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; Effective Church Communications can help.

Five benefits of studying and celebrating Jewish holidays

By Leave a Comment

Jewish holidays are wonderful teaching times.
Blowing the shofar is traditional on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. As this article shows, Jewish holidays are wonderful teaching times.

The Effective Church Communication Calendar has a section of Jewish holidays and these are included as a communication and teaching tool for the 5 reasons that follow. We don't celebrate them in the same way our Jewish neighbors do because we realize all of them are fulfilled in Jesus, as this passage reminds us, but at the same time, they have value as the reasons that follow show. Each of these reasons provides opportunities for Christian communicators to make the most of the holiday. After listing the reasons for studying and celebrating, there are links to more resources both from Jewish sources and from Christian sources.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Col. 2:16-17.

Reason #1: The Jewish holidays help us get to know Jesus better

These are the holidays Jesus celebrated. Much has been written about the value of understanding the Jewish background of our Lord (one of the best is Phillip Yancy's, The Jesus I Never Knew), but beyond its usefulness as an academic exercise, when you love someone, you want to understand them. You want to know what was special to them as a child, you want to know what traditions were part of their upbringing.

As we study the Jewish holidays it can help us get to know better our Savior and Lord, our friend throughout all eternity.

Reason #2: The Jewish holidays give us an opportunity to teach Biblical history

Many of the Jewish holidays are associated with specific acts of God on behalf of His people. The best known example is the Passover which commemorates God's deliverance of His people from Egypt. In the New Testament, the Passover was the last meal Jesus celebrated with his disciples before he was crucified.

As we study the Passover, we can see God's preparation for the Jesus'  final deliverance sins for those who accept His sacrifice on the cross. When you study the Passover you will get a clearer understanding of how God prepared the Jewish people over the centuries for the coming of his Son.

Another less known example is the festival of Purim which celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from the murderous plot of Haman by Queen Esther. This holiday provides a wonderful teaching time that shows us how God is sovereign over politics, wars, and the people that can make us afraid.

Reason #3: The Jewish holidays help explain Biblical theology

Some time ago a young woman was sharing with me why she didn't read the Old Testament and she was especially hard on the book of Leviticus—"Who wants to read that?" she asked me.

I told her that though I understood that it could be tough going getting through the requirements and the sacrifices,  it is worthwhile reading because you gain so much from it for background understanding that is helpful when you read the gospel stories about Jesus.

For example, when read in Leviticus how it was commanded that day after day, for centuries an innocent lamb was killed as a sacrifice that could only cover, but never totally remove sin, it is much more meaningful when you read about Jesus coming to meet John the Baptist and why John exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!"  Without the history behind his statement, you won't understand the impact his words had on his audience.

Reason #4: It helps you to understand what is important to your Jewish friends and to act appropriately

As I was researching the Jewish holidays to put the list on the ECC website, I found one site that asked Christians, "What would you think if your boss at work scheduled something for Christmas Day and expected you to work? Or Easter?"

Christians would consider than an insult to the most important days of our faith and would think the boss totally insensitive. But the author went on, many people totally ignore the Jewish High Holy Days, particularly Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These are days when Jews have many religious requirements, among them to not work, and to not be aware of the requirements and to not allow workers to take the day off, to schedule another event they were required to attend, or to completely ignore the holiday is extremely insensitive.

Note: this same principle applies to the month of Ramadan for Muslim friends. Observant Muslims neither eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. It is important to remember this when for example, you might have a children's birthday party and invite your Muslim neighbors over for afternoon cake and ice cream. If this took place during Ramadan, what you meant as a gesture of friendship could be seen as an insensitive insult. For more about Ramadan, go to the links below:
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/bulletin-insert-and-links-to-christian-resources-about-ramadan/

Reason #5: It's an opportunity to share your faith in Jesus

All the Jewish holidays point towards and have their fulfillment in Jesus as the above verses in Colossians remind us. Though we don't celebrate it for the same reasons it was celebrated for Jesus came, many Christian churches celebrate a Passover. Doing it can be a great outreach time to invite unchurched friends and not only do a historically appropriate and honoring Passover—but to take the time to teach about how it was fulfilled in Jesus. Our world today loves images and celebrating Passover in this way can be a profound multi-media teaching opportunity.

In addition to specific celebrations, if you do them at church or in your family, as part of your everyday conversation, you could share what you learned, or what you've taught your children from participating in these holidays. They could be the start of a conversation of how these holidays point to Jesus, of how God taught His people through the ages and many related Biblical topics.

