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.
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Church Office Advice: What Color is Your Time?

23 September, 2014 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Giving time a color helps us use it better.
Giving time a color helps us use it more effectively in our work--try the advice in this article to manage this irreplaceable resource.

One of the most important lessons we can learn in life is to value our time. All our time. Once we grasp that time is the essential resource, every minute takes on new meaning. Unlike other resources—money, talent, things both tangible and intangible—time is a commodity everyone already owns in its entirety; no one has any more time than you do. The richest person in the world, the poorest, and all of us in between each have the same 24-hour day. In spite of wishes to save, buy, or stretch time, we can do none of those things. This resource is finite; it clicks off minute by minute for everyone and when the minutes are spent, there are no refunds.

• Since time is the stuff of which life is made, a sad fact in our society is that our education equips us to manage money far more than it equips us to manage time. So, many of us live half our lives or more before getting a handle on issues of time: what we want from it, how to evaluate its quality, our responsibility toward its use, ways to invest it well. How do you view time?

• One interesting concept is to begin to see your time in colors. The idea is simple enough for even children to learn and understand, but its implications are complex enough to challenge experienced time managers as well.

• In this technique, red time is time squandered, time not spent achieving goals or wants. Green time is time well spent, time that has redeeming value. Primary to using this method is understanding that green moments need not just be ones spent jogging or cleaning closets. No, there are green times of relaxation, recreation, and renewal.

• Likewise, the always busy person constantly focused on productivity may be living in red time if all that activity brings no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment. What matters most is not what your activities are, but how much those activities contribute to your quality of life, to what has value for you.

• The essential first step, then, is to identify your true goals—what you (not other people) want from your time. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Just be honest and let your wants take form on paper. Any activity that satisfies these goals is green time.

• The ideal, of course, is to live entirely in green time. The beauty of this concept is that it is possible.

• Generally, you will recognize your obviously green times; no changes necessary. Regarding the iffy green times, ask yourself, “Is this time being used to meet my goals or give me what I want from life?” If not, view those as red times regardless of how much it seems you are accomplishing.

• Ask the same question of times you see as red. You may find that what you first saw as red is really green. For instance, you may view an afternoon of crashing on your deck with a stack of magazines as time wasted, time you should have spent weeding a flower bed. But, in hindsight you may come to see this was really green time, time you needed to refresh and renew.

• Acknowledge that many routine tasks at home and at work are simply necessary; these maintenance items need not be accepted as unavoidably red. You have some choices. Can someone else do those necessary tasks for you? Or, can you introduce a green element to the job?  For example, you might delegate the filing OR you might listen to a training tape while you do the filing. You get the idea.

• One good way to enjoy more green time is to be prepared for contingencies. You can stew in red time while waiting in lines OR you can bask in green time by having a book or notepad with you to salvage those ticking minutes. You can see red while waiting for someone who has ignored a deadline OR you can move to another green project you have ready for your attention.

• Living in green takes effort. But the principle works if you will. You can use more of your time constructively.

Go for the green!

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Filed Under: Church Communication Leadership, Church Communication Management, Church Office Skills, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss Tagged With: evaluate your time, time management in churches, time use in the church office

Church Office Advice: First Aid for Anger

16 September, 2014 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

How to deal with anger in the church office
Anger may be a common human emotion, but how we dealing with it in a constructive way shows our obedience to Christ.

Ed. note: Christian communicators not only communicate the gospel in the materials they produce, but by their lives. As this extremely helpful article by Gayle Hilligoss shows, responding positively and constructively to anger in others and in yourself is an important communication skill to learn.

An assistant new to the church office was pondering if this was a job for her. “I’d rather face major surgery than deal with another angry member,” she wrote. “As a former school secretary I never thought I would feel so inadequate, nor did I anticipate the frustration I’d feel concerning how some people view who the ministry assistant is, what she should do, and how she should do it.”

Maybe you can relate. Perhaps you thought that, working in a church office, anger would never be part of the equation. But, then, there it was. Maybe a member’s, a staff person’s, or your own.

Even though the occasions when anger issues may be rare, every church office professional can benefit by knowing how to acknowledge anger and work through it.

Responding to ANOTHER’S anger—

Say someone comes into the office or calls. She is irate over some circumstance—something that was said or done or something that was not said or done. Now she’s unloading her anger on you.

