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; we can help.

About ECC: Effective Church Communications User Agreement & Privacy Policy

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Effective Church Communications User AgreementEffective Church Communications User Agreement & Privacy Policy

This Agreement sets out the terms and conditions relating to the online content provided free of charge and content subject to payment that Yvon Prehn and Effective Church Communications (ECC) will give to you.

By accessing any of the materials on this site and/or signing up for membership on this site means you agree with and will abide by the conditions that follow.

If you use the Site in the course of business or as a church, you are also agreeing to these terms and conditions on behalf of that business or church, including both staff and volunteers. If you do not agree with what follows, you shouldn't use the site.

If the User has any questions they should contact:  yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

Refund Policy: We want you to be happy with your membership. You will receive a full refund of your membership fee if you contact yvon@effectivechurchcom.com within 7 days of signing up if you wish to cancel.

If your membership is on an automatic, recurring billing, either monthly or yearly, please let me know within a week prior to your next due date if you want to cancel your membership, if you want me to cancel it for you or if you are going to cancel or not renew. It will cancel automatically if you refuse it or change your credit card.

If we don't hear from you and you wish to cancel after a recurring billing has been billed and collected, there are no refunds for the current billing, but the recurring billing will be stopped.

All memberships are fully transferable. If, for example, one person signs up for a yearly or LIFETIME church membership (even if they downloaded a bunch of materials at the discount price) and they leave and someone else comes in to fill the job, the person in the job retains the full membership rights, if it was a church purchase. If it is an individual purchase, you can keep it no matter where you work.

Please let me know if there is a change of billing information, please access your account or, email: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

Services and Fees: ECC will provide Free and Paid-for Content. ECC reserves the right to vary the Free and Paid-for Content and does not guarantee that the content provided free of charge will remain free of charge and does not guarantee that the content provided subject to payment will remain a paid-for service.

Your responsibility: You must provide ECC with complete and accurate payment information. You can pay using a credit or debit card through our processing system. In the event of an unauthorized payment ECC reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Site and Paid-for Content. If no payment authorization is received or payment authorization is subsequently cancelled, ECC  may immediately terminate or suspend access to any Paid-for Content and/or the Site. ECC will try to process the your request for any Paid-for Content promptly but does not guarantee that the Paid-for Content will be available to you by any specified time. A contract with you for Paid-for Content will come into effect when the Username and Password are issued to you.

Registration, Passwords, and Privacy: The use of the Site signifies your consent to ECC collecting and using personal information about the User in accordance with the Effective Church Communications Privacy Policy. The User can read the Privacy Policy below. You not have to register to use the Site in order to access it and enjoy the content other than the Paid-for Content. If you wish to access the Paid-for Content you will be asked to provide the Site Owner with accurate, complete registration information, including contact details, and it is your responsibility to update and maintain this information. The Site Owner is entitled to rely on this information to provide Paid-for Content. You will also be requested to create a Password in a format specified by the Site Owner (“the Password”). You shall not disclose the Password to any other person or entity other than the appropriate group as specified by the membership level and shall ensure that the Password remains confidential at all times.

If ECC has reasonable grounds for believing that you or your organization has misused or is misusing the Password, ECC may require the you or your organization to change the Password or may suspend the  use of the access to the Site, including Paid-for Content, until such time as the ECC is satisfied that the security of the Site is no longer compromised by the User’s activities.

Limitations on Use of the Site: All content and services provided by the Site Owner belongs to the Site Owner and guest contributors. The Site Owner owns all the intellectual property rights in the content and services. The content and services provided are solely for your personal use and you shall not sub-license, distribute, sell, supply, modify, adapt, amend, incorporate, merge, or otherwise alter any content or service provided under this Agreement, other than in the ways stated that you can do so by Yvon Prehn in the sections designed for modifications such as the templates.

