Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.

Follow up for Christmas visitors: content for social media, flyers, bulletin insert, newsletter articles

By Leave a Comment

#1MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby
Use this bulletin insert to connect holiday church visitors with your church and encourage them to explore the Christian faith. CLICK HERE to download this FREE PDF.

Many people will came to your church for Christmas Eve or other Christmas-related services because they want to make a family member happy, to keep peace in an extended family, or for many other reasons that have nothing to do with seeking God and who never come at any other time of year.

However, our Lord who stooped to become a baby still seeks them and a communication piece like this may help make a ongoing connection with your visitors and Jesus.

This piece is an extended version of the Christmas follow-up postcards mentioned earlier that reminded people that we don't only celebrate Christmas because of the Baby Jesus, but because of what he grew up to be—our Savior.

This extended piece can be used in many ways: as flyer or bulletin insert, as a print piece inside a visitor letter, as text or graphics or both for social media or your online or print newsletter, it is designed for people to get them to think about Jesus beyond an inspiring service.

On the back you can add some links to online resources to help them explore what it means to be a Christian. You could also add events from your church schedule, your website information about your church, a personal message, or contact information.

PLEASE take the time and effort to make up a communication like this!

Many churches are hesitant to preach challenging evangelistic sermons at Christmas services and while that is understandable, we don't want to miss the opportunity to share Jesus and to give people the resources to explore more about Him on their own. A communication like this isn't intrusive or pushy, but it gently challenges and gives people the resources to check into more about Jesus and the Christian faith. I've suggested some sources, but please add your own or any ways visitors can engage with your church or enter into a dialog or have their questions answered.

Additional designs and editable files

Below is the text of the insert and following that are added designs available in the ZIP file at the end of the article. The ZIP file has:

  • Ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs
  • Editable MS Publisher files
  • Hi-res images of each design
  • MS Word file of the text for the front of the flyer and recommended resources.

[Read more...]

Reminder to send out a Christmas follow-up postcard—Because He didn’t stay a baby

By Leave a Comment

#1MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD
Send out a postcard to the people who visited at Christmas to invite them back to find out more about Jesus.

Right after special Christmas or other holiday events is a prime time to invite people to come back to church to find out more about your church and Jesus.

Here is the message you can put on a card, flyer, social media content or however you want to use this message to get people to come back to church after Christmas. The headline says:

Because he didn't stay a baby. . . we want to tell you the rest of the story.

Hopefully, you collected Connection Cards at your event--now is the time to respond to them with an invitation to return. At the end of this intro is a ZIP FILE with not only the ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs, but editable MS Publisher files, hi-res images and the MS Word text file of the content.

The card here can be used in several ways:

  1. You can send it out with reminders of the regular services offered at your church. If people attended a Christmas Eve event or special event for children, that doesn't mean they have any idea about what your church does regularly.
  2. You can direct people to websites both at your church and other places that explain the Christian faith in more detail and answer their questions.
  3. You can invite them to a seeker Bible study, latte with the pastor or any other event where they can interact and ask questions about the Christian faith.
  4. It can also be left as a gospel tract at restaurants or anywhere else you leave tracts.
  5. You can take the content or the entire image and share it on social media.

Text for the card:

During the holidays you heard that Jesus was the reason for the season. You heard stories, sang songs, and got Christmas cards—all about Him.

In the middle of all that, did you ever wonder, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” What was there about this baby that split history in two and has the world celebrating his birth?

That’s a great question and we’d love to discuss it with you. On the back of this card are some opportunities to explore this question and we hope you'll check them out.

The additional designs illustrated below are all available in the ZIP file link below the article

#3MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD#4MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD#5MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD#6MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARDMS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE to download the ZIP FILE, of all the communications shown here, SAVE to your desktop and CLICK to open.

 

Don’t work like Amazon this holiday season–make room for joy!

By Leave a Comment

Free templates to make you happy
This season and always let's encourage each other as we work for the Lord!

I just finished reading an article by Gerry McGovern on the brutality of some modern companies in pursuing customer satisfaction at the cost of worker's mental and physical health and safety. Though we can do little to control how secular companies treat their workers, I was challenged with how we view work in our churches and ministries.

Yes, we all want to work hard for the Lord and in advancing His Kingdom, and yes there are times when we might push ourselves especially hard. This last week for me was filled with communications to be created for Sunday, a lesson for a Sunday School Class, Christmas decorations, preparing our home to host our Sunday School Brunch/party and doing all the cleaning, cooking, and shopping for that. It all got done and then I took a 2-hour nap.

It was fulfilling and good, but to push like that continuously isn't a good thing. I remind myself that Jesus said:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt. 11:28-30

It is a tricky balance between working hard for the Lord in ways that are pleasing to Him and thinking WE have to carry the entire load. We need to pray for wisdom and insight in these areas.

We also need to be careful about the guilt and burdens we place on others. If church staff members or volunteers are overly stressed with their workloads,  we might need to adjust our expectations, add time or resources or recruit additional volunteers. Our success in our communications or outreach at Christmas or any time of the year is not dependant on how hard we work but on the blessings of a Savior who can move hearts and change lives with the most humble of communications or services we produce.

We don't work for a brutal employer who primarily cares about the bottom line, but for a Savior who gave his life for us and who walks with us and we live for Him.

My contribution to your sanity

Let me carry some of your load for you. I have dozens of free templates for you to help you get out the true message of Christmas, connect with visitors, and encourage church members. They are in downloadable PDF formats and many are ready-to-print as is. Items such as connection cards, cards that remind people that Jesus didn't stay a baby, and a gospel presentation based on Hark the Herald Angels Sing, all are ready for you with a simple click and download. CLICK HERE to go to the Christmas Templates and scroll through the many items for you.

In addition, most are also in editable PDF format, so you can personalize them or change any of the headlines, etc.

Please pass on this resource to your fellow church communicators.

 

Super Important–Last Minute, FREE TEMPLATES for Christmas Connection Cards, and communications to get people to return after Christmas events

By Leave a Comment

Christmas connection card
Even more important than getting people to come to our Christmas events is getting them to come back. This will help.

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 of essential Christmas Communications along 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. [Read more...]

How to be sure your church isn’t confusing the Christmas message

By Leave a Comment

Christmas Star
A Christmas star may mean a lot to your church members, but be sure to explain its meaning to your guests.

How can the church confuse the Christmas message? Isn't it the secular world with its emphasis on spending and consumption, on parties and secular images the one confusing the Christmas message? We try so hard to make sure everyone knows "Jesus is the Reason for the Season!"

Isn't confusion over the meaning of Christmas a secular issue?

Not really. In many ways, the secular world no longer confuses the true meaning of Christmas. In the past it seemed that there was a sometimes uncomfortable mixture between the birth of Jesus and Santa—currently, almost every trace of Jesus has been erased in secular presentations of Christmas. In the various programs on TV this year, it seemed like the overarching themes had to do with "family" (commendable, but important all year) and something often referred to as "Christmas magic."

The secular world is quite clear that it wants nothing to do with Jesus at Christmas and there is little confusion about that.

Sadly, confusion about Jesus is often found in the church at Christmas though we certainly don't do it intentionally. The following are some thoughts to make sure that we are communicating the message we think we are communicating.

[Read more...]