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.

Q & A: Introducing a new category to answer your questions

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If you have a questions ASK it at yvon@effectivechurchcom.comI often get questions from readers and members of Effective Church Communications and I welcome them because the primary purpose of this site is to serve all of you and to help all of your churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission.

There is a lot of content that I know, from over 30 years of teaching church communications, that is useful for you and I am working hard to get that into a manageable form for this site.  At the same time, I have so much material that I may publish in the future, but that you need right now. When I get a question on topics in that category, I try to answer as soon as I can.

I've been doing this for a long time, but I realized that the answers to many questions were either in email or comments and though I trust they helped the individuals who asked the questions, many of the answers would be helpful to many readers. To make them available and at least a little easier to find, I've set up a new category on this site: Q & A. You'll find it on the top line of content tabs. CLICK HERE to go to the current listing. Each question will have its own article and you'll be able to click through the questions to look for ones you want the answers to.

I will be getting some of the past questions into the section and will continue to answer new ones. If you have a qWe have answers for you!uestion you'd like to ask, or a project or communications you'd like to see discussed, please email me at: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

I can't promise I'll answer them all or quickly, but you will get a response from me.

Your membership in this site helps support answers for everyone.

Q & A: Resources needed for proofing communications in the church office

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QUESTION:

Do you have any recommended resources that you would recommend that I can give to our church's admin assistant to improve her proof reading skills?

question sent by a pastor via email

ANSWER:

Proofing publications is critical and horrible; important and irritating. One of my favorite quotes on this topic is:

"The urge in a human to love or hate, is never as strong as the urge to amend the writings of another" 
quote from a class on editing

To get on with answering the question, I have several resources that you will find useful:

Click on this image to download the PDF Chapter on Proofing.
Click on this image to download the PDF Chapter on Proofing.

A PDF of a chapter on Proofing.

This is from my book on the Back to Basics.

Jesus and Perfection in Publications

This is an important balancing article, CLICK HERE to go to it. It is important, because though proofing and a desire for perfection is important in our church communication work, there are other considerations that are equally, if not more important that must be looked at if we want to conduct our ministries in ways pleasing to the Lord.

If you have a question on church communications that will be considered for an answer in this series, please email it to: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

Q & A: I need a resource for bargain software—is Consistent Computer Bargains still in business?

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QUESTION:

Yvon,

A number of years ago (app. 2004 or earlier) I attended one of your seminars. You handed out a book with a couple of resource pages in the back. I’m interested in one particular resource, Consistent Computer Bargains (www.ccbministries.com).

In 2004 when we purchased a new computer we were able to order software from this site for a reduced price for churches, we saved quite a bit of money. We are again looking at purchasing a new computer and would like to again order this discounted software. However when I check out the website another site comes up that doesn’t look right.

Do you know anything about the current state of this company? Are there other companies out there who will give generous discounts on software programs to churches? Computers also.

I would appreciate hearing back from you so I can forward the information to the person at our church in charge of making a new computer purchase for us.

Thank you ahead for your help and for all you do to provide help for church secretaries and their churches!

Connie, Trinity UCC

ANSWER:

CCB onlineThe best place is till Consistent Computer Bargains. Though they have changed their name somewhat, here is their website: http://www.ccbnonprofits.com.

I spoke recently to their Director of Religious Sales, Patti Lojeski. I have known Patti and the folks there for over 15 years and I can't recommend them enough.

Not only for MS Publisher, the company still has many fantastic deals on software for churches—they are able to sign churches up for nonprofit pricing for the companies that offer this. You can't get these prices in regular retail stores, you must use a group like CCB.

In addition, they have also expanded their offerings in hardware, software, and cloud services.

I featured them in my e-book:  9 Reasons why MS Publisher is a great program for churches to use for print and graphic creation. This ebook is free for ECC MEMBERS and is an inexpensive download for others. For more about it, to link to the book and download, CLICK HERE .

Here is Patti Lojeski's contact information. She can refer you to someone who can specifically help you. Do let her know I sent you!

