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.

What “nobody reads what we write” really means and how to deal with it

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How to solve the complaint that "no one reads what we write" isn't easy, but important for the salvation and discipleship of people in your church.
How to solve the complaint that "no one reads what we write" isn't easy, but important for the salvation and discipleship of people in your church.

No matter what technology we use to communicate, print bulletins, multimedia announcements, websites, social media, a complaint I still hear from church communicators is: "nobody reads what we write." The statement is often spoken in frustration and often more than a bit of anger.

When I hear that, my first response is always, "How do you know that's true? Do people come up to you, throw the bulletin in your face, stomp on their smart phone, or send a nasty email in response to your website and announce 'I don't read any of this!'?"

After a few deep breaths, a laugh, and a little more discussion, the true reason for that statement comes out. When church staffs say that "nobody reads what we write" what it actually means is that people are not showing up for events or paying attention to the requests for action or to volunteer. They may or may not have read it--but regardless, they didn't show up.

If that is the real situation, what is the solution?

It's not what is often assumed

Today an easy answer is that people didn't read it because there was too much text. That isn't always true.

It's true that people have shorter attention spans today, but shorter attention spans does not mean people don't read what is important to them or respond to what appears to be of benefit to them, their families, and spiritual lives. People still have an empty place inside only God can fill. Once they become a Christian, they want to grow to discipleship maturity.

Another easy answer is that people are very busy today and don't have time to read more than a few words.

Again,it is true that people are busy, but ask any cook who was motivated to learn a new cooking technique, a reader whose favorite recent series just came out with a new book, or a fan who can't wait to grab the sports section when the newspaper arrives if they have time to read these things and you'll realize it isn't the amount of text that is the problem.

If the amount of text isn't the problem cutting back on it won't solve it

Because they don't properly diagnose the problem, the solution for many church communicators is to drastically cut the amount of material in the church bulletin and website.

In practical terms this often means:

  • No detailed explanations of activities, just general categories are listed, such as:  "Adult Bible Classes 9 am."
  • Complete information is not included, just overall statements about ministries are listed, such as: "Small groups are important and we urge you to be part of one, call Pastor Joe for more information."
  • Special events are simply announced: "Our church is putting on an incredible Easter Concert on Good Friday--be sure to invite your friends."
  • Using an impressive graphic and few words or replacing announcements with graphics alone (this is happening a lot with church slider headers on websites where the header doesn't link to more complete information.) The graphics may often be well done and contemporary. However, the problem with graphic images as the primary part of an announcement is that a picture is not "worth a thousand words." That great image may have meant something to the person who picked it, but whatever thousand words it meant to the creator is often lost on the person viewing it.

All of these solutions fail to solve the problem of getting people to read and to respond. They don't give enough information to communicate anything. They don't grab the attention of a visitor,explain what the church jargon title for an event means, or challenge a church member who sees the same thing week after week. The church may think it communicated something, but they simply filled an empty place on the web or on paper. If these common solutions don't work to get people to respond, what does?

Before you do anything else, be sure of this

Be sure your event is worth attending.

It may become painful here, but somehow, you've got to face that some people (dear, wonderful, members forever people) are really boring teachers; some small groups are a trial to attend, some leaders of events who think they are standing up for the truth are narrow-minded and mean. Some favorite church traditions may mean little or nothing to newcomers. Some ministries expect too much and don't train or thank volunteers. Some ministries who ask for volunteers make it impossible to become meaningfully involved (not everyone wants to help set up chairs or make coffee for the next 5 years).

The list of what is, in reality, a turn-off for people  (no matter who conducts it or how long the church has "always done it that way") varies from church to church, but if you aren't honest with yourself about whether your event is worth attending or your ministry a positive one to volunteer for, there is little you can do in print or the web to get people to attend the event or to become committed to a ministry.

