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.

Connection Cards for Mother’s Day–essential tools for follow-up

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Mother's Day Connection Card, free card
Click on the image to download a free, ready-to-print PDF of this card.

Connection Cards are vitally important for your Mother's Day outreach success, because if visitors don't give you their contact information, you won't be able to follow-up with them. You might have a huge attendance on Mother's Day, but if the next Sunday is back to your usual numbers, you've missed a great opportunity to connect.

If you give church visitors an opportunity to share a question or a prayer request, you will be amazed at how many people will share with you. If you follow-up promptly and compassionately, you will make a significant connection.

To save you time in this important task, I've created some cards that are ready for you to print and use. The files below are part of a ZIP file below.  For each of the cards illustrated below it has:

  • A PDF ready-to-print file
  • Editable MS Publisher file
  • PNG image (perhaps you want to add it to a PowerPoint announcement and encourage people to fill it out)

Additional designs of Mother's Day Connection Cards

This file is FREE and the link is at the end if the article.

The additional designs: various styles, clipart, photo images, spot color of the Connection Cards that are in the ZIP FILE:

Mother's Day Connection Card, free card

 

 

FREE DOWNLOAD OF ZIP file:

CLICK HERE to download your file.

Don’t be mean on Mother’s Day

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Sad faceA woman walks into the church. It is Mother’s Day and the church is handing out flowers. But before a woman gets a flower, she is asked, “Are you a Mother?” if the answer is “No” the woman is informed that the flowers are for Mothers ONLY. She turns around and walks away.

What the church forgot

Many women who attend your church on Mother’s Day are not moms. The reasons for that pain are many: they may have lost a child; they may be unmarried and with little prospects of a future marriage. They may be infertile and may not have had enough money for adoption or fertility treatments. They may have prayed for children for years, but for some reason the answer received was “no.” The reasons are many, but the pain felt daily by many of these women is deepened significantly on Mother’s Day. Often this pain is intensified by unintentionally unthinking and unkind actions of churches on Mother’s Day.

Not meaning to be mean doesn’t make it less unkind

Of course you don’t mean to be mean, but consider: in some churches only Moms are clapped for, receive a free brunch, are acknowledged as significant or given other public affirmations. It is obvious and on display if a woman is not a mother. If a woman has spent many private hours crying over her inability to have children, imagine her feelings at that time.

These reminders are not meant as a suggestion not to honor mothers, but honor can be done sensitively and with the feelings of the childless women in mind. One way to do this might be to focus briefly on the joy of physical children but then to shift into a challenge for spiritual parenting that all can be part of. You cannot take away the pain of childlessness, but that pain can be transformed into a vision for ministry. [Read more...]

6 ways to make the most of Mother’s Day as a Great Outreach Opportunity

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Mothers Day Invitatio#1: Understand the real reason why Mother’s Day has the 3rd highest church attendance of the year

The reason that churches are so full on Mother’s Day is not because it is the only time of year mothers come to church. Most of the Moms are always there. It’s the husbands and kids who rarely come who show up with Mom that one day to make her happy. The reason so many people come to church on Mother’s Day is the unchurched people in the lives of many mothers rarely, if ever, come to church, but they will come on this day to make mom happy. This is a great evangelistic opportunity for your church!

#2: Focus your planning on reaching the unchurched spouses and kids

Flowers are nice, but far better than a rose for Mom would be a Sunday designed to speak to those she loves, but who do not know Jesus. Prepare your people by encouraging them to pray specifically for the unsaved, unchurched, and straying family members who will come to church with mom on this Sunday. Pray for sensitivity to their needs. Create attractive invitations for your members to give family members.

#3 On Mother’s Day acknowledge the visitors who come on Mother’s Day to please their Mother and affirm it is a kind thing to do, and do honestly and without guilt

It isn’t funny or spiritually helpful for someone from the pulpit or a church member to say something like “Great to see some of you here who haven’t darkened the door of the church since last Mother’s Day.”  Or, “You don’t need to be such a stranger around here.”

A bit of coaching the week before Mother’s Day to your staff, ushers, and congregation to be genuinely welcoming—and to leave it at that—is helpful.

#4 At the same time, use your sermon to say to the visiting family members what Mom can’t say

Be honest with your audience on Mothers Day that one of the greatest pains in a mother’s heart is that her child does not know Jesus. To be apart in life is hard, even as a child grows up, but to contemplate an eternity without those you love, is a pain impossible to express.

Acknowledge this is not easy to say (which is why you are saying it for Mom) and it is not at all comfortable to talk about on this happy day, but to not say things that can make an eternal difference is not expressing love. Love is honest about the consequences of a life lived apart from God.

#5 Have available information about the Christian faith they can look at later

Whatever system works best for you, either a bulletin insert, URL, QR code, have a place where visitors can check out websites that explain the Christian faith. An invitation to latte with the pastor next week at the local coffee shop for open-ended Q&A about the Christian faith is another option.

Let them know they are welcome to come back anytime—but again, do it with a light touch.

#6 Do more than preach— additional events can provide great impact and encourage visitors to return

Consider a very upbeat, outreach oriented mini-Ministry Fair for that day so visitors can experience and explore what your church does on a regular basis. For example, many single adults (the unchurched adult children who come to church only on Mother’s Day) often don’t have any idea that many churches have fantastic single adult ministry programs. A table with literature, food, and fun people, welcoming visiting guests and inviting them to return might be just the thing to get them to attend on a regular basis.

For the unchurched husbands to see the men of your church around a literature table that talks about upcoming construction projects, help-the-poor work days, golf outings or sports events and that is staffed by men who reach out, welcome, and engage visiting spouses in conversation is an incredible gift to give to the mom who comes every Sunday on her own. Some men who don’t regularly attend church have never talked to a man who goes to church and does construction work or have any idea that men at church do more than pray or read their Bibles.

Whatever you do, honor Mothers in the best way possible—by helping those they love come to know Jesus.

Need more inspiration?

Check out this video:

 

If you want more information on and to download the communications illustrated in the video, go to: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com on the home page are links to a variety of Mother's Day Communications.

One Mother’s Prayer, free sample and for ECC Members the text and download link

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One Mother's Prayer
This piece has challenged and changed lives--CLICK on the image to download your copy.

This short piece, One Mother's Prayer, has probably been impacted more people than anything else I've written. It is the simple, but true story of a young man whose life was going very wrong, whose Mother prayed and his life changed.

It was first published in Today's Christian Woman magazine. It was repeated 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.

It is useful for Mother's Day, for Moms in Touch and other prayer ministries and to give out in Children's ministries.

This sample PDF if free to download.You can click here or on the image to download it.

ECC Members will get the all of the additional 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 is after the images below. [Read more...]