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.

FREE e-book download: Are written bulletins still needed in the church?

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Are Written Bulletins Needed
Church bulletins can accomplish many things to keep people involved in the church that digital media cannot. CLICK on the image above to download your FREE COPY of this e-book.

From my email:

"We're doing our announcements on PowerPoint and we have all the information about our weekly activities on our website. We are an outreach oriented, contemporary church and our staff has been wondering-do we still need a written bulletin in this age of technology?"

This is a great question. The answer is more complex than a simple "yes" or "no," so let's take some time to explore the issues.

The context of church communication today: multi-channel

Before we look specifically at the bulletin, it helps to look at the context of church and ministry communications overall. At my church communication seminars, I am often asked, especially by churches involved heavily in technology, if there is ONE way to communicate that works best for churches today: it is the web, email, PowerPoint, and texting, or through blogs, podcasting, twittering and social networks?

Understandably churches feel overwhelmed by the volume of communication that needs to take place and if they could just concentrate on one or two technologically powerful tools, church staffs often feel life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, ministry communications isn't an area where church life can be simplified. The reason is in the church today we have people who span every level of involvement in technology from those who are never unhooked from their web-enabled cell phone and who check their email as it comes into those who will live long, happy and fulfilled lives and never go online.

If we follow the biblical command to "be all things to all people that we might win some," yes, we need the latest tech tools and means  of communication, but along with the killer website, witty and engaging social media, and fantastic slide shows at worship, handwritten notes from the pastor and printed calendars are still useful-and so is a written bulletin.

We live in an age where we do need to keep adding forms of communication technology to our ministry, but where we can't really do away with anything. We need to communicate through every available channel so that no matter where people are in terms of technology they can understand and respond to our message.

How being outreach-oriented applies to decisions about bulletins

If a church is truly outreach-oriented, and if newcomers are attending each week, though we may feel that cutting-edge technology is useful for the worship service and image, it may not touch people who are new to the church.

For example, if someone comes in late, if they had trouble parking or locating childcare, they may not make it into the service to see the announcements you've just shown on PowerPoint. Also, a new person may not even know you have a website or what is on it. Your bulletin might be the first place they learn you have a website. Without a written bulletin they will have no idea what sort of activities you offer during the week or what is happening in the worship service itself.

For a truly unchurched person to visit your church, for a service to start with 30 minutes of people singing songs they don't know, and then watching an often amateur skit, all with no explanation of what it's all about and not knowing what comes next isn't particularly "seeker-friendly." I often remind pastors that it can be a mentally challenging obstacle course for a new person to make it to the part of your service where you get a chance to present your relevant and life-changing sermon. A written bulletin can explain the process and purpose and put the worship activities in perspective from the minute a visitor sits down.

For regular attendees, even if they see the PowerPoint announcements before church, chances are when Thursday night comes around and they need to remember what the kids are supposed to bring to youth group and where it's going to be held, they won't remember the PowerPoint, no matter how beautiful the graphics. For regular attenders, if it isn't on the refrigerator in the form of a postcard or bulletin insert, the chances of them attending an event late in the week are greatly reduced.

Use your various communication tools: web, PowerPoint, printed in the bulletin and other places, to enhance each other

The website is a fantastic tool to refer to in the bulletin-many church members haven't visited it and don't know it has anything for them. Your church web site can be a great place to store the pastor's sermons for downloading with accompanying notes in PDF format. It can give in-depth discussion and links of a topic the pastor mentions in the sermon. In addition, if the website is continuously updated, it can provide background, directions and more information about weekly events.

PowerPoint can be a powerful worship tool and sermon learning tool. In addition, it can work well for announcements at the beginning and end of the service for things that are going on immediately after the service, such as to invite people to the Fellowship Hall for coffee and questions.

Bottom line: though we need every tech-savvy tool to illustrate our message and for the impact and repetitions they provide, written bulletins are still a useful tool for ministry communications. They are often a visitor's only link to understanding what is going on at the service and in the church overall. They can hold tangible message reminders such as inserts to put on the refrigerator, sign-up forms for camps and conferences, and sheets for taking sermon notes. They can be scribbled on by children, read by anyone, sent to the homebound, and used as reminders of events.

Keep exploring, using and improving every new tool to enable your church to better communicate the gospel message, but don't let go of the time-tested and reliable methods such as a written church bulletin.