Why these kinds of information don't work and what will get a response

Just one example for now, but let's take the Adult Class announcement above. Instead of  "Adult Bible Classes 9 am." You need specific topics listed each week and reasons why people should attend. For example, instead of the previous line, this is what is needed to get a response:

Q & A, an Adult Bible Classes
--we've all got questions, let's explore the answers

9-10:30 am, Sunday, Room 337, Our Local Church
For all adults, all ages, married, or single, visitors welcome
Come at 9:00 for coffee, fruit and pastry; followed by a teaching presentation and then lively, small group discussion of the topic.

Current topic: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? 

The resurrection of Jesus is the core belief and foundation of the Christian faith, but truth be told, many of us couldn't tell you why we believe it. Maybe we've heard that Jesus didn't really die; maybe we read a book or saw a movie that said he lived and later married.We aren't sure that's true, but we don't know why it's false either. Maybe we've heard it is one of the best-proved facts of history, but we don't know how that is true either. Maybe we always believed it, but have no idea how to share it with someone outside the church.

Whatever place you are at, come for an in-depth presentation by one of our class members who has studied the topic and then we'll discuss it in a small group, ask questions, interact. No homework required, all questions welcomed. Handouts will be provided with more resources for reading and website exploration. If you have questions ahead of time you want to be sure we cover, or questions about the class, please call John Doe, 555-5555 or email mary@ourlocalchurch.com. Past lessons, both video and audio versions are at www.greatchurchlessons.com. (not a real site)

Yes, the above announcement takes a lot more time and work to put together and it takes more paper and ink to print it (plus time to put it on the church website as you update it). But it also respects the time and mind of your church members and visitors because:

  • It does not assume everyone knows where the class is, how long it lasts, who it's for, or even that it meets on Sunday. You must state these seemingly "obvious" facts in every announcement if you want a visitor or uninvolved member to attend. And these facts must be in every announcement about the class.
  • To simply list "Adult Class 9am" in your church bulletin and then tell people to go the church website for more information will have limited results.  Few people will not take the bulletin home, find the link and type it in--ALL the necessary information should be there in front of them for them to make a decision.
  • At the same time, you must give all the information on the website as well for people who for some reason didn't get the bulletin. Past lessons and more information should also be on the website. The website is a great place to expand information about the class, look at a bio of the teacher, and have links to content for more information. Depth of information on your website will give credibility to short announcements.
  • A quick Facebook or Twitter announcement is a great reminder of what is going on, but it is only a reminder and should link to your website for more information. ***Remember though that visitors and newcomers probably will not be aware of your social media and often will not link to it or follow you consistently until they have been involved for some time. Remember also that social media is an ever-flowing stream and not useful when you forget a date and time and want to look up information--that is what websites are good for.
  • It is kind and lets folks know that coffee and munchies will be provided. This very important because for some people 9am on Sunday morning is really early and if they know coffee and sugar awaits, they may make it to the class.
  • It tells potential members that the class format so they can come knowing that they won't have to sit through an hour and a half lecture--there will be discussion and interaction time.
  • It states the teaching topic. When you don't tell people what a class is about, it becomes a "trust us, we know what is best for you" announcement and one few people respond to today. By stating that some people may not be convinced of the Christian faith, it opens up the class not only for church members who may have questions, but let's them know they can bring friends who are unchurched and they will be welcomed.
  • The fact that handouts and more information will be provided lets you know the teacher is serious about the topic and has spent significant time in preparation. It says that if a person attends the class their time won't be wasted.
  • It gives contact information if someone has questions.

A longer announcement like the one above doesn't waste time because it tells people what is going on in a way that they can make an informed decision. The shorter announcement actually wastes more time because it doesn't really give readers any useful content or a reason to respond.

More is more

Yes, people's time is valuable, but even more important is the destiny of their eternal souls. If you give people complete and useful information about worthwhile activities in your church, they will pay attention, they will read them, they will show up and lives will be changed.

Don't cop-out by saying people don't read what you write, when you don't write anything that is useful, significant, or worthy of their time to read. Don't work hard to advertise a class given by someone who you would be embarrassed to bring a friend to hear or a ministry that you wouldn't become involved in for any number of reasons. Be sure you have worthy offering and then pour your heart into making every ministry announcement worthy of your audience time. They will read them and they will respond.