You shall not remove or replicate any logo, copyright or proprietary notices, legends, symbols, labels, watermarks, signatures or any other like marks affixed to or embedded in the content or services. You shall not carry out any act or omission or permit any act or omission to take place that infringes or is likely to infringe any intellectual property rights owned or used by ECC or its contributors or otherwise relating to the Site.

Limitation of Liability and Indemnity: You expressly agree that the use of, and browsing of the Site is at your own risk. Neither the Site Owner nor any other party involved in creating, producing or delivering the Site, including Yvon Prehn and Effective Church Communications, is liable for any direct, incidental, special, consequential, indirect or punitive damages arising out of your access to, or use of, or inability to use the Site or any linked site or for the cost of procurement of substitute goods or services or resulting from any goods or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through the Site or resulting from any unauthorised access to or alteration of your transmissions or data, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, use, data or other intangible property including legal costs and expenses, even if the Site Owner has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

You expressly agree that the downloading of any material form the Site is at your own risk. Neither the Site Owner nor any other party involved in creating, producing or delivering the Site, including Effective Church Communications and all contributors to the site, are liable for any direct, incidental, special, consequential, indirect or punitive damages resulting from your downloading material from the Site or any linked site, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, use, data or other intangible property including legal costs and expenses, even if the Site Owner has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Without limiting the foregoing, everything on the Site is provided to you “as is” and “as available” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.While ECC will use reasonable efforts to include accurate and up to date information on the Site, ECC makes no warranties or representations as to its accuracy or completeness. ECC is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. ECC is not responsible for errors or omissions by contributors, guest authors, or commentators on the site.

The information is provided with the understanding that the information does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation or arrangement by Yvon Prehn, ECC, or its contributors or any other party involved in the Site and is not intended to be relied upon by you in making (or refraining from making) any decisions based on such information. You must make your own decisions on whether or not to rely on any information posted on the Site. ECC reserves the right to modify information displayed on this Site but it does not make any commitment to update the information displayed on this Site. No party including the Site Owner who is involved in the workings of the Site, including Effective Church Communications or its contributors, will at any time be liable or responsible in any way for the content, including Paid-for Content, and information provided on or via the Site and for your use of the Site.

From time to time ECC will make available to you links from the site to third party sites. These sites are not in any way approved, checked, edited, vetted or endorsed by ECC and you agree that the ECC shall not be responsible or liable in any way for the content, advertising or products available from such sites, the quality, functionality, suitability or legality of such sites or for any dealings that you may have, or the consequences of such dealings, with such third party site operators. Any arrangements made between the you and any third party named on the this site are at the your sole risk and responsibility and ECC expressly disclaims any liability for third party information or opinions posted on this Site or any linked Sites that arises under criminal or civil laws relating to defamation, intellectual property, infringement, privacy, obscenity, or any other area of law.

Indemnity: You agree to indemnify, keep indemnified, defend and hold ECC harmless from and against any and all claims, damages, liability, losses, costs and expenses (including legal fees) (whether or not foreseeable or avoidable) incurred or suffered by any Indemnified Party and any claims or legal proceedings which are brought or threatened arising from your use of, connection with or conduct on the Site or any breach by the User of these terms.

Consequences of Breach of these Terms: In the event that Effective Church Communications considers or determines, in their complete discretion, that you have breached, violated or contravened the Agreement or otherwise demonstrated inappropriate conduct in the use of the Site or the content or services they reserve the absolute right to: (a) warn you that you have violated the Agreement and ask you to discontinue such conduct; (b) discontinue the your membership of the site and/or any other related services, including Paid-for Content; and (c) take measures to prevent you from using the Site or linking to the Site.

Proper Law and Jurisdiction: This Agreement and all matters arising from it shall be governed by and construed according to the laws of the United States of America and the state of California. For any disputes other than these, by signing up you and ECC agree to arbitration conducted by a Christian party and will not pursue any litigation in the civil court system.

Entire Agreement: This Agreement supersedes all prior agreements, arrangements and undertakings and constitutes the entire agreement relating to the subject matter of this Agreement. You confirm that you have not entered into this Agreement on the basis of any representation that is not expressly incorporated into this Agreement.

