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.

What can happen if you if you work hard on your event, but don’t work on event communications

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Church Communication disappointment
If we don't create connecting communications at our seasonal celebrations and few people return to church after them, we are bound to wonder what we did wrong. This article and website can help!

Ed. note: I have shared this story before, but it is such an important reminder of how we need to create communications that will help people connect with the church AFTER the big event.

This is a true story. Though the specific event discussed is Easter, the lessons learned from it can apply to any event. In addition to applying to any event, we can all identify with the situation here. The challenges of ministry are so huge, it is very easy to get overwhelmed in one area and totally forget another one. May the Lord have mercy and help us all.

In one of my seminars, at the break, a woman literally came running up the aisle to talk to me.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said, “Now I understand what went wrong.”

I had just been discussing the same ideas I’ve presented here about the importance of an overall communication plan for maximum results from your holiday outreach. I knew it was useful, but her response was more excited than most so I asked her to tell me more about her experience.

She then told me about a special Easter service her church put on that was a huge amount of work and an equally huge disappointment in results. They were a new church plant and wanted to reach out to their community at Easter.

They were meeting in the grade school, but they wanted to grow and to do that committed to reach their community for Jesus this Easter. On faith, they rented the high school gym so they would have room for a huge crowd. They prayed hard and worked hard to get lots of community involvement. They got it—merchants put up posters; they got lots of media exposure. The day came and the church of 300 had over 1500 at the Easter service held at the local high school gym.

They were so excited. The next week back at the grade school, they set up hundreds more chairs, printed lots of extra bulletins. They were excited to see what would happen.

They didn’t need to go to the extra trouble.

[Read more...]

Do “man in the street” videos for Easter communication research

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Video Camera or Phone
Grab a video camera or a phone to shoot "man in the street" research videos for Easter.

What makes Easter special to you and your church?

The obvious answer is that we celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead and the joy of knowing that, if we trust Him as Savior, we too will live forever, forgiven of our sins and loved by our God. I Cor. 15:3-4 reminds us that "of first importance" in our faith is that:

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

Do you think your community, the people you want to reach this Easter season have any idea that is what Easter is all about? Probably not.

To answer that question, to find out what they really think about Easter, do a little creative research.....

Consider "man in the street videos"

For honest research to find out what the people in your community think about Easter, do some informal "man in the street videos."

This doesn't need to be fancy or take lots of time. You can do it or get a volunteer and then:

Take your video camera (or phone) and, wander around the neighborhood or local mall and ask people:

"Why do you celebrate Easter?"

"What is the meaning of Easter?"

Pretty simple questions, but the answers should be interesting.

Use the resulting videos, not only to help you plan communication strategy, but to show to your congregation to help them understand their neighbors. [Read more...]

Remember—before the resurrection Jesus was utterly forsaken and the hope we have because of that

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Sometimes an unbearably tragic story deepens my faith and encourages me far more than a host of upbeat messages and praise songs. I found just such a story as I was going through the many materials on the website and in our archives to update and share.

This story comes out of one of our Great Idea Swap Resources, a Holy Week Devotional Guide to the right.

You can click on the image to download the entire booklet and it is a useful sample for an Easter publication you could create for your church. Though there are many things I liked in it that make it a useful, timeless example, following is the one story I'd like to share. I hope, as I know these days ahead of work as you prepare your church for Easter and all the times you are responsible for church communications will be challenging, that in your hardest times, it will encourage you.

It was the third hour when they crucified [Jesus]. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.

While there are stages of time, there are also miracles in the world, but most of them get missed because we are too busy or too desensitized to them. I’m starting to see them more this week as I look back. I can spot them with regularity, sprinkling my path with drops of miracle, like blood, that will lead to healing and wholeness. But in the ER, like any hospital, it starts with forms, blood tests and the never-ending interrogation of questions.

“Name?” “Birthdate?” “Why are you here?”

It starts with the first nurse you see and then continues with each new nurse and doctor.

“Name?” “Birthdate?” “What’s been going on?” Again and again. Yes, there are periods of time. Epochs when things change from what they’ve been. But in between these different ages, there are the few moments in between when time stops. The doctor walks in and sits down.

"It’s cancer. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this. It’s not part of  the job that I enjoy."

I realize now that there is no easy way to break this kind of news. It’s better to just say it without any embellishment or corny additions. Just say it. So you sit there and all the air has suddenly left your lungs. You can’t breath and you don’t know what to say. All I want to do is hold Sara’s hand. I reach out for her and we hold onto each other for dear life. For our dear life. The only one we have and one I happen to love.

"But, he’s a young man. He just turned 30." Sara blurts out.

It didn’t seem fair. I had just turned 30 and younger friends asked what it was like.

"Is it a big deal?," they asked, "Were you really upset and did you feel like life had passed you by?"

"No" I said. It wasn’t a big deal. I don’t feel any different and I think I’ve plenty of time to accomplish other things in my life. Well that was just plain old 30. At 30 and 4 months my body started falling apart.

"How bad is it?" I ask.

"Oh, it’s extensive in the abdominal area," he says.

At that moment, I envision my abdomen from the chart I vaguely remember in biology with the stomach, intestines, bladder, pancreas all full of holes like swiss cheese, because the cancer has eaten through it…OR what USED to be stomach, bladder, intestines and pancreas all dissolved into a grey colored gelatinous mass that the surgeon looks at and shakes his head.

"Man, that’s extensive. Just sew him back up and send him home with morphine to enjoy his last few months."

It’s those kinds of  thoughts that make no sense at all. They shoot through your mind at the same time and it all seems so real, even though it makes absolutely no sense. I would like to say that in this situation, I had something profound to say….that my faith was so strong and that I made the best of it and held my wife as she broke down or that I suddenly had a great sense of the Lord’s peace and a light from heaven broke through to shine around my head. But I didn’t.  I cried out...

At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

There would be many times after that I would feel alone, but this was the first time I can remember feeling forsaken. I know it doesn’t compare to the suffering of Jesus, but in the midst of that physical and emotional pain as I held my wife’s hand and watched our dreams die, I had an inkling of what it feels like to cry out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?...With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

I felt forsaken in the ER that day, but I wasn’t alone. The man, Jesus, who was forsaken and knew what it felt like stood by me. He was there with me as I cried. So now I look at him and with the centurion can say, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”

Sam

[Read more...]

GIS: Innovative way to invite people to Easter services: “Egg” your neighborhood!

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Egg your neighborhood easter invitation
"Egg" your neighborhood with an invitation and an egg filled with candy--great idea for outreach and Easter promotion!

This is one of the most creative ideas I've ever seen to invite people to Easter. It was sent in by a contributor to our Great Idea Swap . In addition to being a great invitation to Easter, it also gives potential visitors great information about church ministries and outreach activities. It is very important to do this because you are letting your community know that the church is about so much more than holding special events.

They may not attend your church for Easter, but if they are new to the community or lonely, the invitation gives information about regular services and small groups. In addition, the church lists Job Search Support and No Cost Financial Counseling and this is a wonderful way to let the community know the church cares about the whole person.

To the left is a picture of the container for the cares below is what the cards look like:


At the end of this article is a link where you download the PDF and editable file of invitation.

Following, I'll let Stephanie, the Communications Director from the church describe how they use and distribute these great promotions: [Read more...]