Effective Church Communications
Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission
This PDF illustrates the process of how to take a brochure that merely describes a ministry to one that is redesigned to meet needs. The result of the redesign was a huge response to the ministry.
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Click here or on the image to download the PDF.
Charles Spurgeon, in his introduction to Lectures To My Students, wrote:
Should this publication succeed, I hope very soon to issue similar work. . . . . I shall be obliged by any assistance rendered to the sale, for the price is unremunerative, and persons interested in our subjects are not numerous enough to secure a very large circulation; hence it is only by the kind aid of all appreciating friends that I shall be able to publish the rest of the contemplated series.
I often talk about the incredible opportunities available to us in communications today, but the reality of that statement struck me as never before when I read Spurgeon's words.
If I want to communicate something today, I do. I can blog. I can write for my websites. I can write, design, typeset, create a book and publish it with lulu.com, createspace.com, smashwords.com and many other sources. I can record a podcast and create a video at my computer. In minutes I can make these communications available to the world.
Spurgeon did not have that luxury.
The Prince of Preachers had to wait for his words to be published until enough money could be raised for the printing. We don't have to wait for anything beyond the moments it takes to upload our latest creation.
Enough has been said about how this instantaneous access to communication has cheapened public discourse; how any idiot with an opinion can become an instant authority or celebrity. The truth of those observations is obvious. Those who use technology need to handle the responsibility with care, but not with fear assuming that because a publication goes through the hands of a professional editor that it will come out a better publication.
Professional editors can be extremely helpful and in my early years as a writer I had the joy of working with tough newspaper and book editors who sharpened my skills. I'm not sure why, but it seems the precision and professional care of some so-called professional editors has deteriorated. In one of my more recent adventures with a national publishing company, (and I've had books published by a number of the major ones) I was given a very nice, but seriously grammatically challenged junior editor to work with on a book. He apparently thought my writing quite exciting—every few paragraphs he inserted exclamation points in addition to extensive and needless rewriting of much of my manuscript.
His flourishes did not make it into the final book. I'm trying to figure out a way to talk about this nicely, but the bottom line is that having to deal with the mess he made, being required going over his head to someone with authority to get permission to clean up the mess, all the time trying to be kind to him as a Christian sister, was a monumental and unnecessary waste of time. I can get a dozen articles written, five training videos, a couple of e-books created, and all of it posted on the web in a portion of the time wasted on that adventure. When the book was published it came out with a typo on the cover.
We should not use this responsibility to create irresponsible communications. As much care and craftsmanship as is possible should go into our work. We should always be working to improve our writing, design skills, technology expertise, and growth in godliness as we do our work. Our opportunities are not an excuse for sloppy, unthinking work.
But work we must. Publish we must. If we feel we have been given a message from the Lord to share with a lost and dying world, if we feel we have words that can encourage the saints and build up others in the faith, we have absolutely no excuse to not get our message out there.
We have the words of eternal life. We have technology that gives us an ability to communicate far beyond our wildest dreams. What am I, what are you, doing with this opportunity?
To whom much is given, much is required.
7-29-09 the quote below appeared in USA TODAY in the article: “Governments tap into the power of Twitter.” Tom Watson, a Labor Party, blogger said:
There are some very bright, digitally enabled civil servants who unfortunately have to write these documents for their bosses. . . who still get their secretaries to print off their e-mails so they can read them.
This situation is can be repeated in every office, governmental, educational, religious, in probably every nation in the world. No disagreement there. But here is what does bother me, not only in this instance are some of the unspoken attitudes expressed in this patronizing, snarky blog comment because they sadly sometimes seep into the church. My concerns:
It bothers me that the adjective “bright” is paired with “digitally enabled” and the implied contrast that follows with the bosses who, because their secretaries must print off emails, are obviously not bright because they are not digitally savvy.
This equating of intelligence with the ability to use digital equipment, if carried to it's logical conclusion would mean that the robots who assemble auto parts are far brighter and more intelligent, than the human who work in the factories. The robots after all, follow digital commands with complete understanding and without deviation. Humans make mistakes. That conclusion is obviously foolish when pushed to the extreme, but it is equally foolish in lesser degrees.
Just because a secretary can use Twitter does not mean she has suddenly become “brighter”than her boss. There is a reason the boss is the boss and the skills required extend far beyond tweetability.
A bit of humility is in order. I couldn't help but wonder if the spelling ability, the penmanship ability, the ability to construct clear, lengthy business plans, and the ability to negotiate complex contracts, were also a superior skills of the secretary. I doubt it.
Our hearts are desperately wicked and our pride overwhelming. It is so easy to feel superior when we learn a new skill. So tempting to relegate those who don’t know the new skill as out of touch, and truth be told, not very bright.
No matter what the technology, we remain servants of Jesus. No matter what new skill we learn, we are always to consider others better than ourselves.
If we learn a new technology that is useful and others in the church don't know, understand, or use it, we have three choices:
The greatest commandment remains that to love each other and that involves all the demanding requirements of 1 Cor. 13, including patience, kindness, bearing all things, enduring all, never failing and related skills that are far more difficult to master than the latest computer communication skill. Mastering those character traits is what will make us bright, indeed.
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Note on context of this blog entry: I didn't write the cautions above as a technophobe. I've emailed since the days that email addresses were numbers; you can follow me on Twitter at yvonprehn. I wrote it to smack myself to never be proud of something I learn, but humble and thankful for the opportunity.
Here are some very simple layouts for church business cards.
Please be sure to read the other materials in this category on Church Business and Invitation Cards and watch the video on how to use them.
They may be tiny, but they can be a powerful ministry and outreach tool.
To download this PDF, click here or on the image.