Privacy Policy for www.effectivechurchcom.com

Effective Church Communications provides various materials including a website, www.effectivechurchcom.com,  related services on the website, and links to a storefront for purchasing additional materials all designed to help church communicators create communications that will enable them to fully fulfill the Great Commission.

By participating in any of these activities you agree, without limitation, to the practices described in this Privacy Policy and also accept, without limitation or qualification, all terms and conditions concerning Effective Church Communications, its websites and contributors. We may at any time revise these terms and conditions. You are bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit them to review the then-current terms and conditions to which you are bound.

Collection of Information
In general, we collect only the information necessary to process your access to the site and information needed by the services we use to make the site operate. These service may use cookies (small text files that are stored on the hard drives of visitors computers when they access our Web site) to collect this information, for example, to help store your password.

Use of Information
We may use information collected to inform site members of resources available for purchase, updates and updates on the site.

Disclosure of Information
We will not share any of your information with any other party for sales or marketing purposes. The only information that goes to another party (such as the companies that process credit card payments) is what they need to do their job.

We have taken care to work with only the most highly rated and secure financial companies to manage our financial transactions. Our website maintains a current SSL certificate for additional security purposes.

Security
We have implemented certain physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect from our members.

However, visitors should consider any electronic communication that they transmit to us (such as data, questions or answers, comments, suggestions, or other communications) to be non-confidential. We will not be liable or responsible if information that belongs to an individual is intercepted and used by an unintended recipient, or is otherwise accessed and used without our written permission. By participating in or visiting our Web site, you assume this risk.

Opt-Out Policy
If you have signed up to receive our online newsletter, you may opt out of it at any time. There is a form on every newsletter to do that. If you need help with the opt out, email yvon@effectivechurchcom.com and we will take care of it for you.

Third Party Web Sites
Our Web site provides links to many other sites (products we cover, share, recommend, etc.) which may have privacy policies that differ from our own. We are not responsible for the activities and practices that take place on these web sites. Accordingly, we recommend that you review the privacy policy posted on any web site that you may access through our Web site. We have NO formal advertising, referral, or affiliate arrangements with any other site and are not responsible for them. This includes www.lulu.com the site that sells our products. This is a totally different company and any problems with the purchase of products should be directed to them. Having said that, we will always work hard and help to resolve any problems or issues as we are able.

Changes To This Privacy Policy
There may be times when we need to amend, modify, remove, or change various aspects of this Privacy Policy, and we reserve the right to do so at our discretion. We recommend that you revisit this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current privacy practices. You can be assured that any changes that we make will not be applied retroactively and that we will not materially change how we handle previously collected information without your consent. Your continued use of our services following any changes signifies your acceptance of these changes.

Bottom Line
We respect all our members and will never knowingly or intentionally abuse or compromise the privacy or trust you have in us. Please contact yvon@effectivechurchcom.com if you have a concern.

In case of dispute
By accessing this site you agree that if there is a dispute that cannot be happily resolved via email that the dispute will be taken to Christian arbitration arranged by Effective Church Communications. Our desire is that all things are done “decently and in order” and in ways pleasing to the Lord Jesus.

How to equip and encourage your volunteers before Fall outreach season starts

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Directoring volunteers is essential for outreach success
Your volunteers need encouragement and direction before the busy holiday outreach season starts.

We’ve all been there—to an event, perhaps at church, perhaps not, but one that had incredible food, fabulous decorations, and great music—but it was one that we left early because of the people. Maybe they were rude, or ignored us, or simply didn’t seem to care about anybody new, so we wandered around quietly munching until we slid out the door.

No matter what else is going on, people are the most important part of any event. We need remind ourselves of that reality as we prepare for  seasonal and special event outreach at our church. We can, and I hope your churches will do all you can to make your facilities and programs the best they can be before outreach events, but if you don’t take time to make sure your people are in top shape in training and attitude before special events, all your hard work on the externals will mean little.

