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.

Bible teachers should teach, not conduct public therapy sessions

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Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. . . . . . if it is teaching, let him teach (Romans 12:3-7, italics mine).

Teaching is an exacting form of communication. Based on a biblical foundation, teaching in the church is an essential element in enabling people outside the church to understand the truth of the Christian faith and inside the church to aid believers to grow in Christian maturity.

There is much lamenting about the lack of basic biblical knowledge among Christians today and it is instructive for leaders in the church to examine what their people are actually being taught. If our people don't know the Word and don't live according to it, if we are their teachers, what have we taught them? We have at most, a couple of hours each week to teach, and it might serve us well to look at how we use those precious minutes. Some considerations:

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Listen now to Yvon Prehn's interview on BlogTalk Radio by Chris Walker, the Evangelism Coach

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I had a great time on my hour-long interview with Chris Walker, aka, The Evangelism Coach, last Thursday.

If you weren't able to listen to it live, you can  listen to the interview by clicking on the link below and from there clicking on the BlogTalk Radio file.

http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2009/how-to-get-church-visitor-contact-information/

While you are there, take some time and look around Chris' website—he has quite a few great resources for evangelism.

He has also written a book on How to Welcome Church Visitors, that has lots of helpful tips in it.

Non linear—a valid way to communicate

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Recently a Christian writer was critiquing the communication in current media and computer arenas. He stated that since much of the communication did not take the form of logical, linear thought, that truth could not be communicated. I disagree. Though the importance of truth cannot be denied, there are many ways to communicate it. Consider this passage:

Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Rev 4:6-8

Picture that image in your mind for a moment. If you’ve ever played or seen some of the images in the current computer games this one would fit right in. But though the imaginative, games form of the image would fit, its message is far different than most fantastic video games. It isn’t about blood and destruction, it’s about worshipping God.

Linear, logical arguments are one way to communicate—but look at the book of Revelation, as the passage above illustrates and many of the visions of the prophets in the Old Testament (Ezekiel, Daniel). They’d hardly qualify as linear, logical communication.  I don't think we could fault God for his communication style in them.

We share different teachings in different ways. The lists in Numbers are one form; extravagent, imaginative images fill prophetic passages. God did not limit his communication to us in one form and it doesn't make much sense to try to limit how we share the gospel message to one form.

As I reread some of the passages in preparing to write this article I found myself wondering—wouldn’t they be great illustrated on a computer screen? Sometimes I think we’d understand prophecy so much better if we could see it as the writers did.

If the Apostle John and the Prophet Ezekiel were around today, they would probably feel right at home with 3-D computer modeling and virtual reality to communicate their messages.

Instead of limiting the ways God can use us to communicate, let’s encourage those imaginative with computer tools today to use every means possible to reach our generation for Jesus. Linear, logical word-based communication is one valid and still useful method to communicate truth, but with the tools we have today, it is only one tool in the palette of ways we can share the eternal message of salvation.

adapted from Yvon Prehn’s, The Heart of Church Communication, available at www.lulu.com/yvonprehn

 

The media isn’t our message—our message is Jesus

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Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked,

 "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:40-42).

When Marshall McLuhan, early pioneer of electronic media, pronounced in the early sixties, that "the media is the message," he was predicting that the means of communication would be more important than the message it carried. For his time, the primary media was television; more and more in our world it is computers and the resulting forms of digital communication: desktop publishing, the internet, cell phone, and small screen communications.

Though it is easy to get caught up in the complexity and power of digital communications, as Christians we must constantly remind ourselves that these incredible innovations, and any that are to come, are only tools. The power doesn't come from the tool or media-the power comes from the message.

As the apostle Paul said , "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). The world "power" used in this verse comes form the Greek word, dunamis. It's the same root for our world dynamite and it means a "miraculous, mighty, wonderful power."

Our message, not the media we use to share it, is the source of true power. It was the same for the early disciples writing with pens on parchment, it will be the same for us if we are creating virtual reality holograms to illustrate Bible stories in the years to come.

We live in an age where the pace of change is incredible. Many of you started out in communicating with pencils, progressed to typewriters, and now operate computers on your desk more powerful than the ones they used to put a man on the moon. This pace will not slow down.

We need to always remember that no matter how powerful, overwhelming or impressive the technology, there remains, "only one thing that is needful" -the good news of salvation found in Jesus.

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From The Heart of Church Communications by Yvon Prehn, available either as a download or in paperback book form from www.lulu.com/yvonprehn.