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.

Why site was slow and hard to access yesterday–and the white knight that came to the rescue

By Leave a Comment

A number of you emailed me that my site was having problems and before I could figure it out, I got this email from the wonderful company that hosts my site, the Agathon Group, http://www.agathongroup.com/, aka, the white knight that came to the rescue:

Yvon,
This evening our automated monitoring systems alerted us that your site effectivechurchcom.com was running unusually slowly.  We identified a remote site that was attempting to guess your WordPress login by trying different password variations, 69817 times in a row!  We blocked that site and your server started behaving normally again.  We also disabled the file called xmlrpc.php that they were using to try to login.  Xmlrpc is an older WordPress feature that almost no one uses any longer, so there should be no ill effects for you.  If you know you ARE using xmlrpc for any reason, just let us know and we’ll put the file back.  Otherwise, no action is required on your part.
Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Alan Ritari
support@agathongroup.com

They have hosted my site ever since I started it and they have been a joy to work with the entire time. I feel like I know a good bit about church communications, but there is so much I don't know about web hosting and all that can go wrong. At present it's mostly me trying to do it all and I don't feel the ministry could really function without them. They answer my questions kindly, take care of tech stuff I don't understand (like SSL certificates) and help me even when I don't know to ask, like today.

They are honestly all great Christian people--I met many of them personally years ago when the Gospel Com group was active. These guys did some of the pioneering work on the Christian Internet and they have served the Lord faithfully in technology ever since then.

In addition, unlike some of the commercial sites today, they don't buy you with all kinds of extra junk you don't need and don't spam you about extras--they just do their job and do it well.

Obviously if you want a hosting site--I highly recommend them and this season of the year am especially thankful for Agathon and all they do to help church communicators.

When a church communicator gets sick, are you committed or just contagious?

By Leave a Comment

Commitment doesn't mean contagious
Don't mistake being committed when you are simply contagious--go home and recover.

It's Monday. Always a busy day in the church office. Staff meeting is at 10. Letters to new members and visitors need to be in the afternoon mail. Last week was a whirlwind; you’re behind where you want to be on a project due in just two weeks. But your head feels like a basketball, you have a fever, your nose is running, and sneezes are nearly nonstop.

• What do you do? Stay in bed and sip chicken soup? Or trudge to the office and go through the motions? Is it somehow “not Christian” to choose to snuggle up under your blanket in misery? Or is there some special virtue in trudging to work regardless of how sick you are?

Evidently a lot of people do think dragging their germs to work with them is a sign of commitment because many do just that. (Do I sound like someone who does not support a “bring your germs to work” day?)

Okay. Maybe they only want to share. And they do. Big time. Just one cough or sneeze disperses a gas cloud of up to a million microorganisms that, according to 2014 research, can travel 200 times further than previously believed. Attaining speeds, some say, of as high as 100 miles per hour these germs not only have amazing range, they hang in the air long after the sneezer has departed. For some fascinating facts on why we need to take coughs and sneezes seriously, try Googling “germs in a sneeze.”

Ideally, coughs and sneezes are caught in the sneezer’s sleeve or tissue and not sprayed in the air or in her hand. Hands are a poor choice because every time they touch a surface, thousands of viral particles are left behind—on desks, computers, phones, whatever.

• Bugs don’t stay put. They hop on any hand that touches an infected surface. Careless sneezers and coughers are walking germ dispensers; it takes only a few of the millions of particles dispensed in a sneeze to transfer an illness. Research confirms that the average office desk has more germs on it per square inch than a household toilet seat. Even if this conclusion is onlyclose, there’s ample reason to swipe your desk, phone, keyboard, and other surfaces with a disinfectant wipe every morning.

Winter is a challenging time to stay well. We are inside more, around people who may have colds or flu, touching things they have touched, breathing recirculated air. Schools, day cares, malls, theaters, and even churches can be perilous places. It’s not a good idea to panic or become obsessive; it is a good idea to be cautious and alert.

• The best defense is a good offense. In a perfect world everyone would be conscientious about not spreading germs. Unfortunately, despite major strides in educating the public, many still are careless or thoughtless. We all need to be proactive in defending ourselves against colds and flu.

Some important steps—

•  Wash your hands often with soap and hot water

•  Eat a healthy diet; consider vitamins

•  Exercise—at least in moderation

•  Get sufficient rest

•  Consider flu vaccine

Many people who haven’t had colds in years swear by the practice of inhaling steaming herbs. One way this can be done: fill the bathroom sink with steaming water, add two teaspoons chopped fresh ginger. Drape a towel over your head and lean over the steam breathing deeply. Adding a few drops of oil of eucalyptus can open up bronchial tubes to ease congestion.

