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; Effective Church Communications can help.

The Six Benefits of reading (or listening to) the Bible in Chronological order and probably why you haven’t done it

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Thru the Bible In Chronological Order Lesson #1 6 Reasons Why Yvon's note: this is from my Bible Blog and podcast website: www.bible805.com. For all of 2019 my project was to first, share why we can trust our Bibles (lessons from history), and then to go through the Bible in Chronological order with my commentary on readings each week. I finished the project (whew!....) at the end of 2019, but all of the podcasts and notes are available for you on the site if you would like to go through the plan anytime. In the following year, I'll be doing various topical studies for the podcast each week. The reason I'm including this on the Effective Church Communications website is because Church Communicators need to be spiritually strong to communicate for the kingdom of God and to be spiritually strong, you must know God's Word. In addition to working in church communications, I have a Master's Degree in Church History, attended seminary, taught church history at a Jesuit university and love teaching the Bible. The podcast is available on iTunes and many other podcast channels. For links to all of them and to all of last-year's podcasts, go here.

Podcast Intro:

Along with losing weight, getting more done, simplifying your life and other commendable goals, is reading through the Bible one of your resolutions for the year? Do you know how many books are in the Bible?

If so, I’d like to share a way for you to do it that will change your life more significantly than any diet will!

Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn and Welcome to Bible 805!

Today we’re going t to talk about…..

The Six Benefits of reading (or listening to) the Bible in Chronological order, and probably why you haven’t done it

There are many ways to read through the Bible each year—but there is one that is by far the BEST way to do it (and I’ll be going into the reasons why it’s best shortly) and that is to read through the Bible in Chronological order. That means to read the books (or parts in some cases) in the order they happened, not the order you find them in the Bible.

Don’t worry about figuring that order out—I’ve got a schedule you can download to do it and I’ll be doing podcasts in the coming year to guide you through it. (starting Jan. 6 for 2019)

But for now, since reading through the Bible in Chronological order is a somewhat daunting task, it's worth asking why do it? To answer, ask yourself, why read anything, watch any movie, learn any new information in a certain order? [Read more...]

FREE Templates and motivational articles: Read through the Bible in a year—Templates for handouts, booklets

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One of the most important things you can do for your congregation is to encourage them to read through the Bible in a year in chronological order. I've created a printed schedule, booklets, and motivational articles to help you do that. Now is a great time to be planning ahead to do this.

All of it FREE to everyone. Please pass on and share with others.

This post has:

  • A short summary of why it is important to read the Bible in chronological order this is beneficial, at the end of this post are two more articles. You can use these in any of your communications to encourage your people.
  • Handouts for the schedule in MS Word
  • A Booklet of the Schedule in MS Publisher
  •  A short video that shows you how to create the booklet
  • Two more motivational articles from my Bible blog, www.bible805.com

[Read more...]

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.

[Read more...]

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...]