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.

Print and Digital—More Powerful Together! videos and studies to show you why

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Print and Digital E-book, more powerful together! by Yvon Prehn
If your want people to respond to your communications, use every tool you can!

People are busy, stressed, and time-starved—what is the best way to reach them? Many voices would answer "SOCIAL MEDIA!"

But if that is the answer, why aren't our churches filled and every event well-attended, when social media costs almost nothing to produce and we can push it out to the world?

Part of the problem could be that we have confused the popularity of social media with effectiveness (source for this idea in the video below). We assume social media is the way most people communicate today, and though that idea is wildly incorrect for many congregations, even among those who do live glued to a Twitter feed, don't necessarily take action on what they see on social media.

What follows isn't about bashing social media

Far from it--keep tweeting, Facebooking, Pinning and Instagramming, as the Apostle Paul said, "we need to become all things to all people to win some" (1 Cor 9:22).

But consider re-introducing PRINT into a more significant place in your church communication mix. As you'll see a number of communication and marketing studies show this is the most effective way to get an audience to respond to your message.

Below are 2 videos--one a more lengthy teaching one about the effectiveness of combining print and digital for any non-profit group and the second one is a series of slides with thought provoking quotes and commentary.

Below each of them are handouts of the presentation.

Below both is PDF e-book that has the quotes, studies listed and more.

Why here, now and free to all?

As I've been working on Fall and Christmas communications I've realized that unless you understand some of the key points in the material that follows your fall outreach will not be as successful as it could or should be.

Either one of the videos would make an excellent discussion topic for your next staff meeting because communication ministry is the foundation of the success of many ministries in the church and it is far more difficult today than it was in the past when you only needed to worry about how many times you printed an announcement in the bulletin.

I'm working on a longer class and book on this topic, but I felt it was too important not to get out now what I did have ready.


CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF of NOTES for the video above: Print & Digital More Powerful Together HANDOUTS


CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF of NOTES for the video above: Slide Show of Print and Digital Quotes, HANDOUTS

Print and Digital E-book, more powerful together! by Yvon Prehn
Click on the image to download a copy of this e-book.

Raise money for your church communications program with designated giving

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Designated giving advice
It can be a confusing puzzle to raise money for your communication ministry. Designated giving might be an answer.

A continuous challenge for any church communication ministry is having enough money for equipment, software, and training needed to run a truly effective church communications ministry. Though one of the most important ministries in the church and the one on which the success of most other ministries depend, it often isn't a priority when it comes time to set the overall church budget.

But new equipment and training is needed—so what to do?

Designated giving may be the answer

Designated giving is, in short, where church members can decide they want to give money (above their regular tithe of course) for a special project.  This is a greatly simplified explanation and later I'll give you a link to a longer, more complete one, but this is enough for the foundational idea that designated gifts are definitely an area worth pursuing. [Read more...]

A reminder of the features and flexibility of MS Publisher

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MS Publisher for Churches
MS Publisher is a great program for churches and this e-book shows many of the reasons why.

I just finished an article for Ministry Tech magazine (if you haven't signed up for the FREE subscription to it, CLICK HERE) and as part of that article talked about how and why years ago I switched from using primarily Adobe PageMaker to MS Publisher to teach and equip church communicators.

As part of that explanation I mentioned an e-book I created years ago to illustrate all you can do with MS Publisher and how in many ways it can equal the design capabilities of far more expensive graphic design and layout programs. I wanted to share the e-book and you can download it by clicking here or on the image at the start of this article.

Some of the material in the book is a little out-dated, as Publisher has continued to improve, but it is still a useful reminder of how flexible and useful this program is for church communicators. [Read more...]

Passive or committed? Your church needs the best from you always

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Pigs as an image of commitment
We don't usually think of pigs when we think of commitment, but this fable may change your mind.

Ed. Note: Gayle Hilligoss, who always sends in challenging material just sent this to me. You may have read it before, but it's a great reminder to all of us during the lazy days of summer that if we aren't working with all that we have, we may not be as committed as we think we are.

A pig and a chicken were strolling through their barnyard. The chicken said, “You know, we should open a restaurant to raise some money to spruce this place up.”

“Okay. What would we serve?” asked the pig.

“I’m thinking ham and eggs,” said the chicken.

“I’ll have to prayerfully consider that,” replied the pig. “Your menu means simple participation on your part—it means total commitment for me.”

The fable of the pig and chicken has been around since at least 1950 when it appeared in Bennett Cerf’s syndicated column. It’s been tweaked countless times and told in scores of variations—I’ve told it in seminars for years—but the point  is always the same: the pig and chicken represent two types: those who simply participate versus those who wholeheartedly commit.

The story, of course, can be taken many ways. But, the reason a story endures long enough to become a fable is because it speaks a common truth.

How many times have you seen this scenario played out in the church? There is a need. Some person or group (a committee, deacons, whomever) proposes a program, or event, or project of some kind. But the catch is that the personas of “pigs and chickens” are in play.

Both have much to gain from the success of the project. But only the pigs will have any real skin  in the game—they will fully commit, carry the load, take the flack if things get sticky. Oh, the chickens are all good guys—willing to contribute their bits, talk the talk, even give of their renewable resources (the “eggs”), but commitment to making changes or getting things done? Not happening.

Can one be both a pig and a chicken? Not at the same time. When it comes to serving God and to taking care of the business of the church, we must choose to be passive or to be committed.

There is no middle ground.

Newsletter advice: long or short; sermon in them or seeker-friendly?

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Seeking church communications feedback
Seeking feedback, trying different lengths and contents is all part of ministering to your people with your church communications.

A question came in from a church business administrator: “For our church newsletters, should it contain long articles or short ones, sermons or not, should it be visitor friendly?” It’s a great question and one that should be answered as you plan the content for your church or ministry newsletter. We’ll explore the options for answering it in this article.

(Update note: I wrote this article originally for written newsletters, but the advice following applies equally well to online newsletters, though you may want to start some of the articles in the online newsletter and continue longer material on your website.)

Long articles or short?

The answer to that part of the questions isn’t as obvious as it might seem. I think initially, with our busy schedules today many people would instinctively answer “SHORT!”  Almost no one complains that newsletter articles are too short.

But in consideration of length there are a number of factors to consider:

  • Newsletters contain a variety of material. Some is vision-casting from the senior pastor, some teaching, some history or story-telling, some news, notes and announcements.
  • More important than setting an arbitrary length,  the length of the articles or announcements in your newsletter material should be appropriate to the topic. For example, if the senior pastor is explaining the vision of the church, inspiring members for outreach or missions, setting a new direction or challenging for a building campaign, that piece might need a page or two.
  • Currently there is a growing popularity of "long-form", meaning simply longer length articles. Particularly when you do an online version of your newsletter, you might add additional information, background, commentary, or links on a topic. Many of the major newspapers today (the New York Times is a primary example) and have found this extremely popular. While waiting, commuting, or tired of playing games, people will often read longer articles on their mobile devices.
  • Announcements of re-occurring events usually do not need long, lengthy explanations on why people should attend. Short, catchy announcements designed what I call “want-ad style” and that contain the name of the sponsoring person or group, purpose, starting and ending time, full contact information, cost and directions to get there and if child care is provided are what is needed.
  • At the same time, even more lengthy material that takes a page or two can be made more visually interesting by breaking it into sections with headers, summarizing key facts in a sidebar, pulling out interesting or key quotes and highlighting them, adding a picture and caption. A page or two with these visual elements integrated into the story will be read more easily than a solid page or two of text with no breaks.

Sermons or not in your newsletters? Seeker-Friendly or not?

[Read more...]