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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.
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Modifications for Mother’s Day this year, a FREE ebook to challenge your thinking, and links to the timeless One Mother’s Prayers

26 April, 2020 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Sad plate
We may not be able to celebrate Mother's Day the way we have in the past, but here are some free resources that may be helpful.

This year we have many challenges with new ways to celebrate special events in our churches.

Yes, it is a challenge and can be difficult, but it's also a great time to stop and think about what makes a holiday truly special, and what are some timeless ways we can celebrate it?

We can evaluate what we've always done because it's a tradition and ask ourselves what do we do that is truly meaningful and honors the Lord and His people as we celebrate?

Mother's Day might be one of the most challenging times of all because it is when we tangibly and in very public ways celebrate the moms in our churches. It can also be a painful time for women who aren't mothers as they silently smile at the service and cry later alone at home.

Past challenges to expand your thinking on Mother's Day

I've often reminded churches that the reason Mother's Day Sunday gets the biggest attendance of the year just behind Christmas and Easter is not because of the moms who are there. They are there every Sunday. It gets the big attendance it does because on that Sunday the unchurched kids and spouses who don't normally come to church will come to make mom happy. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Books for Church Communicators, Mother's Day Tagged With: Church ideas for Mothers day, free ebook for Mothers day, Free Mother's Day Booklet for churches, One Mothers Prayers

One Mother’s Prayer, a free and inspiring story for however you want to use it for Mother’s Day

21 April, 2020 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

One Mother's Prayer
This piece a perfect handout for Mother's Day or any time you want encourage people to pray for children.

This short piece, One Mother's Prayer, is a true story that is both an encouragement to pray for children and an assurance of the power of prayer to change a destiny.

It has been published more times than anything else I've written. It was first published in Today's Christian Woman magazine. Then in their Best of Ten Years of writings, it has been reprinted and republished all over the world, and it continues to bring tears to the eyes of any group I read it to. You are free to use it any way you want and share it however you want.

Below is a Free ZIP FILE of PDF formats: 2 more 8 1/2 by 11 plus 4 other versions on half sheet size plus the jpgs of the larger files and an MS Word text file if you want to create your own publication. The text file and the link to all the other downloads are after the images below if you want to use it in a newsletter or social media.

This is a great resource not only for Mother's Day, but any time of the year for Mom's groups and prayer groups.

Last year (2019) I also made a PODCAST recording of it. Here is the embed code if you want to put it on your website or any kind of social media:
<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">

You can listen to it here:

Full Page Size Print versions of One Mother's Prayer

One Mother's Prayer Full Page versions IMAGE 2 labre One Mother's Prayer Full Page versions IMAGE 3

Half-page size One Mothers Prayer (two additional ones on Members PDF that aren't shown here)

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Text of One Mother's Prayer--

Her worst fears had come true. Her son had become involved in a strange mystical religion. She had such high hopes for him. Since his infancy she prayed God would touch his life. Her husband wasn’t a Christian and sometimes, in a temper, would taunt her praying, but she kept on.

Her son grew up in a small town. The family owed their home, but they weren’t wealthy. Determined their son would have a good education, they scrimped and saved to send him to school. Somehow his brother and sister didn’t receive the same attention or prayers.

He did extremely well in school. People began to notice his brilliant mind. A prominent citizen of the town set up a scholarship for her son’s graduate studies. She was so proud. Her joy diminished with worries about his spiritual health. He attended church some, but he refused baptism. And there were little incidents—stealing, things like that. She worried and she prayed.

He excelled in graduate school and finished with high expectations. But his religion . . . his letters contained long explanations of finding true reality and speculation how reality divided into darkness and light. Jesus was not truly God incarnate, he said, but an example of pure light entrapped and suffering in matter. He had always been good with words, but these words wounded her.

She decided to visit him. She thought her heart could stand no more pain, but she was wrong. He was living with a girl and they weren’t married. They had a son. She was a grandmother, but she couldn’t be proud of it.

In desperation she explained the situation to her minister. He told her that the son of so many tears could never come to destruction. Somehow the message seemed from God.

The years passed. Her son was unhappy with his job; he was often ill. He left the girl but kept the son. Finally he became disillusioned with his mystical religion and began to question her about God. He started to go to church again. There he found Christian friends and questioned them. He began to read the Bible.