Take some time now to plan how you will make certain your people are as wonderful as the rest of the resources for your outreach and holiday celebrations. Following are some links on the website that will help you:

Video: How to get all the volunteers you need for Halloween Outreach (and other outreach events)

Ed. note: if you have trouble getting people to volunteer for your seasonal outreach events, PLEASE take time to watch this video! It will help you make changes that will result in more volunteers.

For outreach at Halloween or any time to be successful, you need a lot of volunteers. This is especially true when you put on an event like a Halloween Trunk or Treat. But how do we get all the people we need for all the work that needs to be done? This video shows you how through:

  • A case study of a flyer that won't work and then a brochure that will work to recruit volunteers. The example used here is for a Halloween Trunk or Treat.
  • Step-by-step instruction on what you need to say and the order you need to say it in for your information to make sense to potential volunteers
  • Specific advice on what you need to be careful to do and not do when recruiting volunteers.
  • Encouragement to do all the work that needs to be done and the eternal results that can come from it.

The video is below, but I recommend you watch it on YouTube or blow it up full screen so you can read the materials I'm taking about.

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Overall articles on volunteer development, recruitment and retention

Why the 80/20 situation isn't true for the recruitment and retention of church volunteers

We’ve all heard: “80 percent of the people do 20 percent of the work.”  Those who are in the over-worked 80 percent console themselves that is simply how life is and in the church we suffer for Jesus.
Though trials are part of the Christian life, this is not an inevitable part of them. The 80/20 statement is merely a business observation—it is not scripture. The Bible tells us we are to have 100 percent involvement in the church.  We make up different parts of the Body of Christ, but everyone has a job to do.

To read the rest of the article: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/why-the-8020-situation-isnt-true-for-the-recruitment-and-retention-of-church-volunteers/

Why upbeat interviews work better than desperate pleas for recruiting volunteers

Desperation isn't pretty in volunteer requests. If you feel like shutting down the children's ministry if new people don't sign up or closing the bathrooms on Sunday morning if no one helps the facilities team—you probably won't get sign-ups by sharing your frustration.

To read the rest of the article: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/why-upbeat-interviews-work-better-than-desperate-pleas-for-recruiting-volunteers/

Communications for a good continuing relationship with your volunteers—please don't suddenly become Mr. Grumpy

Every church is desperate for volunteers. It's not only important to effectively recruit them, but after they are recruited, it is equally important to work hard to keep them. Unfortunately, the difference between how we treat volunteers when we are recruiting them and after they volunteer is sometimes similar to the difference with some couples between courtship and marriage. Before the wedding the groom is all flowers and candy; after the wedding he becomes Mr. Grumpy.

Don’t become Mr. or Mrs. Grumpy to your volunteers. Be as kind, caring, and thankful to them when they have been around for 6 months as you are the first week. Not only is this the proper response for a disciple of Jesus, but volunteers can easily quit if you make it difficult or unpleasant to serve. You can express that thankfulness to them through a variety of church communication projects such as:

To read the rest of the article: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/communications-for-a-good-continuing-relationship-with-your-volunteers-please-dont-suddenly-become-mr-grumpy/

How to be a better boss or leader, plus an inspirational postcard to print and share

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We can do it--leaders and bosses
We can do it! Leaders and bosses make a huge difference in the lives of the people they work with.

In preparing this series of articles related to National Boss Day, October 16, I did several searches for clip art using the keyword "boss." I was surprised to find that many of the images were negative. The images showed bosses portrayed as the devil, bosses standing on people, yelling at them, making people bow down before them. We could moan and complain about the bad state of many workplaces today, but instead, let's look at how the church can communicate the way to be a better boss, both in words and actions.

