Effective Church Communications

GIS: Innovative way to invite people to Easter services: “Egg” your neighborhood!

28 February, 2017 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Egg your neighborhood easter invitation — *"Egg" your neighborhood with an invitation and an egg filled with candy--great idea for outreach and Easter promotion!*

This is one of the most creative ideas I've ever seen to invite people to Easter. It was sent in by a contributor to our Great Idea Swap . In addition to being a great invitation to Easter, it also gives potential visitors great information about church ministries and outreach activities. It is very important to do this because you are letting your community know that the church is about so much more than holding special events.

They may not attend your church for Easter, but if they are new to the community or lonely, the invitation gives information about regular services and small groups. In addition, the church lists Job Search Support and No Cost Financial Counseling and this is a wonderful way to let the community know the church cares about the whole person.

To the left is a picture of the container for the cares below is what the cards look like:

At the end of this article is a link where you download the PDF and editable file of invitation.

Following, I'll let Stephanie, the Communications Director from the church describe how they use and distribute these great promotions: [Read more...]

Effective Easter Outreach: Door-hangers, an invitation you can’t ignore

21 February, 2017 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Door hanger about hope — A person is usually alone when they read the message on a door hanger. It can be an effective way to help them consider the meaning of life, Easter, and personal salvation.

You can't ignore a door-hanger—you literally have to do something with it and even if you toss it, chances are you'll glance at the message. One of the most powerful reasons door hangers can be effective Easter outreach is because often the person reading them is alone and may not be thinking about anything else.

In addition to this quick glance, I recently read an interesting article about the impact of tangible, touchable marketing. It is from a study done by the Centre for experimental Consumer Psychology at Bangor University in the United Kingdom and used MRI brain monitoring to measure response between ads printed on a paper flyer and ads viewed on-screen. Here are their comments:

The ads that could be physically touched as well as viewed stimulated the most activity on the brain. . . By having something physical in front of them, the brain placed more authority and emotional resonance to that ad versus the one the participant could see only via a monitor. The takeaway from this experiment was physical involvement versus just visual involvement equated to a deeper connection. . . . . . It's also an important reminder that effective marketing needs to integrate all faces of the tools available, from print media to email, display ads to social media, and word-of-mouth to influencer marketing campaigns.
http://bit.ly/2ieEhkU

Here is one more reason door hangers can be effective Easter outreach—often the person reading them is alone and may not be thinking about anything else.

Finally, there isn't anything magical about print or door hangers, but in addition to the reasons above, their low-cost and the ability to involve your congregation when you give them out (discussed in the article here) make them a useful addition to your Easter mix of outreach.

As the following images illustrate, we have a selection of door hangers for you to choose from for Easter. Some have room on them for church information on the front, others you can put it on the second side. One has a message for you about hope and that is below the images illustrated.

Message on the back of the door hanger about hope:

[Read more...]

Recipe for Greek Easter Bread, an outreach treat for Easter guests

20 February, 2017 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

This delicious Easter bread recipe is a fun way to invite people to attend your Easter events.

Which would you rather get to encourage you to come to church for Easter? A postcard that tells you how wonderful the church is or a really great recipe? Of course churches are going to talk about how wonderful they are at Easter time, but a great recipe for free—that's different and might get attention in a way something else won't.

Everybody loves recipes and this Greek Easter Bread is exceptionally delicious. It's my version of a recipe given to me years ago by a very dear Greek friend. It's a sweet yeast bread (not a coffee cake) and bakes up beautifully. In addition to serving the main version for Easter, I came up with an alternate version to serve with soup, especially something like tortilla soup, any time of the year. In this variation, you add jalapeno peppers and cheddar cheese--it is sooooooooooo good. The regular version makes great French Toast and the Cheddar/Jalapeno version is fantastic oven-toasted. Either way, it's something everyone would love.

Below are finished cards for the recipe that you can personalize on the back and below I included a print of the recipe. The link to the ZIP file for them is at the end of this article.

Here are some ways you can use the recipe for Easter Outreach:

[Read more...]

GIS: 2 Lenten Calendars, a focus on giving and a focus on prayer

11 February, 2017 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Lenten Calendar of Giving ideas — Just click on the PDF to download a full-size image. This is a wonderful inspirational entry to our Great Idea Swap. PLEASE send us your ideas so we can share them with other church communicators.

Lenten Calendars that can be printed out and posted on the refrigerator are a great way to focus the thoughts of your congregation during Lent. Here are two FREE samples for your from our Great Idea Swap.

A Lenten focus on Giving

Though there are many wonderful lessons we can learn from self-denial during Lent, the danger is always there that we can become excessively self-focused in our self-denial. This wonderful Lenten Calendar came in as a contribution to our Great Idea Swap and it is a fantastic way to encourage your people to give of themselves everyday during Lent. Click on the image to the left to download a PDF and be inspired to create your own.

Here is how Linda Watson, the church communicator who sent it in, describes it:

The attached calendar is included on the back page of our Lenten/Easter Newsletter every year. It was an idea started many years ago to increase the donations to our local Community Care program. We have an ongoing collection of staples for the less fortunate in our community, but the response to this calendar has been phenomenal! We update the calendar and promote this, every year, as a way of “giving” instead of “giving up” during Lent.

Linda Watson
St. Columba Church

Lenten Calendar with a Focus on prayer

Lenten Calendar with an emphasis on prayer — This beautifully done calendar is another way to inspire your congregation to life change during Lent.

This Calendar is from a few years ago in our Great Idea Swap, but it has always been one of my favorites. Not only does it have a very attractive layout and nice combination of text and images, but the suggested prayers and actions would be life-changing for any church.

Click on the image to the left to download a PDF and be inspired to create your own.

Please share your ideas!

Please CLICK HERE to find out more about this fantastic way to share and how to send in your materials.

Templates: 1 Corinthians 13 Bulletin Inserts, true love defined

2 February, 2017 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

1 Cor 13 Bulletin Insert — This bulletin insert shares not only how we should love, but reminds us of how God loves us.

First Corinthians 13 is the love chapter of the Bible. Not only does it challenge us with how we should love, but we often forget that the perfect love in this chapter describes how God loves us. Take a minute away from your work to think about that and praise God for its truth.

With those reminders in mind, following are Bulletin inserts (or postcards or however else you want to use them) that quote 1 Corinthians 13 that you can use for Valentine's season or any other time people need a reminder of God's love. On the back of the cards you can put links, lessons, or activities your church has to teach people about God's love.

Below the images of inserts is the ZIP file for Effective Church Communications Members to download both PDFs and editable MS Publisher files. If you aren't a member you won't be able to see the links. For more information and to join Effective Church Communications, CLICK HERE.