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; we can help.

10 essentials to prepare your church website for Easter

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Unchurched people will check out your website.
Unchurched people will check out your website if they get an invitation to your Easter service. And it won't be to listen to your praise music or admire your inspiring graphics. Here are some things to consider.

With the importance of digital information to people today, it is incredibly important that your website be ready for Easter or any special event. Before they meet your welcoming people, have fun at children's events or hear your challenging sermon, chances are they will go to your website. In large measure, whether they visit your physical church or not, may in large measure depend on what they find on your site.

Unchurched people visit church websites for the same reason they visit the website of any secular company—they are checking you out. They see an advertisement (your Easter invitation) and then go to the website to find out the details: who you are, what you are selling, how easy is it to find out information and get answers, if you are worth a live visit.

Potential customers form an opinion about a company by their experience on the website. If a company has not updated its website in months, if links don’t work, if the website is filled with splashy images but little real information, if all the terms are insider jargon (whether it's about a product or a church), if emails are not responded to quickly, a potential customer most like won’t care about learning any more about the company, let alone visiting.

Keep in mind that the visitor you sent an Easter mailing to doesn't know how nice your people are or how powerful the preaching is, or how the music will inspire them until they come to your church. Your website is what often stands between your invitation and their response.

Here are 10 suggestions to make your website one that will result in a visit to your church

1. Answer the "what's in it for me?" for your visitor

Sometimes it merely takes rewording to make the events you're doing appeal to visitors. For example instead of an insider announcement such as "traditional Kid's Kove Easter Morning" say sometime like:  "Join us for our Giant Easter Egg Hunt,  Muffins &  Juice for All Children of our community! Parents are invited to free coffee  and donuts while the kids have fun."

Make it clear that your events aren't just for members only and there is no obligation to attend.

2.  Provide clear explanations of the simple details of what you do—especially for special events

Make the service times, parking directions, child care and programs all easy to find. This is especially important for an event like Easter where you may have totally different service times than your regular ones. If you aren't clear and you don't change your usual times on your website, it can be very confusing.

Answer the question of what to wear if it matters at your church or even if it's like churches in S. California where anything other than a wet swim suit if pretty much OK. A bit dressed up or totally comfortable—let people know. [Read more...]

Motivational materials to encourage your congregation to invite their friends to Easter services, and why it matters

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invitation
People inviting people is the best way to increase your Easter attendance. Here is some motivation for your congregation

Sometimes we all need a little help to do the right thing and the materials here will help you encourage your congregation to invite their friends to your Easter services.

The communication has 2 forms, a 1/2 page flyer and a 1/4 size that prints well on card stock. On the one side is a motivational piece that lists 4 Reasons to invite friends and on the back a place for names of people they will be praying for.

Here is what the front of the card says:

Invite your friends to church this Easter season!

....or 4 REASONS why I should bother to pray, ask, and remind people to come when I’d rather just relax and sit around munching the ears off chocolate bunnies.

  1. Life is scary

The economy, terrorism, tornadoes, crazy weather—there is a lot to be afraid of in our world today. But those who have met the One who calms storms, know that though the journey might be challenging, we are ultimately promised a safe harbor. Invite your friends to meet Jesus, the only reliable guide through scary times.

  1. People are lonely

Lies, abandonment, abuse, disappointment—no matter how wonderful the person or relationship, there are times when the best of human companionship will disappoint. That’s because, as St. Augustine said, we all have a God-shaped place inside that only Jesus can fill. Invite your friends to meet Jesus, the only person whose love will never fail through all of life, through death, and into eternity.

  1. Everyone needs a purpose

As a former Watergate conspirator said, many folks live their lives climbing the ladder of success only to realize it was leaning against the wrong wall. Jesus’ resurrection provides us with the power to live lives of significant purpose and to discern between true and false success. Invite your friends to discover Jesus, the only compass to guide you to a life of genuine, meaningful purpose.

  1. We’re all going to live forever

Most folks today believe that and the Bible agrees. The question is, if you are going to live forever, what neighborhood will you live in? Jesus promises that for those who believe in Him they will live in an eternal neighborhood of light, joy, purpose, and companionship. But Jesus won’t force anyone to live in His neighborhood. Problem is, any place outside His source of light, joy, purpose, and companionship is an eternal place of darkness, pain, regret, and isolation—not a neighborhood we want anyone to live in. Invite your friends to meet Jesus, so they can live forever in His neighborhood.

Then on the back is a place for a prayer list of people to invite

Pray and List Family, Friends, Neighbors and Coworkers to invite:

________________________________                                                              ________________________________

________________________________                                                              ________________________________

________________________________                                                              ________________________________

If you need more motivation

I wrote the following if you or your congregation need additional motivation to invite people to your Easter services. It is a bit heavy and serious, but a good reminder to all of us of the importance of the work we are doing. We aren't simply getting communications ready for Easter. We are potentially changing the eternal destiny of people.

It doesn't matter much if you merely think of Easter as a time for chocolate and brunch. It isn't really important if your Easter service is primarily about fun things for kids and a musical extravaganza as uplifting as that might be.

But it does matter tremendously if you believe the message of Easter that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human died on the cross to pay for the penalty of sin and that He rose bodily from the grave and is our living Savior and coming Lord.

