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.

The job of church communicators–to incarnate ministry vision, illustrated with Backpack Ministry video

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Backpack Ministry Video
We can make a ministry come alive with our communications.
List of materials for backpack ministry.
An image of the list of supplies needed for the backpacks.

The communication project started out as an email plea for help. Our mission committee was working with two orphanages in Mexico and they wanted to provide backpacks for the children there. I got a frantic email for help--the committee knew they needed a way tell the congregation about it, but they didn't know where to start.
They gave me lists like the one here and a jump drive of photos.

Below is the video I created for them. I also did up other materials, (detailed brochure, posters, website materials), but the point of what I wanted to share here is that, as I thought about it, I realized this project illustrated one of the most important things we do as church communicators--we incarnate ministry vision.

To incarnate literally means to put into bodily form, to put on flesh and bones. Jesus did that when he came to earth. Peter worshipped an invisible, holy God as a child. When Jesus became incarnate, Peter could go fishing with him. He could hug him, laugh with him, go to a party with him. God became real to Peter in the incarnate Jesus.

So many of the ministry dreams and visions of the leadership in our church are wonderful, godly visions of what God can do. But until we put them into tangible form in our communications, they remain the intangible stuff of vision. When we create a video like the project--people see the children; they see the need; they know what to do. Lord willing, we touch hearts and motivate minds to action. We incarnate. We put flesh on the vision of the ministry to our people.

Often when we do this, not only do we help our congregation get involved with the ministry, but it touches us also. I became very involved in this project and became a back-pack making maniac for a few weeks. Since then I've been involved in other Backpack projects and below the video are some flyers/bulletin inserts and social media you can use to advertise back-pack ministries at your church.

Resources to help your church share backpack ministries

Note: I used animoto.com to create the video above. It is very easy to add pictures and text to the program and then a video comes out! Really, it is that easy.

Other materials for Backpack Ministries:

PowerPoint Slides for Backpack Ministry to remind and motivate your congregation to give: https://wp.me/pDky9-88N

Instagram Images for Backpack Ministry to remind and motivate your congregation to give: https://wp.me/pDky9-898

Bulletin inserts and Flyers for Fall Back-Pack ministries: https://wp.me/pDky9-7rX

My personal motivation for Backpack ministry—my memories and prayers about crayons and little kids in need: https://wp.me/pDky9-pL

My personal motivation for Backpack ministry—my memories and prayers about crayons and little kids in need

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Contribute to back to school ministries.
Few things were more exciting to me as a child than a new box of crayons--and we have opportunities to share that joy with needy kids.

Remember the smell when you opened a new box of crayons? Waxy and warm with a bit of paper mixed in.

Remember what it was like to see all those new crayons? Sometimes there were new colors. The metallic crayons seemed magical. I almost hated to use them, to turn the neat, sharp points into smushy stubs.  But there was always another year to look forward to, another start of school and a new box of crayons.

Crayons were just the start—pencils, notebooks with lines unfilled, sometimes a new lunch box.  Back-to-school was my favorite time of year. I hated summer. I didn't particularly like to play kid's games, especially outside. I wanted to be left alone to read.

We moved every year (my father was in the military and that's what they did then) and the first place I would try to find in any house was some quiet corner to read. My very favorite was at the end of a long closet where there was a window. In front of it were some packing boxes just big enough and at just the right height for an 11-year-old girl to with a book and read and look out the window. Clothes were in front of the boxes, effectively shielding me from the outside world. Still, my mother would find me and make me go out and play. I was obedient, but I didn't like it. [Read more...]

Summer Recipe Card, a great way to connect with visitors and invite them back to church

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This is a wonderful summer recipe you can print up and give you to church guests. Put information on the back as a reminder of and invitation to your church.

Everybody loves recipes, especially if they are good ones! This one is fantastic! It is for a BBQ Beef Brisket that will literally melt in your mouth.

It comes from a wonderful Texas cook I knew in the past who has now gone home to be with the Lord. But before she left she passed on a number of incredible recipes.

You can print up this card as a gift to connect with visitors at who summer events at your church. On the back of it you can add church information, time, programs etc. and invite people back to visit you anytime.

You never know when someone might decide to come back to a church and if they have a yummy recipe card to remind them, food for the tummy may become food for the soul.

CLICK on the link here to download the PDF and print out the cards: PDF BBQ recipe card

For more on how to connect with visitors

Please check out the link to this article about successful summer outreach: Why it isn't enough to be a community-friendly, free event-providing church

 

Why it isn’t enough to be a community-friendly, free event-providing church

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Intentionally connect with summer guests
Having great food isn't enough, you need to intentionally connect with your summer guests.

With the best of intentions, churches plan community outreach events in the summer: free food and fun festivals of all kinds, free movies, and events that are tied to local summer traditions. Though they often get a large attendance and everyone has fun, we need to ask ourselves, how can they do more for the kingdom of God?

Being community friendly and providing free events isn't enough if we want to use them to grow our church and ultimately to help people come to know Jesus as Savior. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves why we do all the work we are doing. It's easy to fall into the habit of thinking that just doing good things will help people think kindly about our church and Jesus, but we live in a secularized world, where it takes much more than attending a free BBQ to change the eternal destiny of a soul.

To do that takes often sustained contact with your church and to move beyond a one-time interaction at a fun event, you have to be intentional in your interactions and follow-up with your guests. Here's how you can do that: [Read more...]

Canada Day bulletin insert on GRACE for the nation and one for the U. S.

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Georgia Bamber, an ECC Member, sent me a GREAT example of modification of the bulletin insert and prayer for the 4th of July that used the acronym GRACE as a prayer for America. She took the same idea and applied it to Canada Day!

She was then kind enough to send me a PDF of her creation which I've attached as a PDF and which you can download by clicking on the image at the beginning of the article.

4th of July Bulletin Insert
Georgia took this publication and modified it to apply for Canada Day.

You have both my permission and my encouragement to do the same for your country. Make it your own—modify the text and the headers to apply to where you live.Use this to remind your people who God wants all nations to experience His grace and to remind your people to pray for it.

Here are the words on the flyer that you can use as a prayer guide, bulletin insert, or an encouragement to pray for your nation either at your national celebration like Canada Day or the 4th of July or anytime your people need a reminder of the need for God's grace in the affairs of our world. If you do one for another country, please send me a copy and I'll pass it on! Send to: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

[Read more...]