Effective Church Communications

GIS: 2 Lenten Calendars, a focus on giving and a focus on prayer

11 February, 2017 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Lenten Calendar of Giving ideas — Just click on the PDF to download a full-size image. This is a wonderful inspirational entry to our Great Idea Swap. PLEASE send us your ideas so we can share them with other church communicators.

Lenten Calendars that can be printed out and posted on the refrigerator are a great way to focus the thoughts of your congregation during Lent. Here are two FREE samples for your from our Great Idea Swap.

A Lenten focus on Giving

Though there are many wonderful lessons we can learn from self-denial during Lent, the danger is always there that we can become excessively self-focused in our self-denial. This wonderful Lenten Calendar came in as a contribution to our Great Idea Swap and it is a fantastic way to encourage your people to give of themselves everyday during Lent. Click on the image to the left to download a PDF and be inspired to create your own.

Here is how Linda Watson, the church communicator who sent it in, describes it:

The attached calendar is included on the back page of our Lenten/Easter Newsletter every year. It was an idea started many years ago to increase the donations to our local Community Care program. We have an ongoing collection of staples for the less fortunate in our community, but the response to this calendar has been phenomenal! We update the calendar and promote this, every year, as a way of “giving” instead of “giving up” during Lent.

Linda Watson
St. Columba Church

Lenten Calendar with a Focus on prayer

Lenten Calendar with an emphasis on prayer — This beautifully done calendar is another way to inspire your congregation to life change during Lent.

This Calendar is from a few years ago in our Great Idea Swap, but it has always been one of my favorites. Not only does it have a very attractive layout and nice combination of text and images, but the suggested prayers and actions would be life-changing for any church.

Click on the image to the left to download a PDF and be inspired to create your own.

Please share your ideas!

Please CLICK HERE to find out more about this fantastic way to share and how to send in your materials.

GIS: Christmas communication ideas from America, Australia, and Canada

17 November, 2016 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Door-Hanger for Christmas — Door-hangers are a great way to invite people to your Christmas events at church.

When you are planning your invitations for Christmas, don't forget to create door-hangers. As this great idea from Gayle Hilligoss (yes, the same wonderful lady who writes articles for ECC, she also does communication work at her church), shows, door-hangers are a wonderful way to invite your community to your church for Christmas services.

No postage is needed and you can give them out to church members to share around their neighborhoods.

In addition I've included other some Christmas samples from many places:

A beautiful Christmas Women's Ministry Invitation from Texas (the big red one in the samples below). Note the well-done combination of fonts used in this postcard—lots there, but appropriate and each one functions well to communicate the overall message.
One of my favorite Christmas bulletins from Abbotsford Pentecostal Church in Canada. This is so beautiful, it's more like a well-designed poster than a bulletin and a real inspiration on what you can do in bulletin layout.
And then a 36-page newsletter from Australia. Initially it will make many people in North America smile because (though we forget this) Christmas takes place in summer and so their Nativity Scene is one at the beach. In addition to that, please take time to look through this newsletter as a challenge and inspiration. This church has a number of ministries that I hope will challenge you to begin similar ones. I particularly like their ministries to the homeless, which is one of the most wonderful ways at all to celebrate Christmas.

[Read more...]

GIS: Christmas Sample: a Christmas flyer that answers Jesus’s prayer

10 November, 2016 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Christmas flyer JOY Story side one — Side one of a flyer from a number of churches, that illustrates not only the Christian message of Christmas, but the unity of the Christian churches that sent it.

Just before Jesus went to the cross, part of his prayer was for us. It is astounding to think that just before he faced the horror of the cross, he was praying for how we would represent him. Here is part of what he said:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" John 17:20-23

Think about that—Jesus prayed that the world would see our oneness and from that they would come to know Jesus. [Read more...]

GIS: BIBLE (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) gospel tract cards

3 November, 2016 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

Salvation Card, side one — These cards are a concise reminder of the core purpose of our churches: salvation in Jesus.

When I first saw these cards I was thrilled because I'd just finished writing:

However, in the midst of this huge spiritual hunger in our world, which is motivated by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, people are not coming to the one source, the Church, that is the only true source of eternal life, forgiveness, and peace through faith in Jesus.

This is not happening because the Church is deficient or Jesus is no longer Savior. This is happening because the church is not communicating who it is and how it can meet the deepest needs of people.

Very few people in our world today think of the Church (and local churches anywhere) as THE source of salvation, truth, or eternal life.

from: Declining church attendance and how your communications can help turn that around (If you haven't read this yet, it is very important, please click on the title and you can go to it.)

I wrote this because I know many churches don't know how to share the main thing they are about: Salvation in Jesus.

Here is a church that has a clear focus on the essential of salvation in Jesus and has created a tool to help their people share it. Yes, it is very brief and you may want to add more to it, but please use this as an inspiration and starting point for a tool to equip your people.

Below are images of the front and back of the cards. Below them is a download for ECC Members (for information on prices and how to join, click here) in MS Word that you can modify for your church; the file also includes a ready-to-print PDF of them. I would strongly encourage that you put contact information on the cards so that if people have questions or want to respond to the message of Jesus, they have someone to contact.

CLICK on the link below to download the ZIP file containing the PDF and editable MS Word file.

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Here is the link: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/BASIC-Instruct.zip

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GIS: Bookmarks to remind people of God’s love and much more!

27 October, 2016 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Bible verse bookmark — This is the front and back of one of the bookmarks sent in for our Great Idea Swap. They are a great way to remind people of God's Word.

Bookmarks can accomplish so many purposes in church communications—you can use them to remind people about the truth of God's forever love; you can help them remember Bible verses; you can encourage Christian conduct and prayer. The Bookmark Templates in this selection do all those things.

All of them were sent in as part of our Great Idea Swap. Below are pictures of them for inspiration and then below that is a ZIP file that has both the PDFs of the bookmarks and the editable either MS Word or MS Publisher original files for Effective Church Communication Members.

You can either modify them and change the name to your church on them, or because several of them are one-sided only you could put information about your church or an additional message on the other side.

Bookmarks are a great give-away for the holidays and if you create some, please send them in and share with us!