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.

Why and how to create a digital church bulletin

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Church Bulletin SAMPLE
Your church bulletin is the key to essential information about your church--be sure to have it in both print and digital formats.

Many churches forget that Sunday is no longer a sacred day and many people either have to work or have sports events that involve their children on Sunday morning. These same people might be very interested in activities during the week: small groups, activities for children, service opportunities, training and prayer times.How can we keep them cared for and informed?

Though social media is being used by many churches, it is seldom updated consistently or complete in the information it has. Church websites look better than ever, but again, most churches don't keep them as updated on essential details that connect people to events. Realistically, the church bulletin is still  the primary communication tool about these activities in many churches and if you don't get the bulletin, you miss out.

Make certain that doesn't happen by having a PDF bulletin on your website that anyone can access even if they have to miss on Sunday morning.

One of the easiest ways to create a digital bulletin is to simply make a PDF of the print bulletin you produce and upload it to your website. The purpose of this PDF on your website isn't to replace the print version, but to add to the communication reach of the content in it. You only have to create the content once, but creating a PDF gives you another way to distribute the information that will help people connect with the church and grow as disciples.

A PDF bulletin can be downloaded, printed, and read like the regular bulletin. This is a wonderful ministry for shut-ins or people who cannot attend Sunday morning regularly.

Don't think either the PDF Bulletin or any form of social media is the only one necessary—you need both.

Remind people your digital bulletin is available through emails, Facebook, Twitter or other social media you use. Social media are effective for instant, brief communication, but your Bulletin can contain much more information and it can be saved and put on the refrigerator as a reminder.Social media is also an ever-flowing stream and it's hard to look up the time to an event or directions or why you should come if you didn't get it (or most likely weren't told it) in a tweet.  In addition, the Bulletin can refer to the website for even more details about an event or ministry. In the PDF version of a digital bulletin you can link directly to more information, detailed schedules, sign-up forms.

This is not a time of either/or in our communication methods if we honestly want to involve everyone in the activities of our church that can change lives; it's a time of both/and. This means doing all we can do through every communication channel possible to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples. This means creating both print and digital bulletins.

Additional tips if you create a PDF Bulletin

  • Be sure the bulletin is available for download on your website by Sunday morning – again, keeping in mind someone who may not be able to attend the church in the morning, but may need information about an event in the afternoon. As soon as you print the bulletin, put it on the website.
  • Make the bulletin easy to find on your website. Have a tab or advertisement or box or whatever works on your website to let people know that the church bulletin can be accessed and have the location clearly labeled once a person gets to that section so they know what they are downloading.
  • When you save the bulletin as a PDF, you can then save the PDF as a graphic jpg image. You can place a small thumbnail of that image on your website along with the date of the service. Make the image a link to the PDF so a visitor can download the bulletin PDF by clicking the image. You could load up the image to your church Pinterest account if you have one.
  • To make your bulletin especially useful to someone who downloads it, insert hyperlinks in your text so that people can find out more about ministries. For example, you could have a link on the title "Children's Ministry" that would take people to the Children's Ministry section on your website. This tip assumes that your website is complete and up-to-date.

A Biblical precedent for making your Bulletin accessible in a variety of formats

We admire the Apostle Paul who said he was "all things to all people that he might win some."  Paul adapted himself to the needs of his audience because he knew all of them needed Jesus. He used a variety of communication methods and messages to reach as many people as he could.

We follow his example when we take the time to create print materials, turn them into PDFs, post them online, tell people through social media they are available and create relevant links for people who need more information. If we want people to come to know Jesus in our secular, busy world we need to meet people where they are and use every communication tool possible to link them to our church and to the ministries that will help them come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to mature disciples.

 

Church office professionals–Let’s Get Growing!

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Let's get growing as church office professionals.
Church Office Professionals need to be intentional about opportunities to grow and here are some challenges that will help.

Professional growth doesn’t just happen. Those who achieve expertise and maturity work at it.

One of the most attractive aspects of serving in the church office is that generally you have great freedom to make the job as significant as you want it to be. You can do only what the job demands or you can enhance your work by delivering over and above the norm.

