Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

ebook: Back to Basics, writing and design skills for church communicators

23 July, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Back to basics cover
This book will teach you the basics of many needed, but often not taught, communication skills in graphics, design, typography, writing, and managing. If you want your church communications to look more professional, you need this book. Available in print and ebook formats.

Most people who work on communication creation in churches have no training in design, layout, typography, and many related skills they need to do a good job. Training material is not easy to find because many of the materials available on communication design and related areas, require the use of expensive, advanced software and teach a secular, image-heavy approach that doesn't always fit the needs of the church audience.

This book provides basic training that can help every church communicator, even those with no previous graphic arts training create, write for, and manage a church communication ministry. This book is not a how-to on a particular software, but about the basic design and communication principles that form the foundation of effective communication creation.

This book is a scanned reprint of Yvon Prehn's earlier book, How to use your computer to create Better Bulletins, Newsletters, and More! All the examples in the book are from church communications and the advice is practical and Bible-inspired.

To be honest, the quality of the scans in the book isn't the greatest, but I felt the content was worth it to make this book available to you.

To buy a paperback version of the book on Amazon.com, CLICK HERE.

If you'd like the book in e-book, PDF format CLICK HERE

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet
  • WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Basic Church Communications Training, Church Bulletins, Clipart, Design, Editing and Proofing, Graphics, Images, Photos, Planning and Managing, Proofing, Writing Tagged With: basic church communication skills, basic church communications, basic design skills, basic writing skills, church publicaiton basics, design basics, writing basics

Yvon Prehn Interviewed on The Gospel Blog

29 June, 2012 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

"Why bother to do church communications?"

"Who do we do the church bulletin for?"

"What are some of the biggest mistakes people make in church communications?"

"How did you get started in this ministry?" [Read more...]

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet
  • WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Bulletin Inserts, Church Bulletins, Evangelism & Outreach, Q & A Tagged With: church bulletins, Cliff Holmes interviews Yvon Prehn, importance of church bulletins, why do church communications?, Yvon Prehn interview

Why with incredible communication tools, still declining church attendance?

17 January, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

The power of mobile phones doesn't replace the church bulletin for communication in the church.
The power of mobile phones doesn't replace the church bulletin for communication in the church.

In spite of visitors coming to us every week and  though we live in a time when we have the most extraordinary communication tools ever available to the church—the Internet and email for free, instant communications around the world, PowerPoint and video production in our services, and social networking connections, cell phones and texting, plus the ability to produce books, newsletters, and print items in the church office that required publishing companies and advertising agencies to produce in the past, still—the Christian faith is losing ground in many parts of the world. Many churches aren’t growing.

In a recent poll that asked people to give their religious affiliation, the largest number answered: “none.” Granted, there are many factors that account for this situation, but I wonder if one of them has to do with the reality that we may not be doing our best job communicating the truth of the gospel message and the importance and benefits of being part of a local church?

How can we best communicate the messages of the church?

Multimedia, social media available on the web and through our mobile phones may make a church look cutting-edge and may wow with their technical wizardry, but they don’t seem to effectively stem the tide of church defections. They are useful, but they don't communicate well to a visitor who walks into the church and knows nothing about it.

But there is a communication piece that can touch lives, inform, call for decisions, and make connections. It is a piece so powerful that both seekers and regular attendees will read, at least part and often all of it, every week. It’s a communication piece they will reach for, post on their refrigerators, and keep for reference. That piece is the church bulletin.

The content in the bulletin that matters

This humble print publication, the church bulletin, has the potential to change lives for time and eternity, but to do that it has to have content in it that:

  • Explains what is going on right now in the church
  • Invites people to the other activities in the church
  • Challenges people to become a Christian and grow in their faith
  • Clearly links people to the website, social media, and church staff for more information

Making a bulletin that will have an eternal impact on the people in your community is spiritual warfare. That isn't an overstatement. In any war, one of the first targets destroyed is always the communication center. If an army can't communicate, it can't meet its goals. If there is one piece that ties together the vision and ministries of the church, that connects seekers with help and the hurting in the congregation with help, it is the church bulletin. If the enemy of human souls can make your church unconcerned, routine and ultimately ineffective with your church bulletin, many of the ministries in your church will not do all they could for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.

