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.

FREE Spiritual Endurance Encouragement verses in every imaginable format for you to share: Instagram, Facebook, Postcards and more!

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Set of Images for spiritual enduranceIt seems like we are all getting tired. For some tired of being inside; for others tired of the added work in job demands that now include digital demands on how to get work done. For others tired of not working and worrying about where food and rent money will come from.

For many, soul-tired of trying to remain upbeat no matter what the circumstances.

I'm tired also, but I've faced times of tired discouragement enough in my pilgrimage on this earth to know that the best way to lift myself up out of this downward spiral is to do someone for others. It especially helps if that involves giving them God's Word and His encouragement. The images below are available in every imaginable format and social media size for you to share in whatever way you want. You can download files of the individual sizes in the zip files below the sample images.

After you do that, please take a minute to read the material after the downloads for a little more about why I will be doing more materials like this in the same variety of formats.

Spiritual Encouragement Verses in many formats:

Various formats are in the ZIP files below. Download, unzip and then load up to whatever social media or communications you want. [Read more...]

Media Made for You: On the topic of Prayer

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Variety of Social media images to remind us to prayReminders to pray are always useful and here is a redone set of images for you in a variety of social media formats as well as MS Publisher and sized for PowerPoint.

Prayer social media and postcard images to share

To download the jpg., low res file, CLICK THIS Link: Prayer, jpg

To download the INSTAGRAM IMAGES FILE, CLICK THIS Link: Prayer INSTAGRAM

To download the PINTEREST file, CLICK THIS Link: Prayer, PINTEREST

To download the FACEBOOK POST file, CLICK THIS Link: Prayer, FACEBOOK

To download the PDF postcards and MS Publisher file, CLICK THIS Link: Prayer, MS Publisher and Postcards PDF

To download PowerPoint size images, CLICK THIS Link: Prayer, POWERPOINT size

 

 

A solution to giving for churches that are not meeting and it doesn’t involve online giving

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How to collect an offering even though the church isn't meeting
Just because the church building is empty, we can still encourage each other and financially support the church.

How can a church keep going financially when we don't meet and aren't able to take up an offering?

Hi, this is YP and welcome to the Effective Church Communications podcast!

In our current challenging times, many churches are concerned (and justifiably so) with how they will pay the bills when the church is not meeting together regularly. I've got a great solution for you and you don't need to learn any new technology to do it.

Listen to the podcast below or continue reading for the solution.

For many churches, the Sunday morning offering is still the primary way the church gets tithes and offerings from the congregation.

The frequent response to this situation of churches not meeting is to emphasize online giving and though that is a great solution in many churches (and I personally love using it), it isn't a viable solution for many others. Either the church does not have online giving in place, doesn't want to set it up, or a large group of people in the church simply don't want to use it.

Technology isn't the answer to everything and sometimes trusted methods work well in challenging times. [Read more...]

The POWER of PRINT, with FREE POSTCARDS during this challenging time for people

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encouraging postcards to send from churches during the virus
Postcards can reach people that streaming services can't. Please share with those who may be alone.

This morning our church held its first online service. We are a small church, not especially technically advanced, and we don't typically do this type of thing. But here in California, it is a state mandate for the services to cancel and as positively as possible, we complied.

It was delayed for some time because of who knows what difficulties and the final product was a little choppy. Only about a third of the music people had any lights on them at all. Yet I was amazed at how touched I was by the service and how effective it was. Because of the delay, everyone in chat was very talkative while we waited. We are an older congregation and I was surprised at the amount of interaction between all ages. The closeness of everyone was palpable and I felt the reality of the Body of Christ in my heart more than I've ever felt in a service together. All in all, a wonderful experience.

But I was also very aware of the people who were not part of the service.

There are numerous people in our congregation who I know do not have computers at home or smartphones (they have been in my Sunday School classes and I know them well).

In this time where the virus is incredibly isolating, we are able to do great things with technology and it's a fantastic time for churches to stretch themselves in this area. But not everyone has access to the technology to receive what we put out in new ways. Those who can't are some of the most vulnerable, fragile, and isolated people in the church. We must take care of them also.

So what to do for them?

Print is still possible!

The mail doesn't seem to have been affected by the virus and it's an opportunity to take a second look at one of my favorite forms of communication—The POSTCARD!!!!