Claim whatever freedom you have in your job. Put it to good use. Examine every day for opportunities to grow in ability, in knowledge, and in purpose. There is no limit to the good you can do.

Avoid pointless controversy

Are you ever amazed at the amount of time, effort, and energy eaten up by dissension in the church? The bad news is that the secretary often feels drawn into these conflicts. The good news is that you can be a positive influence and show your maturity by staying out of the fray.

• Examine your impulses.
What is your natural response to criticism? to a fuss reported to you? to rumors and gossip?

Before letting those reactions go public, ask yourself if they are responses you feel good about. In the past have you been pleased with the results of following those first impulses?

• Choose a wiser path.
To get better results from our actions, we need to choose better actions. Learn from the past. Next time others get tangled up in pettiness—issues having no real importance—you can choose to stay out of it.

• Focus on doing your job well.
While it is not your job to counsel others, you can lead by example. You grow in professionalism by concentrating your time and effort on doing good, productive things.

• Be a calming influence.
As you have opportunity, during the regular course of your work, be a peacemaker. Say and do positive things. Sincerely pray. Continue to love and minister to the people whom it is your job to serve.

Keep skills up to date

Like clothes and hairstyles, skills become dated and old-fashioned. Even the excellent typist doesn’t automatically become proficient at word processing. The prize-winning website of five years ago will take no ribbons today. The best records management of that era is less than adequate now. Staying in top form takes a commitment to change and growth.

• Evaluate your skills level.
Ideally, your church office has a yearly evaluation process in place—a means of measuring each staff member’s technical and interpersonal skills. But, do your own evaluation as well. Take an objective look at your progress over the past year. Pinpoint areas needing additional effort. Identify new skills you will acquire.

• Confer with your supervisor.
You can’t hit the bulls-eye if you’re not sure where it is. You need to know exactly what is expected of you, what skills your executive values. If you perceive it is your computer skills that need sharpening, and the pastor is most concerned about another matter entirely, you need to gain insight from one another and reach an agreement on priorities.

• Act on your assessment.
Once you know where you are, take action to get you where you want to be. Whatever your location, there are training resources within your reach via the Internet. Certainly, financial realities are a factor but every church can provide training opportunities of some sort. Realize, too, that personal funds spent on training are well spent. Pleasure gained by material things is soon past; pleasure gained by knowledge lasts a lifetime.

These are a few areas you can pursue in enhancing your job. You will think of others. Now is a great time to get growing!

A Boss Views Church Administrative Professionals

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The opinion of our Boss is our most important evaluation.
The opinion of our Boss is very important and here are the most valued characteristics.

Administrative Professionals Week is a time when we celebrate the contributions of Administrative Professionals in the church office. But no matter what the celebration, the wise assistant knows what counts in the long run is not so much what you view as professional behavior, but what the boss sees as admirable.

As you access your skills and abilities, consider these attributes that supervisors consistently list as relevant.