It does matter tremendously if you believe that those who do not trust him as Savior will miss far more than a petting zoo and free candy if they don't attend your church on Easter. The Bible says those who die without Jesus will spend eternity in darkness, pain and conscious regret. Your Easter message can change all that.

We don't like to think about these things in a day when so much of the media message of the Christian faith is on what makes for your "best life now" and how to entertain people and make them feel good and prosperous. But closing our eyes to eternal realities doesn't make them any less true.

Boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel this Easter and equip your people to invite their friends to hear you.

Here are pictures of the images and a file to download

The motivational materials are illustrated below and are in 1/2  and 1/4 sheet of paper sizes. You can download a ZIP file that has ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files of the images below. It also has a MS Word file of the text only if you want to create your own publications or use it on the web or in email newsletters or other materials. The link is below the images.

CLICK on the following link to download the ZIP file that has the PDF, MS Publisher, and MS Word files: Easter Why Invite Friends Motivational Materials

You don't need to spend lots of money for purchased church outreach this Easter season. YOU CAN equip and inspire your people to be inviters with materials you create in the church! Have them pray for their friends, bring them to church and be part of introducing them to God's forever family. In other posts and upcoming articles, we'll have lots more ideas and communications to help your congregation invite their friends.

To get you started, CLICK HERE for a set of Easter Invitations.

A new look at Lent—baby steps to Christian walking worthy of our salvation

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Lent reminds us to live for Jesus
Lent reminds us of the cost of our salvation and challenges us to live for Jesus.

I confess I was scared into becoming a Christian.—

As a little kid, I heard about hell in church, and I knew I didn't want to go there.

I had a Grandma who loved Jesus, the Bible, and who demonstrated every possible Christian virtue at home and to her neighbors. But wanting to be like my Grandma (which I did) wasn't my overwhelming concern regarding a relationship with God. Every night before I went to bed at the end of my prayers I would always add, "And please God, let me go to heaven when I die and not to hell."

Though we went to church every Sunday, that prayer tormented me until a Good News Bible Club teacher explained if you trusted Jesus as your Savior, you didn't need to worry about going to hell. Jesus' death on the cross paid for the sin that sent people to hell, and by accepting Him, by asking him to be my Savior, I wouldn't ever need to worry about it. I did ask Jesus to save me and never prayed that fearful prayer again.

What this has to do with Lent

As I was putting together the communications for Lent I realized the current public image of Christianity is a happy, happy one complete with the promise that if you become a Christian, life will always go well for you. Even those who don't subscribe to the crassness of the health and wealth gospel (if you give God money He will give you back much more), are shocked if someone in the family gets sick or loses their job. Any disappointment with what we think God owes us provides grounds for walking away from the faith or at least is a justification to be mad at God.

Lent gives us a corrective to that view. Lent reminds us that there are things about the Christian life that are difficult and costly. It challenges us to say “no” to ourselves in minor areas of life to strengthen our spiritual muscles for larger challenges. [Read more...]

Free Lenten Insert, suitable for any congregation

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Lent is a time to reflect and these flyers will give you a variety of ways to do it.

Lent is coming up and here are some flyers you can use to prepare your congregation for it.

During Lent, we begin looking towards Easter as we remember Jesus' time in the desert of his temptation.

Whether your church is liturgical or not, whether you have an Ash Wednesday or Sunday service, this is a great time to encourage people to think more of others and here are two FREE publications to help you do that.

Both of the flyers below encourage self-denial in non-traditional ways: fasting from words, buying, noise, and bad attitudes among other things, plus they encourage positive actions of service to others.

These are all actions we should continually practice as believers and the season of Lent is a wonderful time to remind your congregation of the values of self-discipline and service. Click on either image below to download the PDF you can use to print off the flyers for your church.

I've done additional designs for the first one CLICK HERE to go to them, but if you want this design you must download it here.

Flyer for Lent for different kinds of self-discipline
This flyer or bulletin insert will encourage church members to practice different kinds of fasting other than from food. CLICK on the image to download the PDF.

 

Lenten Practices Bulletin Insert
This flyer or bulletin insert encourages service to others and self-discipline during Lent. CLICK on the image to download the reproducible PDF.

 

Evaluate the effectiveness of your Easter response—never easy to do, but essential

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Evaluate your Easter events
Even though you are no doubt tired, take time to evaluate the effectiveness of your Easter outreach to continuously make these events more effective.

Easter is over and Mother's Day came so quickly this year, but before you put the Easter totally out of mind, take some time to evaluate the communications you created, the response you had, and how you can be more effective in future church celebrations and seasonal events to help your church grow.

Post-event evaluation is essential for us to learn how we can best serve our people. It’s never about us, but about doing our best for our Lord and our effectiveness as we communicate the words of eternal life.

Beyond the numbers, what was the spiritual response?

You probably had a large turn-out for Easter—most churches do. However, though numbers are important, in our analysis of the effectiveness of our church communications and marketing, the most important evaluations go beyond numbers to looking at how people responded spiritually.

In the Great Commission, Jesus did not tell us to go into all the world and hold successful church events. He commanded we make disciples. No event we hold, action we take, or ministry we launch is ultimately successful unless it contributes in some way (however tiny the step) to the goal of introducing people to Jesus and helping them grow to mature disciples. [Read more...]