Blog | Effective Church Communications

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

28 October, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

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?

PLEASE let people know ahead of time about regular special offerings

6 October, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Don't surprise people with special offerings! — If you surprise people with special offerings, you may not get the response you'd like--take time and remind them ahead of time!

Many churches have special offerings that they take up regularly. Though the staff in the church office can tell you all about them in their sleep, they often come as a surprise to church members and because of that, the church does not get the response they hoped for. Below is a note I got from a frustrated church member that I wanted to share with you.

Identifying details in the short message that follows and in all the true church stories I share are hidden so as not to ever embarrass any specific church.

They did it again! Every month my church takes up an offering for special needs in the city. I really want to donate to this, but I can't keep track of when they are going to do it. Also, though I do all my regular giving online, for this offering they expect you to put real money or a check in an envelope that they enclose in the church bulletin. They always make a big deal out of it in the church service, but I imagine I'm not the only one who has to plan ahead to bring cash or a check. It always puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the service. Why can't they send out a message in the weekly church email that they send out every week letting me know this was happening? How can I nicely let them know?

I told the person that a nice email or note sent and kindly and letting them know how much you wanted to give, but needed to plan ahead and if they could put a short note in the weekly email newsletter that would probably work.

For the church office

Whether you get a note like this or not, please remember that what is sometimes a special, continuing project or ministry for the church staff is often not something that your congregation remembers. Please be helpful and send out a reminder in your weekly email newsletter, Facebook, social media or however else you contact your congregation.

In addition, remember to give short updates about what the money is going for because people might not have any idea what "City Service Outreach" is all about. They may not know that it goes towards job retraining programs and special fun times, such as children's birthday parties for people living in homeless shelters.

A short story and a reminder when you will be taking up the offering will no doubt greatly increase your response. The help to people and ministries will who need it is more than worth the time it takes to write and communicate a reminder.

Who are you inviting to your church events? Would the guest list please Jesus?

2 September, 2019 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

Targeting a specific audience may seem like good marketing practice, but it isn't what Jesus asks us to do.

One of the most horrifying memories I have of a church leader is when he told me and my husband, who was the Single Adult Pastor at the church, that we needed to be “targeting young professionals more” because those were the types he wanted coming to the church.

He would have been appalled I’m sure, had he come to a party at our home that included (in addition to some “young professionals” because we didn’t want to discriminate against them) a number of homeless people, an exotic dancer, and addicts of various substances, plus many of what might be termed ordinary singles.

We didn’t follow his advice for our party or our ministry. Our group was made up of a large variety of people and everyone was welcome, not just at that party, but all the events of our Single Adult Group.

I hadn’t thought about that situation in years, but was recently reminded of this verse:

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:12-14, ESV

As I thought about it, I wondered how many of our churches actively invite people outside our “target” group, people who can contribute little to the church, who don’t look like us or smell like us, who may be more trouble to the church than a positive contribution to our bottom line or image.

We might make certain groups objects of ministry—but how often do we honestly and actively invite everyone to join in?Continue Reading

If you truly care about visitors to your church—keep doing a paper bulletin

17 July, 2019 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

It can be very confusing to guests if they don't know what's going on in the church. Printed, paper church bulletins can help relieve some of that confusion.

I recently attended a church event where I was extremely uncomfortable.

Mind you—I'm a church person, one who grew up in the church, loves the church, is there every week. My father was Catholic, my mother Protestant and I'm comfortable in many types of services.

But I wasn't at this one.

I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to embarrass the church, but the reason I was uncomfortable (church person that I am) is that I had NO idea what was going on or what would happen next. It took place on a Sunday morning with additional things going on in their regular service.

We didn't know what was happening; what would happen next; how long it was supposed to go on, what we were expected to do. We had no idea who the various people were who got up to speak (and there were a number of them on this day). We had no idea what they were talking about when they briefly mentioned upcoming events.

What was good about what happened

I got a sense of what it is like for an unchurched person to come into a church. I try in many ways to remind people of how confusing it can be if you did not grow up in a church of any kind to make sense of what goes on in any church.

However, in most instances, a total newcomer is saved because when they come in they are handed what to them is "the Program." Most of us call it the church bulletin, but even if the guest doesn't understand all the terms they have a sense of the cast of characters and the order of the events that are taking place. They also get an idea of what the church is about and what else is going on there.

What goes on may seem odd—perhaps like a play to someone who is unfamiliar with that type of play or the actors, but they can follow the structure if not the details in content. Without a Program or explanation of any kind, the uninformed audience member may walk out.

A printed, paper, bulletin changes all that

Even the most simple bulletins make a stranger to the church at least feel comfortable with a small sense of what is going on, who the people are, and what's next.

But it wasn't changed for us. When my husband went to ask for the bulletin (perhaps we came in the wrong door we thought), he was told, "oh we quit doing those."

I confess to fighting anger and irritation, but I kept reminding myself, "This is what it feels like to not know—to not be one of the "insiders" at this kind of religious meeting.

The result—to encourage you to keep printing church bulletins

I know there are many blogs and chats that tell you they aren't necessary—that everything is digital and nobody reads them anyway (which simply isn't true–just because someone doesn't want to come to something you advertised, doesn't mean they didn't read about it).

But printed bulletins are still important. I don't want to repeat myself more than necessary on the reasons why, but below are links to two FREE e-books about church bulletins and why they are important.

Please read them and consider what they have to say. I'm a church person, I love the church and I'll be back. If I was a lonely, confused visitor, I'm not sure I would be.

Click the link following each title to go to the article to download the book:

Are written bulletins still useful in the church? https://wp.me/pDky9-t3
Archives of church bulletin tips, articles, advice https://wp.me/pDky9-1Gv