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.

Print and Digital—More Powerful Together! videos and studies to show you why

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Print and Digital E-book, more powerful together! by Yvon Prehn
If your want people to respond to your communications, use every tool you can!

People are busy, stressed, and time-starved—what is the best way to reach them? Many voices would answer "SOCIAL MEDIA!"

But if that is the answer, why aren't our churches filled and every event well-attended, when social media costs almost nothing to produce and we can push it out to the world?

Part of the problem could be that we have confused the popularity of social media with effectiveness (source for this idea in the video below). We assume social media is the way most people communicate today, and though that idea is wildly incorrect for many congregations, even among those who do live glued to a Twitter feed, don't necessarily take action on what they see on social media.

What follows isn't about bashing social media

Far from it--keep tweeting, Facebooking, Pinning and Instagramming, as the Apostle Paul said, "we need to become all things to all people to win some" (1 Cor 9:22).

But consider re-introducing PRINT into a more significant place in your church communication mix. As you'll see a number of communication and marketing studies show this is the most effective way to get an audience to respond to your message.

Below are 2 videos--one a more lengthy teaching one about the effectiveness of combining print and digital for any non-profit group and the second one is a series of slides with thought provoking quotes and commentary.

Below each of them are handouts of the presentation.

Below both is PDF e-book that has the quotes, studies listed and more.

Why here, now and free to all?

As I've been working on Fall and Christmas communications I've realized that unless you understand some of the key points in the material that follows your fall outreach will not be as successful as it could or should be.

Either one of the videos would make an excellent discussion topic for your next staff meeting because communication ministry is the foundation of the success of many ministries in the church and it is far more difficult today than it was in the past when you only needed to worry about how many times you printed an announcement in the bulletin.

I'm working on a longer class and book on this topic, but I felt it was too important not to get out now what I did have ready.


CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF of NOTES for the video above: Print & Digital More Powerful Together HANDOUTS


CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF of NOTES for the video above: Slide Show of Print and Digital Quotes, HANDOUTS

Print and Digital E-book, more powerful together! by Yvon Prehn
Click on the image to download a copy of this e-book.

Raise money for your church communications program with designated giving

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Designated giving advice
It can be a confusing puzzle to raise money for your communication ministry. Designated giving might be an answer.

A continuous challenge for any church communication ministry is having enough money for equipment, software, and training needed to run a truly effective church communications ministry. Though one of the most important ministries in the church and the one on which the success of most other ministries depend, it often isn't a priority when it comes time to set the overall church budget.

But new equipment and training is needed—so what to do?

Designated giving may be the answer

Designated giving is, in short, where church members can decide they want to give money (above their regular tithe of course) for a special project.  This is a greatly simplified explanation and later I'll give you a link to a longer, more complete one, but this is enough for the foundational idea that designated gifts are definitely an area worth pursuing. [Read more...]

Passive or committed? Your church needs the best from you always

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Pigs as an image of commitment
We don't usually think of pigs when we think of commitment, but this fable may change your mind.

Ed. Note: Gayle Hilligoss, who always sends in challenging material just sent this to me. You may have read it before, but it's a great reminder to all of us during the lazy days of summer that if we aren't working with all that we have, we may not be as committed as we think we are.

A pig and a chicken were strolling through their barnyard. The chicken said, “You know, we should open a restaurant to raise some money to spruce this place up.”

“Okay. What would we serve?” asked the pig.

“I’m thinking ham and eggs,” said the chicken.

“I’ll have to prayerfully consider that,” replied the pig. “Your menu means simple participation on your part—it means total commitment for me.”

The fable of the pig and chicken has been around since at least 1950 when it appeared in Bennett Cerf’s syndicated column. It’s been tweaked countless times and told in scores of variations—I’ve told it in seminars for years—but the point  is always the same: the pig and chicken represent two types: those who simply participate versus those who wholeheartedly commit.

The story, of course, can be taken many ways. But, the reason a story endures long enough to become a fable is because it speaks a common truth.

How many times have you seen this scenario played out in the church? There is a need. Some person or group (a committee, deacons, whomever) proposes a program, or event, or project of some kind. But the catch is that the personas of “pigs and chickens” are in play.

Both have much to gain from the success of the project. But only the pigs will have any real skin  in the game—they will fully commit, carry the load, take the flack if things get sticky. Oh, the chickens are all good guys—willing to contribute their bits, talk the talk, even give of their renewable resources (the “eggs”), but commitment to making changes or getting things done? Not happening.

Can one be both a pig and a chicken? Not at the same time. When it comes to serving God and to taking care of the business of the church, we must choose to be passive or to be committed.

There is no middle ground.

How to communicate with an audience that has no time to listen

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Remember time stress when creating church communications
Remember the time stress of your audience when creating church communications.

Need some evidence that it isn't just your imagination making you feel nobody has time for anything related to the church? "At the end of the weekend, you are more than a full day behind in your activities. Even if we went to an eight-day week you still would be 4.5 hours behind." Was the conclusion of an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Ed note before I continue: I wrote this article several years ago and while updating the website ran across it. The time challenges of your audience today make it worth another look because though a few years have passed if anything the situation of time demands has become even more challenging as we attempt to reach people. Following is a reprint of the article with a number of updates added.

An article in the Wall Street Journal reported Americans work an average of 53 hours a week. Dale McFeatters took that statistic and calculated that if an individual did all the activities reported such as sleeping, TV, dressing, etc., without multitasking, that person would have a 28.5 hour a week time deficit. In addition to helping explain why we often feel stressed and tired, his calculations help explain why it is so difficult to get people respond to the communications from your church. Following are some ideas on how to communicate your church's message to a time-stressed and time-starved audience. [Read more...]