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.

Just good or the best? In all you do in the church office…..

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Milk and cookies remind us of great church service to others
Is the quality of work you perform as a ministry assistant like bland vanilla wafers or chocolate chip cookies with milk?

With research I’d narrowed my choices to two. The salesman was helpful as we compared features of the pair of vacuum cleaners under consideration. Still I wasn’t sure which one would best do all I needed. “Why not buy both, take them home, use each on your carpets, see which handles better for you, and just bring back the one you like least?” he offered.Knowing that opened cartons and used products are sold at a discount—and thus lower the seller’s profit—I asked, “Your company is okay with a customer doing that? I like shopping here and don’t want to abuse your good service.”

The salesman responded with an interesting illustration. He explained that his company’s goal is to provide “chocolate chip service.” I learned no real cookies are involved, just performance. And that even good service, chocolate chip service, has degrees.

Imagine going into a store and, as you shop, being offered a plate of chocolate chip cookies. How nice! Then you discover the store next door doesn’t want to be outdone, so their cookies are homemade and warm from the oven. Store three takes note and adds walnuts to their freshly made cookies. Store four gets inspired to do even better and serves its shoppers cartons of icy cold milk along with their baked treats.

“Our company tries to anticipate what customers want from a business,” explained my salesman. “We are keenly aware of what other stores are doing. If service can be seen as cookies, we want ours to look like warm, freshly baked chocolate chip chunkies with walnuts—served with a tall glass of milk. The ordinary store-bought variety won’t do.” In this case, that meant encouraging me to test drive two vacuums and then cheerfully extending a refund for the one I returned. I chose my sweeper—and will do more business with this store.

More importantly, since I tend to relate many things in my life to the church office, the experience caused me to reflect on how the chocolate chip principle might be applied by ministry assistants. Think of the services you render, the tasks you do, the questions you answer, the courtesies you extend.

Ready for an experiment? Try seeing the sum of your work product as a cookie. As you do, remember: There are chocolate chip cookies and then there are Chocolate Chip Cookies!

As a professional you recognize the difference between mediocre and extraordinary. You know that even good work can be improved. Establish yourself as someone who consistently delivers the best!

How to be an effective church communication writer, part one

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How to be an effective church communication writer, part one
It isn't always easy to write effective church communications--these articles will help.

Most church communications begin with words, but the challenge is that writing is not easy for many church communicators. It's easy to forget that just because someone is a good preacher or office administrator or business manager that person is not necessarily a good writer or an expert on what makes for good written communication.

I was recently reminded of the reality in discussing effective church communications with a young pastor and I decided to put together a series of resources for him as well as for all of you. However, as I started this project I realized that I have a lot of advice and resources for writers (I've been a published writer since I was 16-years-old) and getting them updated, edited, and organized takes more than a few days. I also realized that it would be helpful for many of you if I didn't wait until I had them all together to share individual articles.

So here is Part One of How to be an Effective Church Communication Writer: Below is a series of articles on the ECC Website--just click to go to them. I am including the link if you want to share some of these with other church communicators. If you have questions about writing, please email me at yvon@effectivechurchcom.com and I'll answer them as part of this series.

Articles that will help you be a more effective writer:

What should be the length of church communications?
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2013/06/what-should-be-the-length-of-church-communications/

Why words are more important than images in church communications

Why words are more important than images in church communications

As you write for different communication channels, don’t change the content or look of your message
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2008/09/multichannelcontent/

How to write visually in your church communications
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2013/06/how-to-write-visually-in-your-church-communications/

Writing as an act of discipleship
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2013/06/writing-as-an-act-of-discipleship/

Why words and images need each other–the feedback loop of meaning
https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/10/why-words-and-images-need-each-other-the-feedback-loop-of-meaning/

Become a writer and carry on the tradition of the great writers of the past

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Writers run a race of endurance
Writers run a race of endurance as they pass on their wisdom and insight to the next generation.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:1-2)

Who has influenced your life through the written word? Maybe contemporary writers—Dallas Willard, C.S. Lewis, John Stott, Lee Stobel, Max Lucado. Maybe writers from the past—Luther, Augustine, Calvin, Wesley.

Whoever they might be, few of us would be where we are in our walk with the Lord without the written encouragement and teachings of those who have gone before us in writing about our faith. Do you feel that you might be called to join in this "cloud of witnesses" in Christian writing? If so, and if you aren't producing the communications on paper or online that you feel you should, what are you waiting for?

With your computer, you have on your desk the tools to produce everything from pamphlets to newsletters; blogs to books. With the web you have on-demand printing and distribution systems necessary to get it to readers anywhere in the world. You don't need the permission and support of national publishing companies to produce materials to teach and encourage your brothers and sisters in the faith.However, to actually make your writing dreams result in tangible products. . . . .

You may need to get rid of a few misconceptions about writing:

Often, it isn't fun—actually finishing a writing project, that is. It's fun to think about it. It's fun to plan, fun to imagine what it will be like when it's done. Fun to fantasize about being a writer or blogger. The work of drafts, rewriting, and publication itself, is often not fun.

