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.

What is really difficult about YouTube and what it teaches us about church communication

By Leave a Comment

The popular perception of YouTube is that it is really simple, easy, and anybody can slap up a video. In addition--if it is catchy, funny, or inspiring enough that the video will go viral and the video creator will gain immediate fame and fortune.

It really doesn't work that way.

I've spent a lot of time on YouTube lately trying to understand how it works and how I can make the most of it to equip and inspire church communicators. Part of that has been to study some of the popular producers and to look the advice YouTube gives on realistically how to make a video channel that will have significant impact on the audience you want to reach. My first conclusion is that it is much, much harder and more difficult than I imagined.

At the same time, if you follow their instructions--which require a tremendous amount of time and precise, repetitive work--chances are you will achieve your goals.

One set of instructions is their Creator Playbook

Without going into details, which I am very much in the process of learning and trust you will see the results of, I want to share the Creator Playbook from YouTube. CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE to go to download the ebook--it's free for anyone who wants it.

The Creator Playbook has 91 pages of how-tos. The book is one of the most useful, well-written and laid out of any ebook I've seen in a long time. It is worth the time to download it simply to study the structure.

More than that, it is a reality check. If I want to use video effectively to help train church communicators (and notice I said help train, not everyone is into video and I will continue to practice what I preach on the need for multi-channel communication) that it will take lots of time, work, focus, and prayer for understanding to make it work. The big and splashy aren't what count--it is learning how to do many new, repetitive, tasks:adding annotations, creating playlists, release schedule, better links, captions, descriptions--learning how to use analytics. Yet when I get past the initial, "Oh, my....how will I ever do this?" --there is also a growing excitement of how powerful the final results can be and awe of the incredible tools the Lord has given us.

How this YouTube experience applies to church communications [Read more...]

Bait and switch is not a tool for church communication–two sad examples of it

By Leave a Comment

bait and switchThough bait and switch most often refers to the retail realm, it can also apply in many other areas as this definition from Wikipedia clarifies: "Bait-and-switch is a form of fraud, most commonly used in retail sales but also applicable to other contexts."

The Wikipedia article goes on to describe how bait and switch is used in many areas of contemporary life including the obvious teaser rates for the airline and travel industry, hotel and resort pictures that show non-existent levels of excellence, dating sites that post fake profiles, and methods of authoring legislation that hide the complete intent of a proposed bill.

This use of bait and switch, of a headline or link promising one thing, but not delivering what was expected, has become so pervasive in the media that many readers are no longer shocked or outraged, but meekly and quietly assume that you can't trust much of what you read or hear and if you get taken in by false of misleading claims, you, the reader, simply were not careful enough.

Caveat emptor, "Let the buyer beware," may be the rule for anything we read from the secular market place, but it should not need to be our response to communications from writers and organizations that claim Jesus as Lord. Sadly, this isn't always the case.

Remember who you represent

Christian communicators serve the Savior who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6).

We are Christ's ambassadors, as 2 Cor. 5:20 says, "We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God"

Let that sink in. As a Christian communicator, you speak for God. A core description of your communications should be that they are true.

To make that practical to you in your church communication work, following, I'll discuss:

  • How the reality that we are Christ's ambassadors applies in Christian communication
  • Some overall guidance on how we should communicate as ambassadors
  • Two examples of bait and switch in Christian communications
  • Application and advice on how not to be guilty of bait and switch  in your communications

[Read more...]

Why you don’t need to share your personal life on Facebook

By Leave a Comment

social-media--you don't have to participate
Though there are many wonderful ministry uses for Facebook and other social media--you DON'T have to participate in them--here's why.

We try new media tools because of the Biblical mandate to "be all things to all people to win some." But just because we try different tools to communicate our ministry, doesn't mean these tools can or should be used in the same way by everyone. If you are in a ministry that requires 24/7 social media interaction, and you love it—what follows is not for you. It's for people who may be very tech savvy, yet feel vaguely guilty and inadequate, for not sharing their personal lives to the digital world.

Here are 5 reasons why you don't have to feel guilty if you want to use Facebook and social media primarily for professional ministry news and updates and not for personal sharing:

#1: Your calling doesn't require it

When Paul first became a believer, he says, "I did not consult with any man" (Gal. 1:16). He goes on to say that he spent three years in Arabia and then went to Jerusalem, where he saw only Peter and James. He didn't return there for 14 years.

During those 17 years I'm sure a lot of networking, interaction, and the formation of the Christian faith was taking place in Jerusalem. Peter was busy preaching to multitudes and interacting with both Jews and Gentiles. That was God's calling for him—but it was not what Paul was called to do. One wonders if Paul had interacted with the disciples in Jerusalem instead of spending time in Arabia if he would have been able to rework the understanding of the Old Testament and reconcile it with God's inclusion of  the  Gentiles in the family of God. It was Paul's calling to do this alone. He needed to listen to only one voice while he did it.

Sometimes God calls people into constant, open interaction with others and today that requires social media sharing and interaction. Sometimes God calls people into silence and solitude.

Only you can determine God's calling for your life. Obedience to His call will influence the following considerations. [Read more...]

