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.

Having fun and not sinning is not the point of the Christian life or of Christian communications

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Is having fun what defines a Christian? Is FUN what makes a church even worthwhile? Is fun why we do what we do (whatever it is) in the Christian life?

When you look at many current church communications, you'd assume the answer was "yes." A recent scanning of material on the web as I was researching alternative Halloween events overwhelmingly advertised events or promoted activities where the FUN promised is promoted as the primary reason people should attend. Though the focus of this blog is on the combination of Halloween communications and the emphasis of FUN (intentional shouting with the all capital letters), the same concerns and cautions apply to our communication of many church outreach events.

How fun becomes the primary motivation for Halloween alternative events

Much of the thinking process behind many of these "Christian" alternatives to Halloween on the web seems to go something like this:

  1. Halloween is evil.
  2. To take part in a traditional secular celebration of Halloween is evil and sinful.
  3. Christians shouldn't do evil and sin.
  4. Instead Christians should have good, clean fun.
  5. Therefore our church will do a fun event for Halloween.
  6. People will see we are Christians by our fun.

I don't have a problem with the list up to #3—much of traditional Halloween celebrations are evil. Maybe not as evil as some timid folks fear, but probably not activities that would fall into the class of edifying Christian activities. Dressing up as demons and witches and glorifying magic is not what Christians ought to be doing. Sending your kids out alone to beg for candy in most areas today isn't safe.  But the alternative to fighting evil or working to fulfill the Great Commission is not to simply have safe fun. [Read more...]

You can do all you need to do in church communications, for your church and by your people

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In Perelandra, the science fiction fantasy by C. S. Lewis, the primal battle between good and evil on a newly created world is fought by an unassuming scholar, thrust unwillingly into individual combat with personified evil. In the moments before their last, physical wrestling, his mind is wrestling with these thoughts:

The impudence, the unfairness, the absurdity of it! . . . What was the sense of so arranging things that anything really important should finally and absolutely depend on such a man of straw as himself?

At that moment, far away on Earth, as he now could not help remembering, men were at war, and. . .freckled corporals who had lately begun to shave, stood in horrible gaps or crawled forward in deadly darkness, awaking, like him, to the preposterous truth that all really depended on their actions. . . [and in years past] Constantine settled in his mind whether he would or would not embrace the new religion, and Eve herself stood looking upon the forbidden fruit and the Heaven of Heavens waited for her decision.

He writhed and ground his teeth, but could not help seeing. Thus, and not otherwise, the world was made. Either something or nothing must depend on individual choices.

from Perelandra, by C. S. Lewis
—when Ransom realizes his personal responsibility to fight evil personified

Thus, and not otherwise, the world was made.

Either something or nothing must depend on individual choices.

You are responsible for the effectiveness of your church communications, as this challenging quote from C. S. Lewis reminds us. Your church communications are effective if they make a significant contribution to, either through your personal outreach, individual ministries, or your church as a whole, people are coming to know Jesus as Savior and growing to maturity in their Christian lives.

Effective church communications can change the eternal destiny of individual people, enrich the lives of families and communities, and inspire compassion and service to a world desperately in need of sacrificial kindness.

You, as a church communicator have an immensely important calling. [Read more...]

Paul’s challenge to church communicators: Proclaim the whole will of God

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In the Apostle Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders, he gives us a summary of the responsibilities of leaders in church that also applies to those who lead in church communication:

For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Acts 20-27-31

Though Paul shares a number of challenges we can apply in our work as church communicators, one of them is especially difficult to apply:

“For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”

As we communicate God's messages to his church, we need to make certain we are taking time to communicate all of it, the difficult parts as well as the more pleasant and encouraging ones.

We don't seem to have trouble communicating the upbeat and the positive, quoting God's promises and blessings and we should do that. Those messages alone, however are not the whole will of God and if that is all we are communicating we will present a distorted picture of the Christian message.

[Read more...]

Constant change is not necessary for effective church communication

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A current conference advertises itself with this statement:

Constant change is necessary to reach our culture with the unchanging message of Jesus Christ.

Why?

On what basis?

It can't be on the basis of any kind of current marketing theory. Consider some of the most successful brands today:

  • Has Coke ever changed its logo colors?
  • Has Nike ever changed "just......"  you know the rest of the statement.
  • Did the Olympic committee alter its logo from interlocking rings to interlocking squares to keep the image fresh?

Many time-honored brands have not changed their distinctive characteristics for years and they won't. They know that change would be deadly to their brand identity and profitability. There is nothing intrinsically good or beneficial about change. In fact, change can be a destructive and distracting—especially for churches. [Read more...]