Effective Church Communications

Canva’s remove background tool–absolutely WONDERFUL!

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This is the greatest tool ever to help in creating church communications! If you have ever tried to remove background around an image, you know how difficult it can be.

With Canva it is almost magically easy and then you can export the image to use in any program you want.

I had heard about the tool, but I didn't get around to using it until one Sunday morning my pastor (now sort of retired, but still preaching at times) HAD to have a flyer for a service he was doing later that afternoon. The video below shows how Canva came to the rescue to help me create what I needed.

 

FREE Templates and motivational articles: Read through the Bible in a year—Templates for handouts, booklets

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One of the most important things you can do for your congregation is to encourage them to read through the Bible in a year in chronological order. I've created a printed schedule, booklets, and motivational articles to help you do that. Now is a great time to be planning ahead to do this.

All of it FREE to everyone. Please pass on and share with others.

This post has:

  • A short summary of why it is important to read the Bible in chronological order this is beneficial, at the end of this post are two more articles. You can use these in any of your communications to encourage your people.
  • Handouts for the schedule in MS Word
  • A Booklet of the Schedule in MS Publisher
  •  A short video that shows you how to create the booklet
  • Two more motivational articles from my Bible blog, www.bible805.com

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Devotion #12: You are an ambassador in enemy occupied territory, prepare to be misunderstood

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Christians out of place in the world
It’s terribly frustrating to feel like no one understands you isn’t it? To feel like you don’t fit in?

As you’ll see, if you have that feeling as church communicator – you shouldn’t be surprised and in the podcast today I’ll explain why.

As always in this approximately 5-minute podcast I want to help you focus on God’s Word, the incredible calling you have to share God’s message of salvation, and to strengthen and encourage you.

Devotion #12: You are an ambassador in enemy-occupied territory, prepare to be misunderstood

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:20, KJV)

I often feel sorry for the government spokespeople on the evening news. They are attempting to explain government policies and actions to a frequently hostile audience.

Though often obviously uncomfortable and frustrated at their inability to communicate as well as they would like, the government spokespeople don’t condemn the press, or shout unkind judgments at the media attempting to cover them. With professionalism they explain their positions, answer questions, and offer sources for more information. [Read more...]

Free images for Giving Tuesday

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GIVING TUESDAY LOGO, free to use
This is one of the logos that are free to use from Giving Tuesday.

I'm sorry this is so late in coming to you—I was waiting to confirm that you could indeed use the images they created and they just recently got back to me. I was asked by a church communicator if I knew of free images for Giving Tuesday.

I found their site and they had a great selection of what looked like free images BUT (and this is a lesson to all of us) NO WHERE did they tell you that they were free or terms of use or anything. As I'm very concerned to not use anything on the Effective Church Communications site or pass on anything that is not 100% copyright and attribution free, I emailed to ask if it was OK. They just got back to me.

Having said that I realize it is an incredibly lame excuse because I should have worked to contact them earlier so I could pass on the information to you in time for it to be useful. I apologize.

I just added a note to my Google calendar to remind me at the end of July next year to look at their website and start planning ahead. I'd encourage you to do the same because to make a significant difference on this day, we need time to coordinate resources and communications. I promise to remind you much sooner next year. It is a wonderful alternative to the excessive consumerism of Black Friday and as a reminder of the importance of giving. [Read more...]

If you’ve got your church communications totally under control this isn’t for you, if not—read on!

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Overwhelmed with Church Communications
Sometimes I feel like I can't ever catch up or measure up as a church communicator--but here is how I've decided to help us all accomplish what God called us to do

I like to keep up on what’s happening in church communications through online groups and email news, but sometimes it discourages me more than helps me.

I got a major dose of that today when I was reading raving reviews and recommendations about Affinity Software (So easy to use! Cheaper than Illustrator!). And then I read about how you had to start streaming your church service and install online giving in your church before Giving Tuesday.

Please do not misunderstand—if you are a designer who thinks Affinity Software is easy to use and want to create advanced designs—go for it! It didn’t look very easy for me to use when I checked it out, but that’s just me and I did have to smile as I remembered the original Serif software the company created years ago. They have certainly changed. I thought it was too simple years ago and now it seems overly complex for practical church communication tasks.

If you’ve got time to set up a streaming service (more ways to share the gospel, what’s not to love about that?) or install online giving (that’s the one thing I hope every church implements at some time—because giving does go up, again), go for it!

But if you are like me, you already feel overwhelmed by the holidays and don't have time for all that

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