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.

How to prepare for a new Pastor

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Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

Welcoming a new pastor is an exciting event in the life of a church. Pastoral changes happen for all sorts of reasons, of course—most good, a few not so. Circumstances surrounding the calling of your new pastor are bound to affect how you will respond to these changes, but your main goal is to act from wisdom, not from emotion.

Your preparation can help get things off to a good start; your expertise and administrative experience will provide continuity in the office and assist in a smooth transition. At the same time, the exercise of welcoming a new pastor can be an exceptional time of personal and professional satisfaction for you. [Read more...]

YouTube Playlists–videos organized by topic to help you learn

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With over 130 videos created over 3 years time, it can be difficult to find videos on similar topics in church communications from Yvon Prehn's  Effective Church Communications YouTube channel. To help you focus on whatever it is that you want to learn, I have organized the videos into Playlists that group the similar videos together and that you can watch together.

Some of the current playlists are:

  • MS Publisher Uses, Examples, Templates & Tips

  • How to create websites with WordPress

  • FREE Clip art Image Resources--video reviews

  • How to write for the web

I will continue to organize the videos into topics, please SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel and that way you will know when new things are added.

Check out how the Playlists work here:

Videos organized by topic into Playlists at http://www.youtube.com/yvonprehn

Just how important is Know-how?

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Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

Ed. Note: Although I am always encouraged and motivated by the articles Gayle shares with us, this one is especially appropriate for the vision and ministry of Effective Church Communications. My goal is to equip you to share the Words of Eternal Life and as Gayle shows to do that best is not so much about what tools you have, but about YOU, your training, insight and use of the skills you bring to the church. Read on and be encouraged that the time you spend learning will give you a mastery far beyond your expectations!

Just how important is Know-how?

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord…” —Colossians 3:23

When it comes to getting the job done, it’s all about knowing what to do with what you have. The church with the most equipment does not necessarily produce the best looking publications. The one with the priciest management software does not automatically have the accurate and usable records. Nor does having an elaborate phone system guarantee the church’s calls will be handled properly. [Read more...]

5 ways to keep college freshmen out of your church

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Church communications for college students
College is a time to search for answers, consider carefully if you want them to search at your church (and I hope you do).

You know the group, the newly graduated from high school, the ones you are glad to see off to college. You might be happy you don't need to deal with their questions, challenges, and whining anymore, but somebody has to.

Fortunately USAToday (8-21-2012, by Mary Beth Marklein) just published an article, "What makes cyber-weaned college freshman click?" that provides some insight into these thorns in your flesh and how we can keep their disruptive influence out of our churches.

According to the article, here are a few phrases that describe them:

  • "Addicted to all things electronic and 'think nothing of texting a friend whom they know is only a block away.'"
  • "Electronically far more sophisticated than their parents or teachers."
  • "A generation with an average of 241 social media friends, but they have trouble communicating in person."

The perceptive among us can see that digital communication is very important to this group

Therefore, following are 5 ways you can use this to your advantage to keep them out of your church: [Read more...]

What is difficult about YouTube and what it teaches us about church communication

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YouTube has a lot to teach us about communications
YouTube has a lot to teach us about communications creation.

The popular perception of YouTube is that it is really simple, easy, and anybody can slap up a video. In addition--if it is catchy, funny, or  inspiring enough that the video will go viral and the video creator will gain immediate fame and fortune.

It doesn't work that way.

I've spent a lot of time on YouTube lately trying to understand how it works and how I can make the most of it to equip and inspire church communicators. Part of that has been to study some of the popular producers and to look the advice YouTube gives on realistically how to make a video channel that will have significant impact on the audience you want to reach. My first conclusion is that it is much, much harder and more difficult than I imagined. [Read more...]