications needed in the church to keep your congregation informed and involved. Bulletins, newsletters, postcards, flyers, reminders of all sorts are needed and this website has many ideas and inspiration to make your materials more effective.

Church Communication Mistake #2: Assuming graphic images communicate the same meaning to everyone who looks at them

Images should be used primarily to add to the message expressed in words. They are not enough in and of themselves to communicate much of anything. They may look nice, they may create an emotion, designers may congratulate each other on their brilliance, but if you want to communicate a significant Christian message, images alone won’t do it.

Some of you may object: “But, a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Whenever I hear that statement, I always respond with the question, “What thousand?”

People often make the first statement as some sort of understood truth that images say more than words do. That is simply not true. Reality is that the same picture can mean different things to each person who sees it. Not convinced?

What would you say a picture of the American flag means to:

  • A Marine just out of boot-camp?
  • A terrorist who has been water-boarded?
  • An immigrant just granted political amnesty?
  • An Al-Qaeda sleeper cell member?
  • A member of Congress?

It’s the same flag—but we all bring different histories, experiences, loves, and hates to any image from flags to puppies to clowns. No image, picture, or graphic is self-explanatory.

Images do not fully communicate the complexity of the Christian message. Images do not give time, date, location, and let you know if child care is provided. Images can stir up emotions, but they don’t make practical connections.

We need words. Let’s choose them as carefully as we do our images.

For an article by Gerry McGovern, international guru of web marketing wherein he summarizes research on the ineffectiveness of images used in secular advertising, and my comments on it: http://churchcommunicationsblog.com/2010/12/06/why-it-is-incorrect-to-think-that-graphic-images-mean-the-same-thing-to-everyone-who-sees-them/

Communication Mistake #3: Using the Apostle Peter’s methods to reach Paul’s audience

Some pastors (particularly in my age cohort of Baby Boomers) have trouble understanding why altar calls don’t seem to work the way they used to. Newcomers to church don’t understand them, or if they do respond, sometimes the same person responds every week or makes a public profession of faith only to go on living no differently than before he made it.

This is part of a larger problem of communicating the Christian message to a post-Christian world. We may know in our heads that the world no longer shares our value system, but when we attempt to translate that into action, it’s easy to forget what that actually means. The following illustration might help.

When the Apostle Peter preached to the assembled group of observant Jews at Pentecost and thousands immediately responded, it’s easy to forget that he was preaching to a group of people who knew the Old Testament message, who understood sacrificial atonement, who expected and were looking for a Messiah. For this audience all he had to do what show how Jesus fulfilled the criteria as Messiah and challenge them to decision. He got a huge response.

Paul’s ministry was primarily to the Gentiles and he used a different approach. One illustration:

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.  Acts 18:9-11

He was not talking to a group of people who grew up hearing the promises of Messiah. This audience had never seen a lamb sacrificed in recognition that they could not meet the demands of a holy God. They didn't know why Jesus had to die. Paul taught day after day explaining, teaching God’s Word, giving them the background necessary to understand why it was important that Jesus die and why they needed to live life differently once they trusted him as Savior. The Greco-Roman world was filled with many gods, but to trust one solely for salvation and to change one’s moral behavior because of it was a radical idea for most.

Application: We live in a world like Paul’s where people (as hard as it is to understand) may know nothing about the Christian faith or what it actually means to live it. We cannot assume anything in either our written or verbal, web or print communication. In all your communications you need to explain as much as you can, as clearly as you can. Ask if people understand. Explain again.

Be prepared; you may irritate some of the long-time church members. When they express impatience with reading your explanations of things they already understand, ask for their prayers that your church clearly communicate to people who know nothing about Jesus as the only source of eternal life.

We have many challenges in our work as church communicators, but if you work on these three, you will more effectively share the words of eternal life.

Five benefits of studying and celebrating Jewish holidays

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Jewish holidays are wonderful teaching times.
Blowing the shofar is traditional on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. As this article shows, Jewish holidays are wonderful teaching times.

