Communications | Effective Church Communications

Don’t let August vacations include times away from church–FREE POSTCARD reminders to help

5 August, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Summer postcard — A little reminder may be all someone needs to get them to return to church instead of taking a vacation from it!

August is the last month of vacation for many and in many churches the time when attendance drops to an all-time low.

Though understandable, sometimes all people need is a reminder that God doesn't take a vacation and neither does the church. The set of postcards here are part of a FREE ZIP file (link below the images) that you could send out to people who perhaps have been sporadic in their attendance during the summer. The cards are upbeat and encouraging and an easy way to let people know you are thinking about them.

You could also make up extra cards for members of the congregation to address and send to friends that they know may have missed church in the summer.

The FREE ZIP file below the images has ready-to-print PDFs of the cards, an editable MS Publisher file, and images of the cards you could use on your website or email newsletters.

Click the following link to download the cards above: SUMMER POSTCARDS church reminder

Back-to-church invite cards for late summer events–Free Templates and PDFs

5 August, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Summer Back to Church Invitation Card — If you are holding a summer community outreach event, these cards are essential to bring visitors back to your church.

Many churches hold end-of-the-summer events. Ours ours does a Lemon Festival with a free community BBQ and a huge lemon dessert contest. We are a neighborhood church that was built in a former lemon grove and the festival is a fun and fitting way to invite the community to the church one more time.

If your church is doing something like that, make the most of the event by giving everyone an invitation card that invites them back to church. If you are truly reaching out to people who don't normally attend church, they have no idea what else you do or when you do it.

A card that gives details and links to your website and social media can make all the difference.

Below are some FREE templates for you to use to make business-card size back-to-church reminder cards and you can personalize them by putting your information on the back. The ZIP File for them has a ready-to-print PDF, plus editable MS Publisher files and image files in hi and low resolutions.

To download the ZIP file that contains the cards above, click this link: Back to church invite cards for summer events

Please take a few minutes to make up something like this for your end-of-summer events, it can make all the difference for a guest who needs to find the Lord.

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For more SUMMER Templates: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/summer-themed-templates/

How to make Bible school more than a happy memory—strategy and materials to connect with Parents

25 July, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

VBS return to church flyers — Kids always have a wonderful time at VBS, but you must be intentional in inviting families back if you want that great week to have a lasting impact.

Some of the happiest times of my life as a child were in summer Daily Vacation Bible School and that wonderful experience continues in many churches today. Kids have a wonderful week, but thoughtful communications can extend that week into a continuing relationship with the church.

There are several ways you can do this, but the over-riding idea is that you need to intentionally communicate connect with parents, let them know what else is going on for their children at the church, and invite them to take part in it.

Why this is so important

If you asked a person in the neighborhood of your church, who does not go to your church, "What does our church do on Sundays for children?" you would most likely be met with a blank stare. Most people who do not go to church have no idea what people do in church other than the media picture of people standing around singing with their hands in the air.

The parents of the neighborhood children you worked so hard to reach so their kids would come to VBS are no different. To many of them the church is providing a nice summer community service and they get a few hours of free (or almost free, as many VBS programs charge these days) child care for a week. That the church has anything else of value for their kids is probably something that never crossed their minds.

For the church staff putting on VBS that's difficult to imagine, but it's true and though you want people to so love VBS they will bring their kids back on Sunday to your children's program and begin a relationship with the church, this won't happen unless you are intentional about it. Here's how to do it:Continue Reading

If you truly care about visitors to your church—keep doing a paper bulletin

17 July, 2019 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

It can be very confusing to guests if they don't know what's going on in the church. Printed, paper church bulletins can help relieve some of that confusion.

I recently attended a church event where I was extremely uncomfortable.

Mind you—I'm a church person, one who grew up in the church, loves the church, is there every week. My father was Catholic, my mother Protestant and I'm comfortable in many types of services.

But I wasn't at this one.

I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to embarrass the church, but the reason I was uncomfortable (church person that I am) is that I had NO idea what was going on or what would happen next. It took place on a Sunday morning with additional things going on in their regular service.

We didn't know what was happening; what would happen next; how long it was supposed to go on, what we were expected to do. We had no idea who the various people were who got up to speak (and there were a number of them on this day). We had no idea what they were talking about when they briefly mentioned upcoming events.

What was good about what happened

I got a sense of what it is like for an unchurched person to come into a church. I try in many ways to remind people of how confusing it can be if you did not grow up in a church of any kind to make sense of what goes on in any church.

However, in most instances, a total newcomer is saved because when they come in they are handed what to them is "the Program." Most of us call it the church bulletin, but even if the guest doesn't understand all the terms they have a sense of the cast of characters and the order of the events that are taking place. They also get an idea of what the church is about and what else is going on there.

What goes on may seem odd—perhaps like a play to someone who is unfamiliar with that type of play or the actors, but they can follow the structure if not the details in content. Without a Program or explanation of any kind, the uninformed audience member may walk out.

A printed, paper, bulletin changes all that

Even the most simple bulletins make a stranger to the church at least feel comfortable with a small sense of what is going on, who the people are, and what's next.

But it wasn't changed for us. When my husband went to ask for the bulletin (perhaps we came in the wrong door we thought), he was told, "oh we quit doing those."

I confess to fighting anger and irritation, but I kept reminding myself, "This is what it feels like to not know—to not be one of the "insiders" at this kind of religious meeting.

The result—to encourage you to keep printing church bulletins

I know there are many blogs and chats that tell you they aren't necessary—that everything is digital and nobody reads them anyway (which simply isn't true–just because someone doesn't want to come to something you advertised, doesn't mean they didn't read about it).

But printed bulletins are still important. I don't want to repeat myself more than necessary on the reasons why, but below are links to two FREE e-books about church bulletins and why they are important.

Please read them and consider what they have to say. I'm a church person, I love the church and I'll be back. If I was a lonely, confused visitor, I'm not sure I would be.

Click the link following each title to go to the article to download the book:

Are written bulletins still useful in the church? https://wp.me/pDky9-t3
Archives of church bulletin tips, articles, advice https://wp.me/pDky9-1Gv