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.

Sample of an EFFECTIVE church calendar postcard

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church postcard sample
You don't have to be fancy to inform people about important events at church. Postcards are a great way to do it!

This isn't a fancy publication, but I think if more churches would send out something like this, the impact for the Kingdom of God would be tremendous!

I'm saying that because we know many people today for good and bad reasons (have to work or choose sports) don't always attend church on Sundays. But that doesn't mean they may not want to attend other events at the church at other times. However, in most churches, if you aren't there on Sunday, you miss out knowing what else is going on because you didn't get the bulletin. Some churches may post it online, but if you don't have access to a computer or don't bother to check out the church website regularly, you won't see it.

The wonderful effectiveness of POSTCARDS

Postcards get taken from the mailbox, read quickly and often are then posted on the refrigerator serving as a continual POSTER of what is going on at the church.

A postcard like the one below, created by Ebenezer United Church,  is incredibly effective in how it reminds people of what is going on at the church. Below is a picture, at the end of this article a download for members of Effective Church Communications. Click on the image to see the printed side more clearly and then ECC Members can download the PDF file below.

Like the example above showed, you don't have to be fancy

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A Season of Inviting, start the fall off right

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As I was doing research for creating invitations to get people to come back to church, I found this absolutely FANTASTIC video and group in England that has taken the idea of just one Sunday to invite people to a season of inviting. The video is a joy to watch and the idea of expanding from one time to a whole season of inviting.

Giving your congregation six times throughout the fall and advent season to invite people to church greatly increases the possibility they will attend. I just found this and am still thinking and praying about how I will use this for Effective Church Communications--but for now take a few minutes to watch the video.

Two videos on Back to Church Sunday

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/we-all-know-we-should-invite-our-friends-to-church-heres-how/

Come back to church, two videos

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/08/come-back-to-church-two-videos/

This link goes to one of my very favorite videos here on inviting a stranger to church, plus an older video, but still EXTREMELY important – it is about Invitation Cards and how essential they are for year-round inviting.

We all know we should invite our friends to church—here’s how

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Every Christian knows they should be sharing their faith. Or at least inviting our friends to church. For many a consistent murmur of guilt is ever-present in the back of your mind, sometimes loudly, sometimes softly.

We can’t escape it. We know the Great Commission wasn’t just written to pastors and missionaries, though we wish it were.

What to do?

A wonderful solution to this spiritual challenge is Back to Church Sunday (in the U.S. September 20, 2015). Though this particular Sunday is a day that has been made a national time to invite people to church with support by various denominations and Outreach.com, http://backtochurch.com/, the ideas and challenges presented aren’t confined to this one day on the calendar.

The summary idea is that this Sunday or any other you choose to emphasize inviting provides provides a focus and tools to motivate people to be obedient to Jesus and to share his love.

Following are a couple of very short motivational videos on Back to Church Sunday and Biblical Encouragements to inspire you to get involved. Following them are links to many more resources on this site that provide the tools to equip your church to participate.

Invitation Cards for Back to Church Sunday

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2014/09/invitation-cards-for-back-to-church-sunday/

The link above goes to the invitation cards pictured in the video.

Come back to church, two videos

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/08/come-back-to-church-two-videos/

PLEASE check this out, it has one of my very favorite videos here on inviting a stranger to church, plus an older video, but still an EXTREMELY important one about Invitation Cards and how essential they are for year-round inviting.

Give visitors at events an information/invitation card so they will return

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Generic Come back to church card
People won't automatically come back to your church if you don't invite them!

Life is busy, people are stressed, and no matter how much we might want to attend an event, if we don't have the details of time, location, directions, about it, it's not likely we'll show up.

Keep your crazy schedule in mind to motivate you to create information, invitation cards to give to people who come to special events at your church. No matter how much they an event you put on, they won't automatically know that you have Sunday School for kids, what time your Sunday service starts, or that you want them to return.

If your outreach was for unchurched people, they might not even know that your church does a regular service on Sundays. True story here: a few years ago I talked to a woman who always attended the outreach events at a local church. When I asked her if she also attended on Sunday, she was very surprised. "You mean they do things on Sunday too?" she said. She did not grow up in a church and she honestly thought that the church just put on nice community events for the holidays.

Don't expect people to return—invite them back!

That's where a card like this is helpful. It gives basic information and warmly invites people to return.

Though it's great if you can create follow-up cards for the specific events you host (and there are lots of examples of them on this website), realistically you don't always have time to do them up for each event. This is where a generic one can be useful.

At our church, we are hosting the simulcast of the Harvest Crusade, next weekend. My husband and I are on the prayer team and whenChurch come back card Church come back card, front we met last Sunday for training, our pastor said they only had booklets to give out afterwards.

I went home thinking about how helpful an information/invitation card would be. We are new at the church (and love it) and I didn't want to be pushy—but I thought if I drafted one up, even if it didn't work for the church to use it, it would be a great training tool to share with all of you.

Everyone can look at the card for ideas—it has all the basic information on one side and a note from the Pastor on the second side. Give one to everyone you can at events and your members can also use them anytime as an invitation for the church. It's one more way to encourage people along the path of coming to know Jesus as Savior.

Below is a ZIP File that has the MS Publisher file you can use as a template to create your own.

CLICK HERE to download the ZIP file. Save it and then click to open and use.