Christmas

All will be well—because Jesus came and is coming

24 December, 2018 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Christ's second coming — Christ came the first time as a humble child. He will come the second time as conquering king and then truly, "all will be well."

The world has gotten pretty crazy over the last year and it probably won't improve much next year. But as Christ-followers our hope isn't in dreams and prayers for a better life that may not happen, but in the Savior, whose birth we celebrate.

As I was thinking about this, I remembered a quote from Julian of Norwich:

All will be well,

All will be well,

All manner of things

Will be well.

It is more than a comforting saying. For those who have trusted Jesus as Savior it is true—in the midst of the crazy world we live in and no matter how insane it gets, now and forever.

We forget the meaning of "saved"

We forget how incredible our salvation is because sadly being "saved" in much of Christendom today is synonymous with the idea of goodies from God. And those goodies are supposed to include health and wealth or at least a comfortable life.

That's not how the Bible looks at it. Here are two verses we don't often think about:

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! Romans 5:9

You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. 1 Thes. 1:9-10

There is, of course, a sense that we are saved here and now in that we are reconciled to God and at peace with him. We are saved from our selfish selves and able to live for God. But as wonderful as these things are, more wonderful yet is that we are saved from final condemnation and judgment.

One day this present reality with all its pains and fears will be transformed into a new heaven and new earth. There will be a final judgment for those who do not know Jesus and we work hard in all we do to share his message of salvation. But those who know Jesus are saved from condemnation and judgment. For them, there will be no more crying or tears and all the sadness will be gone forever.

Never forget that your work as a church communicator has eternal consequences. Keeping up with trends and technology may be useful, but far more important in your work is that you consistently make clear the message of salvation.

The first advent was humble; the second will be triumphant

Jesus came the first time as a little baby to poor parents who could only find shelter in a barn.

His second advent will be triumphant and glories.

Now we can only trust and believe that "all will be well." But Jesus is coming a second time and then truly and without end, "all manner of things will be well."

Last-minute Christmas strategy and FREE Templates–to encourage guests to come back to and get involved with your church

16 December, 2018 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Christmas follow up communications — Because He didn't stay a baby--we have so much to share with people who visit our churches this holiday season and the communications here will help you do it.

Wouldn't it be great if just one fantastic church service, event, or sermon could assure that unchurched visitors would come back to your church, learn about Jesus, come to know Him, and become a member of your church? When we create our invitations to Christmas and other special events, we silently hope they will help do just that.

Though we work hard, hope, and pray for great spiritual success, we know one great communication or the event it points people to probably won't do all we wish it would.

Eugene Peterson described the Christian life as "a long obedience in the same direction" and I think successful church communications fit that description. We want to bring people from outside the church into it, involve them with the life of the church, help them to come to know Jesus, and grow to be a mature disciple. It takes many communications online and in print to do that.

Getting people to the Christmas eve or day service or other special event is great, but making sure they come back is even better. To make that happen you need more than the invitation that got them there.

To help you do that, we have a number of communication ideas and free templates that can help. Some will help you get contact information, others will inform people about your church, others challenge them to think about Jesus as more than a baby.

Following are descriptions with strategies for using them. The ZIP files below each example contain ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files. You are free to use them in any way you want and to pass them on. All the artwork and text are copyright legal. Or you can use any part of them for inspiration and create your own or pull out the text for digital or social media sharing.

Christmas Event Sign in and Registration Card

One challenge with special events is how do you get people to give you their contact information so you can follow-up. Especially at events where people are moving around, they probably don't want to sit down and fill out a card. Here's an idea we've used these very successfully when we host a Christmas or other holiday event--we do drawings for great door prizes!

One Christmas we had big table at the door and an assortment of wonderful gift baskets. Some had food, others pampering items, all were gorgeously wrapped. One church I know has Target gift cards they give away at all events for when people fill out their information for a drawing.

We are always upfront with people about why we are doing this and what we want the information for. Following is the message on the card; you can also take this message, enlarge it and put it in a literature stand by the cards, when we do that, we have no problem at all with people signing up:

We are so glad you’re here! Please take a minute to fill out this card so you can be entered into our door-prize drawing and so that we have a record of your attendance and a way to contact you about future events for your family. Be assured this information will not be shared or used outside the church office and you can have your names removed from the list at any time by calling the church office.

Following are images of the templates that we have.Continue Reading

GIVING TUESDAY—my gift to YOU—dozens of FREE CHRISTMAS Templates!!!!! No strings attached…..really FREE

27 November, 2018 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

I've had trouble not being a bit of a humbug the last few days. From the horror of Black Friday frenzy intruding into Thanksgiving to the screaming online advertisements of companies that have huge sales, or piles of links to other sales (affiliate bait), to countdowns of the deals and reminders every time you open your email that it is your LAST CHANCE for this incredible DEAL.

One of the SQUARE Christmas Business Card size templates available in our Christmas Template set.

Last year I bought a number of those deals and in a year's time haven't used many of them and the ones I tried didn't do what I hoped they'd do. My response this year was to delete and unsubscribe. I can't seem to keep up on all the work I need to do with the tools I have now. Humbug.

Then along comes GIVING TUESDAY

The Days of the Year Website tells us:

Giving Tuesday was created when two organizations, the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation came together in 2012, about a month before that year's Thanksgiving. Their intention was to set aside a day that was all about celebrating the generosity of giving, a great American tradition.