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.

Video: about ECC TEMPLATES and an overview of FREE CHRISTMAS TEMPLATES

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Christmas is incredibly busy and Templates,can be a great time saver when you want to do something quickly without having to take time to agonize over design or legal images or what typeface to use.

Effective Church Communications has created hundreds of Templates for you that will not only save you time, but that will help you accomplish the ministry goals of helping people come to know Jesus as Savior and growing to maturity in your Christian faith.

The video here explains how and why our templates can be useful to you and gives you an overview and examples of how we put our ministry strategy into practice for Christmas.

You can download all the Christmas Templates HERE.

Here are just a few samples of what's on that page. [Read more...]

Mother’s Day Connection Cards can minister to family members

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Mothers Day Connection CardIn addition to having a way to connect with guests so you can follow-up and invite them back, the set of connection cards here can also minister to unchurched spouses and family members who may be visiting. There is a link below to a FREE set of downloadable ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files for you to use for Mother's Day. These can do more than simply get a name by adding these messages:

Thank you for being part of our Mother's Day Service today. We'd love to stay in touch, answer your questions, and pray for you. PLease fill out the information below and put it in the offering plate. May your Mother's Day be joyful!

Then the normal fill in information sections on the card.

Across the bottom is the following checklist:

If you'd like info on any of the following ministries, please check the box:
Single's Events
Men's Group
Women's Ministries
Children's Ministries

These messages accomplish several things:

[Read more...]

PODCAST: Connection Cards—What really works best to get people back to your church after Easter is one of the least impressive things you do

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Easter Connection Cards
This is one of a downloadable set of Connection Cards for Easter. They are one of the most effective tools to make sure people come back after a special service.

Following is a text version of the PODCAST

Many churches go all out for Easter celebrations: special music, drama, free food, an Easter egg hunt or petting zoo for the kids. Though all these things are fun and may impress visitors with the ability of your church to put on a special event, there is one thing they probably won't do—get people to return to church the next Sunday. Almost every church experiences disappointment the Sunday after Easter because few of the visitors return.

It doesn't have to be this way. Following are 3 Reasons why big, special, Easter events won't get people back next Sunday. That's the bad news. The good news is that one of the least impressive things you do, the lowly communication tool of a Connection Card, can do what the big events can't. The big events might get people there on ONE Sunday, but it's the quiet link the Connect Card provides that will help them come back.

What follows is a little bit brutal, but done to shake us from our complacency. We have an opportunity to change the eternal destiny of people who visit our churches on Easter Sunday and we need to be honest with ourselves why they often don't come back.

Reason #1: Your special activities weren't very special to your unchurched audience

A painful reality check is necessary here. In the days when many people lived on farms and TV options (if you had a set) were limited to three choices, the music and special events put on by the church were a big deal in the community. In the days when no one had attended a live concert or watched a streaming one, the Living Nativity Scene (complete with animals) at church was awe-inspiring and the Easter Musical was magical.  Not so much today. [Read more...]

New and FREE set of 11 Easter Invitation Cards—equip your people for Easter Outreach and inviting!

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Free Easter Invitation Cards
Your people inviting their friends is your BEST method of outreach for Easter. This business card size invitation with your church's specifics on the back will work well.

In a recent podcast and blog, I strongly encouraged you to focus on the people in your church as your primary way to reach out to your community at Easter (and for every other seasonal celebration).

In doing this you will help your people be obedient to the Great Commission—to go into all the world and share their faith. This is a natural method of evangelism and helping your people grow as disciples when they pray for, ask, perhaps take to church, and go out to brunch their unchurched friends. It's a tremendously effective, Biblical alternative to buying an anonymous mailing and sending it out to strangers.

(SIDE NOTE: there is nothing wrong with mailings or postcards—I've got a lot of free designs for you and they can be very effective. It is the anonymous part that is bothersome. If you create your own postcards and YOUR PEOPLE mail them out or give them away with a personal note, and best of all follow up on the sent invitation, they can be very effective.)

Though we have many free templates for the holidays and there will be more new ones for Easter in the coming weeks, I just finished a set of business-card-size invitation cards. Below are pictures of them and below that a ZIP file of the cards you can download, modify, and use. The cards are in ready-to-print PDF format and in editable MS Publisher files. All the artwork is copyright free and legal to use and the designs are mine and I freely grant the rights for you to do with them whatever you want.

When putting together these cards, take time to make sure the website and social media you link to is up-to-date and welcoming. Even better would be to have links to sites or blogs or videos from people at your church that explain the Christian faith and why Easter is so important. Be sure you have a contact person (or a team) who will answer the phone, text messages, or emails if people have questions.

This is a fantastic opportunity and time to equip your people for Easter Outreach—be sure you make the most of it!

To download the ZIP file with the cards, click on the following link: Easter Invitation Cards, Bus Card Size

 

Summer Connection and Door Prize Drawing Cards, free MS Publisher Templates

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Free Summer Connection Cards
These cards are a great way to get information from summer guests so you can invite them back to activities year round!

Many of your churches are holding community outreach events in the summer. You have a great expectations for them, but often you don't see much church growth after them because you don't work to intentionally connect with the guests who come. This is VERY EASY to do if you offer a great door prize and have people sign up for it.

Below is a set of combined connection and door-prize drawing cards you can download, run off and use. In the download is a set of Free MS Publisher Templates, ready-to-print PDFs, and images.

Click the following link to download a ZIP file of the cards: Summer Connect & Door Prize Drawing Cards

PLEASE read this article on the incredible difference cards like this made for the summer outreach of one church: Why it isn't enough to be a community-friendly, free event-providing church