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.
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Manage your church communication team well

5 April, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

women_calculator_deskEd. intro: This article is for church leaders and those who oversee church communicators. You are responsible for the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the people who create your communications. Their job is vital to the growth and success of the church, but often they do their job under very difficult circumstances. Please consider the following suggestions to help you effectively pastor and shepherd these vital members of your church team. They do so much for the church, following is what you can do for them:

Realize the important place communications and church communicators play in the overall strategic success of your church

"What people haven't heard about they can't take action about. Uncommunicated issues DON'T EXIST." Stuart Brand

"Why is communication so vitally important to the health and vitality of the local church? Communication is the means by which we reach our ministry goals. You cannot find a healthy, growing church that is plagued by ineffective communications. Such an animal simply does not exist. If your church is going to maximize its potential, it is imperative that you understand the communication process and constantly strive to upgrade how well you and others in your church communicate."
George Barna, Marketing the Church

No matter how Bible-based, prayed over and passionate you are about your vision for the church, if it is not sequentially, clearly, consistently, and repeatedly communicated to your church, it will not happen. Today, the role of your church communicator in making your vision real has grown in importance because of two primary reasons:

  1. In our post-Christian world people don't have the unthinking understanding of churches that they did in the past. Church is not a part of people's lives today in the same way it was in the past and because of that, your church needs to be much more intentional about its communicators than ever before. This often requires that either a person be hired with the specific role of Church Communicator or Director of Church Communications, or in a church where the administrative assistant or church secretary has to juggle many responsibilities, where the title of Church Communicator is at least a professional part of that person's job description.
  2. The demands of technology and multi-channel communications make it necessary. In the past when the church had one communication tool: the church bulletin and one way to produce it: the typewriter, communication was still extremely important, but it was much easier to manage that task for the church secretary in the midst of the many other demanding tasks in the church office. Today when many kinds of communications produced through many channels: print, PowerPoint, web, social media are needed by churches, the role of the church communicator is more important than ever.

Because the role of church communicator is vital to the success of your church today, you need to support, involve, train, and encourage that person so they can serve the church most effectively. Following are some suggestions on how to do that. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication management, church communication training, church office, managing church communications

Don’t only master church communication technology—measure results

5 April, 2012 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

Figure measuringHow is your church doing in technology? Did you finally get a church Facebook page and Twitter account? Did you make your website smartphone and tablet-friendly? Did you create an app for your church or put QR codes in your bulletin? Did you move back-up files to the cloud?

Though all of these accomplishments might count for bragging rights at church geek gatherings, there a more critical question for Christian geeks, techs and communicators and that is:

How does your church communication technology help your church fully fulfill the Great Commission?

Though we all love technology, the foundation for all we do in tech, communications and life is found in Jesus command to us:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:18-20.

Our Great Commission, the command to share the good news of salvation in Jesus alone with others and to help them become mature disciples is what it means to fully fulfill the Great Commission. This is not only the North Star and measure of success in our Christian lives; it should be our measure for success in everything we do in our church technology and communication ministry. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church com survey, church communication evaluation, church communication measurement

Free and inexpensive church communication images, a video review

20 March, 2012 By Yvon Prehn 6 Comments

Following is a video review of a very useful church image and communication website: www.creationswap.com.

This site not only has free images for you to download and use in your church, but it also sells complete template sets at very reasonable prices. Though you need to have Photoshop to modify them yourself, they offer printing and personalization services on the site. Check it out below.

****PLEASE put in the comments section if you have used this company. Also, share what other image, printing, or other services you find useful.*** I'll try to do video reviews so people have a brief idea of what's on the sites. Thanks so much!

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: Easter images, free easter images, printing for churches, Yvon Prehn video review

The importance of complete church communications if you want people to connect with church events

14 March, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

details thumbIf there is one thing that I think would change the destiny of the Christian church and make it far more successful at reaching our world today and effective at communicating our message,  it would be for church communicators to stop assuming that everyone knows what they are talking about and to communicate the church message completely.

In communication after communication, in print and online I see incomplete messages. As a result people don’t respond. Then church leaders get discouraged and think people don’t care anymore.

But they do! People care about their earthly well-being and eternal destiny, as the huge following of every new self-help or spiritual guru program shows us. But many are not responding to the Christian message because church leaders and communicators forget what it’s like to be an unchurched person or a casual church attendee. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication, complete communication, details in communication

The importance of complete church communications if you want people to connect with church events

14 March, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

If there is one thing that I think would change the destiny of the Christian church and make it far more successful at reaching our world today and effective at communicating our message,  it would be for church communicators to stop assuming that everyone knows what they are talking about and to communicate the church message completely.

In communication after communication, in print and online I see incomplete messages. As a result people don’t respond. Then church leaders get discouraged and think people don’t care anymore.

But they do! People care about their earthly well-being and eternal destiny, as the huge following of every new self-help or spiritual guru program shows us. But many are not responding to the Christian message because church leaders and communicators forget what it’s like to be an unchurched person or a casual church attendee.

Why complete communication is more important than ever

The world today is post-Christian. Many people grow up not knowing anything about church, the Bible, what it means to be a Christian. One part of our brain knows this, but from over 20 years of evaluating church communications, I’ve found that churches in general seem to forget this reality when they sit down to create their communications both in print and digitally. Because of that, we need to evaluate our communications when people have a hard time connecting with us and understanding our message.

For example, churches might think they are “seeker-friendly” and really want others to come to faith, but if your bulletin is filled with phrases such as:

“Adult Bible Study at the Johnson's, same time, same place.” (Does this mean only people who know the Johnson’s can attend?)

“The kids will be doing their yearly Lock-in & Movie Marathon. The cost and format same as last year.” (What is a “lock-in?” What if I was there and can’t remember what it cost? What if I’m new and my son is shy, who do I call?)

“Fill out the form on the website if you want to be part of a small group.” (What if I’m really lonely and want to be in a group, but don’t have a computer?)

Additional note on this last one: for all of us working at the church or if you are reading this on the web, it is difficult to comprehend that many people today (I'm writing this in March 2012) still do not have computer access at home. If we don't provide options (print, email, mobile phone) for contact and sign up we automatically exclude some people from some church activities.

The list of examples such as these is almost infinite. The details that connect people to ministry may seem small, but they are the vital links. Today few people will take time to call the church office for more information. Many people do not have access to the internet. We need to put COMPLETE information about events in every communication piece we produce. It is impossible for people to connect without these details.

It isn’t easy

Putting in these details is excruciating, detailed, hard work, impossible to understand in its difficulty if you have not had to personally track down the details of the multitude of events going on in a church and then put them into a pleasing, clear form in the church bulletin, newsletter, and now website. But these details are the keystone; they are the foundational links that if not there, all the hard work of praying, planning and putting on a ministry event will not accomplish our prayed-for results.

People are not universal mind readers. If you don’t completely communicate about an event people simply won’t show up. It is not the responsibility of the audience to find out all the details needed to connect with you—it is your responsibility.

 

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: communication detailsyvon prehn blog, Communications, complete communications

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