  • Identify the problem.Listen without judging; focus on the main issue. Try to understand exactly the point of what is being said. Don’t interrupt. Allow the person to be totally heard. Stay objective; don’t allow yourself to get emotionally involved.
  • Evaluate. While you are listening is the time to decide if you are the one to hear this problem. If this is something that should properly be told to the pastor or to someone else, do interrupt and let the person know you are not the one who can best help. It is important for you not to become just a convenient person to whom disgruntled people can vent. You are not responsible for every irritant; you are responsible for yourself and your work.
  • Be responsive.Whether you can follow through or not, express empathy with an appropriate comment: “I can understand your concern.”
  • Restate.If you are continuing, briefly sum up the issue at hand, eliminating any extraneous details. Ask if you have understood correctly and hear any clarification necessary. Don’t allow this to become a rehashing of feelings. Stick to the issue.
  • Ask what you can do. The reason behind investing time and effort in listening is to try to set wrong things right. Often all people want is a show of concern, an apology, or simple assurance that they have been heard.
  • Follow through. Agree on what, if anything, will be done. Then show your professionalism by doing even more. A friendly phone call (probably not an email) a day after the discussion can ensure all parties the matter is truly resolved.

Handling YOUR OWN anger, hurt, frustration—

Perhaps the anger is not that of someone else, but yours. It can happen.

  • Toughen up your skin a little.There can be thoughtless, insensitive, immature people anywhere—even in church. Sometimes the ministry assistant becomes a target. Just remember, not every unfortunate incident deserves attention. In these situations somebody needs to be the adult. Take that role and don’t bother with the baby stuff. By the same token, be mature enough to confront when it is needful.
  • Calm down before you speak up. Confrontation cannot always be avoided, nor is it always bad. But, speaking in anger undermines credibility and diminishes your authority. Be in control of your thoughts and emotions. Prepare before airing a grievance. Know the right person to talk to and what point you want to make. Pray the matter through before involving others.
  • Stay on point.Once you meet, don’t let yourself get sidetracked by petty issues. Be clear and concise. Have a higher purpose than just to criticize, get an apology, or feel validated. State exactly what upset you and what you want to make the situation better. Conclude by asking, “How can we make this happen?” In many instances, praying together will heal whatever hurts.
  • Exhibit professionalism. Respectfully listen to the other person’s viewpoints, ideas, explanations. Be courteous, even if the courtesy is not returned. If for any reason the conversation turns disrespectful, ask if you can talk again at a later time and excuse yourself.
  • Conclude on a positive note.In the best case scenario whatever has brought about your angst will be understood and the situation resolved. At the very least you have made your views known and maintained your integrity. Say a sincere thank you. Feel good about the experience. Learn from it and move on.

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty...”   —Psalms 16:32

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Filed Under: Church Communication Leadership, Church Office Skills, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, Contributors Tagged With: advice about anger, church office anger, managing anger in the church

Making Your Workspace Work

26 August, 2014 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Organize your office
Organize your office for church communication productivity.

You may spend more hours in your office than in any other room in your environment. How is this important space working for you?

You may not—or you may!—be able to swing a major re-do, but it is quite possible even a few little changes could make a big difference in your comfort, disposition, and productivity. Having a pleasant workspace contributes to one’s sense of being competent. An orderly office indicates to others that you are in control of the tasks and materials at hand. Workspace organization strengthens your professional image and gives members faith in your ability to handle the administrative tasks of the church.

• Give your desk the top spot.
You know your day better than anyone, but even if you divide your workday into time at a desk and a computer station, give attention to the placement of your desk. Generally it is advantageous for your desk to be facing the room’s main entrance. Having the desk at a diagonal makes for an interesting look and still gives a good vantage point. Try out possible furniture arrangements on paper; then make your move.

• Watch your back.
No piece of furniture is more important to your well-being than your desk chair. If yours is not ergonomically correct and comfortable, you owe it to yourself to do what it takes to present your case for a proper chair. If you do have a good chair, be sure you have it adjusted for the perfect fit.

• Get in the flow.
Working outward from your desk, does the physical arrangement of your computer, copier, file cabinets, and other equipment fit the flow of your daily work? Are the things you use frequently conveniently placed? Rearranging can eliminate extra steps that waste time and energy. L- and U-shaped arrangements often work well, putting things within easy reach.

• Unclutter your desktop.
The top of your desk is prime workspace and needs to be geared toward getting things done—toward action. Not storage, not filing, not decoration. Action.

Some think a cluttered desks shows others they are busy with many important projects and therefore indispensable to the work of the office. But the message others are more likely to receive is that the desk owner is in over her head. Every paper on a cluttered desktop can be seen as a decision unmade.

• Prioritize your stuff.
Uncluttered doesn’t mean empty.

Make your workspace work for you by using the accessibility principle: Keep what you use regularly within easy reach. The less an item is used, the farther from your desktop it can be. A workable rule of thumb is:
If used daily, it can live on top of the desk.
If used weekly, it can live inside the desk.
If used monthly, it can live in your office.
If used less, it can be moved to a storage closet or off-site.

• Simplify.
Applying the guidelines above involves moving things around, maybe lots of things. Do more than rearrange. Eliminate everything superfluous or nonfunctional. Be ruthless. Give yourself room to function without distraction. With the unnecessary removed, organize the essentials.

