Effective Church Communications

How Christians are like Pumpkins—a fun object lesson for adults and kids to grow as Christians together

7 October, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Pumpkin Carving and faith building project — Use this pumpkin carving lesson as a time to teach children about Jesus.

This is just the cutest, fun thing for Halloween!

But first the serious reasons behind it:

In the Old Testament, Jewish parents were commanded to teach their children about God's law during all of life.

Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates. Deut. 6:7-9 MSG

In the New Testament, we are all commanded to do a similar thing—

Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Col. 3;7, MSG

Though we are commanded to make God's Word and doing His will part of every area of life, that isn't an easy command to fulfill.

Holidays can help, even ones we wouldn't normally think would help us to grow in our Christian lives.

How pumpkins can help us understand the Christian life, what Jesus has done for us, and how we can live for Him.

We don't often think of Halloween as a time to learn about the Christian faith, but with a little imagination and creativity, it can be! Here is a pumpkin carving project that will help kids learn about Jesus. Below is a short video that goes through the project and below the video is a link to a ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print Pumpkin Project sheet, editable MS Publisher files, jpg images, and an MS Word file of the text if you want to create your own version.

Please note: I saw many versions of this before I created my own and was never able to track down an original creator--if that's you or you know who it is, please let me know at yvonprehn@gmail.com.

Click on the following link to download a ZIP file that contains a ready-to-print Pumpkin Project, editable MS Publisher files, jpg images, and an MS Word file of the text if you want to create your own version: Pumpkin Project & Poem

Halloween responses to keep in mind–a flyer reminder to be kind when we might want to be grumpy

6 August, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

This was shared on Facebook and is very worth passing on as a reminder of what can be a fun, but also a sometimes stressful time. Below it is another challenging thought from Facebook.

What is below is especially important if you are giving out a gospel tract or other information related to your church or Jesus at Halloween.

Below it is one more challenging example from Facebook about Halloween.

When we get it right at Halloween

Free Social Media Invitation and Postcard Templates for Mother’s Day, set 2, using AI-generated images in BOTH Canva and MS Publisher

26 April, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Free Mother's Day Social Media Invitations — This is one of a set of Free Social Media & MS Publisher invitations for Mother's Day. This set of images was created using the AI program in Canva.

This second set of Social Media invitation templates for Mother's Day was created using AI-generated images. To go to Set #1, CLICK HERE.

I did them in Canva using variations of the prompt: "Mother's Day background, using flowers, roses, or lilies." I changed the style for variations of the images. I wasn't looking for anything spectacular, but something useful. I then resized them in Canva and added the text boxes.

Below the images of the social media are links that will take you to the Canva files and MS Publisher files where you can modify them however you wish, adding your church's specific event information, or referring them to another place for it. Regardless of where you direct them, be very clear as these messages may be forwarded (hopefully they will be) to someone who may not be familiar with your church and exactly where you are or when you meet.

For the Canva Files of Free Mother's Day Social Media Images, click on the links below.

AI Images INSTAGRAM SIZE
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFgIlx5BuU/7NwcI5bWxcHFG5by4qtYeA/edit?utm_content=DAFgIlx5BuU&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

AI Images FACEBOOK SIZE
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFhLB6oNh8/gZUlNba9dvcbvMl32OSLsw/edit?utm_content=DAFhLB6oNh8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

AI Images POSTCARD SIZE
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFhLO-Xphk/R3t-4uwpGpx4TbtbyNsfIg/edit?utm_content=DAFhLO-Xphk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

For the MS Publisher file of Free Mother's Day Postcards or for the image in PDF format, download the ZIP file below to your computer, open, and modify as you wish.

To download the editable MS Publisher file for the postcards, click the following link: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/JPG-Images-AI-created-POSTCARD-SIZE-T-2.zip

REMEMBER the most important reason for using these invitations

Of course, you want to make Moms happy by inviting their loved ones to attend church with them but remember that this is a fantastic opportunity to share the good news of salvation in Jesus with family members who may not have heard it or responded to it.

Do honor Mothers on this day, but most of all, with all the unchurched family members who will attend this day, be sure to make it one of your best outreach days of the year.

Why the emphasis on evangelism and discipleship for Mother’s Day

11 April, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Mothers Day Resources — Celebrating Mothers is important on Mother's Day, but we can do more to reach out to unchurched families at this time.

The reasons for doing more on Mother's Day that focusing solely on celebrating Moms has to do with the overall approach of the Effective Church Communications ministry.

Bear with me for a few minutes while I explain (and if you are super busy, just go HERE for free Mother's Day Templates).

Brief background of the philosophy underlying Effective Church Communications

I never imagined when I was astounded with the technical ability of the IBM Self-Correcting typewriter that I'd be communicating today creating images in Canva, doing podcasts, and training videos for church communicators on the web that reach the world.I imagine those starting out with the technology we have today will look back, should they and this world last, and be amazed at what they will use in church communications five decades from now.

Tools are essential, but often a distraction

Though technology and the tools we use to communicate have continuously changed from the use of clay tablets to the Internet (though the pace has accelerated greatly), a human tendency continues to focus on the tools as THE most important ingredient to communication success. At one time it was radio that would reach the world, then television, then the Internet came along and gave birth to the myriad of technologies today.

A bulletin with color added was a big deal at one time; now churches worry that they aren't posting enough on all the latest social media channels.

Each time a new tool appears we loudly proclaim THIS IS IT! Conquer this or that tool and the world will be reached for Jesus. Or at least we'll have a new tool to try. [Read more...]

FREE Valentines Day Backgrounds and How to Create them Using the Canva A.I. feature

31 January, 2023 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

Free Valentines Background and how to create them — This is just one of over 3 dozen free background images you can use for Valentines Day. Download as either a ZIP file or link to Canva, use and modify.

The following backgrounds were all created in Canva, using their A.I. image-generating feature and they were then modified in Canva with some of their filters and image editing tools.

I have three sets of images for you with both links to the Canva files and also to download a ZIP file of 1080 x1080 px, jpg images. You can modify and use them however you want.

Before the images is a short video on how I created them using the Canva "text to image" or their A.I. image generation program. I'll be doing some additional videos about it, but I wanted to share these with you for Valentine's Day.

Following the video are the three sets, first with the images, then the Canva Link and the jpg file link for each set below the images.