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.

Four guidelines for the challenge of ever-changing communication channels

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Digital composite of web pagesAt one time I thought technology would never get any better than the self-correcting typewriter and press-on letters. Now I'm learning to create HD videos and podcasts.  As I've researched video and podcast hosting and distribution systems, at times my brain felt like a jumble of data that would never sort its way into a linear path of what to do next. I'm getting it figured out, but as I'm working out the next steps, I reminded myself of four guidelines I've used in the past to encourage people to try computers and websites without losing the focus on the importance of fully fulfilling the Great Commission. These helped me and may be useful if you are facing new challenges in communication technology:

#1—Don't confuse the media with the message

The media, the tool you use to craft and share your message is and will be constantly changing. Media changes always seem overwhelming and they are often difficult to get through. The change from typewriters to computers for church office communications, from cut and paste layout to MS Publisher to create the church bulletin, from print only to the expectations of a website and social media communication assortment for every church, from flowers to adorn the pulpit to multi-media projection systems—all of these have taken place in the recent experience of the church. The challenge is not only in learning how to use them, but to not allow the demands of the technology to overwhelm the priority of your message. Technology can be extraordinary demanding, but it must never be your North Star. Every person, every church has a North Star which guides all your communications whether you are conscious of it or not. The only appropriate North Star for the church communicator is to fully fulfill the Great Commission—to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and to grow to maturity in Him. The media is not our message—our message is our message. If our eye is on the goal of sharing Jesus truly and completely and growing followers into disciples , if that is the core of our message, though there are many parts of it and many steps in sharing it, we won't be thrown off course when new tools appear. [Read more...]

Great Sample of Prayer Ministry Brochure and Prayer Calendar

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2016-prayer-brochure-
This brochure is a great example of how we can be inspired to more than design in what we share in the Great Idea Swap.

This sample illustrates one of the main reasons we do the Great Idea Swap and that is to not only share great layout and design ideas, but to inspire us with what other members of the Body of Christ are doing in ministry. This brochure is an inspiring example of what Bonnie Kyle created for New Life Church for their month of prayer.

There are so many good things about the brochure including:

  • Clear explanation on the one side of what it's about and the guest speakers
  • When opened, a well-written history of the prayer month, plus a calendar that would be perfect to post on the refrigerator.

Below is a picture of the brochure. You can see it more clearly if you click on the image. At the end of this article, Effective Church Communication Members can download a PDF of the brochure.

We only have until Sept. 30 for collecting samples for our Great Idea Swap and WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please take 5 minutes right now and send us in a copy of bulletin you are did this week and perhaps one other sample (or more if you have time). Bulletins, flyers, newsletters, holiday PR, special ministry brochures, we'd appreciate any and all of them! [Read more...]

Effective Church Communications ranks on PAGE 1 of Google Search! and advice for your church to rank well

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ECC on Page one of Google SearchNot only one time, but 3 times!

This morning I decided to check to see where we are in terms of Google Search, so I entered in the generic "church communications" and this is what came up—3 listings on page one! To the left is a screen grab of it.

I was very happy to see that because I don't buy ad space, use paid SEO (search engine optimization) services, or do any of the dubious key word loading and all sorts of things that some recommend to get a site listed in even the first 5 pages of Google search.

What I work very hard to do is to provide church communicators with worthwhile, useful content. Google has stated repeatedly that is what they are honestly looking for when they rank websites.

I trust the results affirm we're doing some things right.

How this applies to your church

[Read more...]

3,000 on your membership list; 350 on Sunday? It may be a problem with your internal marketing

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Don't forget internal marketing in your church
When creating your outreach plans, remember it's just as important to plan INTERNAL marketing for people already attending your church.

A common challenge for many churches today is that they may have 2,000 to 3,000 people listed on the church rolls, but only a fraction of them show up each week.

Though there are many reasons for this, one key reason for is that many churches do little to no internal marketing. If a business never followed up with customers, but simply greeted them warmly when they came in the door, but never contacted them again, never sent a sale flyer or had any other contact with them, the customer would probably not return. A church is not very different.

Most churches put the majority of their church marketing and communication efforts on getting people outside the church to come to the church. Though this is important, we shouldn't stop there and just like the customer above, if a church doesn't work on communicating with current members, they may not see them often.

We also have more reasons to do internal marketing than the local business. Remember, Jesus commanded us to make disciples, not simply worship and special event attendees. We need to learn to use every tool of technology available to get people involved in the activities and ministries of our churches that will take them to the next step of Christian maturity. To do this we need to plan out our internal marketing and it works best if you have a coordinated approach using both social media and print.

Internal marketing defined

Internal marketing includes all the communications you create for people already attending your church to get them involved in the activities of your church or ministry that will help them grow to maturity in their Christian life. Not only is this important when people come to your church after a special event, but it is important on a continuing basis.

Far too often this aspect of marketing and communications does not take place in the church and if it does, it is done in an often haphazard and spotty way. This lack of attention to this aspect of marketing is seldom intentional. It happens because:

  • The church staff does not see the importance of need to do this kind of marketing because of the unspoken assumption that people will automatically attend small groups, training times and other activities of the church.
  • Because it is important to the staff, they think it is important to the congregation, but this is seldom true.
  • Church staff is too stressed out and overworked to do one more thing in communications and marketing than they are already doing.
  • There is no intentional plan for internal marketing and no way to measure the effectiveness of the program.
  • Internal marketing is only done through one channel—if that's social media primarily (as much is today) this doesn't have a an impact on people who prefer print or don't have access to digital channels.

Following are suggestions on how to begin to remedy this situation: [Read more...]

Typesetting for kid’s communications

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PDF of Typesetting for Kids publicationsCreating communications for children can be lots of fun, especially with the fun typefaces you can use.

This PDF gives you some guidelines to make your use of them more effective. Though it has some useful tips, the companies cited are no longer in business, but http://www.fontspace.com/ is and below are some of their current fonts that are great for children:

All the fonts above are from:  http://www.fontspace.com/ and are free downloads.

Google fonts also has a great selection of free fonts

One very important guideline to keep in mind is to NEVER use the typefaces that have reversed letters (such as a reversed "e" or "s"). It might seem like that would be a harmless, cute thing to do, but when little children receive a printed piece from a respected person in the church and the penmanship is all wrong, it can be confusing.

Have fun, do kid-friendly things, but always remember the position of authority and influence you have in young lives.

To download the PDF, 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.