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.

How to make Bible school more than a happy memory

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Make the joy of VBS last -- invite people back to church!Some of the happiest times of my life as a child were in summer Daily Vacation Bible School and that wonderful experience continues in many churches today. Kids have a wonderful week, but thoughtful communications can extend that week into a continuing relationship with the church.

There are several ways you can do this, but the over-riding idea is that you need to intentionally communicate connect with parents, let them know what else is going on for their children at the church, and invite them to take part in it.

Why this is so important

If you asked a person in the neighborhood of your church, who does not go to your church, "What does our church do on Sundays for children?" you would most likely be met with a blank stare. Most people who do not go to church have no idea what people do in church other than the media picture of people standing around singing with their hands in the air.

The parents of the neighborhood children you worked so hard to reach so their kids would come to VBS are no different. To many of them the church is providing a nice summer community service and they get a few hours of free (or almost free, as many VBS programs charge these days) child care for a week. That the church has anything else of value for their kids is probably something that never crossed their minds.

For the church staff putting on VBS that's difficult to imagine, but it's true and though you want people to so love VBS they will bring their kids back on Sunday to your children's program and begin a relationship with the church, this won't happen unless you are intentional about it. Here's how to do it: [Read more...]

Tips for a productive New Year in the church office, part one

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Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

The start of a new year is a good time both to reflect and to project—a time to look back and consider what you’ve experienced and learned, a time to look ahead to where you will go next. One sure sign of personal progress is the realization that you not only know smart things, but that you do those smart things. You will know, feel, when it happens. The difference is beyond measure.

• Put first things first.

Sometimes we stay so busy doing the good that we neglect the best. Pray for wisdom to know what is truly important to you. Then give your time, energy, and love to those things first. Unless you make a deliberate effort to set priorities and to stick with them, your days will be filled 
with other people’s priorities and not your own.

• Respect time.

Understand that time is the most precious resource you have; without it you have nothing. Spend your hours and your minutes wisely. Plan your days rather than just letting them happen.• Stay calm.

Know what matters—and be passionate about those things. Know what doesn’t matter—and don’t let those things get you down. You know you are becoming more mature when you control your emotions instead of allowing them to control you.

• Take care of yourself.

Your body is a gift from God; being as fit as you can be is a testimony in itself. Eat wisely, exercise, get suffcient rest, schedule regular checkups. Don’t allow lesser activities to keep you from a daily walk. Commit to some healthy extras: swimming, biking, whatever you like. Few of us do all we could or should. But we can!

• Nourish your mind.

God’s world is a wondrous place. Learn something new every single day. Today, look at a flower and be amazed. Tonight, go outside and gaze at the stars. Tomorrow, visit the library and check out books on a subject you know nothing about. Or use the Internet to travel a new part of the world. Talk with someone—and not on a cell phone. Think new thoughts. Grow wise.

Now you know smart things. And you can do them!

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To read the three more tips, click here.

Use school supply sales to communicate your love for children for backpacks and Christmas Shoe boxes

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Shop the summer sales to get great supplies for Backpack ministries
Shop the summer sales to get great supplies for Backpack ministries and to save for Christmas Shoe Boxes--here are links to free Bulletin Inserts to encourage your church to be involved.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matt. 25:40

Loving and caring for those less fortunate is a way of showing love to Jesus and at this time of year, you can do that by shopping for school supplies at the greatly discounted prices on the pre-school sales and using them for Backpack Ministries and saving them ahead for Christmas Shoe boxes.

To encourage and inspire the people in your church to take part, Effective Church Communications has links at the end of this article to entries that have church bulletin inserts in a variety of illustration formats that you can use to remind and encourage your congregation to get involved.

Some of the bulletin inserts are  PDFs that you can personalize on the back. There are more designs available in editable MS Publisher format that you can download and modify.

In addition to printed bulletin inserts you can take the same material and use it on your website, postcards, and as email reminders.

The first two links are for Backpack Ministry Inserts, the third one encourages people to shop for your Christmas Shoe boxes when the fall sales are on, and finally a personal article on why this ministry is so important to me.

No matter what else you read, or what you do, take some time and a few extra dollars to love kids in Jesus name by buying supplies they might not have if you didn't care and share.

Click on any title to go to the articles:

Back-to-School Backpack Ministry--an opportunity to bring joy to needy kids

A new set of designs with templates for Effective Church Communications

My personal reasons why backpack ministry is so important to me

Bulletin Inserts: Shop for Your Christmas Child Boxes in August--Samaritan's Purse shopping Tips!

Recruiting volunteers for the holidays–tell people what they don’t know

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Thanks Giving Volunteer Recruitment flyer
This is a copy of a flyer used to recruit volunteers for a Thanksgiving outreach. We need to communicate clearly all we've been planning if we want people to help. Just click on the flyer to download a PDF that is easier to read.