I sometimes hear the phrase, "If it isn't fun, why do it?" Obedience to the call of God is only one of many answers to that inane, foolish question. Whether writing is fun or not has absolutely nothing to do with whether God is calling you do to it. If the fun quotient is the determiner for if you write or not, you will most likely produce little of lasting value.

You'll never have the time to do it. You'll probably never be able to take off for a month to a secluded cabin to finally get done the writing you want to. You will always have to fearlessly carve out the time out of a schedule that already seems too full.

You'll never be rested enough to do it. If you're involved in ministry and have something to share, writing isn't what will be first on your list when you get some rare time off. But, if you are called to write, be warned that the Lord will often not allow you to rest until you create what he has called you to create. You aren't alone--at a writer's conference many years ago, Anne Ortland shared that much of the significant work done for the Lord was done by very tired people and I've remembered her words through many late-night writing times. Most likely as you create the publications you need to create, be aware that obedience to that calling may not energize you, it may exhaust you. Keep writing anyway.

You'll never feel good enough to do it. Study your craft. Do your best; edit, rewrite, revise--but don't wait until you feel "good enough." Most writers experience self-doubt that has little to do with the true condition of their work. Here's one:

If only I could do this book properly. . . But I am assailed with my own ignorance and inability . . . . I didn’t work then or all week. …Hope to lose some of the frantic quality in my mind now. Can’t organize. … I’m jumpy. …Don’t know who will publish my book. Don’t know at all. . . . . .This book has become a misery to me because of my inadequacy.

notes from John Steinbeck's journal as he was finishing The Grapes of Wrath

This advice is not intended to encourage self-delusion. Get the advice of friends, mentors, editors, become objective and if you've done your best get your writing out there and see if the Lord uses it. Remember Satan is the accuser--never listen to him.

If you feel called to write, fix your eyes on Jesus and write. Obedience to him will make all your efforts worth it, fun or not, tired or not, now and forever, in ways your most extravagant dreams of being a writer cannot imagine.

A reminder of the importance of living our life to please God

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"We do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. . . .This seems to some people intolerably frustrating. . . .We do not know the play . . . the Author knows. . . .We are led to expect that the Author will have something to say to each of us on the part that each of us has played. The playing it well is what matters infinitely."
C.S. Lewis, The World's Last Night

How to write visually in your church communications

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people to SEE Help people what you are writing about
If you want people to SEE what you are writing about, here's how to do it.

Today many successful communications are visual. Television, movies, computer games, music videos, computer games, and social media, we are bombarded with powerful visual images.

No matter what medium you are writing for, it's important to realize that you don't need to rely strictly on the visual images you put on the page to create pictures in your reader's minds. Our imaginations are marvelous translators and words alone can create images as powerful as any video game.

How we do this is critical to the success of our church communications. We can place words on a page, but unless we create a clear and vivid picture in our reader's mind, our message isn't communicated. A selection of words alone doesn't communicate. Our words must contain the raw materials to create a visual image that give our emotions and will something to respond to.

Write to help people "see" a ministry

Let me illustrate what I mean. Consider below the two different ways of describing the same ministry:

Description #1-"Prison Fellowship has this wonderful pen pal program that ministers to people in jail."

What do you see in your mind's eye from this description? Probably not much.

Description #2- "Mark had been in prison for two years. During that time he had never had a visitor, never received a letter or phone call. His first contact with anyone outside the prison came the day he got his first letter from Jeff, his Prison Fellowship pen pal."

Do you see Mark? Of course you do. We all see a different Mark, but each one of us sees a lonely man in his cell opening a letter.

You see the person in the second description because it has concrete words that create visual images in your mind. General words like "wonderful" used in the first description call up completely different images in each person's mind. When you say "wonderful" to me, I think hot fudge sundae, not prison ministry. In the second description, you see Mark.

Write like Jesus taught

Jesus was a master at telling specific concrete stories that have challenged us for 2,000 years. For example, he didn't relate a theological essay on how God's love is part of his immutable character and is eternally consistent. He sat his disciples down one day and told them this story, "A man had two sons and one day one of them said, "Dad, I want the money now...."

Hearing those words we all see the story of the prodigal son and we see the Father's love as he waits for and welcomes him home.

Use the same technique when you write about your church or ministry. If your church needs youth workers, a notice in the bulletin that says, "We need people to help with the youth" may or may not generate much interest. But if you do a profile of a 50-year-old couple who the kids describe as "the coolest adults they know," that might encourage some participation from people who hadn't considered it before.

The Bible is filled with the stories of the experiences of individuals. When we think about the Bible what first comes to mind is not the doctrine of the atonement or the theology of spiritual gifts. We think of Moses and Ruth, of Mary and Peter. God used human lives to illustrate his messages and the writing you do to communicate your part in God's eternal story needs to do the same.