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.

What to do now to prepare your church website for the holiday season

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If you advertise for holiday events, be sure your website answers visitor's questions.
If you advertise for holiday events, be sure your website answers visitor's questions.

When you see an advertisement on TV, in the newspaper, or a magazine, what do you do if you want to find out more? Most likely you'll check out the website. We go to websites to find out the details about a product: how reliable the company is, about the costs and benefits of a possible purchase.

What's true in our everyday perusal of products is also true for the people who check out and who will be visiting your church website this holiday season. If you are doing a postcard mailing, a door-hanger distribution, an advertisement in the newspaper as outreach for this holiday season or any other special event, if possible, before you create or send out the outreach piece, take some time to work on your website, and give it a tune-up, a sort of spring-cleaning before inviting guests in. Even if you've already sent out some materials, as soon as you can, work on your website. Here are some essentials that you need to do: [Read more...]

Resources for how to create and use video for church and outreach ministry

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Video creation doesn't take a team like this
You don't need a team like this to create church videos--today one person with a computer can do great things!

Though video is a popular tool to promote, advertise and instruct in almost every area of life, many churches and ministries do not use it to its full potential. This week I posted two videos on how I create training videos and the links to them are below.

But there is much more to video training, creation and use. The links following will help you get started. The most important one is the first one as this article gives you not only how to's but great ministry examples and inspiration.

Video creation does not need to cost very much and is not difficult to do--it is merely one more tool that enables us to be "all things to all people that we might win some." [Read more...]

How to develop management skills, part one

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Managing well in the church office
Harmony in leadership is one of the skills you'll learn from this article.

Management skills enhance every ministry assistant’s professionalism. Whether supervising employees or volunteers, knowing how to develop and motivate excellent workers increases your effectiveness—and your value to the office team.

The best managers strive to work in harmony with others while still fulfilling their leadership role. This is a skill worth working on.

• Identify goals. An important part of the supervisory job is to determine what needs to be done and who will do it. Be specific. If your purpose is to free up your own time, use your calendar to clear your agenda of jobs others can do.

As you outline tasks, be sure the boundaries of authority are clear. Avoid having responsibilities overlap. Take adequate time with this first step; it is the foundation for successful management. [Read more...]

Yvon Prehn advice on how to shoot videos when you talk to the camera

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Logitech C310 Webcam, used to create Yvon Prehn videos
This simple camera, the Logitech C310 Webcam, is what I used to create the video here and for my other speaking videos on this site.

Though the majority of teaching videos that I create both for this training site and my Sunday School class don't have me talking directly to the camera, I do some this way periodically for you to see that a real person is behind this ministry. This is part of my answer to how I create the videos. I have been asked by a number of Effective Church Communication readers how I do what I do, so here it is.

Before I get into specific advice, I feel like a disclaimer is necessary. The videos that I create when I'm talking to the camera are extremely simple ones. They suit my purposes and seem to help the audience I am trying to help—church communicators. There are many, many websites and how-tos online if you want to do more professional video shoots with multiple cameras, and advanced sound and lighting. Be prepared, however, because with the advice from these sites also comes greatly increased costs.

Many professional ministries have recording studios, use professional sound systems, microphones and multiple cameras.  I've been part of recordings like that when some other group had many thousands of dollars to spend and I've been involved in lengthy camera shoots. The complex videos then take weeks to months to edit and finish. All that is great, if that is your purpose.

For the videos that I do, I simply want to teach you something. I want to focus on my content and make the process to record it as professional as I can, but also as simple and low-cost as possible. With these limitations in mind, below is a short video that shows how I produce a video with me talking. After that  is more information on lighting and makeup.
[Read more...]

How Yvon Prehn creates teaching videos for Sunday School classes and this website

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Video on how Yvon Prehn creates teaching videos
You can use the same process I use to create training videos for this site to create videos for your Sunday School classes.

I've been asked how I create the videos that I do for this site and the videos I create for my Sunday School website. To answer I created the following video. This video does not show you how to use all the programs and software I use to create the videos, but it does show the process from start to finish.

It is a very simple process anyone can do. It does not require expensive cameras or equipment. This is easiest way to do videos if your primary purpose is to simply teach something or get a message across.

Below the video, as a bonus for Effective Church Communication Members, are added notes about the process, each program illustrated, and how I use them.

For the companion video, Yvon Prehn advice on how to shoot videos when you talk to the camera, that goes along with this one, CLICK HERE.

[Read more...]