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.

Why a printed bulletin in church is as essential as a menu in a restaurant or a program in a concert hall

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Bulletins are as essential in church as menus are in a cafe
Printed bulletins are as essential in church as menus are in a cafe. In both settings, they tell us what the place is all about.

People's habits don't change that much when they go to church. When we are in a new place or where we don't know ahead of time what is going on, nothing beats a piece of paper in our hands to inform us about what's going on or help us do what we want to do. Though we might use our smart phone for nearly non-stop interactions throughout the day and use our computers for business and school, consider these two situations:

In a restaurant when you sit down to eat

The menu might be on the restaurant website and/or the waiter may have told you about today's specials, but what do most of us do? We look at the menu in our hands and skim it to find the food we want to order. The menu might also tell us about this history of the place and any interesting specials they are known for. We may not want to ask again about specials or strain to look at a scribbled board. We certainly can't remember everything on the website and the social media feeds about what people enjoyed there aren't always what we are hungry for.

We want a menu. Our very own menu. We want it to make sense with accurate descriptions of the food and prices clearly marked.

We don't consider a restaurant out of touch or not with it because they still have a printed menu. We would be highly irritated if they didn't. [Read more...]

Why your Church Bulletin is the most important piece of Christian literature printed today outside the Bible

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Church Bulletins
Church Bulletins really can be the most important piece of Christian literature outside the Bible--read here to find out why.

“The church bulletin? You must be kidding!”

That statement may sound outrageous, but think about it. The church bulletin (or worship guide or whatever you choose to call it) is, for some people, the very first piece of Christian literature they see. It is certainly the very first information a visitor reads about your church. For many it is their first serious introduction to Jesus.

In our secularized society today many people grow up without reading the Bible or any kind of Christian material. At the same time:

  •  everyone has a spiritual vacuum inside;
  • the Holy Spirit is active in our world convicting people of their need for God;
  • tragedies happen personally and globally.

In response to all these promptings, people will come to your church looking for answers.

When they come to your church, they will read anything you put into their hands.

When that happens, what do you give to a person whose eternal destiny may be decided in the next hour?

You give them the bulletin. What does it say to them? [Read more...]

It’s not about your creativity, it’s about serving your congregation with your church bulletin

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Letters need to be organized to communicate.
Letters don't mean anything until your organize them into clear, consistent communications.

Though the church communicator emailing me was asking about another topic, in passing she mentioned that she was going to be taking over the production of the church bulletin and was looking forward to changing it every week so she could express her creativity through it.

Her excitement about the new project and a wish to be creative was commendable, but it isn't a good idea to change the format of the church bulletin (or any other church communication) on a weekly or any other frequent basis and here's why:

People don't read the bulletin because they are looking for creative inspiration, they read it for information.

People access information by means of the structure you give them in your communications. The structure of your bulletin consists of the layout, the type and illustrations that you use, plus how you organize material into sections.

You want to come up with a clear system of how you use these structural tools so that people will not be conscious of the building blocks of your system, but will be able to easily access the information.

Type is one of the most important building blocks. On your church newsletter or bulletin, if someone says, "that was an interesting typeface," it isn't a compliment.

Did you notice the typeface on any blog you read regularly, on Facebook, or your local newspaper? You don't because you should always see through the typeface to the content. If people notice the typeface it can be a distraction to your message. [Read more...]

What should be the length of church communications? Bulletins, newsletters, website entries?

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What should be the length of church communications?
What should be the length of church communications? This article will show you why short isn't always best.

The answer to these questions isn’t as obvious as it might seem. I think initially, with our busy schedules today many people would instinctively answer “SHORT!” Almost no one complains that church website, bulletin, the printed newsletter is too short. But before you set an arbitrary rule such as "all website, blog and newsletter articles must be less than 500 words, or "the Bulletin can never be longer than 2 pages" consider the following statements that apply to both print and digital church communications:

Church communications contain a variety of written topics

Many church communications are news, notes, and announcements about upcoming activities that work well in short-form messages. But that isn't all--churches communicate vision-casting, teaching, history, and story-telling. Church communications include schedules, guidelines, rules (such as, what you need to do to become a volunteer in children's ministry), and ministry instruction. This variety of content requires a variety of length and the variety of communication no more needs to be the same length than all the articles and sections in a newspaper need to be the same length. The editorial requires a different amount of space than a box score and a lead article more than an ad selling a refrigerator.

The length should be appropriate to the topic

More important than setting an arbitrary length, the length of the communication should be appropriate to the topic. For example, if the senior pastor is explaining the vision of the church, inspiring members for outreach or missions, setting a new direction or challenging for a building campaign, that piece will need more space than directions to the church picnic.

 

Have layers of length on the same topic

Announcements of recurring events do not need long, lengthy explanations on why people should attend. Short, catchy announcements designed what I call “want-ad style” and that contain the name of the sponsoring person or group, purpose, starting and ending time, full contact information, cost and directions to get there and if childcare is provided are what is needed in a list of announcements. If more information is needed place a hyperlink to another page on your website or to the website if you are writing in your bulletin to a section that has more materials, background, or staff explanations.

Giving options like this—a basic list of connecting details that links to a longer explanation if wanted—is great for both people who are familiar with the church and visitors or newcomers. When you give people options like this you are respecting their need for however much information they want. If you decide for them, you will most likely not meet the needs of one group or another, but if you give options, everyone gets the information they want.