Live out the lesson

Gayle Hilligoss contributed two challenging and helpful articles on this topic (CLICK on the titles to go to them):

What Bosses Want Ministry Assistants to Know
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2013/10/what-bosses-want-ministry-assistants-to-know/

Bosses—What Ministry Assistants Want Them to Know
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/bosses-what-ministry-assistants-want-them-to-know/

If we live out what she suggests, if we make our actions in the church office and whatever job we have a conscious reflection of our Lord, we can communicate to our world that being a follower of Jesus not only makes a difference in our eternity, but in our actions each day.

Today it is popular to say, "we are the church" as we remind our congregation that the church isn't a building, but the people in it who are the church, the body of Christ. But no matter how much we say it, we need to live it out in our servant lifestyle in our work. This is especially important for pastors, bosses, and leaders, because to be a servant to those you work with requires a lifestyle totally different from the rest of the world.

We can lead differently, because we know who is really in charge

All of the negative clipart and much of the reality of negative office situations comes from the mistaken idea that we can control others and the way to do it is to lord over them, yell at them, and put them under pressure to make them do what we want them to do. But that is not how Jesus wants us to lead. He was very clear:

But Jesus called them together and said, “Among the heathen, kings are tyrants and each minor official lords it over those beneath him. But among you it is quite different. Anyone wanting to be a leader among you must be your servant. And if you want to be right at the top, you must serve like a slave. Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28(TLB)

We lead best, when we serve best. One way to serve is to encourage each other. It's not always easy to look for a way to build someone up so they can do the job, to train, to come along side or cheer on, but as Charles Erwin Wilson said “A good boss makes people realize they have more ability than they think they have, so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could.”

Hebrews 10:24 (TLB) says a similar thing in this way:

"In response to all he has done for us, let us outdo each other in being helpful and kind to each other and in doing good."

When you live in response to these reminders by Jesus, you may not be able to change the way clipart portrays bosses and leaders, but you'll change the picture of them to your world. The little card below can help remind you.

Communicate the lesson: For ECC Members, an inspiring postcard for you or your bosses and leaders

I've put together the three quotes into an inspiring postcard, that is ready to print for ECC Members. If you aren't a member you can use the ideas to create your own. You can print them out as a reminder to yourself or as an encouragement to someone else.

There are three versions below and the card comes in a downloadable ZIP file (link at the end of the article). For each of the cards, the file has:

  • Ready-to-print PDFs
  • Editable MS Publisher files—so you can personalize them any way you want
  • Hi res and low res images

If you are a Member of Effective Church Communications, you know this is just one of the many downloadable template and ready-to-print files available for you. If you are not a member, CLICK HERE for more information or to sign up.

Below are illustrations of the cards in the ZIP FILE for ECC Members. The download link is below the images.

Boss and Leader Card 1, low resBoss and leader card 2, low resBoss and leader card 3, low res LINK to download the ZIP FILE for the cards here:

[mepr-show if="rule: 23971"]
CLICK HERE to download the ZIP FILE

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Three lessons the Old Testament prophets teach us about church communications

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Lessons on communication from OT prophets.
The OT Prophets not only teach us what to communicate, but how to do it.

The Bible is not only the source of content for our church communications, but it can be a source of how to craft our communications. As I've studied the Old Testament prophets recently, I wanted to share three communication lessons I've learned from them:

#1 Multi-media is useful, but not by itself

Ezekiel was told to act out the captivity in Ezekiel 12, because, as God told him, "Perhaps they will understand. (Ezekiel 2:3b)" Today we agree with this method and we live in a world of visual illustrations, stories, and images—we love creating and using them. As powerful as images and story-telling are, we can't stop with them alone. The rest of Ezekiel 2 gives his audience a verbal explanation of the meaning of his illustration.

When people see things as well as hear about them, it reinforces the message. Again and again, in the Old Testament, the acted out lessons were always followed by the verbal message of the prophets  to clarify them. It's often said that "a picture is worth a thousand words" and that may be true, but without commentary, the question is always "which thousand?" Without words, powerful images create emotions, but the emotions created are usually unfocused and without purpose.

