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; Effective Church Communications can help.

Template for Senior Newsletter

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This newsletter in a MS Publisher template for a newsletter for Seniors.
This newsletter in a MS Publisher template for a newsletter for Seniors.

When designing publications for seniors, a few small changes can make it much more readable.

This newsletter template has typeface size, line-spacing, line length and boxed materials all optimized for seniors. Though the layout here is designed for seniors, it could work well for many other types of newsletters.

It it available as an MS Publisher template for Effective Church Communication Members. You must have MS Publisher to open and use it.

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CLICK HERE to download it.

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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.

What should be the length of church communications? Bulletins, newsletters, website entries?

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What should be the length of church communications?
What should be the length of church communications? This article will show you why short isn't always best.

The answer to these questions isn’t as obvious as it might seem. I think initially, with our busy schedules today many people would instinctively answer “SHORT!” Almost no one complains that church website, bulletin, the printed newsletter is too short. But before you set an arbitrary rule such as "all website, blog and newsletter articles must be less than 500 words, or "the Bulletin can never be longer than 2 pages" consider the following statements that apply to both print and digital church communications:

Church communications contain a variety of written topics

Many church communications are news, notes, and announcements about upcoming activities that work well in short-form messages. But that isn't all--churches communicate vision-casting, teaching, history, and story-telling. Church communications include schedules, guidelines, rules (such as, what you need to do to become a volunteer in children's ministry), and ministry instruction. This variety of content requires a variety of length and the variety of communication no more needs to be the same length than all the articles and sections in a newspaper need to be the same length. The editorial requires a different amount of space than a box score and a lead article more than an ad selling a refrigerator.

The length should be appropriate to the topic

More important than setting an arbitrary length, the length of the communication should be appropriate to the topic. For example, if the senior pastor is explaining the vision of the church, inspiring members for outreach or missions, setting a new direction or challenging for a building campaign, that piece will need more space than directions to the church picnic.

 

Have layers of length on the same topic

Announcements of recurring events do not need long, lengthy explanations on why people should attend. Short, catchy announcements designed what I call “want-ad style” and that contain the name of the sponsoring person or group, purpose, starting and ending time, full contact information, cost and directions to get there and if childcare is provided are what is needed in a list of announcements. If more information is needed place a hyperlink to another page on your website or to the website if you are writing in your bulletin to a section that has more materials, background, or staff explanations.

Giving options like this—a basic list of connecting details that links to a longer explanation if wanted—is great for both people who are familiar with the church and visitors or newcomers. When you give people options like this you are respecting their need for however much information they want. If you decide for them, you will most likely not meet the needs of one group or another, but if you give options, everyone gets the information they want.

Longer material can be made more visually interesting by breaking it into sections

In both print and on the web, sections and lists can have headers and subheads that define the topics. You can also use bullet points or numbered lists, summarize key facts in a side-bar, pull out interesting or key quotes and highlight them, add a picture and caption. A page or two (print or digital) with these visual elements integrated into the content will be read more easily than a solid page or two of text with no breaks.

Give the sections titles that can be scanned for content, not labels

One of the biggest reasons people don't read through the event or announcement lists in either print or digital church communications is that for many of them you have to read the ENTIRE list to see if anything is useful to you or applies to you and your family. This happens because many of the subheads say the same thing:

  • Don't miss this!
  • Mark your calendars!
  • Greatest event ever!
  • This will change your life—be sure to come!

All of the above are rah-rah fluff and don't say anything, let alone encourage anyone to read the content or attend the event. Instead, consider subheads such as these:

  • Children's baptism class will be held on Sat. June 14
  • Summer camp for junior high July 1-8
  • Evangelism tent meeting will be held at the church in August
  • Digital Bible Study tools workshop to be held at church this Thursday, 7-8pm

With a subhead list like the one above a person could quickly skim through the topics or events, but would only need to read what applies to that person and their family.

Finally, focus on content, not length

Length, especially for digital communications where we don't need to worry about paper or printing costs, is one of the least important considerations for church communications.

No one ever says, "The 500-limit word count of that article changed my life!" But there are many stories of lives changes from reading the short verse of Jn. 3:16 to the longer book of Romans. Different people respond to different amounts of content.