If your bulletin is not effective, visitors won't connect and come to know Jesus and members won't grow to discipleship maturity. If your church is not accomplishing your goals in growth in numbers and spiritual maturity in your members, before you do anything else (beyond of course, prayer and soul-searching) take an honest look at your church bulletin and see if you are using it in the many ways you could be.

_________________________________

Are Printed Bulletins Still Needed?For an inspiring ebook and video that will help explain how useful a printed bulletin can be in growing your church in numbers and people in spiritual maturity, CLICK HERE.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet
  • WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Bulletins Tagged With: church bulletin theory, Effective Church Communications, what works in church communications, why church bulletins

VIDEO: Typography in Church Bulletins, how small changes can make your bulletin easier to follow during the church service

17 January, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Typography is one of the most important tools we have to make our church bulletins help people follow and understand what's going on during a church service. Some very small changes that are quick and easy to do can make a tremendous difference in how well people will follow what is going on in your service.

Take less than 5 minutes to watch this video for ideas on how to make your bulletin more effective.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet
  • WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Bulletins, Typography Tagged With: church bulletin design, church bulletin readabilty, church bulletin typography, Church Bulletins

Christmas church bulletin example

15 December, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

After sending out the Hark the Herald Angels gospel presentation, I just got this example of how one of the ECC Members used it and wanted to share it.

It is a wonderful example of how to put together a very clear and complete presentation of how to come to know Jesus personally at Christmas. Following is a picture of the bulletin--click on the images to download the PDF.

For the original file with the Hark the Herald Angels Sing files, CLICK HERE.

Hark Bulletin Example front

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet
  • WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Bulletin Samples, Church Bulletins Tagged With: Christmas church bulletin, Christmas outreach, Church Bulletin Sample, church bulletins, example of a church bulletin

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Next Page »

Recent Posts

  • Canva Training Video: 3 BIG mistakes in creating Bible verse graphics and how to correct them
  • The most important communications you create—answers to staff emails and other requests
  • Results of the Church Communications Survey and Commentary on it PODCAST AND TEXT
  • SEND OUT THOSE POSTCARDS!!! National Study on the importance of Direct Mail confirms the effectiveness of postcards
  • When computers break and things go wrong, the story of a Lazarus computer and trusting God for the results of our work

Most read posts

  • The most important communications you create—answers to staff emails and other requests
  • Great information kiosk—wish more churches had one like it!
  • Results of the Church Communications Survey and Commentary on it PODCAST AND TEXT
  • Why church ads in the newspaper don’t work and an alternative that does
  • Postcards: For Missing Members & how to get people to come back to church
  • FREE Spiritual Endurance Encouragement verses in every imaginable format for you to share: Instagram, Facebook, Postcards and more!
  • Effective Volunteer Recruitment Communications Samples: advice and PDF examples

Seasonal Templates

  • OVERVIEW of TEMPLATES for Church Communicators, please read first
  • Valentine’s Day Templates
  • Lenten Templates
  • Easter Templates
  • Mother’s Day Templates
  • Father’s Day and Men’s Ministry Templates
  • Graduation Templates
  • Summer-related Templates
  • 4th of July, Canada Day, and GRACE for All Nations
  • See You At the Pole
  • Harvest Festival and Halloween Templates
  • Christmas Templates

Misc. Church Communications Templates

  • Church Connection Cards
  • Business/Invitation Card Templates
  • Back to Church for Kids in the Fall Templates
  • Church Bulletin Template
  • Volunteer and Encouragement Templates
  • 2-page Senior Adult Print Newsletter Template
  • Misc. Church Templates
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

Copyright © 2022 · Enterprise Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in