Effective Church Communications

A thoughtful challenge for Valentine’s Day from St. Augustine – a cure for empty hearts

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This is one of 8 flyers you can use to remind people that God can fill empty hearts and lives.

Valentine's Day can be fun and fluffy, a time for flowers and candy and silly, sappy cards.

But it can also be seriously sad. If you have someone in your life or not, your heart can feel empty.

As those who know Jesus, we can use this time not only to remind ourselves of how much Jesus does love us, but we can also use it as a time to reach out to people who don't know Him and let them know that there is One who can fill their empty, restless heart.

To help you do that, I created the following handouts ( 2 sets of 4) that you can freely download and give out as mailers, postcards, bulletin inserts or on social media. In addition, below the handouts is a word file of the free verse I wrote that you can put into anything you want to remind people that "our hearts are restless til they rest in him."

Click on the links below the images to download the Zip Files that have ready-to-print PDF images and editable MS Publisher files.

SPECIAL NOTE: if you'd like to know more of the story of St. Augustine, the author of the quote, see the note at the end of the article.

Click the following link to download the ZIP file that contains the files above: MS Pub St. Augustine quote, set #2

Click the following link to download the ZIP file that contains the files above: St. Augustine quote

Written out message

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Follow up for Christmas visitors: content for social media, flyers, bulletin insert, newsletter articles

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#1MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby
Use this bulletin insert to connect holiday church visitors with your church and encourage them to explore the Christian faith. CLICK HERE to download this FREE PDF.

Many people will came to your church for Christmas Eve or other Christmas-related services because they want to make a family member happy, to keep peace in an extended family, or for many other reasons that have nothing to do with seeking God and who never come at any other time of year.

However, our Lord who stooped to become a baby still seeks them and a communication piece like this may help make a ongoing connection with your visitors and Jesus.

This piece is an extended version of the Christmas follow-up postcards mentioned earlier that reminded people that we don't only celebrate Christmas because of the Baby Jesus, but because of what he grew up to be—our Savior.

This extended piece can be used in many ways: as flyer or bulletin insert, as a print piece inside a visitor letter, as text or graphics or both for social media or your online or print newsletter, it is designed for people to get them to think about Jesus beyond an inspiring service.

On the back you can add some links to online resources to help them explore what it means to be a Christian. You could also add events from your church schedule, your website information about your church, a personal message, or contact information.

PLEASE take the time and effort to make up a communication like this!

Many churches are hesitant to preach challenging evangelistic sermons at Christmas services and while that is understandable, we don't want to miss the opportunity to share Jesus and to give people the resources to explore more about Him on their own. A communication like this isn't intrusive or pushy, but it gently challenges and gives people the resources to check into more about Jesus and the Christian faith. I've suggested some sources, but please add your own or any ways visitors can engage with your church or enter into a dialog or have their questions answered.

Additional designs and editable files

Below is the text of the insert and following that are added designs available in the ZIP file at the end of the article. The ZIP file has:

  • Ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs
  • Editable MS Publisher files
  • Hi-res images of each design
  • MS Word file of the text for the front of the flyer and recommended resources.

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A successful event, but lost opportunities—don’t let this happen for the rest of the holiday season

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We often use our outreach events as a way to welcome people to our church, but if we aren't intentional in our communications, they may not get the message.

This last week my husband worked was involved with two Trunk or Treat events. A tremendous amount of work went into both events: cars were decorated with care; volunteers recruited and kept busy, candy, games, and toys bought to give away; church members created inventive costumes (my favorite was Mr. & Mrs. Noah with animal-themed trunk). Lots of kids came and appeared to have a great time. The events were considered a success.

Before I continue, I need to clarify—my husband was helping at two churches/ministries where I don’t have an overall communication responsibility. I don’t want to be overly negative about any member of the Body of Christ that is working hard to do outreach as best they can, but the following situation is extremely concerning to me and that’s why I’m sharing it. Later in this article are links to additional articles that address this topic.

In spite of all they did well—what they didn’t do—and why this makes the event less successful than it should be

Neither group gave away ANYTHING to the attendees that either shared the gospel message, told them about what their church did on a regular basis, or invited them back to the church.