800-342-4222 ext. 107 | patti.lojeski@ccbnonprofits.com

Planning, Measuring, Evaluating Church Communications, links to articles, tips, training videos

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Nothing is worse than working incredibly hard on something and to later find out your efforts accomplished little. All of you who work in church communications, work very hard at what you do and you want to make certain your hard work results in eternal life changes. To help you do that, the following resources will help you plan, measure, and evaluate your work.

Over 2,500 years ago, Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I would propose that an unexamined church communications program isn't worth all the hard work you put into it.

Measure and evaluate your work so that it won't be in vain, but will accomplish all it can to bring people to Jesus and to help them grow to Christian maturity in Him.

Plan, Measure, Evaluate your Church Communications

Following is a list of links, click on the title to go to each one. These materials are useful for you personal learning, but to make a difference in your church, they should be shared with and discussed by your church staff.

For Effective Church Communications Members, (CLICK HERE for Membership Info) keep in mind that your membership is for your entire church--your one username and password can be shared with staff and volunteers. You have permission to print out ebooks (both free downloads and purchased ones) and to make as many copies as you want.

Planning Book Cover
We all want to be good stewards of our communications money and ministry. This book will help you do that.

Foundational Book, essential reading for effective church communication

Newly revised and updated Book: Church Communications Planning, Measuring, Evaluating done a new way—big is busted, try tiny!
Essential book for church communication leadership. This link provides access  to both an immediate download and to amazon.com paperback version

Articles: the following articles are useful for staff discussion

Print copies, share and as a group, look at what you are doing and how you can evaluate your work. For this to work effectively, you must have pastors, business, admins, and church communication creators involved. One person evaluating church communications alone can turn into a private complaining session--the church staff taking some time to look at it together can make significant changes.

Article: Don’t only master church communication technology—measure results

Article: Why you shouldn’t plan too far ahead in church communications

Article: The disappointing results when you jump into church communications production without planning and how to change them to positive ones

Article: Measure success correctly—or why a big turnout doesn’t necessarily mean a successful event

TEMPLATES:  either print off the PDF or modify MS Publisher files

TEMPLATE: Church Communication and Technology Survey

TEMPLATES: editable church communication planning and evaluation forms, plus PDFs

VIDEOS: nothing helps more than a training video to show how and why planning and evaluation is important.

The following videos are normally for Effective Church Communication Members. However, for our newsletter and Facebook page friends, we are making (LIKE US here if you haven't as yet--and get special Facebook UPDATES)

For ECC MEMBERSHIP information, CLICK HERE. These four videos will give you both excellent theoretical reasons to do church planning, measuring and evaluating, but they will also give you the practical resources you need to carry out a successful church planning, measuring and evaluating program. All of the videos come with a PDF of the notes that go with the video. This makes them useful for Lunch & Learns, staff and volunteer training. You need to get access to them through this website.

VIDEO: How to plan, measure, and evaluate church communication effectiveness

When you have advertised a church need, such as when you want volunteers to help with a ministry in the church, if you don't get the response you want, how do you respond?

Many churches respond by assuming that: 1) by simply doing the PR they communicated the need and that people will respond; 2) that if people did not respond that the church needs to improve the way the message was presented, e.g. be more cutting-edge, catchy, or interesting; or 3) that people simply don't care about others or helping the church these days.

As this video will show you none of these assumptions are correct and through careful planning and evaluation of your church communications you can make a huge difference in how people will respond to your church communications.

This is an extremely important video for your church staff to watch as a group—it is guaranteed to bring up some lively discussion that should result in a more effective communication program for your church.

VIDEO: How to create and use church communication surveys, how to decide what really works

Because we all tend to communicate in ways that are most comfortable to us and because, as church leaders, we make decisions for people, in this time of changing communications, we may be totally missing out on what the types of communications our audience needs for them to hear the gospel message or our challenges to discipleship growth.

How do your various audiences take in your messages? What communication channels do they access the most?

Most of us if we are honest really don't know. This is where a survey can be extremely helpful. This webinar/video will show you how to do one for your church.

One bit of advice--before you do the survey, pray that the Lord will make your heart open to make changes whatever the results might be. Nothing hurts your credibility more than asking people for their opinion and then ignoring it totally when they give it to you.