The Effective Church Communication Calendar has a section of Jewish holidays and these are included as a communication and teaching tool for the 5 reasons that follow. We don't celebrate them in the same way our Jewish neighbors do because we realize all of them are fulfilled in Jesus, as this passage reminds us, but at the same time, they have value as the reasons that follow show. Each of these reasons provides opportunities for Christian communicators to make the most of the holiday. After listing the reasons for studying and celebrating, there are links to more resources both from Jewish sources and from Christian sources.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Col. 2:16-17.

Reason #1: The Jewish holidays help us get to know Jesus better

These are the holidays Jesus celebrated. Much has been written about the value of understanding the Jewish background of our Lord (one of the best is Phillip Yancy's, The Jesus I Never Knew), but beyond its usefulness as an academic exercise, when you love someone, you want to understand them. You want to know what was special to them as a child, you want to know what traditions were part of their upbringing.

As we study the Jewish holidays it can help us get to know better our Savior and Lord, our friend throughout all eternity.

Reason #2: The Jewish holidays give us an opportunity to teach Biblical history

Many of the Jewish holidays are associated with specific acts of God on behalf of His people. The best known example is the Passover which commemorates God's deliverance of His people from Egypt. In the New Testament, the Passover was the last meal Jesus celebrated with his disciples before he was crucified.

As we study the Passover, we can see God's preparation for the Jesus'  final deliverance sins for those who accept His sacrifice on the cross. When you study the Passover you will get a clearer understanding of how God prepared the Jewish people over the centuries for the coming of his Son.

Another less known example is the festival of Purim which celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from the murderous plot of Haman by Queen Esther. This holiday provides a wonderful teaching time that shows us how God is sovereign over politics, wars, and the people that can make us afraid.

Reason #3: The Jewish holidays help explain Biblical theology

Some time ago a young woman was sharing with me why she didn't read the Old Testament and she was especially hard on the book of Leviticus—"Who wants to read that?" she asked me.

I told her that though I understood that it could be tough going getting through the requirements and the sacrifices,  it is worthwhile reading because you gain so much from it for background understanding that is helpful when you read the gospel stories about Jesus.

For example, when read in Leviticus how it was commanded that day after day, for centuries an innocent lamb was killed as a sacrifice that could only cover, but never totally remove sin, it is much more meaningful when you read about Jesus coming to meet John the Baptist and why John exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!"  Without the history behind his statement, you won't understand the impact his words had on his audience.

Reason #4: It helps you to understand what is important to your Jewish friends and to act appropriately

As I was researching the Jewish holidays to put the list on the ECC website, I found one site that asked Christians, "What would you think if your boss at work scheduled something for Christmas Day and expected you to work? Or Easter?"

Christians would consider than an insult to the most important days of our faith and would think the boss totally insensitive. But the author went on, many people totally ignore the Jewish High Holy Days, particularly Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These are days when Jews have many religious requirements, among them to not work, and to not be aware of the requirements and to not allow workers to take the day off, to schedule another event they were required to attend, or to completely ignore the holiday is extremely insensitive.

Note: this same principle applies to the month of Ramadan for Muslim friends. Observant Muslims neither eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. It is important to remember this when for example, you might have a children's birthday party and invite your Muslim neighbors over for afternoon cake and ice cream. If this took place during Ramadan, what you meant as a gesture of friendship could be seen as an insensitive insult. For more about Ramadan, go to the links below:
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/bulletin-insert-and-links-to-christian-resources-about-ramadan/

Reason #5: It's an opportunity to share your faith in Jesus

All the Jewish holidays point towards and have their fulfillment in Jesus as the above verses in Colossians remind us. Though we don't celebrate it for the same reasons it was celebrated for Jesus came, many Christian churches celebrate a Passover. Doing it can be a great outreach time to invite unchurched friends and not only do a historically appropriate and honoring Passover—but to take the time to teach about how it was fulfilled in Jesus. Our world today loves images and celebrating Passover in this way can be a profound multi-media teaching opportunity.

In addition to specific celebrations, if you do them at church or in your family, as part of your everyday conversation, you could share what you learned, or what you've taught your children from participating in these holidays. They could be the start of a conversation of how these holidays point to Jesus, of how God taught His people through the ages and many related Biblical topics.

