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.

Church Halloween Celebrations: why simply having fun and not sinning is not the point of why we do what we do

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Halloween is about more than fun, it's an opportunity to share the gospel
If the reason for your Halloween outreach is only about kids having fun and getting lots of candy, you've missed a great opportunity to share the gospel.

Is having fun what defines a Christian? Is FUN what makes a church even worthwhile? Is fun why we do what we do (whatever it is) in the Christian life?

When you look at many church communications, you'd assume the answer was "yes." A recent scanning of material on the web as I was researching alternative Halloween events overwhelmingly advertised events or promoted activities where the FUN promised is promoted as the primary reason people should attend. Though the focus of this article is on the combination of Halloween communications and the emphasis of FUN (intentional shouting with the all capital letters), the same concerns and cautions apply to our communication of many church outreach events.

How fun becomes the primary motivation for Halloween alternative events

Much of the thinking process behind many of these "Christian" alternatives to Halloween on the web seems to go something like this:

  1. Halloween is evil.
  2. To take part in a traditional secular celebration of Halloween is evil and sinful.
  3. Christians shouldn't do evil and sin.
  4. Instead Christians should have good, clean fun.
  5. Therefore our church will do a fun event for Halloween.
  6. People will see we are Christians by our fun.

I don't have a problem with the list up to #3—much of traditional Halloween celebrations are evil. Maybe not as evil as some timid folks fear, but probably not activities that would fall into the class of edifying Christian activities. Dressing up as demons and witches and glorifying magic is not what Christians ought to be doing. Sending your kids out alone to beg for candy in most areas today isn't safe. But the alternative to fighting evil or working to fulfill the Great Commission is not to simply have safe fun. [Read more...]

Halloween responses to keep in mind–a flyer reminder to be kind when we might want to be grumpy

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This was shared on Facebook and is very worth passing on as a reminder of what can be a fun, but also a sometimes stressful time. Below it is another challenging thought from Facebook.

What is below is especially important if you are giving out a gospel tract or other information related to your church or Jesus at Halloween.

Below it is one more challenging example from Facebook about Halloween.

When we get it right at Halloween

An important reminder for Father’s Day that not all the men in your church are married Dads or Dads at all

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One of the Good Guys Printable from the Bibleverse Shop
A graphic like this is a reminder that all the men in your church can be celebrated on Father's Day, not just the ones who are fortunate enough to be Dads. CLICK on the image for a free download of it.

Similar to the reminders that Mother’s Day can be a very difficult time for women who are not biological Mothers, Father’s Day can be a challenging time for men.

There are two categories that you want to be sensitive to, men without biological children and single fathers, a group often almost completely ignored in the church. First I’ll talk about them and then I'll give you some ideas for how you can positively address this situation.

Remember Single Fathers

When my husband and I led a single adult group, one of the core operating principles of the group is that children were welcome at all events. We often had babysitting or separate activities for the kids, but singles knew they could always show up with their children and they would be welcomed and cared for. And the childcare was free. [Read more...]

ECC PODCAST: Father’s Day—Beyond celebration—how to make the ministry most of it to grow Dads spiritually

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It's easy to look at Father's Day as just another holiday to do up a special bulletin and social media for and to say a few nice things about Dads during the church service. But did you know you can do so much more as communicators for Jesus?

We need to constantly remind ourselves in the crush of trivia and distraction that our job is not to be a holy version of Hallmark where our goal is to have the most appealing Father's Day social media and PowerPoint ever, but that our primary job in communications, as in all of life if we are followers of Jesus, is to grow as his disciples and to share his message of salvation—in other words, to fully fulfill the Great Commission. Below is our podcast where we explain how Father's Day can be used to grow men in their faith and following the podcast are notes from it and links to the resources mentioned in it.

You might wonder why a church communication article starts out by reminding you of the importance of discipleship, but as followers of Jesus that is the most important aspect of our lives and our work as church communicators is simply the arena in which we carry it out.

Ephesians 5:16-17 reminds us of this and challenges us in this way:

So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to find out and do whatever the Lord wants you to.

At Effective Church Communications, my goal is to remind you to "make the most of every opportunity for doing good" and to give you practical opportunities to do that. [Read more...]

The Teal Pumpkin Project is a great service to kids and families with allergies

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The Teal Pumpkin Project is a great service to kids and families with allergies.

One in 13 kids have a food allergy and for many of them and their parents, what is a fun candy fest for most kids becomes a nightmare of fears about sometimes life-threatening allergic reactions.

In response to this situation and because her son had severe allergies, one mom decided to do something about it. Here's her story from USA TODAY:

Back in 2012, a Tennessee mom named Becky Basalone had an idea: What if Halloween could be made a little less tricky for kids with food allergies?

Her idea became what is now the Teal Pumpkin Project, a nationwide effort to encourage families — whether their own kids have food restrictions or not —  to offer up some non-food treats on Oct. 31. Participation is simple: You just put a teal-colored pumpkin or sign outside your door and offer trick-or-treaters glow sticks, spider rings, Halloween stickers or other non-food goodies, along with or instead of the traditional candies.

Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), a non-profit advocacy group, first promoted the idea nationwide in 2014, with the help of a viral Facebook post, says Nancy Gregory, senior director of communications. In 2015, about 1 million people visited the group’s website to get information, and about 10,000 of them — probably a fraction of participants —  put their homes on an interactive map showing teal pumpkin sites, she says.

This year, the group is thinking bigger, Gregory says: “Our goal is to have a home on every block in America with a teal pumpkin. We hope that it becomes a new Halloween tradition.”

from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/10/23/teal-pumpkin-halloween-food-allergy/92285680/

For more of Becky's story: https://allergicliving.com/2014/10/23/the-origin-of-the-teal-pumpkin-project-interview-with-becky-basalone-facet/

How to participate

[Read more...]