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.

Video: How to create resizable maps for Church Invitation Cards and other communications

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Church Business and Invitation Cards can be powerful outreach tools, but to accomplish all they can and should for your church you need to pack as much useful information in them as possible. One key piece of information is a map to your event.

Even in these days of Google Maps, Mapquest and GPS, a simple, paper-based map is invaluable to give people an immediate and practical way to get to your church or event. It is a challenge to provide one because if you try to use one of the maps from the Internet they have too much information to shrink down in size.

You need to create your own simplified version. This is very easy to do with MS Publisher and the short video below will show you how.

IMPORTANT NOTE before you watch the video:

This video shows you how to take a screen capture of a map and then use it to easily create your own map in MS Publisher. I used Snagit, my favorite screen capture program and one I highly recommend to do the screen capture. If you do not have Snagit or any screen capture software, here are two options:

  1. Get a free trial of Snagit at www.snagit.com
  2. Go to this excellent article about free screen capture software and download one of the products. I have not used these (keep wanting to try one, but love Snagit so much....), but this is a trustworthy site just click the URL and it will take you to the site: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-screen-capture-utility.htm

Pledge Card/Committment Card Sample that includes more than money and reminds us of our committment to discipleship

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In church we often talk about giving our "time, talent, and treasure," but when it is time for the congregation to give its annual pledge, many churches only ask for money. In this wonderful sample from Gordon M., his church asks for not only a monetary pledge, but asks for very important commitments in all areas of spiritual growth, as shown below. It is only after these areas that the financial part of the card comes in. Here is the sample text, the PDFs and editable files are described below.

Pray for Duncan Memorial at least   ___ Daily  ___Weekly ___Monthly

Worship at Duncan Memorial (or elsewhere) ___Weekly  ___ 2x/Month  ___ Monthly

Discipleship Growth Group participation (Accountability/Bible Study/Prayer/Sunday School, etc.)  ___Yes

Volunteer to help with other Duncan Memorial ministries:  ___Children/Youth Sunday School   ___Serve on Committee

___Meals  ___Office Help  ___Yard Work/Maintenance  ___Visitation  ___Mission  ___ Other ____

Serve the poor at least one hour ___ Weekly  ___ Monthly  ___ Quarterly

Share our faith with others and/or invite others to experience Christ here  ___Yes

On the back of the card is a Tithe Chart.

I like so much about this card because not only does it ask for commitment, but it very strongly reminds church members that being a Christian involves prayer, worship, discipleship, volunteering, helping the poor and sharing our faith. As leaders in the church, we need to remind our people that ALL of these actions are important in our faith and this card is a fantastic reminder.

Below is what the card looks like on the Front and Back.

 Below the images is a link and you can download Two Zip Files:

One is titled "Commitment Cards" and it has a PDF, 3-up of the card, a PNG image if you wanted to put it on PowerPoint or use it for training, plus an editable MS Publisher file so that you can modify the file and make one for your church.

The Second file is titled "Tithe Chart" and it has a PDF of the chart, 3 up, ready for you to print, a PNG image to use on PowerPoint (show it to the congregation and encourage them to look it over and pray about it) and an editable MS Publisher file of the chart. You probably don't want to modify the chart, but you may want to change the header to personalize it for your church.

The files can be accessed below the images.  Again a HUGE thank you to Gordon! You've blessed us all!!!

Committment Card Image

To access the files click on the link, download the ZIP file and SAVE IT to your desktop. Then just click on it to open the files. Remember you do have to have MS Publisher to open the files, but anyone should be able to use the PDFs and the PNG image files.

For the Commitment Card ZIP FILE, click here.

For the Tithe Card ZIP FILE, click here.

 

Special Event Connection Cards: Samples, Examples of MS Publisher Editable files, PDFs, JPGs

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For your Outreach or Bridge event to be truly successful, you need to connect with the people who come to it on an ongoing basis. These Connection Cards are one of the most effective ways to do that. Click here or on the image to download a PDF Preview of the Connection Cards that are in this file.

Below is the link to a ZIP file that has for the cards:

A PDF that is ready to print

If you like the images and wording, the all you have to do is open the PDF and print it out. Each of the images is one-quarter of an 8 1/2 by 11 inch page.

An editable MS Publisher File

Just open the Publisher file and you can edit the Connection Card in any way you like—change the wording,  image, or the color. If you are going to be doing a two-color printing of a Connection Card using a digital duplicator, I've found the easiest way to do it is to do a "Save As" of one color, e.g. for the Christmas one, Save a GREEN MASTER. Then do a "Save As" of black, e.g. a BLACK MASTER and then print each pass using each of these. This is makes it really simple. Be sure to save the combined file first if you ever want to print it on a copier or as one color.

JPG image

This is included for you to use if you want on your PowerPoint presentations, in your bulletin or however else you want to use them. You may want to tell your entire congregation via PowerPoint or in your church newsletter or website  that you have these cards and want people to encourage others to fill them out. You may want to use the images to do training of your volunteers for the event itself--whatever you need it for these images are there for you!

Below is a ZIP file that has all the materials described above.

How to open a ZIP file

Click on the link below and a box will come up asking if you want to "Open" or "Save" the file. You want to SAVE it. I recommend that you save it to your desktop so it is easier to find. The download will take a couple of minutes or more depending upon your Internet speed. Once the download is complete, double-click on the file. If a dialog box comes up, follow what it says, if not just double-click on the files and that will open the file that has all three forms of each Connection Card ready for you to use.

CLICK HERE to download the ZIP file that has the editable MS Publisher Files, JPGs, and ready-to print PDFs of these Special Event Connection Cards.

Connection card corrections for Canada and the world (ZIP FILE included) and the benefits of telling me what I do wrong

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A wonderful illustration of how the body of Christ works and of how desperately we need each other in all our communications work was gently shown me in an email I received right after I sent out my previous newsletter letting all of you know about the Connection Card Templates I'd created to inspire everyone and for immediate use for members.

Members, that is, unless they live in Canada or (and we have members in England, Holland, Australia, Puerto Rico)--for all of you I greatly apologize because I put on the cards "city, state, zip." Great for the U.S., not so much for those not living in states with zip codes. What really makes me upset with myself is that I have spent many, many days, weeks, goodness knows how much time in Canada. My grandfather was from Canada--you would think I would know about provinces and postal codes!

But I forgot.

And a very kind member from Canada reminded me that he had to change all of what I thought were ready-to-print materials.

One tiny change makes all the difference

A new file is added for members, at then end of this article with all the changes made. If you aren't a member—do consider joining, click here to find out more--it is the best $9.99 a month you will spend to equip yourself and your church.

All the files have  one very simple change, but that I will do for all the materials I make up in the future: I simply took out the "city, state, zip" and changed "street address" to simply: Address.

That should work anywhere.

If the kind pastor hadn't shared, I would not have made the change

PLEASE, please let me know if something that I do is not working for you, or if you have additional questions or need things—my goal is to serve all of you so that your churches can more effectively fully fulfill the Great Commission.

If possible—go ahead and put your questions in the COMMENT sections of the articles. That way when I answer, everyone will see the question and answer.

You can also always email me at yvon@effectivechurchcom.com if you would prefer to do that.

Most of all pray for me for wisdom to serve you and our Lord in ways that grow His church and give Him joy.

My blessings to you today!

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Click here for the ZIP file of the 6 Seasonal Connection Card Templates.