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Are Written Bulletins Needed

For the FREE ebook, Are Printed Bulletins Still Needed in the Church? CLICK HERE:  Are written bulletins still needed in the church

Q&A: How to report church financials in the weekly bulletin

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Church finances
Church finances is a topic that should be communicated consistently and clearly in the church bulletin.

I recently got an excellent question via email about church communications and church finances and wanted to answer it here:

Question:

Do you have any suggestions on how to report church financials in the
weekly bulletin?

My answer:

First of all, let's establish the fact of whether or not to put financial information in the church bulletin at all. After we do that, we'll then look at what to include and then some tips on design and placement.

Why put financial information in the bulletin

There are some churches that don't do this for a variety of reasons, but this is a mistake. Here are some of the reasons why it's important:

  • The staff does not have time to individually discuss the financial situation with each person in the congregation.
  • Churches need money to function; this is not something to be ashamed of, but to be treated honestly.
  • The church is a family and every family needs to know its financial status.
  • If you don't share, the finances can be seen as a staff secret and not a shared responsibility.
  • People need to know where the church is financially so they can give and pray.

What to include in the bulletin about finances

On a weekly basis include:

  • What was given for the past few weeks AND what was budgeted. It's also nice to include the sum over and under (saves people trying to figure it out).
  • The reason both numbers are important is that if you only give what comes in people have no idea if that meets the budget or if it falls short. Numbers without context don't mean anything and don't provide either cause for praise or concern.
  • If you conducted a special offering, also include the results of that.
  • If you have a special offering coming up, let people know and what your goals are for it.
  • Have a link to your website where you have year-to-date totals and other information that might be useful, which I'll explain more below.

Periodically:

Additional information on Biblical giving overall and the specifics of how it is practiced in your church can be shared in shortened form in the bulletin, in longer formats on your website, and in the church newsletter. Here are some suggested topics:

  • Provide church giving information, for example, if you use envelopes, how people can get them. For unchurched visitors this can seem very confusing.
  • Church budgeting process—how the church decides how much money is needed each year.
  • Designated fund giving rules—many churches have rules about what goes into the general fund and what qualifies as designated funds. A several years ago a church I was working with in the same church newsletter had a lengthy plea for people to give more to the church because of a serious budget shortfall. In the same newsletter there was an article about a huge memorial donation given to the music department for organ repair. Needless to say, the church office got a number of very confused and a few angry inquires the following week. They contacted me and asked if they should put out an article explaining the difference between the general fund (which was seriously low) and designated giving (which was the source of the memorial donation). My answer: "YES!  Do it immediately and explain the difference in detail!"
  • Biblical teaching on the commands and benefits of generous giving.
  • Sound financial family resources.

Design of your communication

The key characteristics of church financial communication are that it should be:

  • Clear
  • Understated
  • Tasteful
  • Consistent

A simple chart in the same place every week works well. A simple, clear headline, something like "Church Financial Report" is all that is needed. I've seen many well-done ones in the bottom corner of a page of the bulletin. However, don't make it the last page—you don't want that to be the last thing people see when they are reading information about your church.

One more thing

The church bulletin is not the place to share lengthy pleas for money or to post dramatic appeals.

I will never forget a church bulletin that said in huge letters across the front:

Bridge to the future is taking place!

XXX amount given so far; XXX to go….

Have you made a pledge yet?

I doubt if anyone visiting the church for the first time that Sunday would be highly motivated to return. Something like that confirms a fear many people have about churches that all they want is your money.

Critical giving needs and similar information is better communicated in a letter or emails to committed members of the congregation. Again, remember the church is family and we don't share our entire financial situation with everyone who visits our homes.

As with many things in the church, ask for the Lord's wisdom and share your financial information "decently and in order" so that He will be pleased and your church will be a good witness to the world of financial integrity.

 

Church communication advice to church planters

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Effective communications is an important part of church planting.
Effective communications are an important part of church planting. Here are 6 reasons why.

Probably one of the last things you want to worry about when starting a church is communications—but if you want your church to be strong from the start, it should be one of your first considerations. Following the foundational reminder below are 6 reasons why.

Christians are people of the Word—both the Word made flesh in Jesus and people of a very big Book that our Lord expects us to learn and obey. Christianity is a content-intensive religion, not one based primarily on emotion, but on a renewed mind, an intentional turning from self to the Savior, and a willing apprenticeship to be conformed to the image of Christ. All of these require clear, complete communication of essential truth.