Longer material can be made more visually interesting by breaking it into sections

In both print and on the web, sections and lists can have headers and subheads that define the topics. You can also use bullet points or numbered lists, summarize key facts in a side-bar, pull out interesting or key quotes and highlight them, add a picture and caption. A page or two (print or digital) with these visual elements integrated into the content will be read more easily than a solid page or two of text with no breaks.

Give the sections titles that can be scanned for content, not labels

One of the biggest reasons people don't read through the event or announcement lists in either print or digital church communications is that for many of them you have to read the ENTIRE list to see if anything is useful to you or applies to you and your family. This happens because many of the subheads say the same thing:

  • Don't miss this!
  • Mark your calendars!
  • Greatest event ever!
  • This will change your life—be sure to come!

All of the above are rah-rah fluff and don't say anything, let alone encourage anyone to read the content or attend the event. Instead, consider subheads such as these:

  • Children's baptism class will be held on Sat. June 14
  • Summer camp for junior high July 1-8
  • Evangelism tent meeting will be held at the church in August
  • Digital Bible Study tools workshop to be held at church this Thursday, 7-8pm

With a subhead list like the one above a person could quickly skim through the topics or events, but would only need to read what applies to that person and their family.

Finally, focus on content, not length

Length, especially for digital communications where we don't need to worry about paper or printing costs, is one of the least important considerations for church communications.

No one ever says, "The 500-limit word count of that article changed my life!" But there are many stories of lives changes from reading the short verse of Jn. 3:16 to the longer book of Romans. Different people respond to different amounts of content.

No matter what the amount, be sure to create worthy content, making certain that your words are reflective of your Lord. If you do that, no matter what the length of your communication, they will all have a part (even if it is a tiny step) in fully fulfilling the Great Commission of helping people come to know Jesus as Savior and growing to mature discipleship.

Don't cut yourself short; don't waste words and babble on without editing, but say what you need to say to fulfill the message the Lord wants you to share today. Ask for His help. Little or long, He knows precisely what is needed.

[Read more...]

Why and how to create a digital church bulletin

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Church Bulletin SAMPLE
Your church bulletin is the key to essential information about your church--be sure to have it in both print and digital formats.

Many churches forget that Sunday is no longer a sacred day and many people either have to work or have sports events that involve their children on Sunday morning. These same people might be very interested in activities during the week: small groups, activities for children, service opportunities, training and prayer times.How can we keep them cared for and informed?

Though social media is being used by many churches, it is seldom updated consistently or complete in the information it has. Church websites look better than ever, but again, most churches don't keep them as updated on essential details that connect people to events. Realistically, the church bulletin is still  the primary communication tool about these activities in many churches and if you don't get the bulletin, you miss out.

Make certain that doesn't happen by having a PDF bulletin on your website that anyone can access even if they have to miss on Sunday morning.

One of the easiest ways to create a digital bulletin is to simply make a PDF of the print bulletin you produce and upload it to your website. The purpose of this PDF on your website isn't to replace the print version, but to add to the communication reach of the content in it. You only have to create the content once, but creating a PDF gives you another way to distribute the information that will help people connect with the church and grow as disciples.

A PDF bulletin can be downloaded, printed, and read like the regular bulletin. This is a wonderful ministry for shut-ins or people who cannot attend Sunday morning regularly.

Don't think either the PDF Bulletin or any form of social media is the only one necessary—you need both.

Remind people your digital bulletin is available through emails, Facebook, Twitter or other social media you use. Social media are effective for instant, brief communication, but your Bulletin can contain much more information and it can be saved and put on the refrigerator as a reminder.Social media is also an ever-flowing stream and it's hard to look up the time to an event or directions or why you should come if you didn't get it (or most likely weren't told it) in a tweet.  In addition, the Bulletin can refer to the website for even more details about an event or ministry. In the PDF version of a digital bulletin you can link directly to more information, detailed schedules, sign-up forms.

This is not a time of either/or in our communication methods if we honestly want to involve everyone in the activities of our church that can change lives; it's a time of both/and. This means doing all we can do through every communication channel possible to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples. This means creating both print and digital bulletins.

Additional tips if you create a PDF Bulletin

  • Be sure the bulletin is available for download on your website by Sunday morning – again, keeping in mind someone who may not be able to attend the church in the morning, but may need information about an event in the afternoon. As soon as you print the bulletin, put it on the website.
  • Make the bulletin easy to find on your website. Have a tab or advertisement or box or whatever works on your website to let people know that the church bulletin can be accessed and have the location clearly labeled once a person gets to that section so they know what they are downloading.
  • When you save the bulletin as a PDF, you can then save the PDF as a graphic jpg image. You can place a small thumbnail of that image on your website along with the date of the service. Make the image a link to the PDF so a visitor can download the bulletin PDF by clicking the image. You could load up the image to your church Pinterest account if you have one.
  • To make your bulletin especially useful to someone who downloads it, insert hyperlinks in your text so that people can find out more about ministries. For example, you could have a link on the title "Children's Ministry" that would take people to the Children's Ministry section on your website. This tip assumes that your website is complete and up-to-date.

A Biblical precedent for making your Bulletin accessible in a variety of formats

We admire the Apostle Paul who said he was "all things to all people that he might win some."  Paul adapted himself to the needs of his audience because he knew all of them needed Jesus. He used a variety of communication methods and messages to reach as many people as he could.

We follow his example when we take the time to create print materials, turn them into PDFs, post them online, tell people through social media they are available and create relevant links for people who need more information. If we want people to come to know Jesus in our secular, busy world we need to meet people where they are and use every communication tool possible to link them to our church and to the ministries that will help them come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples.