Effective Church Communications

Communication is one of the most challenging church ministries because it is often the gateway to the entire church. To do it effectively requires more than the latest images, social media, and technology tips.

You need a timeless strategy, inspiration, and Biblical challenges that work no matter what tech tools and channels you use, the size of your church or age of your audience. You'll get them in the Effective Church Communication Podcast.

PODCAST: D-Day and Church Communications: D-Day and Church Communications: with words from C.S. Lewis and memories of my Grandfather as they left England the morning of D-Day

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D-Day reminds us our work is spiritual warfare for the kingdom of God.
D-Day reminds us our work is spiritual warfare for the kingdom of God.

Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day and while we commemorate and honor the sacrifices of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy I think it is appropriate to remind everyone who is involved in Church Communications that you are daily involved in storming the strongholds of Satan to win people to Jesus.

First here is the podcast and below it the text it is based on:

To do that I want to share 3 things:

  1. A quote from C.S. Lewis and how it applies to us as church communicators
  2. A challenge for church communicators about the reality of spiritual warfare
  3. Finally, a memory of D-Day from my adopted grandfather as they were boarding the boats to take them from England to Normandy.

"A Secret Wireless" C.S. Lewis quote

Though he was talking about the church in general, whenever I read this quote I think about the work we do as church communicators—whatever part you do: preacher, church secretary, designer, anyone sharing the messages of the gospel:

Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 45-46

For how this fits into the idea of D-Day, let me continue with a challenge/devotion I wrote for Church Communicators: [Read more...]

ECC PODCAST: Father’s Day—Beyond celebration—how to make the ministry most of it to grow Dads spiritually

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It's easy to look at Father's Day as just another holiday to do up a special bulletin and social media for and to say a few nice things about Dads during the church service. But did you know you can do so much more as communicators for Jesus?

We need to constantly remind ourselves in the crush of trivia and distraction that our job is not to be a holy version of Hallmark where our goal is to have the most appealing Father's Day social media and PowerPoint ever, but that our primary job in communications, as in all of life if we are followers of Jesus, is to grow as his disciples and to share his message of salvation—in other words, to fully fulfill the Great Commission. Below is our podcast where we explain how Father's Day can be used to grow men in their faith and following the podcast are notes from it and links to the resources mentioned in it.

You might wonder why a church communication article starts out by reminding you of the importance of discipleship, but as followers of Jesus that is the most important aspect of our lives and our work as church communicators is simply the arena in which we carry it out.

Ephesians 5:16-17 reminds us of this and challenges us in this way:

So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to find out and do whatever the Lord wants you to.

At Effective Church Communications, my goal is to remind you to "make the most of every opportunity for doing good" and to give you practical opportunities to do that. [Read more...]

SPECIAL PODCAST: Yvon Prehn Reading One Mother’s Prayer

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One Mother's Prayer--audio versionThis is the podcast of Yvon Prehn reading One Mother's Prayer. There is no intro or music--just the words.
I did this and am giving you the embed code after the Podcast so if you want to use this on any social media you have, you can.

If you'd like free print versions of it, go here: https://wp.me/pDky9-5HO

This little piece has helped thousands of people all over the world remember to pray for those they love and to trust what God can do. It is useful not only for Mother's Day but for any ministry group or women's group that prays. I pray it will be useful to you also.

This is the embed code:

<iframe src="https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn/embed/episodes/SPECIAL-PODCAST-Yvon-Prehn-reading-One-Mothers-Prayer-e3usu0" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">

PODCAST: Mother’s Day–Make the Most of the Untapped Potential for Evangelism and Outreach

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Mothers Day Outreach opportunitiesWhen we think about Mother's Day we think about doing special things for the moms in our churches and that's wonderful, but we can do something for them that makes flowers and chocolate pale in comparison.

We can help their kids and spouses who may not know Jesus have an opportunity to hear about him and connect with the church to find out more. But to do that, we need to realize that Mother's Day has the big attendance it does (just behind Easter and Christmas) not because of all the moms who are there because they are there every week or because random moms show up for the goodies. The visitors on this day are unchurched children and spouses who show up to make mom happy and we need to tailor the message and what happens that morning with them in mind.

This PODCAST talks about how to do that and the FREE TEMPLATES at the following link will give you the tools you need: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/mothers-day-templates/

You can listen to the PODCAST below and you can sign up for it on iTunes or many other podcast sources.

PODCAST: What can happen if you work hard on your event, but don’t have time to work communications FOR the event

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Easter joy and links to free Eastertemplates Will you get the same number of people the Sunday after Easter that you have on Easter Sunday?

We know we won’t, but in Today’s podcast we’ll talk about how you can increase the response by what you do on Easter Sunday.

Today we’ll talk about…….What can happen if you work hard on your event, but don’t have time to work communications FOR the event

This is a true story.

Though the specific event discussed is Easter, the lessons learned from it can apply to any event. In addition to applying to any event, we can all identify with the situation here. The challenges of ministry are so huge, it is very easy to get overwhelmed in one area and totally forget another one. May the Lord have mercy and help us all.

In one of my seminars, at the break, a lady literally came running up the aisle to talk to me.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said, “Now I understand what went wrong.” [Read more...]