Additional sites for more information on individual Jewish holidays

The following three sites are Jewish sites and contain excellent additional background, history and material to help you understand contemporary celebration of the holidays. Each one of them has links to the specific holidays.

http://www.aish.com/h/

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/default_cdo/year/2013/jewish/2013-holidays.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday0.htm

The following site is a Christian site that has extensive ideas on how use the holidays as a teaching tool.

http://heartofwisdom.com/biblicalholidays/

In addition you can go to the page at the link below for a free download of an excerpt of a book on Biblical holidays that includes an overview of many of them and reasons why celebrate them. It also thoughtfully answers concerns that some people might have that perhaps Christians should not celebrate Jewish holidays. Much of the focus of the book is on the teaching value of the holidays for children.

http://heartofwisdom.com/biblicalholidays/2013/05/13/a-family-guide-to-the-biblical-holidays/

Use an invitation card to connect outreach guests with your church

By Leave a Comment

Summer Business Card Invitation vard
An invitation card can turn your outreach event from a nice time to a lasting connection to your church.

A church communicator told me about a church that held a large community outreach. They had free food and fun activities for children and families and they did it all to show the community that the church and Jesus loved them. They had a great turnout, but it didn't result in an increased response in church attendance.

The church communicator became frustrated when she talked to an unchurched friend about it because when she mentioned that her church sponsored it, the friend responded, "Your church did that? I thought the city Parks and Rec department put it on."

We put in a lot of work for events like that and I understood her frustration, but I had to gently ask her if the church gave out any kind of card or flyer to people know who sponsored it and to invite them to the church. She said, "No."

Your guests are not mind-readers

That is a typical response I hear from church leaders who put on outreach events and are disappointed in the long-term results. But, if you don't give people who attend your outreach events information about who is putting on the event and what else goes on at your church they won't know. Without clear communication and a clear invitation to return all your hard work may give people a great time—but will accomplish little in connecting them to the church or introducing them to Jesus. [Read more...]

Create events that are an “easy ask” for your church members

By Leave a Comment

how to create "easy-ask" events
Do you make it easy for your church members to ask people to events? This article will show you how.

Question: which is easier for you to invite your unchurched friends and neighbors to? Also which one do you think they are more likely to respond to?

The Sunday morning church service.

or

Summer free movies in the park with free popcorn, lemonade, and frozen yogurt, bounce house and face-painting?

The fairly obvious answer is the second one and that answer is more than hypothetical to me as our church just finished sponsoring the second one of three Fun Free Friday Movie nights this summer.  A professional I do business with attended with his daughter. Though we'd talked about church, he was someone who previously was not interested in attending any church events. But not only did he attend this one, he went out of his way to too thank me and tell me what a great time they had.

As I was sharing his response with one of the leaders at our church, she responded by telling me that one of the reasons they did this is because events like this are such an "easy ask." I'd never heard that term before (probably most of the rest of the world has), but I loved it and wanted to share it with you, along with some related ideas on how your church communication ministry can apply them.

What makes an "easy ask" for a church event?

Here are some characteristics:

  • This is an event that you aren't embarrassed to invite an unchurched friend to attend.
  • There is no cost, no obligation to attend.
  • It is sponsored by your church, but not an obviously churchy event.
  • You have something tangible to remind them of the event. We had postcards/invitation cards with the time, date, location and website link on them. For additional information on how to create invitation cards and how you can use them effectively: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/10/church-invitation-cards-why-they-work-so-well-how-to-use-them/
  • The reason this last detail is so important is that it isn't easy to ask someone to something if they don't know how to get there, if there is a cost or not, what is involved. Communications are one of the most important details and one many times forgotten--but remember you can have the greatest event in the world, but if you don't have something tangible (postcard, business card, invitation of any kind) to remind people of the details when they remember it at the last minute, they are not likely to attend.

Why schedule easy-ask events?

In our post-Christian world where few people have a felt need to go to church on Sunday morning, easy-ask events are a wonderful bridge to involvement with your church. You can create these events around any special event (free movies, any fun things for kids and families) or around any holiday or seasonal celebration.

To contact people for further interaction and invitations to your church you can capture names and contact information with sign-ups for free drawings (at our summer events, we have a variety of local business gift cards with the big prize give-away of a $200 Target gift card). There is a lot of additional information on follow-up after special events on this website and one of the most useful articles is: Follow-up after a church holiday outreach event: speed dating or relationship building?

Now it's your turn

You can use any holiday, a fun celebration, or any special event in your community as an "easy-ask" event for your church members.

Please share any ideas or events your church has done in the past in the comment section below--let's make it easy for everyone to invite everyone they know to church!

Be proactive, not reactive in your church communications as you look ahead in the New Year

By Leave a Comment

Plan, measure, evaluate your church communications
As the year begins, take time to plan, measure, evaluate your church communications.

The start of each year is a good time to set goals to make your church communications more effective in growing your church, introducing people to Jesus, and helping them grow into mature disciples. One of the best ways to do that is through a proactive approach to communications.

To understand what proactive communication is, it helps to first look at its opposite—a reactive approach to communications, which is how most churches do their communications. While there is little "wrong" with this approach, it isn't always the most productive.

The characteristics of reactive communications

Last-minute communication production is a key characteristic of reactive communications.This is communication that is created after the event planning is done and the event is about to take place. Because everyone is overworked and often stressed, the details of many events aren't in place until a short time before the event and so the church staff waits until then to begin telling people about it. Unfortunately, by then many people have other plans or won't hear your message. [Read more...]