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.
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

Part Two, Managing Criticism: Offering Criticism

4 June, 2010 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Gayle Hilligoss Pictureby Gayle Hilligoss

Expressing criticism in any situation should never be taken lightly. Once you’ve decided this is your best choice, spend some time in preparation. You want to give yourself the best opportunity to achieve your goal.

• Plan your time and place.

Approaching someone unawares is never a good idea. Thoughtfully plan a time when the other person is not under pressure and a place providing privacy. Give a heads-up that you require some time: “Could we get together for a few minutes to go over …” or “Save ten minutes for me this afternoon. Will 1:30 work?”

• Know what you are going to say. {+}

A script is neither necessary nor advised, but making notes can be helpful. Ask yourself, “What is my goal? What specifically do I want to accomplish?” Focus on the actions you want changed, not on the person: “Being at your desk on time is very important; I need you to be conscientious about that,” not “You create problems by not being on time.” Make sure nothing in your remarks is mean-spirited, abusive, or insulting.

• Be brief, specific, straightforward.

One standard technique for offering criticism is to sandwich the negative comment between two positive ones: “You’ve made some good changes in the website since last quarter. The problem is that … What I want you to do is … That will bring the website’s quality up to the same high standard as your other publications.”

The problem is, this technique may sound canned and insincere. So, use it with care and be sure you mean what you say. Never manufacture compliments to make your criticism easier to take.

A direct approach can be both professional and kind. Proceed something like: Someone has made a mistake; you want to talk about it. This is what needs to change and this is how to do it. I know I can count on you for positive results. Thanks for your cooperation in getting this done.

Because you are talking about a mistake, not an individual, no one need feel threatened. You are going to fix a problem, not a person.

Say what needs to be said. Don’t apologize for the situation. Conclude cordially. Don’t drag this out or get into a debate. Move on. Expect change.
_______________________________

Click on the links below to go to the other articles on this series on Criticism

Part One, Managing Criticism, practical advice for challenging situations

Part Three, Managing Criticism: Asking for Criticism

Part Four, Managing Criticism: Responding to Criticism

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Office Skills, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss Tagged With: church office, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, managing criticism, managing in the church office, practical advice

What makes an effective church website?

1 June, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 3 Comments

The debate is over—churches today realize they need to have a website. The question now is, what makes a website an effective ministry tool for the church? With many companies vying for your website development dollar, this is not an easy question to answer....or is it? Actually I think it is very easy to answer and in this article, we'll not only answer that question, but give you some resources to make a website incredibly effective (and either free or for very low-cost for your church).

The answer is simple: CONTENT

We need to remember when we are creating websites for the church that the purpose of the website is ultimately the purpose of the Great Commission: to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and to grow to maturity in the Christian faith.

Churches create websites for different reasons than secular groups do and we must NEVER forget that if we are to have an effective website. It isn't flashy graphics or the latest technology or how "cool" or "edgy" that our site looks that is most important, it is our CONTENT.

Content that is important

Content that is important falls into several categories:

  • Basic church information: times, dates, locations, all the details about ministries that actually will connect people with the ministry.
  • Overview information about your church: this content answers basic questions, including: Who are you? What do you believe? Are you part of a larger group? Who is that group or denomination? Why is that important and what do they believe?
  • Core content about the Christian faith: What does it mean to be a Christian? How do I become one? What does it mean to grow in faith and how do I do that? Your denomination may have a unique way of explaining this, do that on site.
  • How your church expresses the basics of the Christian faith and what it means to grow to mature discipleship.
  • Articles on how staff members either explain the Christian faith or their approach to ministry.

All of these areas of content are vital. In addition, you need more than just a sentence or two to describe them and they need to be constantly updated to be of any use at all.

You must know how to get this information on your website and how to continuously keep it updated. It isn't enough to buy a website with a fancy front page and then nothing but filled-in forms when people click-through for more information.What would you think of any company that did that for a product you wanted to learn more about? You'd think they were lazy and didn't really know what they were doing. People don't think any better of a church that looks great on the homepage, but is thin on content.

What you probably don't want (but might be doing) on your website

Most of you would probably agree with what I just wrote. I doubt if anyone would say:

  • "No, I want a website for my church that is static, boring, and with almost no content about the Christian faith."
  • "What I really want is a constantly out-dated site so visitors will think we are sloppy and lazy about our information."
  • "I want people to think Christianity is some sort of secret club. That's why I don't want my website to really tell them anything about our church or what our denomination believes."
  • "Most of all, I want people to think we are phony. To do that I'll use stock photos of smiling, happy, perfect people on my home page—people that nobody in our church or community actually looks like."

You may not verbalize any of these things, but it is pretty obvious that many church websites by the content that they have that without meaning to they are sending these messages.

How to get the content you want

Bottom line: you need a website creation system that will allow you to create and keep updated the content that is an important to your church and core to the Christian faith.

I can help you do that! I have a series of webinars that will guide you step-by-step how to do that.

