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.

Want to attract young families to your church? These communication tips may help

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Lots of tech tools and challenges are needed to reach younger audiences.
Lots of tech tools and challenges are needed to reach younger audiences.

Many churches in America have aging congregations and a constant prayer in all of them is that they attract young families to the church.

A primary response to this need is for churches to upgrade their children's programs and make certain their nurseries are spotless, attractive, and well-staffed. Though facilities responses are essential, other communication responses are also important if your church wants to have a family come back more than once.

You've got to speak the same language as younger people

Imagine if you were invited to a party by a close friend. The friend tells you that the people are great and you'll have a fantastic time. You approach the party with excitement—but when you open the door, you discover that the party guests are all speaking the language of their native country and English isn't allowed. They are all English speakers, but they prefer to not speak it at their parties. They smile and are very nice. They offer you food; they have a game room for your kids; but when you try to talk to them, they shake their head and say your language isn't allowed. You will probably leave as quickly as you can and decide you never want to associate with that group again.

The language of many young people today is technology and if you don't speak that language, they will feel about as welcome as the guest in the story above.

Technology communication tips

Attitude is one of the most important things in learning to speak the language of technology.  You may not know how to do the things that are suggested below, but admitting that your church is working on these areas and perhaps even asking for help to implement them, will go a long way to making technology speakers feel at home.

None of the comments that follow should be taken as a recommendation that you do away with any of your current means of church communications. You still need printed Bibles, email, phone calls, postcards, and whatever else the people in your church use for communications. The challenge today is that we can't do away with past means of communication, but we continuously need to add new ones and here are some to consider:

Allow the use of cell phones and tablets in church and adult education classes

This seems so basic, but I still see church bulletins that tell people not to use their phone even to read their Bibles in church. One church went so far as to give a mini-lecture in print on how irreverent it was to read the Bible on your phone and how distracting it was to those around you.

I don't imagine many who were used to reading the Bible on their phones came back a second time to that church.

In contrast, at another church when it's morning time to read the Scripture for the morning, the Pastor invites people to follow along, "either on the screen in front, your printed Bible, or whatever electronic device you enjoy using."

It isn't surprising that this church, with a large aging congregation, has recently been running announcements in the bulletin asking for volunteers in the ever-growing children's programs.

Be sure your website is responsive and constantly updated

A responsive website is one that can be easily accessed on a smart phone.  A responsive website resizes so that text can easily be read on the smaller screen. A website that isn't responsive can be accessed with a smart phone, but it's hard to read and extremely difficult to find anything on it. For people who use their smart phones to look up every part of their lives, if your church makes that impossible, they won't bother to go to a desktop computer or call the church office.

Making a church website responsive can be as simple as changing the underlying template for the site, if your site is built using WordPress.

For a more complete explanation of what responsive sites look like and how they work, CLICK HERE https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/09/a-primer-on-responsive-websites-what-they-are-and-why-they-are-important/—this article is a couple of years old, but is a good illustration of them.

Text important messages

Email is no longer the latest and most efficient way to contact people. Many people today don't ever look at a desktop computer unless their job requires them to. They access all the media and information they need through their smart phone and seldom look at email. It can be depressing to realize after all the work you do on creating email newsletters that many people won't look at them.

Texting is the next challenge to learn if you want to communicate with the people who don't access email. Here is an article that tells you how to send group texts on your smart phone: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/3472964/how-send-group-texts-from-android-iphone/

Have the option to give electronically

Many people pay all their bills electronically today and some have few or no paper checks. If you want them to give to your church, you need a system where they can do this. Not only will this make it easier for people who prefer to pay this way, but many churches have discovered that electronic giving makes contributions much more consistent. I was going to link you to a Christian Computing article about this, but they switched to a Wix site and don't have a search box, so the best advice on this would be to ask churches in your area what software  they are using and if they like it.

Have your pastor's sermons and those of other teachers available online, preferably on iTunes

Sunday is no longer a sacred day and many people have changing work schedules. Because of that, they may not be able to attend church regularly. If people miss, they may want to hear the sermon and if the only way you have them available, if you do, is on CD or tapes, many younger people simply won't bother. Many of the church website templates have automatic ways to put audio files on your site. Getting your material on iTunes is more complex (I still haven't done it, hope to do an article about it soon), but important to do it if you want to make your message available.

Make social media more than a logo on your bulletin or a link on your website

If you or someone on staff isn't regularly interacting with your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Google+ accounts, don't just put these on your bulletin or as a link on your website because that's the "in" thing to do. These tools are called "social media" for a reason. If you aren't involved with them, don't bother. Better though is to get a volunteer who loves interacting on these sites and will do it for the church.

A final note—the technology advice above is for more than younger families

Confession time here—though I do think everything I said above applies to attracting young families to your church, the article above could also have been labeled, "Some tech communication  lapses in churches today that really bug Yvon."

I am far from being described as a member of the young family target audience, but my love of and involvement with technology make all the issues above important to me. I was motivated to write it after viewing one too many church bulletins and church websites that didn't have these things and personally being bothered by them.

The point here is not about my cranky preferences—it is about being all things to all people that we might win some, no matter what technology they use or what age they are.

 

 

 

 

Firefighter or Assistant—Be Happy in Your Work

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Fire Fighter or Secretary
Do you feel like a Fire-Fighter or Secretary in your job at church? This article will help you be happy no matter what!

The conversation was a lively one as some fifty ministry assistants discussed both the frustrations and joys of their particular calling. One expressed the feelings of many when she said with a wry smile, “What we need to know is how to be happy in our work even when we feel more like firefighters than secretaries.”

• Most of us have heard at one time or another that there are two ways to be happy: getting what you want, and wanting what you’ve got. This certainly applies in the church office. There, as elsewhere, choosing the second way is more realistic.

• Mary may want an organized boss, the most updated equipment, a full-time assistant, and a substantial raise. She may have tried to bring about all four, even making progress in some instances. Now, she can choose to be unhappy because she doesn’t have all she wants or she can choose to be happy by wanting what she has.

• Let’s be clear. Wanting what you have doesn’t mean settling for whatever someone else decides your life will be. It doesn’t mean toughing out disrespect or abuse and labeling it as okay. It doesn’t mean ignoring ways to bring about change or improvement anywhere and everywhere you can.

• Wanting what you have does mean accepting things and people as they are, not allowing them to cause you unhappiness because they are not how you want them to be. It means being resolved to find satisfaction in every moment, whether that moment brings something to enjoy and remember or something to change and forget. It means not letting a less-than-perfect world spoil your sense of contentment and well-being.

• Ministry assistants get a lot of what they want from their job—theirs is meaningful service. Still, many identify firefighting exercises affecting their ability to enjoy their work to the fullest. If they got what they want—

  • staff members would be better time managers
  • adequate funds would be available for necessities
  • the assistant’s input would be valued
  • communication with staff and members would be better

• Your own list may be different. The point is, we all have work situations we would like improved. We can focus on negatives, complain about them, and let them cause us unhappiness. Or, we can see them as only part of the picture, a part we may or may not be able to change.

• In the final analysis, it is not what goes on around you that determines how much you enjoy your work. It is how you respond to the circumstances. You can be happy in your work, not because it always gives you all you want but because you want what it gives—challenges, ways to make a difference in people’s lives, a path of service in God’s work, opportunities to grow, a means to make a living, whatever is important to you.

• Choose to be happy. Even if you have to grab that fire hose now and then!

Church Office Advice: What Color is Your Time?

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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!

Church Office Advice: First Aid for Anger

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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