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.

Organizations to support, in obedience to the book of Amos and Matthew 25:31-46

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There are many great ministries doing wonderful things in our world today. Here are some we support.

In a recent lesson for my Bible805 ministry, in going through the Bible I did a lesson on the book of Amos. The book is both a scathing inditement of the religiously active, but morally bankrupt Israel of the prophet's day and a challenge to all of us to be sure that our lives reflect the compassion and justice of God.

Many can do things personally, but many cannot but most of us can give something to support organizations who are doing incredible things for the Kingdom of God. Below are some of the organizations I recommend. Just click on the name to go to a description of what they do, their website, and my comments about them.

These are just a few of the many that are doing wonderful things—I also HIGHLY recommend that you go through your denomination when looking who to support. Many of the larger ones have reputable, long-established aid organizations.

Your local food banks, the prison ministries of your church, and outreach to the homeless and less fortunate, all of these need our help and support.

I encourage you on your church website and periodically in your handouts or bulletins provide a list like this and encourage your people to give generously to the many ministries that serve the "least of these."

Ministries Recommended by Yvon Prehn and Effective Church Communications

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Bulletin Inserts: Shop for Your Christmas Child Boxes during back to school sales

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Sam Purse bulletin inserts 1
If you shop during Back-to-School sales you can get great deals you can put away for your Christmas Child Shoe box. These bulletin inserts contain this and other great tips.

This time of year, when lots of sales are going on for Back-to-School, is a great time to buy for the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child. This is a wonderful ministry where people in your church pack shoe boxes for children in need around the world.

A bulletin insert like the ones to the left are a great way to remind people in your church to buy these items ahead of time.

I'm making our archived designs free for everyone in a ZIP file that has:

  • Ready-to-print PDF files of all the images, 2 to a page, you can print the front without editing  and add any additional church-specific information on the back
  • An MS Word File with the wording if you want to use it in other communications in print or on the web
  • Editable MS Publisher files of each design
  • PNG images at  96 dpi of each file if you would want to post it on your website or in an email.
  • JPG hi-resolution images of each file if you want to use it in your bulletin or other print publication

Sam Purse bulletin inserts 2Sam Purse bulletin inserts 3All of these items are in the ZIP FILE at the end of the article. I

See the official list of items recommended by Samaritan's Purse, and all the related information about what to buy, not buy, packing information and shipping costs on their website: http://www.samaritanspurse.org website.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE

Operation Christmas Child: a fantastic idea from one ECC Member that involves the congregation

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Operation Christmas Child
Photo from Carmel Lutheran website--this church has an innovative way to involve the members of the congregation in this fantastic ministry--read the article to find out about it.

All of you have the GREATEST IDEAS! Following our previous  article that featured Bulletin Inserts to encourage your people to  shop ahead for Christmas Child Boxes (CLICK HERE to go to it) one of our wonderful ECC Members sent me this email.

It shares a fantastic way a church does their Operation Christmas Child ministry, not only getting lots of boxes for the children, but involving the congregation in the project:

I absolutely LOVE OCC, (Operation Christmas Child, from Samaritan's Purse) so your inserts were especially great for me! In fact, I’m in charge of our church’s OCC efforts. Over the last 5 years, we’ve put together about 2100 boxes!

For these last 5 years, I’ve been able to secure a grant from an organization, as well as getting some $$ from our Outreach Team & Lutheran Women’s Missionary League group. I then take that $$ and shop the super-deep discounts throughout the year for school supplies, toys, clothing, etc. (it fulfills my need to shop without my husband getting nervous!).

Then, for 6 weeks in Oct. & Nov., we set up a “store” in one of our classrooms at church that’s open Sunday nights and other arranged times. Small groups, families, kids, etc. from church will come by, grab a shoebox (that’s already been wrapped by some great volunteers!) and go around the store and fill the box.

I ask them to either cover the cost of shipping a box, or donate items. It is just so great to see all ages fill boxes. (Last year, a teen boy went to fill a box for a girl, and I kept hearing him say “Now, what would a 5 year old girl like???” He spent about a half hour carefully deciding. I loved that!) In fact, just today, I got a letter from someone in Uganda, and it included a photo of him holding one of OUR boxes! I almost started crying!

