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.

Order of Service in church bulletin, a contemporary and a liturgical example

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There are many ways a church can improve the order of service to make it more understandable to visitors. Below are two of my favorites, sent to me from seminar participants.  One is from a contemporary church and the other is from a liturgical church. Both have many ideas that can make the impact on and response by visitors very powerful.

Many seminar participants have asked for these and I've reprinted them following:

An order of service for a contemporary church:

The following is from a church bulletin for a contemporary, charismatic church. It didn't assume folks knew anything about what would happen and they explained in this way:

Our Worship Service: thanks for joining us today! We will begin with about 30-40 minutes of singing. Feel free to sit, stand, sing, dance or just listen as we express our worship to God using all of our heart, mind, soul and body. If you don't know the songs, hang on, we'll sing them a couple of times-and don't worry, we didn't know them at first either.

The Message: A time of practical teaching from the Bible.

The Offering: This is a time for church members to share with the church financially how God has blessed them. If you are a visitor, don't feel you have to contribute-the only gift we'd like from you is your Connection Card. Consider this service our gift to you!

Prayer Time: there will be people up front after the service to pray for any needs you may have. Please come up if interested!

Refreshments: Join us for coffee, lemonade and munchies in the lobby after the service.

The above bulletin wasn't complex or fancy, but a stranger would know what to do and wouldn't feel awkward. {+}

(ed. note: since the book came out, quoting this, a number of churches have used the following statment either on the cover of their bulletin or as a header on the service order page: "Feel free to sit, stand, sing, dance or just listen as we express our worship to God using all of our heart, mind, soul and body")

Explanations in a liturgical bulletin

This style of service has it's own challenges. Though many in many Lutheran churches and in churches with a similar worship style, have the words of the service printed out, a person who did not grow up in the tradition may not have any idea the meaning of what they are reciting.

As a solution to help visitors feel welcome, some churches provide a running commentary down the left-hand margin of the bulletin that explains what is happening. Below is an example.

On page one this bulletin had the traditional headings of Invocation, Confession and Absolution and Introit of the Day. To the left of each of these sections were the following explanations:

"Invocation" means "calling on" and here we call on the Lord's presence.

In the "Confession" we name our sins silently before the Lord and accept responsibility for the harm they have caused in our relationships with God and each other.

In the "Absolution" the Lord speaks through the office of pastor to apply the forgiveness Jesus won for us on the cross to us in a personal and public way. (John 20:23).

"Introit" mean's "entrance" in Latin. Now that we have been washed clean of our sins the pastor enters into the altar area. The Introit usually comes from a Psalm.

This bulletin continues in this way and provides excellent help in understanding for a visitor. Every church has terms that might not be familiar. Take time to explain them and it will do more to market your church positively than an expensive billboard on the freeway.

Church Bulletins, how to create simple, clear layouts for them

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I've often said in my seminars that church bulletins are the most effective piece of Christian literature printed today outside the Bible.

I say that because they are often the first piece of Christian literature visitors to your church from our post-Christian world see.

They must clearly communicate what is going on and the basics of the faith or people will be confused and walk away. Below is a PDF of a number of simple examples:

Church bulletins are the first face of your church and the Christian faith to visitors. This section will help you make clear and simple ones that communicate effectively.
Church bulletins are the first face of your church and the Christian faith to visitors. This section will help you make clear and simple ones that communicate effectively.

PLEASE read the many other articles in this section on bulletins for additional specific advice on what to include.

This PDF will give you some ideas for how to create your own very simple layouts and basic bulletins. To download it, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Little details are the most important part of your communications

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PDF of an article on the importance of the little details in your church communications
PDF of an article on the importance of the little details in your church communications

The little things are the most important part of your communications because they are the links that actually connect people with the events and ministries of your church.

They are also the most boring, tedious, and difficult parts to include in a communication piece whether it is on paper or online. We'd much rather work on fun illustrations or polishing our catchy marketing slogans or brilliant headlines. As important as these parts of communication creation are, you can have the most brilliant headline and the most appealing images ever, but if people don't know when something starts, how to get there, and if child care is provided—chances are they won't show up.

{+}

And don't expect anybody today to "call the church office for more information." Folks don't take the time to do it and even if they do after being shuttled around through voice mail, they may leave not thinking nice things about the church and certainly not planning to come to an event that might have changed their eternity.

Include the little details in your communications, it can have an impact well worth the hard work it takes to get the details gathered up and put into your communications.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

Also look at the article and PDF on REPORTER FORMS. It will give you a practical way to collect all the information you need.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Reporter form, a great tool to enable you to get all the information you need for your communications

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Reporter form, a great tool to enable you to get all the information you need for your communications
Reporter form, a great tool to enable you to get all the information you need for your communications

As a church communication creator, the value of the information that you put out in print, on the web, in your bulletins, newsletters, and other communications is only as good as of completeness of the communication information you are given.

To help you get the complete information, a form like this can be a life-saver. Often people don't give you the information they need because they forget or don't realize how important it is (and sometimes they are just onery, but this form can't help with that).

This form gives them a checklist to fill out and then you can take the information to create the communications you need. Instead of asking people to write things of a specific length or style, you have the facts and you can do up what you need. It might seem at first that this takes longer, but it doesn't and you have far fewer misunderstandings and problems over what might have been left out if you do it this way.