This VIDEO has two BONUS features for ECC MEMBERS: a ZIP file that contains the original PowerPoint File, as well as an editable MS Publisher file of the church Survey Form.

VIDEO: Church Communication FORMS: to help you plan, measure, and evaluate communication effectiveness

This video goes over a set of forms that will help you be more effective in your church communication ministry. It shows you step-by-step how to use them and explains why they are useful for ministry.

Many problems in church communications planning and management can be solved if the church uses forms because forms take opinions about communications and helps you effectively evaluate the validity of your opinions.

For example, if someone says: "The web is the best way to advertise!" and another person on staff responds, "No, nothing beats bulletin inserts and postcards!" the use of forms puts this discussion into an objective evaluation of what works best.

VIDEO: How to create online polls with Poll Daddy, Webinar On-Demand

Online Polls are a useful and fun addition to any website. This video shows you how to create them quickly and easily using the free Poll Daddy software. Poll Daddy Software is free and it allows you to create a variety of polls and surveys.

 

Don’t only master church communication technology—measure results

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How did your church do this last year in church technology? Did you finally get involved in new social media beyond Facebook and Twitter? Did you make your website smartphone and tablet-friendly? Did you create an app for your church? Did you move back-up files to the cloud? Though these accomplishments might count for bragging rights at church geek gatherings, there a more critical question for Christian geeks, techs and communicators and that is:

How did your church communication technology help your church fully fulfill the Great Commission?

Though we all love technology, the foundation for all we do in tech, communications and life is found in Jesus command to us:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:18-20.

Our Great Commission, the command to share the good news of salvation in Jesus alone with others and to help them become mature disciples is what it means to fully fulfill the Great Commission. This is not only the North Star and measure of success in our Christian lives; it should be our measure for success in everything we do in our church technology and communication ministry.

Just because you love Jesus and want to serve Him, don't automatically assume that your hard work in technology, especially in the church communications area, which is vital to the spiritual success of any church, is contributing to fully fulfilling the Great Commission. Though it isn't always easy to measure precise spiritual growth, we can measure whether our audience is accessing the communications we create with the intention of  helping them come to know Jesus and grow to discipleship maturity. To begin to measure our spiritual effectiveness, a good place to start is to measure how much people access our communications. However. . . .

Humans are notorious in our ability to deceive ourselves

We do this all the time. "Donuts aren't really fattening on Sunday—this is the only time I eat them and besides, they are in pieces and everyone knows that the calories drain out in cut-up donuts." is one of my favorite self-deceptions. This is closely followed by, "A big meal after church and/or on Sunday night is OK because I'm doing it for fellowship in ministry."

Another one that is easy in church communications and technology is: "We've just finished redoing the website and people will love it and access it a lot." A close one to this is: "Facebook and Twitter and oh my, my Google Circles really keep our church connected." Or "Our videos are greatest -- people are looking for humor when they want to find a church--and they are smart phone accessible!"

Honest measurements help keep us honest

I may love my Sunday donuts and overeating in the name of ministry, but I am also attempting to lose weight and when Monday comes around, there is one infallible way to test my Sunday food assumptions: I step on the scale.

If we want to be honest in how well our technology preferences result in real ministry impact in the lives of church members and the people outside the church, we need a scale to decide whether our assumptions are true or not. One scale that is useful is to take a Technology and Communication Survey of your congregation. Following is one you could use. At the end of this article is a link to a ready-to-print PDF of it and other resources on Church Communications Planning.  Using the survey is like stepping on the scales--it can give a useful shot of reality in how impressed your audience is with your communications, how often they use them and if they are helping them grow in their faith.

 You want an honest measure and to help you get that, the following two guidelines are very important:

  1. The ONLY way you will get enough answers for it to matter is for you to hand it out on Sunday morning (yes, gasp), have people immediately fill it out (it will take no more than 5 minutes) and immediately turn it in.
  2. It has to be totally anonymous.

If you don't do BOTH of these, don't bother—you won't have a true representation of your church and/or it won't be an honest response.

Formatting note for the sample survey below-- the PDF and editable MS Publisher file of this survey has boxes where the bullets are.

