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.

Effective Volunteer Recruitment Communications Samples: advice and PDF examples

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Ideas for volunteer ministry
Some churches do an incredible job of recruiting, encouraging and training volunteers and here is an opportunity to learn from them.

Every church needs a committed and enthusiastic team of volunteers if all the ministries and needs of the church are to work as a healthy representative of the Body of Christ.Recruiting that team, training, and keeping them functioning well are some of the major responsibilities of church communicators. Following is some overall advice and then some excellent PDF samples (click on the image for the full PDF download) of volunteer communications. The samples include a fantastic overall volunteer handbook, two volunteer recruitment and job listing booklets and one of the most complete ministry description brochures I've ever seen for church ushers. This is an extremely useful collection of volunteer equipping sample materials.

Advice for creating effective volunteer communication materials

Unfortunately, creating the communications support to keep these ministries functioning well is usually not at the top of any church communicator's list. It isn't nearly as much fun as doing a flyer for the summer picnic or any other primarily design-oriented piece because for volunteer communications to be truly effective requires: [Read more...]

Multi-channel communications advice from the publisher of USA TODAY

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Multichannel communication is needed in churches
We live in a time of Multi-channel communication and here is advice on how to work together as a team  to make the most of it.

When Larry Kramer, founder of the successful MarketWatch website, took over as the new publisher of USA TODAY he made some comments that provide a challenge to communication ministries in churches when he talked about how he wants to give people the news. He said, “The paper will build ‘closer relationships with our readers’ through new uses of technologies. ‘We’re going to give people what they want, when they want it, where they want it. You want it on your watch, I’ll give it to you. Or inside of your sunglasses.’ ” (http://wapo.st/Jw8EBg ) In the church, we may not have all these options to communicate through all the channels available to Kramer, but we have a world to reach with the gospel, so what can we do?

We don’t have the money, but we have the resources

Individual churches don’t have the money to provide communications in the multitude of channels—print, digital, and every variation imaginable in both these areas—in the ways that USA TODAY can. But that doesn’t mean churches can’t keep up with this constantly changing communication revolution with the resources that make them successful in every other ministry endeavor. That way is to realize that the task of providing communications in every channel needed for the church, isn’t a one-person job, but a challenge for the church body. No one person can keep up with technology; no one person can create all the communications needed for a church communications that ministers to all the people at all the church. In practical terms this means:

You need a communications team made up of people who are proficient with the various channels

Quit looking for one person who can do it all. You need a team made up of some who love print; some who dream in HTML code; some who love images; some who love type and words in order; some who can create a great postcard and others who can text with their eyes closed, some who love the discipline of a monthly newsletter with consistent columns and articles, others who gravitate to the free-flowing forms of social media. You need people who are good in person-to-person communications, people who love the web, and people who manage databases effortlessly.

Please reread the paragraph above. Many churches today think they only need to work on what they consider "cutting-edge communications" and that they need to get the youngest, most tech savvy person available to do them. But the church is made up of many people of many ages and skills, of many degrees of access to different technologies. As a church body, we must be committed to serving all of them.

As you do that, here are Four Suggestions on how to create and manage multi-channel church communications: [Read more...]

When you need some help for Church Communications: a FREE e-book–Divide your communication team into 2 production levels

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There is never enough time to get all the work done that needs to be done in church communications. One way to solve this problem is to have volunteers do some of the work. However, many church office administrators and church leaders aren't comfortable doing this because they are concerned about the level of quality that volunteers product. Or they worry that they won't really be able to control what volunteers do.

Click on image to download this free ebook.
Click on image to download this free e-book.

This e-book has a solution to this challenge: Divide your communication team into 2 production levels.

When you do this, you can have one level that you have strict control over and one that you can flex with a little more, but that still helps relieve the huge burden of communications that need to be produced. CLICK on the image to the left to download a FREE e-book that will detail this process. It is free for everyone and please pass on the link to others.

When you do this, you can have one level that you have strict control over and one that you can flex with a little more, but that still helps relieve the huge burden of communications that need to be produced. CLICK HERE or on the image to the left to download a FREE e-book that will detail this process. It is free for everyone and please pass on the link to others.

Why ministry leaders aren’t always good communicators and what to do about it

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Leaders communication challenges
Leaders can't sit at their desks to create all communications needed--they need a team to help.

The important term in the headline here is "aren't always." Ministry leaders, including pastors, leaders of groups like Young Life, and missionaries are almost always great verbal communicators or they wouldn't be in ministry. They do great talking to groups, teaching, challenging, motivating. But in today's multi-channel communication universe, that isn't enough.

What's needed today

When the Apostle Paul said he needed to be "all things to all people that he might win some," he had no idea of the multitude of communication tools and effective ministry program needs today, but his words couldn't be more true in this area.

You need a variety of communication tools because no church or ministry is a homogeneous group when it comes to what communication tools works best for each person in it.Your message stays the same, but for different groups of people to take it in and act on it, you need different ways to reach them. Here are some examples:

What works in a church

In the church, some people like the traditional bulletin and print newsletter to find out what's going on at the church. Others prefer to get their church news online. Others will only pay attention if they get a text message just before an event and others need large print format to stay informed. In the church if you want your people to know what is going on and to take part, it doesn't matter what you as a leader like or think is useful and proper for the church. What matters is what channels of communication are the various people in your church are responding to.

In the church we always need to remember that the majority does not rule when it comes to being a servant to all. There may only be 4-5 or 10-20 people who still need the newsletter printed out and mailed to them, but we must always remember that our Lord went after the one little sheep. He expects us to value the straying and weak in the same way. [Read more...]