Google is changing how it presents search results and here is what your church needs to know and do about it

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device friendly websites
It's essential people for people to be able to search our websites with their mobile phones.

What Google is doing sounds scary and has been termed "mobilegeddon" by some because of the potentially drastic changes it will have on search results on mobile devices. Should your church be worried and if so what should you do about it? You have so many things to do as church communicators, should you bother?  Following I'll explain more what it means and give you some practical suggestions on what you can do.

What it really means

Google is constantly changing the algorithms for how results are shown when you put in a search term. One of the primary reasons they do this is that there are always people who try to game the system and manipulate sites so their sites show up high in search results.

Though this isn't an article on Search Engine Optimization, Google and all other search engines have always said, and continue to affirm, that the primary reason sites show up on the first page or two of results are because of the quality of their content, not just because of artificial Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There is legitimate, intrinsic SEO, that systems such as WordPress make easy to use and search engines benefit from that. Artificial, SEO which consists of key-word loading and other false and always new ways people try to beat the system without the legitimate work of creating valuable content is what they are fighting against.

Sites with a depth of good content will always be found when people search for the topics they are about.Though this is a purely personal and anecdotal comment, I have always found that to be true. Ever since the earliest days of the Effective Church Communications ministry, I've always been too busy to concentrate on any Search Engine Optimization strategy. I've simply tried to create as much useful material for church communicators as possible and because of that, the Effective Church Communications website comes up early in many results related to church communications.

Though a depth of good content is still important, this algorithm change with Google is different because with the current changes Google is penalizing websites that are not mobile friendly and it specifically relates to when a search is done on a mobile device. This change doesn't care about the content of your site--what matters is how people access your site.

The changes do not affect searches people do from their desktop computers. Many of the articles written about the changes don't make that distinction clear (here is one that does).

One conclusion some churches might draw from properly understanding that this big change only affects searches made on mobile phones is that it really doesn't matter to them because they might assume that few people look up their church website on a mobile phone. That conclusion is incorrect and it's important we understand why.

Why this is important

In the NPR article cited above it says that 48% of search traffic now comes from mobile devices.

If we truly want to be all things to all people that we might win some, we definitely need to make sure our websites are easily accessible to the people who want to use them, no matter what device they use.  In many ways this action by Google is a great wake-up call for all churches.

We may not personally do searches on our phones (or even have a smart phone that allows us to do searches), but more and more people have them and constantly use them to look up everything). Many churches lament that they don't have young families coming to their church, but if you truly want young people to come, you have to communicate in the way they communicate. That means everything you want to tell them HAS to be accessible on their phones.

In many ways Google is simply helping us do what we need to do to share Jesus with our world.

What you should do at your church

First of all, check to see if you have a problem. The link below takes you to a very quick and easy test to see if your website is mobile-friendly. Just enter in your URL and in a couple of minutes you will get a quick evaluation of if your site is mobile friendly or not.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/?utm_source=wmc-blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=mobile-friendly

Second, be sure you understand this issue. To do that, this article will be helpful:  A primer on responsive websites, what they are and why they are important

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/09/a-primer-on-responsive-websites-what-they-are-and-why-they-are-important/

I wrote this article and did a short 4-minute video to explain what it means to make your site mobile- device friendly. "Responsive" was the term used in initially. It means the same as device or mobile-friendly today.

Practical suggestions on what to do

Before I get specific on some practical recommendations, it is worth repeating—this Effective Church Communications  site does not take any advertising. Also, we do not take part in ANY affiliate program or do anything in exchange for any product or service. If I want software or hardware,  I buy it (if I can afford it). I get no discounts or special deals. The important point of the preceding comments is that when I recommend something, I do it because I genuinely feel there is something of benefit in it for church communicators.