Neither did they do anything to collect names or information about the attendees so they could reach out or follow up with them in the future.

This honestly breaks my heart—when a church does so much with the best of outreach intentions and prayers, but then doesn’t do the nuts and bolts communication work needed to get people to come back to the church on a regular basis.   people so you can follow up with them.

Second, a handout of some kind that tells people about what you do on a regular basis. If they don’t go to church regularly, people have no idea what churches do on a regular basis. A simple card that you give out with candy that says “Join us on Sunday!” or something like “If you had a great time with your kids today come back for our kids program!” with the details of time, place, contact information and link to your social media can make a great difference if people return or not.

Third, a gospel tract. You may not have thought of these, but gospel tracts, the little flyers that share the message of salvation can be a very powerful tool. If you need a contemporary reason to use them, consider that advertisers tell us that people need to be exposed to a new idea at least 7 times before it makes any impact at all. A gospel tract can be one of those times. These are small and subtle, but they can be life-changing—you can hand them out in goodie bags or information packets at any event. Here are two excellent sources for them:

https://mwtb.org/

https://www.crossway.org/tracts/

Holding an outreach event is a great thing to do, but it is only the start if you want to have a continuing relationship with people so that you can introduce them to Jesus.

Here is another article that will help you apply some of the challenges in this one: Follow-up after a church holiday outreach event: speed dating or relationship building?

 

For Successful Fall & Winter Outreach Publications: Clarify and Coordinate for greater lasting impact

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welcoming people
If you are planning a fall or winter outreach event at your church, these tips will help you have lasting success from it.

Fall and winter are two prime times for churches to plan outreach events for their communities. Large amounts of time and money are spent on these events and often the church gets a great community response to the free Harvest Festival or Family Thanksgiving Dinner or Community Caroling and Hot Chocolate Party. But seldom do these activities generate the kind of continuing church involvement a church hopes for. I'd like to offer some suggestions on how to CLARIFY and COORDINATE your message for greater lasting impact.

If you don't want to waste your time and money the following tips are essential!

To help you understand how important this is and to give you a sense of how futile it is to hold events without good communication to clarify and coordinate your message, primarily for the ladies reading this, think about when you buy cosmetics at the department store or online and you are given some free samples. (The gentleman reading this may or may not have some sort of similar situation, regardless the example will make sense.)  The company that makes the cosmetics don't have the samples in the middle of the mall set up on a pretty display that says, "FREE FOR ALL." No, you go to the specific cosmetic counter and you know without a doubt who is giving them to you. [Read more...]

Notes to Boomer church leaders as you prepare for Easter

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We may be shocked at today's culture and amazed at what people don't know about Easter, but we can't let those attitudes make us less effective as we reach out to our world with a clear message about the resurrection of Jesus. This article has some practical tips to help.

You don’t have to be an astute analyst of the culture to understand that we live in a far different world than Baby Boomers grew up in. Many Boomer church leaders may be aware of the changes in life, technology, and culture (“You can show that on TV now?), while at the same time planning for Easter church celebrations the same way they did when Ozzie, Harriet and family was the target audience. Being shocked about TV is one thing, sticking with outdated and ineffective ways to promote and celebrate Easter has far more serious consequences.

If you want share the power of our risen Lord in ways that will change people today and forever, you may need a new strategy, but before we get into that, let me be clear. . . .

This isn’t about Boomer bashing, any age group can make the same incorrect and ineffective assumptions

The mindset that needs a new strategy isn’t confined to any one age group, though many leaders in the Boomer generation seem to be stuck in it. I’m not bashing Boomers, this is my generation  and many of my peers in ministry provided the inspiration for this article. The mindset (not the age range) that I see with Boomer friends and church leaders of various ages, but similar mindset, assumes:

  1. People outside the church know the basics about the Christian faith and what’s in the Bible.
  2. Your community members know the story of Easter and are looking for a place to celebrate it.
  3. All we have to do to get them to get saved and be part of our church is to have the biggest, loudest, most colorful Easter service in town, complete with a petting zoo for kids and brunch served on the premises.

These assumptions range from totally incorrect to ineffective.

As we plan Easter outreach and celebration, we need to realize that contrary to the assumptions above:

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