  • dependability
    Some say the best “ability” is dependability. Even the most outstanding skills are diminished unless the assistant is consistently in the office on time and equipped to do the job. The boss wants to know his assistant is where she is supposed to be when she is supposed to be there, that she says what she means and means what she says, that she delivers what she promises.
  • competence
    A reasonable expectation is that the person at the desk can and will field well whatever the day brings. Competence is doing more and doing better than just enough to get by. A supervisor shared, “Our assistant learns something new about the job every day—a software technique, a time saver, a helpful website—and in staff meetings she often passes along tips the rest of us can use. I appreciate that.”
  • confidentiality
    Along with ministers and other church staff, the assistant must be a person who can be trusted to keep the information she handles to herself. Every person has a right to know that the private information coming into the church office is not randomly “shared.” The importance of this essential attribute cannot be overstated. Many would say that loose talk causes more discord in churches than any other behavior. Everyone appreciates those who are above reproach when it comes to confidentiality.
  • time sensibility
    Understanding the value of money, you would never tell a salesperson, “I’ll take that new Mac; I don’t care what it costs.”But sadly, we often do the equivalent with our time. Never spend more time on a project than it is worth! Determine the smart amount of minutes the results are worth to you; then don’t allow yourself to spend more. Keeping priorities straight in the church office is never a one-way street. While it is fair for the boss to expect the assistant to respect what is important to others on the staff, in the most effective offices the pastor and staff likewise respect the assistant’s priorities.
  • accountability
    “In this office, when we do well we all get the credit; when a mistake happens we all share the blame.” That was the often stated philosophy of one wise pastor. Still, his assistant noticed he appreciated when she took personal accountability for her errors. Mistakes happen. Owning up to them is the right thing to do.
  • positive attitude
    Having someone at your side who looks for and appreciates what is right with others adds to the effectiveness of any office. “I expect my assistant to give people the benefit of the doubt, to believe the best of them, to never gossip or bad-mouth, to never hold a grudge, and to look for the bright side in every situation.” You would have to believe a boss with these expectations is a positive person too.
  • calmness under pressure
    Schedules can fly out the church office door in a hurry. The assistant who can keep things in perspective and adapt to whatever crisis arises is a valuable asset to the staff. Not handled well, events quickly get out of hand; often the way an issue is handled is remembered far longer than the problem itself. Keeping one’s composure allows smarter decisions and sensible solutions.
  • testimony
    While a Christian is a witness wherever she works, working in a church office is different from working at a secular job. The excellent assistant sets a high bar for personal standards: thoughtful conversation, nonjudgmental listening, honest actions, gracious deeds, steadfast support, enthusiastic cooperation, conscientious service, respectful interactions. When the assistant sees herself as a Christian professional, when she thinks, acts, and looks like such, others tend to see her as a Christian professional too.An observation: No two pastors are alike. The wise assistant observes, asks questions, and discovers personal likes and dislikes. The insightful supervisor does the same. The result is an extraordinary team.

Challenges to all church communicators from Catholicism Inc.

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We all have much to learn from the current changes taking place in the Catholic church.
We all have much to learn from the current changes taking place in the Catholic church.

An op-ed article in The New York Times, "Catholicism Inc." by Bill Keller not only challenges the Catholic Church with some suggestions for change during this time of transition between popes, but it inspired me to make some communication suggestions for all churches, based on his ideas. What follows are quotes from the article, and then communication applications suggested by the quotes:

Catholicism is mostly a service industry . . . .  and its deliverables have stood the test of millenniums: instruction in how to live a good life, sacraments to consecrate major milestones, comfort in times of distress, the cleansing therapy of confession, penance and absolution, a sense of place in the universal order and the promise of a celestial payoff. . . . .There is still a robust market for the faith. The problem — evident in the waning confidence of the customers as well as the rising market share of evangelical start-ups . . . is with the management.

Communication application: Though we might use different terms to describe the benefits of our individual churches, a common denominator is that our gracious Creator has met every need of the human soul now and for eternity in the freely offered salvation provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or as he says, "The fundamental problems are not in the catalog."

He goes on to lay the cause for the problems with the management of our churches and church communications are a key part of that.  If the core message of salvation is not getting across to your audience, if new people aren't coming to know Jesus as Savior and growing to mature disciples, if they are not sharing the good news with their friends, practicing their spiritual gifts, and being salt and light in their world, the problem is not with the culture or media or lack of time or the crippling demands of the modern world—the problem is with us, the managers, the communicators. We have to take responsibility  for what is happening our church if the message we preach and teach (or assume we do) isn't a reality in changing lives before we can make necessary changes. [Read more...]

When the holidays or anytime doesn’t go as expected–tips on how to grow through conflict

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Things don't always go as we want in the church office at Christmas or any other time--here are some tips to help.
Things don't always go as we want in the church office at Christmas or any other time--here are some tips to help.

Ed. note: We all dream of what the holidays should be--everything perfect and peace and love all around. But if we are working at a church, we also know things don't always go as planned. When this happens, Gayle's advice that follows will, as it always does, encourage and equip you to handle the conflict well in your service for the Lord.

Growing involves having experiences—most pleasant, some not. Positive lessons can be learned even by negative encounters. Here is one assistant’s account of how she grew through adversity. [Read more...]