From: Cathy K., Carmel Lutheran

PLEASE SEND additional ideas and we will organize and share them

I'm sure many of you have wonderful ways that you reach out to those with great needs at Christmas and many other times of the year. After reading Cathy's example and after watching the news tonight about the ongoing hunger crisis in Somalia, I realized that as communicators we can do a lot to help meet the needs of those around the world.

We can help with our communications that inspire and encourage people to give and we can then give concrete examples of where and how to give.

Sometimes creating these kinds of communications isn't easy, so Effective Church Communications will start a program to collect them, organize and host communications about meeting needs and make them freely available.

If you are interested in helping, CLICK HERE to go to the article that explains this.

Bulletin Inserts: Back-to-School Backpack Ministry, ways to involve your congregation

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Backpack Image 1
Back-to-school, Backpack Ministries are a fantastic way to care for the children of your community. This article and the one linked to it provide ideas for church bulletin inserts that will communicate your message to the congregation.

Back to School was always a wonderful time of year for me, but for many kids, it can be a time of sadness if they don't have what they need. This is a simple, but powerful ministry your church can do. Below is the introduction to the church bulletins:

Back-to-School Backpack
Ministry
—an opportunity to bring joy to needy kids

School is about to start and it’s a time of excitement, fun, and discovery for many children. But for some children, it means showing up at school without crayons or pencils, notebooks or glue, without the supplies they need. Sadly today, many parents can’t pay for them and schools are unable to provide them.

But the body of Christ can. Our church has a ministry where we provide filled backpacks to little kids who need them.

We have four ways you can help:
......and the inserts go on to give specific advice

Last year's bulletin inserts are free CLICK HERE to go to them.

For a personal article on the meaning of this ministry to me, CLICK HERE.

This year, samples for inspiration and editable files

The samples on this page are new versions of the Bulletin Inserts. At the bottom of this page is a link to a ZIP FILE.

The ZIP FILE contains:

  • PDF ready-to-print files of the inserts
  • MS Publisher editable files
  • MS Word text file if you want to create your own
  • PNG low-res images if you want to promote them on your website
  • JPG hi-res images if you want to print them

Below is the Free ZIP FILE --simply click on it, save on your hard drive, click to open and use as you will!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE

Last year's bulletin inserts are free CLICK HERE to go to them.

For a personal article on the meaning of this ministry to me, CLICK HERE.

For the bulletin inserts in the video on Sales Tips for Children's Shoe Box, CLICK HERE.

Request for advice from a new missionary, how to communicate?

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Missionary communication advice
Missionaries today must communicate in many formats, here are some ideas.

I recently got an email asking for communication advice on how to communicate as a missionary. Though I shared some ideas (I did missionary communications for years for two Christian organizations), this is an area that both I and Rusty, the missionary who asked, would greatly appreciate your comments--either for him as a missionary, what to write, but also what you as a supporter of missionaries have found useful.

Enter your responses in the COMMENT area below this article and THANK YOU in advance!

Email to Yvon Prehn

My family and I are now serving as missionaries in Budapest, HU. We find ourselves trying to communicate even more than we did as youth ministers.

I wondered if you might have, or know where we could find, some information that deals specifically with missions updates and letters. there are so many ways to communicate now beyond a typical/traditional monthly newsletter. I'm wondering what is most effective, though i suppose we are all wondering that.

I look forward to your response, thanks.

From Rusty

My response:

Great question! I have a couple of ideas on this and I am going to post it as a question on my site and ask for comments. Initially here are some ideas that I have:

Background, it would probably be helpful to let you know why I'm sharing: In the past, I worked for both Compassion Intl. and Young Life and a big part of my job for both was to write fund-raising, missionary updates etc. From what I was told, my materials were very successful in raising support. With the assumption that people vote with their pocket books (as well they should--wise stewardship in giving to worth causes), it seems that my methods were successful. [Read more...]