Encourage discussion about health in the workplace at a staff meeting. Reaching a consensus about how team members will help prevent the spread of colds and flu lets everyone breathe easier.

• If you do get sick. Listen to your body. A cold may creep up on you gradually: a sneeze, scratchy throat, runny nose—you know the drill. Flu usually hits you like a truck. In any case, you are contagious; talk with your doctor. Treatments for colds and flu differ, though both involve plenty of rest, lots of fluids, and appropriate medicines.

When you are sick, you set a good example by keeping your sneezes and sniffles at home. Your coworkers would rather catch some of your workload than any of your cold. Now is the time to be committed to getting well.

 

Free Image and media resources for church communicators

By Leave a Comment

Clip art is a key element to your seasonal masterpieces--here are lots of free resources
Images are a key element to your seasonal masterpieces--here are lots of free resources

In the coming months you'll be creating lots of communications for ministry and outreach over the holidays. As you do this, the following list of resources will help you with new images, photos, and an incredible way to create videos. All of the resources below have free sections, however, be careful because many of them also offer images for sale to finance their sites.

I didn't include standard, Christian sites because most of you already know about these and many of the images we use today are not your standard old-fashioned clip art images, but thematic photos.  I did include some basic clip art resources, but also a number of very contemporary photo sites.

I also included some smaller, new sites—if you like the material on these, be sure to download it ASAP—some of these sites don't last long, but have great images available while they do. Also, download the images before the site owners realize how much work it is to keep up the site and start charging for it, as I've seen happen on some sites.

TIPS on image collecting and organizing images and media

  • It's never too early to start collecting and organizing images for the upcoming holidays (and after Christmas it seems like Easter comes quite quickly). Here are a few tips to help you keep from getting overwhelmed.
  • Create folders on your computer for the different holidays and the images you'll save.
  • After some preliminary searching, decide on a theme, a look, perhaps even a color scheme for your upcoming holiday.
  • Use down-time to look for images ahead of time so you'll have them when you get ready to put your communication projects together. Doing this ahead of time makes actual production go much more smoothly.
  • If you have a laptop at home (this is what I do), browse through these resources while watching TV. There are thousands of images available today and it can take many hours to go through them to find just the right ones at the right price (free) for ministry projects. When I do this, I don't feel so guilty for watching TV.

Photos & other media

In many communications and on websites today the trend is towards using photos and not clip art (though there are times in church communications when clip art is still incredibly useful). Many church communicators think they need to buy photos, but the sites below have some excellent ones and all the photos are free and copyright free to use.

http://pixabay.com/  This site has an incredible collection of high quality photos that are all free to use under Creative Commons license. This site also includes simple vector graphics and illustrations. It has a useful search box that you can also sort your searches for photos, vector, or illustrations only.

http://www.imcreator.com/free/ Fairly new site, contemporary, high quality images. Many require attribution, but are free. Also has icons, website templates.

http://picjumbo.com/ very nice, contemporary photos, many of them free. Has a good listing of categories for searching. Not a huge site, but useful for up-to-date subject matter.

http://publicdomainarchive.com/  Interesting collection of images—some taken by the site owners others from public domain resources. Some are free, some for a membership fee. Worth checking back often as they post new images each week. They don't have a good search function.

http://nos.twnsnd.co/ New Old Stock—advertises itself as lots of uploaded old images or images in the public domain. Made me feel really old to see the space and astronaut images included.  No search function; and not particularly holiday related, but some great images and fun to scroll through.

http://magdeleine.co/browse/ "handpicked, free photos for your inspiration" very nice, contemporary photos, free to use attribution required. One nice feature they have is a search tool that you can search based on colors.

CLIPART and Image Resources

http://www.clker.com/ simple clip art images for the holidays, with an emphasis on very simple images, but often that is exactly what you need.  You have to scroll past some ads, but thousands of images here. One other useful feature is when you click on an image, they include a number of similar ones, e.g. search for "Santa" and on the download page are dozens of other Santa images in many different styles.

The program also has a built-in simple editing program, SVGEdit.  For example if you download a line drawing of Santa, you can open up the program and with one click change the color of the image to a red, instead of black line drawing.

http://thepatternlibrary.com/ Fascinating collection of patterns—not a lot of them, but definitely worth looking at and downloading—you can do so much with them later.