No matter what the amount, be sure to create worthy content, making certain that your words are reflective of your Lord. If you do that, no matter what the length of your communication, they will all have a part (even if it is a tiny step) in fully fulfilling the Great Commission of helping people come to know Jesus as Savior and growing to mature discipleship.

Don't cut yourself short; don't waste words and babble on without editing, but say what you need to say to fulfill the message the Lord wants you to share today. Ask for His help. Little or long, He knows precisely what is needed.

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Why and how to create a digital church bulletin

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Church Bulletin SAMPLE
Your church bulletin is the key to essential information about your church--be sure to have it in both print and digital formats.

Many churches forget that Sunday is no longer a sacred day and many people either have to work or have sports events that involve their children on Sunday morning. These same people might be very interested in activities during the week: small groups, activities for children, service opportunities, training and prayer times.How can we keep them cared for and informed?

Though social media is being used by many churches, it is seldom updated consistently or complete in the information it has. Church websites look better than ever, but again, most churches don't keep them as updated on essential details that connect people to events. Realistically, the church bulletin is still  the primary communication tool about these activities in many churches and if you don't get the bulletin, you miss out.

Make certain that doesn't happen by having a PDF bulletin on your website that anyone can access even if they have to miss on Sunday morning.

One of the easiest ways to create a digital bulletin is to simply make a PDF of the print bulletin you produce and upload it to your website. The purpose of this PDF on your website isn't to replace the print version, but to add to the communication reach of the content in it. You only have to create the content once, but creating a PDF gives you another way to distribute the information that will help people connect with the church and grow as disciples.

A PDF bulletin can be downloaded, printed, and read like the regular bulletin. This is a wonderful ministry for shut-ins or people who cannot attend Sunday morning regularly.

Don't think either the PDF Bulletin or any form of social media is the only one necessary—you need both.

Remind people your digital bulletin is available through emails, Facebook, Twitter or other social media you use. Social media are effective for instant, brief communication, but your Bulletin can contain much more information and it can be saved and put on the refrigerator as a reminder.Social media is also an ever-flowing stream and it's hard to look up the time to an event or directions or why you should come if you didn't get it (or most likely weren't told it) in a tweet.  In addition, the Bulletin can refer to the website for even more details about an event or ministry. In the PDF version of a digital bulletin you can link directly to more information, detailed schedules, sign-up forms.

This is not a time of either/or in our communication methods if we honestly want to involve everyone in the activities of our church that can change lives; it's a time of both/and. This means doing all we can do through every communication channel possible to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples. This means creating both print and digital bulletins.

Additional tips if you create a PDF Bulletin

  • Be sure the bulletin is available for download on your website by Sunday morning – again, keeping in mind someone who may not be able to attend the church in the morning, but may need information about an event in the afternoon. As soon as you print the bulletin, put it on the website.
  • Make the bulletin easy to find on your website. Have a tab or advertisement or box or whatever works on your website to let people know that the church bulletin can be accessed and have the location clearly labeled once a person gets to that section so they know what they are downloading.
  • When you save the bulletin as a PDF, you can then save the PDF as a graphic jpg image. You can place a small thumbnail of that image on your website along with the date of the service. Make the image a link to the PDF so a visitor can download the bulletin PDF by clicking the image. You could load up the image to your church Pinterest account if you have one.
  • To make your bulletin especially useful to someone who downloads it, insert hyperlinks in your text so that people can find out more about ministries. For example, you could have a link on the title "Children's Ministry" that would take people to the Children's Ministry section on your website. This tip assumes that your website is complete and up-to-date.

A Biblical precedent for making your Bulletin accessible in a variety of formats

We admire the Apostle Paul who said he was "all things to all people that he might win some."  Paul adapted himself to the needs of his audience because he knew all of them needed Jesus. He used a variety of communication methods and messages to reach as many people as he could.

We follow his example when we take the time to create print materials, turn them into PDFs, post them online, tell people through social media they are available and create relevant links for people who need more information. If we want people to come to know Jesus in our secular, busy world we need to meet people where they are and use every communication tool possible to link them to our church and to the ministries that will help them come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples.