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.

Thank-You Cards for any occasion for Church Volunteers

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Church Volunteer Thank You Card
This is a FREE card for church communicators to download and print out when you want to thank volunteers at your church. CLICK on the card to download the PDF. A larger selection of cards is available for ECC Members.

We always intend to say "Thank You!" to the people who serve in our churches and these postcards will help you do that. These cards take away valid reasons for not getting thank you cards done such as:

  • No appropriate cards that fit your church
  • No time to write long messages
  • Costs too much to buy nice cards

Each of the cards below is 1/4 page size—nice enough and room enough to write a little message on them, but not too much room where you don't feel like you have to write a lot. A quick  "We couldn't have done it without you!" and signed by the Pastor or head of the volunteer worked with will mean so much to any volunteer who receives them. [Read more...]

Clear communications help you create volunteer recruitment and retention

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volunteer instructions
Clear recruitment and training communications make volunteer recruitment much easier.

Ed. note: last week I shared some samples of volunteer communications and this week an article I have an article for you that will help you write effective volunteer recruitment materials.

When it comes to recruiting volunteers, many churches operate on what I call the 20/80 fallacy. We’ve all heard that “20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work.” That is true in many churches, but I call it a fallacy because it does not need to be that way. We forget that statement is merely a business observation—it is not scripture.

The Bible tells us that in the church of  Jesus Christ, we are to have 100 percent involvement. We may be involved in different ways, but everyone has a job to do.

When we believe the 20/80 fallacy, the result is that the leaders of the church do all the work (and often complain about it) and the congregations sit back, watch, and expect to be cared for and entertained. The biblical models of church growth do not support this situation. In the church the leaders job is to “equip the saints to do the work of the ministry” Eph 4:11-13. Leaders are to equip and encourage. Congregations are to practice their spiritual gifts and do the work of the church.

This process will not happen automatically. We can help turn the biblical model into reality in our churches by creating clear and complete volunteer communications. Your church communications can play a vital role in the success of your volunteer programs. Here are some helpful tips on how to create successful ministry volunteer communications:

Volunteer publication planning

1. Make a list of all the jobs you’d like to have filled by volunteers at the church.

2. Don’t assume anything as you prepare to write this publication! You may know what it means to be an usher because you’ve been one for 10 years, but a new believer who might want to try welcoming people to the church may not have any idea what is involved.

3. Ask those in charge of  the jobs to fill out a form that has the following information. It is very important that information be complete and clearly written:  Job title, e.g. Sunday School Teacher, Youth Volunteer, etc. Don’t use church jargon titles that potential volunteers might not understand. For example, write something like “Grade School Age Sunday School Teacher”, not  “Promiseland servant/helper.” [Read more...]

Effective Volunteer Recruitment Communications Samples: advice and PDF examples

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Ideas for volunteer ministry
Some churches do an incredible job of recruiting, encouraging and training volunteers and here is an opportunity to learn from them.

Every church needs a committed and enthusiastic team of volunteers if all the ministries and needs of the church are to work as a healthy representative of the Body of Christ.Recruiting that team, training, and keeping them functioning well are some of the major responsibilities of church communicators. Following is some overall advice and then some excellent PDF samples (click on the image for the full PDF download) of volunteer communications. The samples include a fantastic overall volunteer handbook, two volunteer recruitment and job listing booklets and one of the most complete ministry description brochures I've ever seen for church ushers. This is an extremely useful collection of volunteer equipping sample materials.

Advice for creating effective volunteer communication materials

Unfortunately, creating the communications support to keep these ministries functioning well is usually not at the top of any church communicator's list. It isn't nearly as much fun as doing a flyer for the summer picnic or any other primarily design-oriented piece because for volunteer communications to be truly effective requires: [Read more...]

Is your technology destroying your volunteer ministry?

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Volunteering at church
Our churches need lots of volunteers and we need to make sure we make it easy for them to sign up.

Ed. note: I wrote this article in response to massive frustration with an online volunteer sign-up program. I know this holiday season, we need many volunteers for various church events, but we need to be sure we are as inclusive as possible with the tools we use to get our volunteers. I would appreciate your feedback in the comments section and any experiences or recommendations you have.

It always seems like a great idea when someone discovers a software system that will replace having interact with people, such as one that will allow volunteers to sign up online for tasks that need to be done at the church or an event that needs lots of volunteers. But you need to be very careful that the technology that you get to help the church doesn't actually discourage involvement with it.  Let me explain . . . . .

Nothing is totally good or bad, but how it's used

I'm not saying that all software volunteer management programs are bad—there are lots of them available and many of them are loved by the groups that use them. However as with any technology, we have to be careful that our love of technology or the seeming benefits that it has for the church staff doesn't blind our eyes to some of the problems that technology can cause for volunteers. Before I go into specifics dos and don'ts, here is a brief review of why we have volunteer ministries and what it can do.

The reasons for volunteer ministry

In addition to the reality that leaders cannot handle all the demands of ministry by themselves, a healthy volunteer ministry is the Biblical model for how we to do ministry.

Jesus was not a lone preacher and if anyone could have handled a ministry all by himself, the sinless Son of God would qualify, but he didn't go at it alone. He chose 12 disciples and others traveled with him. After Jesus returned to his Father he put us in a Body, his church. He left us his Spirit who gives gifts to the members of his Body for the benefit of the entire church body ("Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" 1 Cor.12:7). The early church may have had problems in how they worked out working together (1 Corinthians is a case study of this situation), but Paul's advice to them was always founded on ways for them to work together in the local church body with mutual care and peace.

In addition to this overall theological basis for volunteer ministry and that you need warm bodies to get things done, two other practical advantages are worth noting:

One, volunteering is a great way for new members to become permanently connected to the church. If someone starts volunteering in the children's ministry or prayer team or greeting or making coffee, that person will get to know other members of the church and feel they are a part of it. In addition, by trying out different jobs there is a greater chance they will interact with others, learn more, discover their spiritual gifts and overall mature in their faith far more than if they sit in a few Sunday after Sunday.

Two, another often ignored benefit of active volunteer ministries is that they are great ways for people outside the church to become involved in the church. An unchurched person may have no interest in coming to a church service but he or she might be very interested in a day of service to the homeless, giving out gifts to kids whose families can't afford them, a fundraiser for clean water, or to end human trafficking. It's also easier for your members to invite their friends to take part in activities like this.

With all these great benefits of volunteering how do we get people involved?

This is where reality hits idealism. Getting people to volunteer is VERY hard and getting them to follow through on what they promised to do is even harder. A computer program to do the work for you is very appealing. A computer program can be PART of the solution, but here are some cautions in using one:

How to make sure your technology doesn’t destroy your volunteer program

Realize that your technology system won't work for everyone. We must never forget that we live in a transitional time when some people in your church are very tech savvy and some people still do not have computers. In the same way that many churches have both an online newsletter and a print newsletter and realize that they will need to continue both channels of communications for some time, so also you can have a computer sign up program for volunteers, but you must have ways for people to be involved who for some reason can't or won't use the computer to sign up. If you don't, you are effectively shutting out a large pool of volunteers. Not only is that not a wise use of people resources, but it is unkind.

Be realistic about how "easy" your program is for people to use. It might seem easy to you because you got training in how to use it and you were motivated by the dream of how easy this would make your life, but I've yet to see a volunteer program from the user side that was even remotely easy or intuitive to use. To see how it works for your people, ask several members of your congregation, who are different age groups to come in to the church office and without any coaching from you, ask them to sign-up and navigate through your volunteer sign up system. Take notes and then…..

Create training on how to use the system and how it can benefit your church. This won't be easy to do, and you still won't get everyone involved, but it will help. If at all possible, if you have a program like Camtasia where you can demonstrate the program in your voice with your system and your volunteer jobs and you can create training videos for your church—this is a very helpful solution. You could also train team leaders and have them train their teams. Adequate, upbeat training can turn a disliked program into a tool people can't imagine doing without.

Listen to feedback, record it and consider your response. If many people don't like the system and complain about it, ask them for more detailed reasons: what was confusing, what didn't work, what didn't they like about it? Record their answers and in a calm time, pray about how to respond. If people aren't using the program and really dislike it, it can be difficult, but we always must remember we are servants and our technology should also serve our people, not intimidate or frustrate them.

In addition to your technology, try this simple method for volunteer sign-ups

One of the best ways to get people to volunteer for various ministries is to have a form people can fill out, check a box on and sign up that's in the church bulletin.  When the announcement is made about a volunteer need, if all they have to do is take out a form, fill it out and put it into the offering plate, you'll get many more sign-ups. Some churches rotate volunteer position requests on their connection card. Something like this isn't a duplicate of your technology tools or a replacement, you still want to use that because the many in your church will love it—this paper option is part of, to paraphrase a verse, "being all things to all people that we might get some to volunteer."

For more information, advice, a training video and ebooks on successful volunteer ministries in the church, check out these links:

Why and how to revitalize your volunteers before seasonal or special event outreach

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2011/09/how-to-revitalize-your-volunteers-before-seasonal-or-special-event-outreach/

Why the 80/20 situation isn’t true for the recruitment and retention of church volunteers

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/why-the-8020-situation-isnt-true-for-the-recruitment-and-retention-of-church-volunteers/

Effective Volunteer Recruitment Communications Samples: advice and PDF examples

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2009/09/effective-volunteer-recruitment-communications/