#1: Our culture no longer has a Christian mindset.

All the philosophical babble about Post-Modernism etc. boils down to the reality that the background of Biblical, Christian culture, morality, and stories is no longer part of the mindset of our world. This is not a cause for "oh, isn't it awful" hang-wringing and working to vote in corporate morality. What is means is that a crucial part of knowing your audience, if you are truly a church plant reaching out to the unchurched and not simply robbing other churches with a more upbeat service, means your audience has no idea what you are talking about when you talk about Bible stories and church behavior that are most likely second-nature to you if you grew up in church.

#2: You have to explain everything to unchurched people.

This is where prayer, skill, creativity, and a lot of hard work in communication come in. You don't want to explain things in a wooden, talking down way, but as a natural part of everything you do. For example, it's vitally important to get information from visitors and one way to do that is through a Connection Card. To get the best response, you need to intentionally invite people to fill out the cards, in an upbeat, welcoming way. Here is a free ebook that explains this in more detail: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/53563 you can also download a free Kindle version here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=yvon%20prehn%20Kindle

In addition to Connection Cards, pay special attention to your Church Bulletin and website. Be sure your church bulletin explains what is going on and then links to the website for more information. For more information on how to do these two things, this book explains and gives examples of how to make the most of the first piece of Christian literature many people see: your Church Bulletin. https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/06/ebook-are-printed-bulletins-still-needed-in-church/   The print bulletin can then give people links to your website where you can explain what you church is all about in more detail.

For example, suggest visitors go to the Visitor's Video section on the website. Have the lead pastor talk into the camera and welcome them. Have him or her talk about why they started the church and what is important to them. Have other videos where your staff explains what they do and their story of coming to know Jesus. Have a section that explains what communion is all about and why we sing songs (the idea of singing to worship is new to many who simply sing to feel better). A few notes on video production: anything will work to record them—these don't have to be fancy. PLEASE, don't try to be funny—this is not junior high school and amateur funny is awkward and uncomfortable to watch. You don't have to be super serious, just be yourself, but don't think about yourself and talk to the visitor as if you were face-to-face. Remember you represent Jesus.

#3: Keep in mind the limitations of social media.

Social media can update, give people a sense of what is going on in the church, and connect people who already know and care about each other. For a newcomer, it's like looking at a photo album without knowing who the people are. Social media is just that—social and not particularly informative about the Christian life.

If you aren't part of a group yet, you want information more than interaction. Make sure your website is a good a resource as the one for any product or company you checked out recently. As an exercise in what your church website should contain, Google "adventure tours."  They don't simply have social media links—they are there, but they are only a tiny part of the website that tells you all about what the company does, who is in charge, what you can expect, what it costs, who to contact for questions. The Christian life is the greatest adventure of all eternity—and your website should reflect that.

#4: Remember everything you do communicates.

Scary, but true. If you don't explain what is going on as people come in and they all just jump up and start singing for 20 minutes (songs the visitor doesn't know and that are repeated again and again), if you pass around little crackers and juice with the lights dim and no explanation of why the snack is so stingy, if everybody seems to know everybody, if the bathrooms are messy and there is no signage of where kids go—don't be surprised if you don't get a lot of visitors returning.

Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see everything you do with the questioning, often fearful heart of a visitor. If you really want to know what they see and how it comes across hire an unchurched friend or neighbor to come to church and ask him or her afterwards what it all meant. Not if they liked it (people are too polite), but simply, what did your actions, your setting, your words, and your people communicate to them?

#5: Evaluate, don't estimate communication effectiveness.

As your church grows in numbers, communication will get more challenging because the days of "everybody knows" will be in the past.  As you grow, honest evaluation of communications is vital because we so easily can deceive ourselves. When a lot is going on we can think we are successful in communication when our actual percentage response for what we are promoting may be in a steep decline. This most often happens in discipleship training. For example, in the early days of a church plant if 10 people show up for small group out of 30 on Sunday, it is exciting. When you are up to over 300 in Sunday morning attendance and only about 60 people are involved in small groups, yes, you doubled in numbers for small group attendance, but the percentage of involvement declined. What worked with a small group may need to be modified for a larger group.

#6: Keep growing and learning about communications.

This website has many resources that will help you. Take time, explore, read, and watch the free videos. You have been entrusted with the Words of Eternal Life. Continuously work hard to communicate them well.