I'm bringing this up now because a number of articles I've seen about the Google changes then lead into a sales pitch for some tech group to help you make your site mobile friendly. Some may be genuinely helpful and if you have a person, a service, or website building system that has worked well for you in the past, you may want to keep using it. But if you are thinking about redoing your website or doing it at your church by an in-house person, here is one suggestion:

Learn WordPress and use a device-friendly template

Yes, there are many other great systems and companies, but I think WordPress is the best way to build a website, for many, many reasons, too lengthy to detail here. Also I think it is a skill every church communicator (and most staff members and pastors) should have. I have built many sites with it over the years and I continuously am amazed at all it does and what features are added to it. It is also free. You have to pay for hosting, but that can be minimal and instead of being locked into a proprietary system and cost, once you learn (and it is easy to learn) WordPress, it is one of the most cost-effective way for a church to have a complete and flexible site. If something else is working for you—great, but if you are checking out systems for websites, make WordPress on the top of your list.

This is an encouragement because now might be a time to take a deep breath, learn WordPress, and finally take charge of the website at your church.

HERE IS THE BEST RESOURCE for Google Changes and a great thing you can do for your church

The resource below is a WordPress church template company.  Their themes have all the mobile-friendly features you need for the Google changes built-in and you don't have to do anything extra to make them an intrinsic part of your site.

Church Themes http://churchthemes.com/
Though I've known about this group for some time, I recently did an extensive search to find new templates for several sites (including this one) that I am redesigning. After spending way too much money trying templates that had great marketing examples, but were impossible to replicate in my office, I was very frustrated.  One group actually said something like this "we know you can't build a site like our example and for several hundred dollars more we'll help you do that." I felt this was wrong and even if I did have the money to do that, it wasn't anything I could later recommend to other churches.

I didn't have personal experience with this Church Themes products, but I knew churches who spoke highly of them. I'd corresponded with them and felt they were genuinely people of integrity. So I decided to try a template—I was at the end of my rope and thought, what's one more frustrating trial? But things were radically different here.

Finally here was a beautifully designed template that did all I wanted it to do! But best of all were their tutorials for how to use their themes. The theme creator walks you through each step; they made sense and worked!

I am still working on some things behind the scenes that I am building with these, but I'll share them as soon as I get them done. I didn't want to tell you about them or the company until I did, but this Google situation required it.

Their templates can really work for any church and for staff with very little tech experience. You don't have to be a tech genius to create a fantastic, contemporary looking site with these templates. Plus all the tools you need for church sites:  great looking slider header, sermon text, podcasts, video, events, blog, photos, videos, staff, locations, calendar, and donations are all built-in and best of all—demonstrated and explained!

You can either build your church website from nothing using them or switch your church website to one of their templates. It will take you more than a couple of days to do it, but the results will be worth it, device-friendly and something you can update at your church.

Now for ways to learn WordPress or more about it

WP101, https://www.wp101.com/
This is one of the best ways to get up and running quickly with WordPress. It has easy-to-follow and understand tutorials. Sure, you can view a million of them on YouTube, but you never know what version they are demonstrating.  I have had some training on WordPress on the Effective Church Communication site, but I can keep up with changes. This site constantly updates their training. In addition to basics, more advanced topics easily explained.

Note: http://www.Lynda.com,  that I recommend for a lot of other training, does have a number of WordPress tutorials—but for some reason, I think they are some of her weakest courses—this company is much better for learning WordPress.

WP Beginner, http://www.wpbeginner.com/
Not only beginners, but everyone who uses WordPress can benefit from the blogs and resource links on this site. Not terribly advanced, but very useful materials.

"a free WordPress newsletter" http://wpmail.me/
This is the geeky newsletter with the latest news from the WordPress organization, developers, and gurus. However, it has a lot for ordinary users, including great articles about plugins and overviews of new themes that have passed the WordPress standards. It comes out once a week and I always find something useful in it.

In conclusion

We don't make changes on our website because we're bored and have nothing else to do, nor do we do them just because Google makes a big change. For this change, making our sites more device and mobile friendly, may be one of the most important changes we can make to help unchurched people find us and ultimately find Jesus.