Yvon's note: this is an article from our archives that is worth repeating to encourage you to communicate how we need people to help with holiday events. Following are some practical ways we recruited for a successful sharing and service opportunity at our church.The article below was written when I was in the midst of recruiting and the results were fantastic. LOTS of people got involved, the event was extremely well attended, many helped, and many people were served.

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It is challenging to plan a ministry outreach for any holiday and even more so when we want to recruit volunteers to help with it. Because there are so many things to do for a successful outreach and our minds are preoccupied with the event. It is easy to short-change our congregations in how we communicate to them about what is going on and what we need them to do. People don't know what we need unless we ask specifically.

Here is a flyer we created to remedy that situation

As a very practical example of a way to ask in a specific way that will get the response you need, our Adult Sunday School Class is hosting a Thanksgiving outreach dinner. I've been working on it for some time and for it to be successful we need many in the class to be involved. Though they have known we are doing this for some time--we just got the final approval of the location last week. I needed to let the class know and to let them know what we needed  them to do.

My first idea was to simply do a PowerPoint Slide and announce it, but I knew that wasn't enough. I reminded myself of what I constantly try to teach that those of us who work and plan ministry events must always remember that the people we want to involve haven't been working on it as we have; they haven't been thinking and praying about it for as long as we have. They can't read our minds.

People need a tangible, paper, printed reminder of what we are doing and what we want them to do. Once the print piece is produced, we can put it on our information table for those who might have missed the first announcement and remind people about it in subsequent weeks. It can also be posted on the website and sent out in church emails.

We have to clearly share our vision and requests

We have a lot going on, we want people to do a number of things. Though in the coming weeks I will have specific task lists and sign-up sheets I wanted to give people a flyer that specifically told them:

  • what was going on
  • basic information
  • our goals
  • prayer requests
  • what we needed them to do

The flyer illustrated here is what I came up with. The information is what is most important here and it was well-received.

It seems like we never have the time to put together things like this, but they are vitally important for as many people as possible to be involved in ministry events and outreach.

For the longer article that discusses why we decided to do this kind of outreach, CLICK HERE.

 

 

Holiday time management

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Holiday Time Management
You might feel like you are living in a snow globe at this time of swirling demands, but here are some tips to help you take control.

The analogy of living in a snow globe hit home with several ministry assistants enjoying a fall luncheon. “During the holidays I feel like I’m trapped in a blizzard of to-do lists,” remarked a longtime office professional. Her tablemates nodded. Each one knew well the sensation of having scores of demands swirling around her.

Conversation turned to ways they might weather the storm better this year. All agreed trimming tasks would be a challenge, but could be done. Some said they had already made strides toward maintaining saner holiday schedules and were anxious to explore even more ideas.

“To me, attitude is the key,” offered a pastor’s assistant who shared her positive experiences over the past few years. “We need to get over the notion that holidays should be all hurry-scurry. The real blessings of the season are missed when every minute is packed with activities, even if they are good activities.”

Another reformed overachiever noted, “The best thing I did was to take control of my personal agenda. When I quite trying to bake every cookie, make every decoration, and start every family tradition that sounded good to me, I found the time and energy to actually focus on the true meaning of the season.”

  • Make two lists of goals, one for work and one for home. It may seem a paradox, but making these two important lists now prevents the need to make a dozen trivial lists later. Decide what you want to achieve during the vital weeks between your two major holidays (say Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day). About each task, ask yourself, “Is there an easier way to do this?” Be selective; list only those activities and achievements that are truly important to you. Fun is important; schedule some.
  • Trim your calendar. Ditch all but what really counts. Save optional jobs and appointments for another time. Avoid taking on projects and plans that steer you away from your stated holiday goals. Don’t waste any of this special time doing things that can be done later—or not at all.
  • Protect your personal time. All year round, and especially during the holidays, give yourself daily or at least weekly private time to relax and refresh. Do what you like: walk, exercise, read, take a class, enjoy a hobby. Or do nothing at all. But keep this appointment with yourself.
  • Give up on perfectionism. Nothing paralyzes accomplishment, saps joy from achievement, and undermines good intentions like the irrational drive to be perfect. It is vital to know when to say, “This is good. Time to move on.”
  • Be realistic in your expectations. Memories, not to mention a plethora of magazines and websites, can create an unreasonable scenario of how the holidays should play out. No time of the year has more to live up to than Christmas (perhaps especially in the United States). Stay grounded. Kids will still be kids. Some people will still be inconsiderate. Problems won’t magically solve themselves. You will still get weary. Some recipes will just not be good. Life is life. Nevertheless, expect blessings. They are there to be claimed!