No image, no story (which is a verbal picture) will, in and of itself, communicate the precise message you want communicated to your audience. You must always use words to communicate the message you want—you must tell people what to see in pictures and stories. For example, you might show a series of images or a video showing homeless people panhandling. Without commentary the responses might be:

  • Isn't that awful how he's standing by a business scaring customers?
  • That man is disgusting, why doesn't he get a job?
  • He should at least clean up—that beard is gross.
  • I don't want to look at this—I wish he would go away.
  • How humiliating for that dear man; I wonder what brought him to that point and can we do something?

We never know how people will respond if we don't guide their response. If we don't guide the interpretation of what we want them to see, their history, preferences, and spiritual background will all create different messages for each person and you'll get the assortment of responses like the ones above. The response of your audience would be very different however if you introduced the video with these words:

Joe worked construction for 20 years. Then one day, he slipped and fell when he was on the upper floor of a building. He was badly injured and didn't know that his company was filing for bankruptcy that same week and all his benefits were gone with them. When he got out of the hospital, he couldn't pay his bills or the rent on his apartment. He didn't have extended family living and his few friends were as short on resources as he was. He lost his apartment and the pain in his back makes it impossible for him to work like he did. This video shows how he spends his days. He hates it; he feels humiliated, but he doesn't know what else to do. He is never sure where he will spend the night.

Then show the video. However, this time you've given people context for what they will see. After the video, share what your church is proposing in partnership with a housing and job-training program for the homeless. Your images and stories should always do more than simply create an emotion--they should ignite conviction.

After you have created conviction, you need to follow-up with specific actions and applications. This is absolutely essential--just as bad as showing an image or telling a picture without context is to share a gut-wrenching context without giving your people a concrete way to help. For example:

  • We need "X" amount of dollars as our weekly contribution to help get people like Joe off the streets and into the job training program sponsored by the local RETrain Group. Please check the handout in your bulletin and turn it in with the offering if you can help.
  • We need volunteers to cook at the shelter and life-coaches to help people get a new start on life. Please check the handout in the bulletin and tell us what skills you have that you can share. We will respond this week.
  • Sign up for weekly email newsletters on the shelter and job-training website or you can give us your email address on the handout in the bulletin.
  • Pray for Joe and people like him that he will be open to changing his life.

Use images, media, and any tool you can to share your message. Powerful, emotional, quality design and production should tell the story well. But don't stop with images or story alone, be sure you always accompany it with specific, propositional words so your meaning and message is clear. Then follow-up your clear message with specific applications for your people.

#2 The message isn't always good news, but we must deliver it anyway

It certainly wasn't for Jeremiah and Ezekiel and it isn't always for us today. At the same time they preached, there were false prophets who promised victory and prosperity, but Judah had passed a point in their sin where captivity was inevitable and they had the task of reminding the people that judgment was coming and the best thing they could do was submit to it:

 “Do not listen to your false prophets, fortune-tellers, dreamers, mediums, and magicians who say the king of Babylon will not enslave you. For they are all liars, and if you follow their advice and refuse to submit to the king of Babylon, [God] I will drive you out of your land and send you far away to perish. . . . .“If you want to live, submit to the king of Babylon,” he said. Jeremiah 27:9-12 (TLB)

It's really hard to tell people that God is not pleased with what they are doing, but God often calls his communicators to deliver hard messages.

He said, “Son of man, I’m sending you to the family of Israel, a rebellious nation if there ever was one. They and their ancestors have fomented rebellion right up to the present. They’re a hard case, these people to whom I’m sending you—hardened in their sin. Tell them, ‘This is the Message of God, the Master.’ They are a defiant bunch. Whether or not they listen, at least they’ll know that a prophet’s been here. But don’t be afraid of them, son of man, and don’t be afraid of anything they say. Don’t be afraid when living among them is like stepping on thorns or finding scorpions in your bed. Don’t be afraid of their mean words or their hard looks. They’re a bunch of rebels. Your job is to speak to them. Whether they listen is not your concern. They’re hardened rebels. Only take care, son of man that you don’t rebel like these rebels. Ezekiel 2:3-8

We must also remember that because we speak truth, this never gives us a license for meanness, ranting or anger. Remember James 1:20 (NIV) tells us:"Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."