Start with a vertical file holder. Even in this digital age, dealing with paper is a fact of life. Create a set of colored folders labeled to manage the papers you routinely handle. You need never pile papers again.

Next, utilize labels. Apply a set to the dividers in your desk drawers. Label each square as to what goes there: pens, scissors, keys, rubber bands, whatever. Put things only in their appropriate squares. Moving to the workroom, label shelves to show where supplies will be stored: paper, tape, inks, and so on. When a supply in its spot gets low, it’s time to restock.

Finally, add a few carefully chosen personal touches—a plant, a photo, a painting.

• Maintain.
Once you have established a place for everything, the trick is to keep everything in its place. Schedule regular weekly times to refresh your workplace. Enjoy!

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Filed Under: Church Communication Management, Church Office Skills, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, Contributors Tagged With: church office organization, church office productivity, church office skills

Details Matter—Looking Good in Print

10 August, 2014 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Details matter in church communications
the little things matter when we want to communicate in a way that honors our Lord.

When it comes to looking good in print, small details make a big difference.

As one ministry assistant pointed out, “Members use word processing at home now, so they pay more attention to our printed materials and notice how we put things  on the page. I really want to feel secure about how the bulletin and our newsletter look.”

One effective way to achieve that security is to develop an office style book. Start by choosing a reference to use as an authority. My personal preference is The Gregg Reference Manual, but there are others equally reliable. As questions regarding usage occur in your writing—newsletters, bulletins, correspondence, reports—look up answers in your reference and mark them for future use or make a list you can refer to easily.

The following brief guidelines from Gregg can get you started. In your own style book you can add examples and expand topics you use most.

• Ages
Express ages in numerals (including 1 through 10) when they are used as significant statistics. Spell out ages in nontechnical references and in formal writing.

• Clock time
Always use figures with a.m or p.m. If you have the option (and you likely do) use the small capitals A.M. and P.M. instead of lowercase letters. No internal spaces are used in either case. Avoid the use of all capital letters.

For time “on the hour,” zeros are not needed to denote minutes unless you want to emphasize the precise hour. In lists, however, when some entries are given in hours and minutes, add a colon and two zeros to exact hours to maintain a uniform appearance. Line up the colons to keep the lists neat and clean.

• Dates
Only when the day precedes the month or stands alone, express it in either ordinal figures (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) or in ordinal words (the first, the twentieth). The default on some word processing programs superscripts ordinal suffixes (1st). For a more professional look, undo this feature and put ordinals, when you must use them, on the baseline (1st).

In most writing though, the day follows the month. In these cases, use a cardinal figure (1, 2, 3) to express it: on May 6. Do not use the form May 6th or May sixth, even though those versions reflect the way the date would sound when spoken.

• Percentages
In body text express percentages in figures, leave one space, and spell out the word percent: 20 percent. The % symbol may be used in charts and graphs, on business forms, and in statistical material.

• Sermon and hymn titles
Quotation marks are generally used around shorter works: television shows, poems, short stories, sermons, hymns, essays. Longer works are italicized: newspapers, books, magazines, movies, television series.

• Telephone numbers
The use of parentheses to enclose the area code tends to make publications look dated: (717)555-1111. The same can be said for the diagonal: 717/555-1111. An updated style uses periods to separate the elements:717.555.1111. This makes phone numbers consistent with the dot addresses used in website and email addresses.

Using these six guidelines consistently will keep you looking good in print!

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Filed Under: Basic Church Communications Training, Church Communication Management, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, Contributors, Editing and Proofing, Proofing, Writing Tagged With: details in church communications, grammar in church communications, style guide for church communications

Don’t steal videos for ministry—create your own with animoto!

3 August, 2014 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

animoto video creation web software
Use animoto video creation software to legally create fantastic videos for ministry.

As I talked about in a previous article, it is illegal, it is stealing, to download and use videos from YouTube that you did not create. It doesn't matter if you are using them for church or if you don't get caught—you aren't supposed to do it.

It is a lot more work to create your own, but the online video creation software, animoto, makes it easy to create great looking videos for a variety of ministry purposes.

The software is SUPER EASY to use. After the demo videos below is a short video I did to show you how simple it is to use. It isn't cheap, currently it runs $22 a month if you pay for a year's subscription, but you don't need editing software, or any knowledge at all and your can create great church videos.

Two videos I created with animoto pro:

First is one I created using the free images from www.freebibleimages.com, a site I cannot recommend enough for a wealth of both drawings and pictures of actors in Biblical settings. You can use them to create your own videos as well as any other communication project in print or online. The second one is for Mother's Day and following it a short video that shows how I used animoto to create the Mother's Day video.


Video of how easy animoto software is to use

The video below was created a couple of years ago and animoto has made the process even faster and easier, but this video still give you a good idea of how the software works.

 

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Filed Under: Multi-media, Video, how-to Tagged With: animoto for churches, free software for video creation, video creation software for churches

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