Church Technology and Communication Survey

What technology do you have to receive messages from the church? Check all you have; put a star by the ones you use frequently.

  • Computer at home
  • Computer at work
  • Computer at school
  • Laptop
  • Mobile phone
  • Smart phone
  • Tablet computer

Which of these channels do you regularly access for church information or teaching? Check the box.

***Please a star by the channel or channels YOU PREFER to get your information from.***

  • Church Email newsletter
  • Church Website
  • Sermons online/podcasts
  • Church or pastor's blog
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Circles
  • Printed Church Bulletin
  • Printed Church Newsletter
  • Others (please put in any other communication channels you use here)

Three additional questions, please be honest in your answers:

How well informed are you about church events? How can we do better?

Do the church communications encourage you in your Christian life, help you grow as a Christian, and teach you to share your faith? How can we do better?

Anything you'd like to ask or tell us about the technology or communication ministry of the church? Overall, how can we serve you better in technology or communications?

What this will help you learn

A survey like this will put your excitement about what you are sharing on the scales of reality and will help you answer and analyze some of these questions:

How many people in your congregation have the technology to receive what you create?

It is easy to forget that not everyone has the same tech tools you have. For example, creating videos for mobile phone access and QR codes might not be time-justified if very few people have phones that can access them.

In my own experience in a church that has been hard hit by the recession, I know several pastors and leaders with iPhones and Blackberries, but the congregation members who are out of work or underemployed and who are concerned with their ability to pay for one phone line of any kind greatly out-number them. But that's my church—yours might be completely different. You won't know unless you survey them.

How often do people in your congregation access the church information in the channels you send out?

This is important for you to know how often you need to update your material—but this also needs to be paired with the additional comments people make because your responses may be a little circular in results. What this means is that if you frequently update your website and social media, people will probably access them often. If people don't access them or if they are not starred as something they access frequently, even though you may update them often, it may say more about  the quality of your information.

If you update things often and your people don't access them, take some time for one-on-one conversations and in a nonthreatening way try to find out why they don't.

What is your congregation's preferred method of receiving information from you?

It's great if the way they want to hear from you is what you are doing. If not, it may be they don't know how to use the channel or they don't understand why it is valuable to them. If that is the situation, you may want to do a demonstration on "How to use our Facebook page" or "How to receive Twitter updates from the church" or "What our church website has for you."  After you do some training in these areas, track to see if it makes a difference in who is accessing these areas. One great thing about websites and social media is that we get statistics on access, which is one more way of stepping on the scale for a reality check. You may think you have the most clever and interesting twitter feed ever, or the most clever church Facebook page, but if your stats are flat or declining, your congregation may not be as impressed as you are.

Beyond the channel, evaluate the content

The questions following the check boxes on the survey above, specifically:

Do the church communications encourage you in your Christian life, help you grow as a Christian, and teach you to share your faith? How can we do better?

are one of the most important parts of the survey because people don't go to a church website for fun or entertainment value. They go there looking for help in their spiritual lives.

That help is most often expressed by a simple desire to find out, for example, what small groups are available and when they meet, or what the pastor is like as a person as revealed from his or her blog, how to become a Christian, or how to grow in your Christian life. If your website  or other social media don't have significant, useful content, it doesn't matter how many images scroll on your home page or how fancy are your images.

Fancy moving images are everywhere on the web.

Significant, eternity changing content is hard to find. No matter what channel you use or how technically advanced it is, if the content is challenging, useful, uplifting and spiritually helpful, your people will access it. If it is just a pretty shell, they'll bypass it.

Make your content worthy of the Lord and reflective of Him. Use your content to help people come to know Jesus and grow in their faith and not matter what channel you use, your people will access it.

Don't lose track of your North Star

Technology has its challenges and it can be great fun to learn new technologies and to create new communication systems. But we must never lose sight of the people we are creating the communications for. We must always make sure that we are serving them and in doing that fully fulfilling the Great Commission given to us by our Lord.

_____________________________________

 CLICK HERE To go to the PDF of the survey, an editable MS Publisher file of it and a png image (so you can use it on a PowerPoint to tell your congregation what you want them to do).