Why training church communicators takes so much time and effort and the 10,000 hour rule

By Leave a Comment

In the video that follows, Malcolm Gladwell talks about his 10,000 hour rule. This rule, based on extensive research, is that it takes about 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in a field. To make that number more manageable, it means that you need to work on something 40 hours a week for 250 weeks, or slightly less than 5 years to become really good at it. Take a quick look at the video and then I'll share how this applies to church communicators:

How this applies to church communications

Don't get lost in the details of this idea. I've ordered his book, Outliers, to look at his thesis in more detail and will blog about it more later, but the point is, you don't get good at anything quickly. We know that's true in many areas of life--you don't become a great preacher with your first sermon, a great cook the day you buy a cookbook, a great apologist the first time someone asks why you think the Bible is true.

Why is it then, we expect people in the church who have no advertising, marketing, design, layout, typography or technical training to become instant masters at website design, church bulletin layout, and newsletter writing?  From the earliest days of the computer revolution when a church secretary would often come into the church office and find her typewriter replaced by a computer (this really happened more times than I could count). She would then be informed, with great excitement, by whoever did this, that by next week she would get to create the church bulletin and newsletter with it! With the extraordinary tenaciousness innate in church secretaries along with many tears and prayers, she would often get it done. She would go on to learn the computer and the software, usually with no formal training at all and on her own time.

That lack of respect for the person and ignorance of the training needed to do complex communication tasks has continued wherein church secretaries and communications people are told to create a website or various forms social media for the church. It usually happens, but often not easily or well.

The true Biblical Church of Jesus Christ, who lived, died, rose again and is coming back is not doing very well communicating our message (when we look at declining numbers and the public perceptions of the church) when we have the most extraordinary tools available in the history of humanity.

The key is, we haven't taken the time to learn to use them really well. That reality is what motivated me to start the ministry of Effective Church Communications and that's what keeps it going today. Here are some of what I have to help you get the 10,000 needed hours of training.

  • There are many resources available at: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com to train church communicators.
  • PLEASE check out the site--there is a LOT on it, but there needs to be.
  • If you are a church communicator, sign up for the newsletter, check out the site often to learn the continuously added and updated lessons.
  • If you are a church leader who is responsible for church communicators, buy them an ECC Membership and GIVE THEM TIME TO USE IT (yes, all caps and shouting to make the point). You must give your people time to learn communications.
  • Please also check out my books on church communications--this is an ever-growing resource that will help you learn about the importance of Effective Church Communications and what you need to do in your church to create them. The materials are available in all digital formats and in print. Check out, just click on site title:
  • Smashwords--the source for all digital formats, free materials and special editions here. Just scroll down the page to get to the books--I wish they didn't have my bio first, but I had no control over page layout.
  • Amazon.com--the source for Kindle and print versions.

10,000 is a lot of time to learn something. We have been entrusted with the Words of Eternal Life--that task is worthy of them.

5 things that don’t work and 5 that do to start a Men’s Ministry at Father’s Day or anytime

By Leave a Comment

Like Father Like Son True story here: a growing church of 1800 (from 300 only three years earlier) decided to start a Men's Ministry with a Bible Study for men. Lots of prayer and encouragement from the pulpit, plus a splashy PowerPoint show, encouraged men to come. The night of the study the staff set up 200 chairs in anticipation. Three men showed up.

What went wrong? Following are five staff assumptions about their advertising approach to this even and why they didn't work.

#1 The staff assumed men would do what the Power Point® told them to do.

The colorful, eye-catching PowerPoint® slide show ended with a call to "sign up in the church lobby." What they wanted to be a call to action was in reality the kiss of death to any event sign-up.

After church is over, does any man to say to his wife (please forgive any implied sexism in this illustration), “Honey, would you please wait for me in the car while I find out where to go sign up for the men’s Bible study?”  It doesn’t happen. I know my own husband’s most pressing thought after church is–where are we going for lunch? Following the thought of food is football, basketball, or hockey, depending on the time of year. Most men I know, godly guys that they are, are similar in their after-church priorities. Trying to find a table in the church lobby to find out information about something that you may or may not be interested in simply is not a priority, even if by chance a man remembers he was told to do that.

Any time you require people to take a second step (call the church office for more information, sign up in the lobby, etc.) to find out essential details that they need to show up for any event, you will drastically cut down attendance.

#2 The staff assumed that men would remember the connecting details from the PowerPoint® announcement presented every Sunday.

Most men don’t. PowerPoint® is great for song lyrics, to set a specific mood for worship, or for graphics to reinforce a story or theme, but few men (women or teenagers) sit in worship, pencil in hand, ready to take notes off of a PowerPoint® presentation. A bulletin insert, ready to post on the refrigerator with all the details on it, would have been much more useful. Wives and girlfriends post it and remind the significant men in their lives about it. Yes, it might seem retro, old-fashioned, a bother to produce, but it works.

#3 The staff assumed that having the pastor encourage the men to come to the event meant something to the men and would make them want to come.

It usually doesn’t. Pastoral leadership doesn’t have the influence it once did. We live in an irreverent age, an age that doesn’t admire authority. A personal invitation can be powerful, but pleas from the pulpit to attend events that aren’t particularly appealing to uninvolved church members, men or women, are seldom heard, let alone acted upon. [Read more...]