Also, sometimes it is easier to call people and interview them for the necessary information and a form like this enables you to have something to fill out while you are on the call.

Click here to download the PDF.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Church jargon can sabotage your outreach effort—examples and solutions

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Jesus commanded us to reach our world and most churches make a serious effort to do that. At the same time a  survey by George Barna shows 91% of unchurched people feel the church is not sensitive to their needs. Why is that happening if our primary calling is to reach them for Jesus? I think part of the answer is in our church jargon in our publications.

Jargon encounter:

An unchurched person walks into your church. Maybe a friend invited them, maybe they were simply lonely and wanted to be around people on Sunday morning. We know that they have a god-shaped vacuum inside. We know their hearts are restless until the rest in Jesus. We know the Holy Spirit is at work to convict them of their need for salvation. They sit down in the quiet minutes before the service and they will read anything we put in their hands.

What do we give them? The church bulletin.

What does it say? Try to put yourself in the place of a total stranger who may not have grown up in a church or ever read the Bible. Imagine your response.

Bulletin cover: often either picture of church, clip art, or color picture of scenery. Names of church staff, address, sometimes lists of other names of elders, board members, etc.

Possible response: Who are these people? I know what the church looks like, I walked into it, I'm sitting in it. Why a picture of it?

Inside the bulletin:

There may be an order of service...or maybe not, which means the person has no idea how long the singing will last, how long the service will last, what will happen, what they are supposed to do. If there is an order of service it may contain terms like:

Prelude songs or Introit

Congregational reading

Songs of praise

Hymns such as "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus", choruses: "Open the Eyes of My Heart, and Be Magnified" no words or page numbers given

Announcements (actual examples given):

"We are so glad for those who were able to come to the licensing Service for Rusty. I know you received a blessing from the Lord."

"AWANA GRAND PRIX RACES: Check in 11 am. Racing begins at 12 noon. There are racing divisions for: Chubbies, Sparks, Pals, Chums, Pioneers, Guards, and Leaders. "

"Moses had Aaron and Hur to hold his arms up. Would you be willing to join a pastoral prayer team to hold up our pastoral staff? Sign up on the Feedback Sheet."

"Upcoming events: Friend Day with Cathy McBride-November 4; Greater than Rubies-November 13; Caring Hearts Luncheon-November 28"

Possible response to all of the above that made little or no sense to the visitor reading it: What are these people talking about? As an outsider, I obviously don't belong here.

We often aren't aware of our jargon

We know we shouldn't use terms like justification and sanctification when we are first talking to unchurched folks, but we don't even see so much of our church jargon. The examples above are all out of real church bulletins and similar ones could be repeated thousands of times.

Our insider talk, terms and jargon permeates the initial printed pieces we give visitors telling them that this church is for those in the know only. We don't even see it, but they do and they don't come back.

Get visitor input

Look at your bulletin and other publications that are first seen by visitors and ask the Lord to help you see them as a visitor would. One eye-opening way to find this out is to hire (that's right, pay them a decent hourly wage) to look at your church bulletin and simply ask them to put into their own words what you are saying.

Don't ask them if they like it or if it makes sense or anything like that—many folks are honestly nice and they will lie to you to make you feel good. But if you ask them to resay what they just read and you find them stumbling around and saying things like: "Well, I think here you are talking about...um....little kids? Or what is promise land again? Or what are the "Becomers" becoming?....or I think you're supposed to put a little key code (this really was the case in one church) on this slip of paper and then tear it off and put it into a box in the back if you want to participate in a beach clean up...is that right?...." If this is the sort of response you get, if what you want people to do, isn't immediately clear, you might want to work on your communications to improve their clarity.

Paying people to test and see if they can use your website is a very big deal today; it's the  world of "usability testing." Though I agree this is extremely important to do if you want your website to be useful it is just as important to make sure your church bulletin is useful.

Start by being clear with your welcome

Ask yourself what would make you feel welcome? What would be confusing to you if you were a complete stranger to church?

At the least, as part of welcoming people, tell them what is going on. On pages of announcements, in addition to explaining the event, give complete information such as beginning and ending times, locations, contact phone numbers, etc. In addition, to let guests and infrequent attenders know they are welcome at events outside Sunday morning, you  might consider some sort of heading such as:

Church Family Activities: below are all of the events taking place in our church this week. We realize that newcomers might not be familiar with all the programs or people. Please call xxxxxxx, email xxxx or visit our website xxxx for explanations and more complete descriptions. We welcome you and invite you to participate in all of the activities of our church.

A brief notice such as that at least acknowledges that strangers might be in the congregation.

Don't assume understanding, follow up

Follow up with some visitors-especially those who are new to church and ask them what would make them feel more welcome, what would they like to see in the initial literature they get when they come in the door.

Some churches send out postcards asking for feedback along with a welcome letter. A number of churches in my seminars have found this very helpful. I personally think it's really irritating and bothersome, but it has worked well for quite a few churches. Others do casual phone calls and ask for feedback; others wait until someone is part of a membership class and then as part of it they ask how welcome they felt as visitors, what made sense and what did not. Bottom line here is that different methods work for different styles and types of churches. Try different ones until you find something that works well for you.

However we decide to do follow up after we do it, make some changes and then ask for responses again. We have incredible communication tools and technology and we may need to fine tune our communications and get rid of our jargon so visitors feel the church cares for them as much as the Savior who died for them.