Videos

www.animoto.com  I LOVE this program! It allows you to create incredible videos (think alternative announcements, etc.) by simply adding images and captions, hitting a button and then the program turns them into great videos with amazing graphics and transitions. When you first look at the program you may wonder why it is listed as "free" but scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see a section for "non-profits" where you church can get a free membership.

I know there are many other sites, PLEASE send me the ones you like and I'll do another collection of them, email to: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

 

 

 

Will Your Visitors Become Members?

By Leave a Comment

Make it easy for people to become part of your church.
Make it easy for people to become part of your church.

An indisputable fact: Across the United States, and perhaps in other countries as well, church attendance and membership have been steadily declining over the past several years.

Researchers and scholars offer scores of societal changes as the reason: busy lifestyles,  disintegration of family, more mobile populations, growing demands on time, religion being viewed as irrelevant—and on and on. There are, no doubt, elements of truth in all these findings. But my experience leads me to believe there is another factor, one much closer to home. Just how welcoming are our churches? Do we put our best foot forward? Can we see ourselves as a visitor might? Do we display hospitality? Are we willing to embrace others and encourage them to become a part of our fellowship?

Moving to a new community and looking for a church home gave me a fresh opportunity to be a visitor. Some observations on things churches can do to attract visitors and encourage them to come back—

• advertise in the local paper; make sure times and directions are clear

• provide visitor parking convenient to the main entrance

• have adequate and attractive signage for parking, entrances, the nursery, restrooms

• train greeters in the art of offering a friendly and meaningful greeting

• provide an attractive and informative bulletin

• provide a greeter who walks visitors to the sanctuary doors and directs them to seating

• equip pews with visitor cards—and sharpened pencils

• give a general “welcome visitors” from the pulpit

• provide an opportunity for visitors to meet the pastor after the service

• offer a “Meet First Church” brochure to visitors; at least have them in pews

• provide a little memento of their visit: a pen, notepad, booklet

• absolutely send visitors a letter!

Unless yours is a very small congregation, your church may have more visitors than you realize. Sometimes visitors slip in and out with no recognition at all—no handshake, no smile, no greeting. Some have been invited by members.; others have sought you out on their own. All are seeking. We don’t know all their reasons for coming, but we can safely assume they want to feel valued, accepted, welcome. These arepeople—not numbers. Treat them as you would like to be treated. Take an interest in them. Show by your words and actions that you care about them.

Each visitor comes away with an impression. This is not a matter of being judgmental. Visitors are often deciding if this is the church for them. Is this where they will fit in, where they will find a place of service, where they will grow in their faith and have opportunity to make a difference.

There are fair, better, and best ways of extending a welcome. Would you rather be asked, “Are you visiting?” or greeted with a friendly “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Ann Smith.” Whether the person is a visitor or not, this greeting gets people acquainted.

One thing not to do: In an attempt to extend a welcome, some churches ask visitors to stand and introduce themselves. A good intention, perhaps, but it makes many visitors uncomfortable.

Even in the friendliest church, the cue for hospitality must come from leadership. Someone, the pastor or an assigned person, must lead members to be aware of new faces and to personally greet those with whom they are not acquainted. Greeter training is essential, but few things are more noticeable to a visitor than a pastor who sets a positive example. Staff and members who stay involved with one another or with family and friends—at the expense of welcoming newcomers—miss a great opportunity. It may seem quaint, but visitors (not to mention members) appreciate a personable pastor.

Those who sing in a choir or as a praise group play an important role in creating a friendly environment. It is such an attractive thing when folks singing praises to God allow their faces to show joy. And such a distraction when they don’t. Week after week some singers look positively unconvinced of the message they sing. What a missed opportunity to be a positive witness.

As important as a friendly welcome on the day of the visit is a personal written welcome arriving within the week. In this time of digital communication, a real letter makes a statement. Using a template is fine, but personalize it with the visitor’s name and adjust as necessary. Enclose a brochure about the church ministries and any other printed material that may be of interest—a small flyer about VBS, a special study, or whatever. One church sends along a neat little memo book/calendar. Very nice.

The pastor’s added handwritten note (“So good meeting you” or similar) is gold!

Next Lord’s Day try to put yourself in the mindset of a visitor and see your church through his/her eyes. You may find some things you can do differently to encourage visitors to become members—and to encourage your members to invite others. Details do matter.