Additional sites for more information on individual Jewish holidays

The following three sites are Jewish sites and contain excellent additional background, history and material to help you understand contemporary celebration of the holidays. Each one of them has links to the specific holidays.

http://www.aish.com/h/

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/default_cdo/year/2013/jewish/2013-holidays.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday0.htm

The following site is a Christian site that has extensive ideas on how use the holidays as a teaching tool.

http://heartofwisdom.com/biblicalholidays/

In addition you can go to the page at the link below for a free download of an excerpt of a book on Biblical holidays that includes an overview of many of them and reasons why celebrate them. It also thoughtfully answers concerns that some people might have that perhaps Christians should not celebrate Jewish holidays. Much of the focus of the book is on the teaching value of the holidays for children.

http://heartofwisdom.com/biblicalholidays/2013/05/13/a-family-guide-to-the-biblical-holidays/

Use an invitation card to connect outreach guests with your church

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Summer Business Card Invitation vard
An invitation card can turn your outreach event from a nice time to a lasting connection to your church.

A church communicator told me about a church that held a large community outreach. They had free food and fun activities for children and families and they did it all to show the community that the church and Jesus loved them. They had a great turnout, but it didn't result in an increased response in church attendance.

The church communicator became frustrated when she talked to an unchurched friend about it because when she mentioned that her church sponsored it, the friend responded, "Your church did that? I thought the city Parks and Rec department put it on."

We put in a lot of work for events like that and I understood her frustration, but I had to gently ask her if the church gave out any kind of card or flyer to people know who sponsored it and to invite them to the church. She said, "No."

Your guests are not mind-readers

That is a typical response I hear from church leaders who put on outreach events and are disappointed in the long-term results. But, if you don't give people who attend your outreach events information about who is putting on the event and what else goes on at your church they won't know. Without clear communication and a clear invitation to return all your hard work may give people a great time—but will accomplish little in connecting them to the church or introducing them to Jesus. [Read more...]

Why include non-holiday, “silly” celebrations to a church communication calendar?

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Silly celebrations can serve serious teaching purposes
Silly celebrations can serve serious teaching purposes--we'll show you how.

As you look over our church communication calendar, you may be thinking that you have enough trouble remembering and celebrating the major holidays—so why include events such as:

September 13: International Chocolate Day

September 28: National Good Neighbor Day

August 4: International Friendship Day

Not only are these events an excuse for fun and celebration, but I've included these to help us all be obedient to our Lord. We know the Old Testament commands God's people to make their faith part of their life. . . . .

 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  (Deut. 6:4-9 NLT).

It's a very clear command and we know we should follow it, but the question is, how can we carry it out in a natural way? How do we communicate Biblical truth to those around us in our daily lives.

For example, perhaps you've selected the command: "Love your neighbor as yourself," which Jesus says is the second great commandment. How do you make teaching that command part of your life? How do you start a discussion about it, make it a topic for learning or provide a way for either your family or congregation to put it into practice?

Some "silly" celebrations might help

There are many sites on the web that list non-traditional and what are termed "silly" celebrations (why or how the term "silly" was chosen, I have no idea, as many of these are quite serious, but that's what they are often labeled). These celebrations can be days, weeks, or months and cover topics such as: National Smile Week, Hug Holiday Day, and Make a Difference Day.

To help you make the most of these, I'll select some, put them on our calendar, and then give links to articles both on this site and outside this site that will give you ideas on how to make the most of these events to teach and train both children and churches in Christian actions.

For example: September 28: National Good Neighbor Day–a challenge to churches to be a good neighbor. Click on the link to go to an article that will give you suggestions for how your church can use this day as both a spiritual challenge and an outreach to your neighbors.

For September 13, International Chocolate Day, you can use it as a time to share love and reach out to others, click on the link for more ideas.

Additional dates will be continuously added to our calendar along with ministry ideas on how to make the most of them as opportunities to celebrate and to communicate spiritual truth. C.S. Lewis said that, "Joy is the serious business of heaven." By making the most of celebrations now, it reminds us of our eternally joyful God, even in the midst of our current heavy work loads and challenging lives.