What should we do then? How can we communicate difficult truths? One of the best pieces of advice I've seen comes from In the Footsteps of Jesus, written by Bruce Marchiano, the young actor who played Jesus in the movie The Book of Matthew. As he was preparing for the role, he didn't know how to approach the scenes where Jesus is confronting the religious leaders who didn't believe in him and many of the other scenes where Jesus words seem harsh and judgmental. Then he remembered the advice of his former acting teacher, who told him. Here is the advice and how he used it to portray Jesus:

"Bruce, every scene is a love scene. Approach every scene as if you desperately love the person you're dealing with. Find the love in a scene, and you've found the scene."

It's amazing, isn't it? The Lord was preparing me to play Him years before I even knew Him. Approach every scene as if you desperately love the person you're dealing with. If that isn't a definition of Jesus, I don't know what is . . . . . Unknown to me at the time, it was a cornerstone that would set the tone for everything I did while the camera was rolling in the months that followed. It was so obvious, so "of course." When it hit me, I remember falling back in my chair and breathing a hushed, "Wow."

Jesus loves people—all people, everybody, no exceptions—even these people He was yelling at. Sure, they were messing up; sure, there was sin; but He loved them—nothing could change that. So though the words were condemning, the heart would be loving. Yes, anger, but anger born of love—anger born out of a broken heart.

The only way we can do that—communicate hard truths in love is to spend time with Jesus, studying his life, looking at his Words, asking him how to deal with your current communication challenge. If you have trouble telling the hard truth in any situation, not only sin issues, but in the really hard ones, like how difficult it is to get your job done when other members of the church staff don't follow through on deadlines and how hard it is to tell them that, it may be a sign you need to spend more time with Jesus.

Faithfulness to your message changes eternal destinies: not only for your hearers, but for communicators. Do what you need to do to be faithful in your calling.

The last lesson is probably the most important one of all, because if you don't follow it, the first two won't have a lasting impact.

#3 People need repetition of the message

You can use every channel available to you, you can share the truth even when it's hard and do it in love, but if you only do it once—it probably won't make a difference in anyone's life.

For hundreds of years the prophets preached the same message: obey God and He will bless you; disobey God and judgment will come. God's rules didn't change. He gave Israel the Law and they were told to learn and obey it. They didn't and that is why both Israel and Judah were ultimately exiled from the land.

One reason we don't see the importance of repetition and how God used it in communicating his message is that our English Bible is arranged with the historical books in one place and the prophets in another place. Even the section of the prophets is not in historical order. Because of that, we don't see how God gave the same message again and again and again through various prophets to different groups of people, some to Israel, some to Judah, some to surrounding nations; to different groups within each nation, some to royalty, some to common people, some to people in the land, some to exiles. If you take time to read the Bible in chronological order, where the prophet's messages are place in their historical setting, this constant repetition becomes clear.

If there is one overwhelming application to church communicators from the Old Testament prophets it is that repetition of God's message is important. There are many reasons why this might be:

  • Perhaps to illustrate that God does not change.
  • Perhaps to test our faithfulness as messengers.
  • Perhaps to serve as a witness to the wickedness of humanity.
  • Perhaps to show us that repetition is an invaluable tool for us to use to communicate our messages.

In the church office we may be sick to death of discussing a program, we may have planned a ministry event for months ahead and are tired of even thinking about it, but we must always remember that our people know nothing about it and we must repeat our message many times, in many ways, and as honestly as possible.

If we do these things, we cannot control the outcome of our communications, but we will know we have been faithful to our Lord in our calling as communicators, as modern-day watchmen on the wall.