 

 

Event evaluation resources and FREE e-books

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Here are some additional resources to for post-event evaluation and some free e-books:

Make special event evaluation a habit for continuous improvement–3 forms and a book that will help, to download, CLICK THIS LINK:
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/make-special-event-evaluation-a-habit-for-continuous-improvement-3-forms-and-a-book-that-will-help/

A primary link to a free e-book on church communications PLUS a number of others, CLICK THIS LINK:
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2013/11/free-ebook-on-connection-cards-essential-to-link-with-holiday-visitors/

More than a pretty face—5 essentials for an effective church website

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Make your website more than a pretty face
Good looks are appealing, but not the most important thing when it comes to church websites--this article give you 5 essentials.

Much emphasis on websites today is on how they look and while important, looks are not the most important feature of your church website.

It's like when we meet a person who is physically attractive and are drawn to him or her. After a few interactions, we may find the person as attractive on the inside as they are on the outside and the relationship grows. However if we find that underneath that beautiful exterior is an empty mind or heart, we won't continue the relationship.

Following are 5 characteristics to keep your church website from being a just a pretty face and being a resource that can grow your churches relationships with members and seekers. . . .

Content-rich—

It really doesn't matter if people think your website looks great or not. What matters is what content is in it. There has been a big shift in the design of church websites in the design of church websites over the past few years and unfortunately many churches concentrate so hard on keeping up on design trends, they lose sight of the reality of the unspoken expectations people have of your website. People don't come to your website to keep up with design trends, they come to your website to find out content about your church and the Christian faith.

If you haven't been involved in a website redesign, please don't worry about it if your website format hasn't been changed from the day it was created, don't make redesign your priority until you have a solid foundation of content.

The content that makes an effective church website should be driven by the overall vision and goal to fully fulfill the Great Commission,  that is to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and to grow become Christ-like disciples.  To do that you need to go beyond the basic brochure details needed on every church website such as:

Location and contact information—If you don't already have it on there, the footer of your website is a great place to include address, email and phone number.

Staff and who does what and how to reach them—the important issue here is that if you include email, or social media accounts for staff, be sure they actively answer their emails or take part in the social media. Please do not include email or social media links for staff who don't engage in them. It is a huge disappointment if you post contact information and people don't answer inquires.

These and other expected other basics such as what newcomers can expect; sermons in audio and video, current bulletins and newsletters, denominational information, etc., are very important, but to fully fulfill the Great Commission with your website—go beyond each of these expected areas and be sure each area of your website has the two following website characteristics: Comprehensive and Connected.

Comprehensive—

This goes beyond labels that a website template or list has and actually giving people concrete information in them.

To illustrate the importance of this characteristic, how often have you seen a website with sections or labels, such as: Children's, Adult Ministry, etc., but when you clicked on the label to find out more they have nothing but a statement that says something like, "We believe in Biblical education for all ages and our church provides it through classes on Sunday morning and during the week.” Or it had the current lesson, but only the topic and nothing more. Or worse yet is the label "under construction."  It is better to leave a label off than to not have a comprehensive explanation about what is really going on in that ministry area.

Some ideas to make your site more comprehensive:

  • Show pictures of people and activities with captions that explain what is going on;
  • Have staff members share about themselves and why they do what they do;
  • Tell about how staff and lay leaders came to know Jesus, how they were called to ministry, or became involved in the church;  
  • Profile members of the congregation who lead ministries and have them tell their story and show what they do by pictures of them teaching kids or on a work project;
  • Give up-to-date details about what is taught and why those topics were selected.

Also be comprehensive about what you believe. A Statement of Faith is expected, but very few church websites actually tell people why they believe what they believe or even explain the terms in it.  This is such a missed opportunity because comprehensive explanations can be a wonderful way to engage people about the Christian faith. To do that, expand  the parts of your Statement of Faith with  links to blogs or discussions by staff or teachers about them the topics (e.g. why we believe the Bible is the word of God, not just stating that we do),  and invitations to interact with people who may have questions and who visit the website.