Her prayers increased. Her husband died, but he had become a Christian in his final illness. She, too, grew weaker, older. She feared she would die before the prayers for her son were answered.

Her grandson was a teenager now and she went to visit. A changed son met her—a son hungry to know about God, asking questions, requesting prayer. A son who would one day rush to tell her he had given his life to God by trusting Jesus as his personal savior. At Easter her son and grandson were baptized.

Their times together now were so precious, talking about the Lord and praying together. Her prayers overflowed with thanks but still she desired much more for her son. She knew her son as a Christian less than a year. In the August after his Easter baptism she breathed her last and went home to the Savior, to whom she had spent so much of her life talking.

She never saw with earthly eyes the great man of God her son became. She never heard his great sermons or read writings that determined much of Christian theology. She never knew her son’s insights would jog Martin Luther into seeing that one is justified by faith alone. She would never hear her son’s words that caused so many hearts to consider Jesus as Savior:

“Thou hast made us for thyself, oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

Every part of this story is true—the mother who prayed was Monica, the mother of St. Augustine.

Download section:

CLICK HERE to download a ZIP file that contains:

* All of the One Mothers Prayer versions
*MS Word text file of the text for you to use in any way you want
* MS Publisher Original files (you must have MS Publisher to use this file)
* PDF Files
* Resizable jpg files

After you download the file, SAVE it to your computer, then click on it to "unzip" it and the files are ready for you to use.

—

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles, Mother's Day Tagged With: FREE Mother's Day material, Mother's Day, Mother's Day Bulletin Inserts, One Mothers Prayer

How to make Mom really happy, cards that will make you smile and challenge family members

12 May, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Don't you wish that the people you love who only come to church on Mother's Day and other special events would come every week? It won't happen by simply wishing it will Come Back #1 IMAGEhappen. You have to intentionally let them know you want them to come back to church. You have to invite them back.

Subtle doesn't work as a communication strategy in our world today. Think of how the secular media bombards us with repeated messages to buy this, come to that, don't miss out on some special sale. Though we don't want to be obnoxious we do have to be persistent and clear.

The cards illustrated here will help you do this. They were designed to make people smile, but they also share a true message—that moms want more than anything to share their faith with their children.

This card above is a PDF sample for you.  To download it, click on the card or click here.

In the section following, you will find ZIP File download that not only has this invitation, but also has the following five invitations. The ZIP file also has the original MS Publisher files, plus a jpg file of each invitation and a ready-to-print file of each one.

For other materials that will help you make the most of Mother's Day, click here: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/category/seasonal/mothers-day/

Below is a ZIP file that contains:

  • All four Mother's Day Come Back to Church Invitations
  • MS Publisher Original files (you must have MS Publisher to use this file)
  • PDF Files
  • Resizable jpg files

Click the following link to download the ZIP file of the above items: Make Mom Happy MDay Come Back to Church

    After you download the file, SAVE it to your computer, then click on it to "unzip" it and the files are ready for you to use.

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Filed Under: Mother's Day Tagged With: church visitor cards, Communications, Mother's Day, Mother's Day Church, Mothers Day Invitation Cards, yvon prehn

SPECIAL PODCAST: Yvon Prehn Reading One Mother’s Prayer

6 May, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

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">

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Filed Under: Effective Church Communications Podcast, Mother's Day, PODCAST, Women's Ministry Tagged With: Audio version of One Mother's Prayer, Free Mother's day audio recording, Mother's Day inspiration, One Mothers Prayer

Mother’s Day Connection Cards can minister to family members

5 May, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Mothers Day Connection CardIn addition to having a way to connect with guests so you can follow-up and invite them back, the set of connection cards here can also minister to unchurched spouses and family members who may be visiting. There is a link below to a FREE set of downloadable ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files for you to use for Mother's Day. These can do more than simply get a name by adding these messages:

Thank you for being part of our Mother's Day Service today. We'd love to stay in touch, answer your questions, and pray for you. PLease fill out the information below and put it in the offering plate. May your Mother's Day be joyful!

Then the normal fill in information sections on the card.

Across the bottom is the following checklist:

If you'd like info on any of the following ministries, please check the box:
Single's Events
Men's Group
Women's Ministries
Children's Ministries

These messages accomplish several things:

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Church Connection Cards, Mother's Day Tagged With: Free Materials for Mothers Day, Mothers Day Connection Cards, Mothers day evangelism, Prayer Cards for Mother's Day

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