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.

Yvon Prehn's Church Communication Blog

The Bible tells us that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, (Luke 6:45)” or as the J.B. Phillips translation puts it “For a man’s words will always express what has been treasured in his heart.”

My goal in these blog entries (actually in all of the ECC Ministry, but particularly here) is to give your heart and mind a biblical viewpoint and foundation in church communications, so that your communications, whatever form they take, will reflect God’s Word and not primarily secular marketing or current cultural views, fears, or attitudes.

I used the word “primarily” quite intentionally in the previous statement because though we learn from secular marketing and contemporary culture, these influences should not be primary in our work. The primary influence on our work is God’s Word. God’s Word informs the Effective Church Communication ministry in our goal, which is to help church communicators create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission.

Learning from, observing, and sharing other sources, while staying true to a biblical perspective and providing useful commentary is a challenging path to walk. No doubt I will often make mistakes, but to serve you in this way is my goal in these blogs.

When computers break and things go wrong, the story of a Lazarus computer and trusting God for the results of our work

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It's never the computer, but the person that makes great communications
It's never the computer, but the person that makes great communications. Use whatever tech you have to create great things for the kingdom of God.

Finances are often a challenge in church communications as it seems the communications ministry is one of the last in the church to get the updated equipment and software needed.

Working for a church or working at home, the challenges are the same. The financial support of the job I work at to pay for the costs of this site has been significantly nose-dived because of Covid. Since the income from that job has to pay household bills and ministry operational costs, new hardware is not even a remote option.

This isn't a moan and grown about tough times but what I hope will be an encouragement of what I've preached to all of you for years, but have currently been reminded of in a very real way and that is....

Our equipment is never what makes an effective communicator

My current computer was all I could afford when I got it (I was planning on getting a new updated and the super computer I thought I needed and then Covid hit). It is barely adequate, but it has been adequate.  A few months ago, it began to overheat after operating for a few hours (and I work on it many hours a day). A few days ago I was working away, not paying attention. and it got so hot it shut down completely. Dead. Total black screen of death. I prayed over it. I set it aside. Came back to it. Still dead.

I panicked. I do have a backup, a desktop box of a very old computer I can use in an emergency, but it clanks loudly (sounds like a jet engine a friend of mine said) and the screen attached to it is going out and has streaks across images. I hate that thing but have had to use it at times. I can borrow my husband's Chromebook for short periods of time, but he needs it for his work. I wanted to cry.

Suddenly (I am not making this up) it seemed an inner voice from heaven said to me, "put it in the refrigerator." So I did. Overnight. The next morning I pulled out an icy cold and damp computer. I momentarily thought if the overheating hadn't fried it, the moisture from the refrigeration probably did it in. [Read more...]

Don’t forget the people left behind in the rush to make all things digital

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Yvon's note: I admit, I was a bit cranky when I wrote this. Well, not so much cranky as sad, but I know I can come across cranky at times when I want to cry but end up yelling (ask my husband). I wanted to acknowledge that and ask for your forgiveness if the following comes across too harshly. I seem to be over-reacting a lot these days or maybe it’s an appropriate reaction to the over-the-top stresses of these days. I’m not sure, but I trust the following gives us thoughtful pause as we work to adapt to changing challenges while serving “the least of these.”

It’s been a wild ride in church communications and it isn’t going to smooth out any time soon as we try to figure out what to keep, what to modify, what new things to try, and what old ways of doing things we can toss out. Much well-deserved emphasis and discussion have been on new ways to conduct worship online and that will continue as churches work to figure out how to juggle the challenges of meeting physically together (while properly social distancing apart) and continuing an online ministry for those who cannot meet together.

While these discussions are going on, I’d like some recent thoughts.

Imagine you are older; imagine your health is compromised in some way and staying home is a necessity. Most likely this has been an extremely fearful time.

If you weren’t entirely comfortable with technology, it might have been a challenge to figure out how to participate in an online Bible study or watch a Sunday service.

Imagine that despite your fears, you are just now starting to feel comfortable taking communion with crackers and juice at home and singing along with the worship team on the computer. But on Sunday you are told this will stop. Well, maybe not stop entirely, the church will try to “stream” the service as they meet back in the building, but they are letting people know ahead of time this might not be the same and they made stop doing the online service. [Read more...]

Spam is spam if it is good for you or not, you need to tell people WHY a Bible study resource is good for them and HOW to use it, not just that it is available

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Church Notices as SPAM
Spam is spam whether you think it is good for your congregation or not. You must tell them WHY it is valuable and HOW to use any resource or it's simply spam.

How would you respond to messages like this:

Here are lots of vegetables—free vegetables—eat all you want!

The vegetables are here for the picking, be sure to take as many as you can carry.

These are vegetables kids really like! Help yourself!

Most likely your response wouldn't be overwhelming. You know how to get vegetables; maybe you even have a neighbor with a garden that gives you extras.

After a while, even the offer of free vegetables can be tiresome, and then it becomes an irritation.

Bible Study Resources are no different

Most people know they should study the Bible or read it, but simply badgering them about a free resource without telling them why they should use it or what they will get out of it, may not produce the response you want.

I'm writing this blog because of some feedback I got from an Effective Church Communication reader. Here is what she asked (and though I don't tell you enough, if you have questions or experiences like this, you can contact me at yvonprehn@gmail.com--I won't publish your name and I usually change some of the details, to not embarrass the efforts we all make--most questions I get apply to many of us, so I turn them into blogs like this and we all benefit). Here is the situation:

Yvon,
I don't know what to do. My church signed up for a service (without asking the congregation if they wanted or needed it) that produces hundreds of free videos on various Bible topics. Then they notified us of it. I went to the site and had to give my information to just look around.

It looked OK, but much of what was appealing was already available on YouTube or the websites of the various ministries.

I thought that was the end of it, but oh no. Then the emails started, recommending this or that. Today I got a postcard from them.

All of them just tell me what is available--lists of names, titles of videos. No more information about them and no reasons why I should care, other than they are good for me.

I don't have kids, but apparently a lot of people on the list do because I've gotten lots of recommendations for videos for kids.

I'm getting really irritated and feel bad about it.  If I tell them to take me off the list, will they tell my church and think I don't care about the Bible?

What should I do?

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As a church and as individuals, your actions during this pandemic answer the question, “What is the gospel according to you?”

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We expect churches to be kind and reach out in hard times
People often look to churches for help in hard times and rightfully so as we represent Jesus to them. Here are some things to consider so we don't disappoint.

Yvon's note: I wrote this initially soon after the start of the previous recession. As I was reorganizing the website I found it and realized how similar our situation, challenges, and opportunities are with the current pandemic. With a small amount of editing and updating I trust it will be useful now.

We communicate with more than words as followers of Jesus. The little poem below reminds me of this. It's something I memorized years ago and I'm afraid I don't know the author or title, but here it is:

We are writing a gospel, a chapter each day
By the things that we do and the things that we say.

People read what we write,
Distorted or true.

What is the gospel,
According to you?

We have an opportunity to live out the gospel during this recession (and now pandemic); to communicate the love and care of Jesus in tangible ways. Let's look at one situation, job loss, and some suggestions on what to do and what not to do as a church to people who are out of work.

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