If you want to see my latest real-life church responsibility--my husband a bi-vocational pastor who has recently been appointed  in charge of small groups at our church (smallish church now, been through big trauma, from one of the biggest in city to under 300 now)--you can go to the WordPress blog/website I created for the Small Group Ministry that almost totally died at the church. We are still building and have a long way to go, but this site and the interaction it has generated has been great at the church--here it is: http://smallgrouplinks.wordpress.com

This is a very simple site, I write all the content and send out weekly emails to update small group leaders, but it has really revitalized an almost totally dead ministry. It has lots of CONTENT and it is changing lives--people who never used online tools, or got into theological discussions, or been involved in small groups are going to the site   and commenting to me and the staff about it. It is a very small step, but the content is making a difference.

What the site cost to create—lots of time and NO money

We live in S. California and the economic recession has slammed our church. Our giving is less than half of what it was over a year ago. The church laid off half of the paid staff and more cuts are coming. That is why my husband is bi-vocational (has a handyman business that supports our ministry habits). This site cost zero dollars to produce, so fits well into the church budget now.  Obviously many hours of my time have gone into it, but I'd much rather use my free time to change lives for eternity than in other pursuits.

Even though the site for small groups didn't cost a penny to produce or host, as you can see, it still has a lot of things on it: lots of content, videos, graphics, pages and posts, tag clouds. In addition, the custom nameplate and side-bar video were both created in MS Publisher (the same process as described here).  I could have done much more, but as I said, I did it totally in volunteer free time and as always I didn't have enough time to do all I wanted to.

WordPress.com is what I used to create the site

The site you are on now was created with WordPress.org; the church website with WordPress.com.

You don't have to have fancy, moving graphic images to change lives. Simple sites with rich content can be used greatly by our Lord who delights in using small things for His glory.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Website Creation Tagged With: church useful, church web creation, church website training, Church Websites, Communications, web, yvon prehn

Why you CAN and SHOULD create your own blogs and websites

25 May, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

It's much easier than you imagine to create a blog.
It's much easier and more important than you imagine to create a blog.

Don't panic, I'm not suggesting that every senior pastor or church leader drop the website creation and maintenance service they use, get a Mac; learn html, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop. The current service you use may be working out fine and if you have an affinity for the Mac and high-end graphics you are most likely comfortable in your work. I'm not trying to change that, but to challenge you to learn more about the process if you've been primarily delegating your website creation to others.

[Read more...]

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Website Creation Tagged With: church communication training, church website, Church Websites, Communications, Website basics, yvon prehn, Yvon Prehn Webinars

Video: How to create Custom Headers for websites with MS Publisher

20 May, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

Create your own website header with MS Publisher--it's easier than you think!
Create your own website header with MS Publisher--it's easier than you think!

Creating a custom header for a website can be an expensive and difficult process, but it can be a very simple process if you do it with MS Publisher. This video does not teach you how to do websites, but if you already have one, for example with WordPress, this will show you how to create your own custom header for it.

If you don't have a website as yet, not knowing how to create a custom header can hold some folks back because of the perceived cost or impossibility of doing your own. This short video (it is SO easy) will solve one possible concern...and it is really fun! [Read more...]

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Graphics, Images, MS Publisher, Skills, Videos, Website Creation Tagged With: Church Websites, Communications, custom website header, MS Publisher how to, yvon prehn

How to create online polls with Poll Daddy, Webinar On-Demand

5 April, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Online Polls are a useful and fun addition to any website. This video shows you how to create them quickly and easily using the free Poll Daddy software. Poll Daddy Software is free and it allows you to create a variety of polls and surveys.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

POLL DADDY Handouts IMAGE

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Planning and Managing, Website Creation Tagged With: Church Websites, Communications, yvon prehn, yvon prehn video

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • …
  • 58
  • Next Page »
Link to Easter Templates of all sorts

Seasonal Templates

  • OVERVIEW of TEMPLATES for Church Communicators, please read first
  • Valentine’s Day Templates
  • Lenten Templates
  • Easter Templates
  • Mother’s Day Templates
  • Father’s Day and Men’s Ministry Templates
  • Graduation Templates
  • Summer-related Templates
  • 4th of July, Canada Day, and GRACE for All Nations
  • See You At the Pole
  • Harvest Festival and Halloween Templates
  • Christmas Templates

Recent Posts

  • Social media images for Easter with challenging messages
  • From our vault: Everything you need for Easter: Templates, strategy, inspiration and encouragement for all your Easter communications
  • Why just “Come to Easter at Our Church” isn’t enough–FREE invitations with short, but powerful messages
  • ESSENTIAL Christmas Communication advice and free tools to implement it
  • A Free Template of the Christmas Story and short gospel presentation based on “Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”

Most read posts

  • A Prayer for Graduates, Free flyer, bulletin insert
  • Bulletin inserts or social media content for Father's Day; poetry, challenges, encouragements
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES
  • Church Directories How-to, ideas from church communications
  • Father's Day and Men's Ministry Templates
  • Business/Invitation Card Templates
  • Church Connection Cards

Misc. Church Communications Templates

  • Church Connection Cards
  • Business/Invitation Card Templates
  • Back to Church for Kids in the Fall Templates
  • Church Bulletin Template
  • Volunteer and Encouragement Templates
  • 2-page Senior Adult Print Newsletter Template
  • Misc. Church Templates
FREE Bible Verses and Sayings in both print and social media format at Bible805Images.com
FREE Bible Verses and Sayings in both print and social media format at Bible805Images.com
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in