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.

Free Kindle Download for Church Connection Card book (and it can be on your computer)

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Church Connection Cards
Connection Cards are an essential step to connecting with visitors, growing your church and pastoring your people. This book is invaluable to help you do that.

I'm in the process of updating a number of the Effective Church Communication books, but while I'm doing that I want you to have access to the useful materials in them.

One of the most helpful books (according to reader feedback) and by far my best seller has been this book on Connection Cards. The current print version does not have good resolution of images, but since I can give you images and templates on this website (CLICK HERE for some Connection Card Templates), the basic content is what is most helpful.

I put that into a FREE KINDLE download--go to the amazon page HERE to get it.

Don't have a Kindle? You can read it with an app for your computer—below are directions on how to get it.

Check out the directions below to download the Kindle app for your computer

VERY IMPORTANT TIP: Get the app for your computer for a great aid in preparing lessons or reading any Kindle book.

When I am preparing a Sunday School lesson or Bible blog (for my www.bible805.com) I like to consult and quote Bible reference books. I have a number of them in the Kindle version. What is handy is when you have it on your computer you can cut and paste into MS Word files—so much easier than typing long quotes.

What should characterize our communications, God’s Word on our words

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God's word for church communicators
God's Word must be the inspiration, source, and guide for the words of church communicators.

If we want to reflect our holy God in all our communications, the Lord has given us very clear guidelines on how to do that. Below are collections of verses, both the positive words that should characterize our communications and then negative words that we should avoid.

Instead of listening to the often depressingly ugly discourse that fills much of the media today, take a break and spend some time to wash your mind with these verses today and God's Word always.

We want to be good citizens, we want to keep up on what is happening so we pray and participate in making a more just and godly world, but to do that in truth, we must constantly fill our hearts and minds with God's words—the only eternal voice that ultimately matters.

Verses on positive words, on what should characterize our communications

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
(Col. 4:6)

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.
(Prov. 10:11)

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
(Prov. 12: 18)

 The advice of the wise is like a life-giving fountain; those who accept it avoid the snares of death.
(Prov. 13: 14 NLT)

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
(Prov. 15: 1) [Read more...]

Print and Digital—More Powerful Together! videos and studies to show you why

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Print and Digital E-book, more powerful together! by Yvon Prehn
If your want people to respond to your communications, use every tool you can!

People are busy, stressed, and time-starved—what is the best way to reach them? Many voices would answer "SOCIAL MEDIA!"

But if that is the answer, why aren't our churches filled and every event well-attended, when social media costs almost nothing to produce and we can push it out to the world?

Part of the problem could be that we have confused the popularity of social media with effectiveness (source for this idea in the video below). We assume social media is the way most people communicate today, and though that idea is wildly incorrect for many congregations, even among those who do live glued to a Twitter feed, don't necessarily take action on what they see on social media.

What follows isn't about bashing social media

Far from it--keep tweeting, Facebooking, Pinning and Instagramming, as the Apostle Paul said, "we need to become all things to all people to win some" (1 Cor 9:22).

But consider re-introducing PRINT into a more significant place in your church communication mix. As you'll see a number of communication and marketing studies show this is the most effective way to get an audience to respond to your message.

Below are 2 videos--one a more lengthy teaching one about the effectiveness of combining print and digital for any non-profit group and the second one is a series of slides with thought provoking quotes and commentary.

Below each of them are handouts of the presentation.

Below both is PDF e-book that has the quotes, studies listed and more.

Why here, now and free to all?

As I've been working on Fall and Christmas communications I've realized that unless you understand some of the key points in the material that follows your fall outreach will not be as successful as it could or should be.

Either one of the videos would make an excellent discussion topic for your next staff meeting because communication ministry is the foundation of the success of many ministries in the church and it is far more difficult today than it was in the past when you only needed to worry about how many times you printed an announcement in the bulletin.

I'm working on a longer class and book on this topic, but I felt it was too important not to get out now what I did have ready.


CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF of NOTES for the video above: Print & Digital More Powerful Together HANDOUTS


CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF of NOTES for the video above: Slide Show of Print and Digital Quotes, HANDOUTS

Print and Digital E-book, more powerful together! by Yvon Prehn
Click on the image to download a copy of this e-book.

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...]

Don’t be guilty of bait and switch in your communications

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Presenting one image on-line but being very different in reality isn't what you want to do as a church communicator. Always be who YOU are where God placed you.

Don't be guilty of bait and switch in your communications wherein you send out some slick, fancy printed piece, or display an over-designed, glitzy website if you're a little church plant meeting in a basement. Big, glossy and professional is not always more appealing—many people are looking for a real, intimate, and honest interaction about God. They might miss you if you come across looking too slick and professional. Worse, if they come expecting a big, fancy church and find you meeting in the church basement, they might assume that if you lied about who you are in your advertising and outreach, you might be presenting a false picture of God, Jesus, or salvation.

This is especially important for church plants. YOU DO NOT need to spend a lot of money on slick advertising. One of the best outreach pieces you can do is a simple business card that describes your church, tells people when you meet, how to get there and that displays your website, and social media info. Give them to your current members and tell them to share with their friends and the people they contact as they go about their daily lives. Every invitation becomes a personal one and is far more effective.

Keep in mind the parable of the talents

Jesus did not expect a person with one talent to do the work of the five talent person, but Jesus expected the one-talent person to make the most of what he or she had. If you are a tiny church with few resources, don't feel you have to create publications or a website like the ones you saw at whatever big church conference the staff most recently attended.

You could be burying your talent in a purchased design because it would not be an honest reflection of your church. Be who YOU are, communicate to your people with the resources you have, and the Lord will bless your efforts.

Variety is standard in professional communication

Contrary to what some communication companies want you to believe, there is no ONE perfect way to create any one communication piece. There is no ONE way to do any communication that is THE PROFESSIONAL way to do it. There is tremendous variety in all professionally created communications depending primarily on the target audience they want to reach with their message.

An excellent example of this is the variety in magazines. Go to your local Barnes and Noble or other big book store and look at the magazines. The design, style, and even the paper used, for example, is very different for Architectural Digest than it is for Car and Driver. Both are professional, well-designed publications, but both serve different audiences and their style reflects that audience, not some absolute, unrealistic standard.

For the editor of Car and Driver to think he'd be more professional or cutting edge if he created an issue of his magazine in the same style as Architectural Digest would make about as much sense as it makes for the pastor of a small neighborhood church pastor of a 250-member church in a farming community to attend a mega-church creativity conference in Dallas, come home and decide the church needs to create publications that look like the ones the mega-church in Dallas created. That is just goofy. [Read more...]