In the past the church has done outreach in many ways—missionaries braved jungles, oceans, and death; churches sent out mass mailings and volunteers went door-to-door sharing the gospel. Today people search for answers to life, death, and spiritual issues on the internet and if your church has content that gives answers and people who will answer questions and interact with seekers via email and social media, your website can be one of your most effective outreach tools.

Also, be comprehensive about explaining the most important thing about your church,  what it means to be a Christian and how to become one (quick—check yours out and see if you have this on your site). If you don't clearly share how to become a Christian, or how to explore what it means to be a Christian, or what ways your church welcomes seekers—talk with the staff about what to put on the site explanations and invitations in ways that fits your church tradition and the ministries it offers to guide people towards a relationship with Jesus. Most importantly, again, be sure you have links to people who will respond if someone has questions or makes a decision.

Connected—

Though we have one purpose in all our communications—to fully fulfill the Great Commission by helping people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to spiritual maturity in Him—we have many channels through which we communicate this message and you need to have connections on your website to all of them to appeal to the various audiences your church reaches.

Connected means that website updates and key content are linked to social media sites. But even more important than this is that when you mention something on a social media site that it links back to more information on the website.

It is extremely frustrating to be on the receiving end of social media that advertises and announces "Come to this or that special event!" "Mark this date on your calendar!" "Don't miss out!" but when you go to the website of the church, there is nothing about the event and no place to easily find the details of cost, location, childcare, schedule, and the other critical details necessary to actually connect people with the ministry. This is where a website can answer questions, make the connections and give people the details they need to be part of what you mention on the website.

Consistent—

Consistency means having the same information in the same place and accessible in the same way. Websites are no different from paper-based communications in this way—readers dislike format changes done merely because the person creating the communication got bored laying things out the same old way.

Members come to websites to carry out a task: to find out what time their kids need to be at a meeting; to see what the upcoming sermon topics are; to find out how much the retreat or camp will cost. Seekers and visitors come to find out who you are, what you believe, and if they will be welcomed. Nobody comes to a site looking examples of great design and clever ways of arranging content. And no one is amused because you decided to change things up "to make it look more interesting." Frustration while trying to find something is never interesting.

Decide on website organization that you think will be clear and easy to use and then get feedback on how it serves its purpose.  One the best way to do this is to have some people totally unfamiliar with your church test your website while you are watching and see what they have trouble finding. You can also recruit some current church members and have them navigate the new design. Don't ask either group how it looks—people are innately polite and will say nice things no matter what they think.

To get a realistic view of how your site works, give them tasks to do: find out the time of an event; find the audio of the pastor's sermon; find out about adult and children's Bible training; figure out what small group to join and make contact with the group leader. If they have trouble doing these things quickly and easily—work on the organization and test again. If it works, keep it that way for as long as you can. Constantly add new and updated content (discussed in more detail in the next characteristic), but keep the organization consistent.

Current—

After all of the above, what sets apart a truly effective church website is that all the information is current.  As ministries, people, events change every week, this is a huge challenge, but without it, without your congregation being to trust that your website to be current, you won't accomplish all that you could with your website.  As Hebrews 10:36 reminds us:

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Keeping your website current involves more than the mind-numbing and often frustrating task of being sure that the dates, facts, and schedules are correct every week, when people forget to update you and you have to track down tiny details—it is truly "a long obedience in the same direction." Eugene Peterson

It is also spiritual warfare. Like the soldier who must constantly clean his rifle, check his equipment, making certain that everything is in perfect order for battle—you must make certain all your communications are as current and correct as they can be for the needs of your people. You might never know the spiritual destiny a tiny detail can alter. If you leave out the time of an event, perhaps a spiritual seeker does not connect with the church, a child is left lonely without an opportunity to meet friends, a believer who desperately wants to grow finds no resources. You are never merely dealing with schedules and numbers, you are making available tools for the salvation and growth of eternal souls.

Content-rich, comprehensive, connected, consistent and current—these essentials that make your website more than a pretty face are time-consuming and challenging to do, but if you want to make your website more than a pretty face, but something that helps people find Jesus and grow in their faith, the time spent on each of them is than worth it.