I'll be doing a series of articles and sharing ideas and FREE TEMPLATES for you in the coming days on how to communicate during this challenging time, but to get you started, I created a set of FREE POSTCARDS for you. They are all simply non-editable PDFs I created using Canva Templates (you have to download them as a complete graphic, that's why you can't edit them). But I did a layout for you in MS Publisher so you can print them 4 to a page and print or write a message from your church on the back.

This set was created to encourage people—fear and uncertainty are pervasive, but it is also an incredible opportunity to encourage people in our great God. When I did the first draft of this post, I made it specifically for everyone who doesn't have access to online materials. However, I then realized that EVERYONE needs tangible encouragement--so make them up for everyone!

Below are pictures of them and below that a ZIP file for you to download, save, and print. Please freely share these with anyone who would find them helpful.

Much more will be coming. Pray for me for the strength and focus to do all that will be helpful for Church Communicators. I am praying for all of you that you step up and serve as never before to equip and encourage your people in our Great God!

CLICK the following link to download ready-to-print PDFs of the Postcards: PDF Quarter Page Encouraging Postcards

CLICK the following link to download IMAGES of the Postcards: Postcards to Encourage

The total file was too big to combine both, but you can use the single images however you might want.

 

PLAN NOW for what you will do for the Sunday AFTER Easter, so people will return

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Invite people to engage with you after Easter
Invite people to engage with you after Easter for a lasting impact on their lives.

One of the biggest challenges for churches is how to get people to come back to church after holidays and special events. There are many things you can do that I'll be sharing but now is the time for the most important thing you need to do to get people to come back after your Easter celebrations.

You need to schedule an event to give people a reason to return.

No doubt you'll do a fantastic job in your Easter celebration, but think about the people who perhaps came to your Easter service because a friend or family member asked them or the church was holding an event for their children. Easter may have brought up questions. People new to the message of Easter may find themselves asking:

Did Jesus really rise from the dead? And if he did, what does it mean to me?

Plan ahead for your church to answer those questions

There are many ways you can do this. Some that have worked well for churches in the past include:

  1. A sermon the Sunday after Easter entitled "Is there really life after death for me?" The pastor of a large church in Colorado Springs preached a similar sermon for many years the Sunday after Easter, they advertised it well at the service and to the community. As a result, they always had as large of a turn out than they did for Easter Sunday. If you've done a good job of presenting the resurrection of Jesus, answering the question of "what does it mean to me" is a natural follow-up.
  2. You can invite them to a series of seeker Bible Studies. They can be something created by your church looking at the life of Jesus or you can use a program like Christianity Explored, which is an excellent presentation of the life of Jesus for people outside the church using the Gospel of Mark. I highly recommend you look at it.
  3. You can invite them to "Latte with the Pastor." I've recommended this a number of times and in many situations, but the basic idea is to follow up with guests (you did use connection cards, didn't you? If not, please see the materials on them and use the free downloads for them) who gave you their information with coupons for a free latte or two and an invitation to join the pastor to "ask any question you want about the Christian faith" at your local coffee shop. I've made a set of postcards to help you do this. Here they are and the link is at the end of this article:

There are many variations of this that you could do: asking people to come to a dessert at church for open-ended discussions, or for people in the church to have small groups in their homes or whatever would appeal to the age group or community you are ministering in. Whatever you choose, the idea is to do something to engage people outside the church to return to ask questions they have about Jesus.

DO THIS NOW

As you get closer to Easter itself and in the midst of Easter celebrations you'll be too busy to think about what to do after Easter. You need to plan ahead. You need to get all the materials done and ready for it or it won't happen.

Of course, you'll be tired after Easter. Exhausted most likely.

Many pastors take the week off. Taking that time off to rest is understandable, but if you do you miss out on an incredible opportunity to make a lasting, perhaps eternity-changing connection with the people who came on Easter Sunday.

This year, push through the exhaustion, remembering Jesus, "who for the joy that was set before him, endured" and connect with the people you challenged at Easter and lead them to an eternal relationship with Jesus. That is what He came to bring about. It's your task to make it happen in your community.

For follow up materials, go to FREE TEMPLATES for Easter follow up here: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/easter-templates/#toc-3

While you are there, look around—there are lots of FREE TEMPLATES you can download and use for all aspects of your Easter Celebrations.