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.

How bad will it get? What headlines reveal about the compassion of your soul

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Hunger ImageFront page headline in USAToday on Monday, Aug. 8, 2011: "How bad will it get?"

What exactly was the "bad" under discussion? Was it the 29,000 children who have already died in Africa (U.S. Gov. statistic, released Aug. 4, 2011) because of the current drought? Was it about the women who carry dying children, sometimes for weeks, in the feeble hope that the in camps they will find help? Was it the children who die daily because of lack of clean water? Was it the thousands of women who live in unimaginable horror because of sex slavery?

The subhead in USAToday clarified the headline: "As the USA's lowered credit rating takes the air out of the stock market, bad economic news ripples around the globe."

Another headline in USAToday, from the Associated Press on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011. This headline was on page 5A, lower left corner (for whatever it is worth, the page placement that gets the lowest readership of any area on the page). This headline said: "Famine threatens Somali children"

Threatens? Threatens? 29,000 already dead and the headline mitigates the horror by using the totally misleading verb "threatens." [Read more...]

Operation Christmas Child: a fantastic idea from one ECC Member that involves the congregation

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Operation Christmas Child
Photo from Carmel Lutheran website--this church has an innovative way to involve the members of the congregation in this fantastic ministry--read the article to find out about it.

All of you have the GREATEST IDEAS! Following our previous  article that featured Bulletin Inserts to encourage your people to  shop ahead for Christmas Child Boxes (CLICK HERE to go to it) one of our wonderful ECC Members sent me this email.

It shares a fantastic way a church does their Operation Christmas Child ministry, not only getting lots of boxes for the children, but involving the congregation in the project:

I absolutely LOVE OCC, (Operation Christmas Child, from Samaritan's Purse) so your inserts were especially great for me! In fact, I’m in charge of our church’s OCC efforts. Over the last 5 years, we’ve put together about 2100 boxes!

For these last 5 years, I’ve been able to secure a grant from an organization, as well as getting some $$ from our Outreach Team & Lutheran Women’s Missionary League group. I then take that $$ and shop the super-deep discounts throughout the year for school supplies, toys, clothing, etc. (it fulfills my need to shop without my husband getting nervous!).

Then, for 6 weeks in Oct. & Nov., we set up a “store” in one of our classrooms at church that’s open Sunday nights and other arranged times. Small groups, families, kids, etc. from church will come by, grab a shoebox (that’s already been wrapped by some great volunteers!) and go around the store and fill the box.

I ask them to either cover the cost of shipping a box, or donate items. It is just so great to see all ages fill boxes. (Last year, a teen boy went to fill a box for a girl, and I kept hearing him say “Now, what would a 5 year old girl like???” He spent about a half hour carefully deciding. I loved that!) In fact, just today, I got a letter from someone in Uganda, and it included a photo of him holding one of OUR boxes! I almost started crying!

From: Cathy K., Carmel Lutheran

PLEASE SEND additional ideas and we will organize and share them

I'm sure many of you have wonderful ways that you reach out to those with great needs at Christmas and many other times of the year. After reading Cathy's example and after watching the news tonight about the ongoing hunger crisis in Somalia, I realized that as communicators we can do a lot to help meet the needs of those around the world.

We can help with our communications that inspire and encourage people to give and we can then give concrete examples of where and how to give.

Sometimes creating these kinds of communications isn't easy, so Effective Church Communications will start a program to collect them, organize and host communications about meeting needs and make them freely available.

If you are interested in helping, CLICK HERE to go to the article that explains this.

Send me your communications about hunger, famine, compassionate outreach, and I’ll share them for free!

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Child eating Plumpy nut
Our communications can make a difference! Here is a little child eating Plumpy Nut, an incredible supplement that tastes yummy (like sweet peanut butter) and can literally bring a child back from starvation. Your communications can inspire people to give so children will live.

Church communicators have incredible power--with your words and images, dying children can get food, water, and the words of eternal life. We simply need to pass on these messages to our people and connect them with the groups who are reaching out in Jesus name to meet needs.

The current famine in Somalia is our opportunity to do more than watch the news and dissolve in tears (which seems to happen to me every night). Yes, we can all give--who can't squeeze the grocery bill just a bit more or do without some self-absorbing pastime for a week? But as communicators we can do so much more--we can encourage other people to give.

We can do that with our communications--through PowerPoints, web links, bulletin inserts, brochures, articles.  To encourage and inspire us, let's share our ideas, designs, resources. To help in that and to make them freely available to everyone.....

Effective Church Communications would like to serve as a hub to collect and then share

All the materials you email to us, we will, in turn, organize, turn into PDFs and editable files, in MS Word and MS Publisher, and make them available on our website freely for anyone who needs them.

Below the permission line are  some ideas if you aren't already doing this. If you already have some materials, just copy this permission line into an email, attach and send.

Please include YOUR PERMISSION to use the materials you send:

COPY AND PASTE into EMAIL this statement along with your attached materials this statement:

Permission is granted for use of these materials by Effective Church Communications without compensation or attribution to me or the church.

Send these materials to: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

I will organize them and put them on the website. This will be available for everyone. Members, no special access here, but without you we couldn't do this. Your membership support helps pay for hosting fees and related costs.

What to share:

Any kind of communication that encourages or connects people with ways to give or be involved in hunger, famine, or compassionate outreach. This could include:

  • Bulletin, newsletter, email, or website announcements, encouragements, pleas for giving
  • PowerPoint slides
  • Bulletin insert
  • Postcards
  • Brochures
  • Articles that explain needs and could be used in other churches publications
  • Pictures, illustrations that you created or own with permission for others to use them, that work to illustrate needs, meeting needs, related ideas.
  • Any sort of thing that would encourage compassion and giving.
  • Tips for any kind of compassion or needs-meeting ministry.
  • The materials can be ones for local programs, denominational, or international Christian programs.

Send when you can, this will be ongoing

The tragedy in Somalia, though heartbreaking is only one of many in our world today and of the many that will come about until the Lord returns. Because of that, I'd like to keep this section on an ongoing basis.

Again, here is where to send the materials and the permission line that goes with it. Thank you, ahead of time, for taking time to share your compassion. As you send your materials, pray for strength, wisdom and protection for aid workers and for God's people to share generously.

Please include YOUR PERMISSION to use the materials you send:

COPY AND PASTE into EMAIL this statement along with your attached materials this statement:

Permission is granted for use of these materials by Effective Church Communications without compensation or attribution to me or the church.

Send these materials to: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

“More Than 1 in 5 American Children Live at Risk of Hunger” statistics and fact sites to help us communicate about hunger

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depression-poverty
This image may be from the depression, but the reality of hungry children hasn't changed. Our responsibility as Christian communicators to share the truth and do something about it hasn't changed also.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:7

Communicating information on hunger and challenging people to alter their lives and give sacrificially or to even give at all is often not one of the most fun communication projects. But caring for the poor is very important to our Lord.

In addition, it has to break our hearts that one in five children is hungry in our land of abundance.

We can't do everything to solve all hunger problems, but we can do something. One of the most important things we can do is to tell the truth and to constantly keep the reality of hunger before our people.

We need true facts to create communications to teach our people

These three sources provide statistics and information on hunger that can help you prepare teaching, PowerPoints or fact-sheets.

Three great resources sites follow

[Read more...]

Bulletin Inserts: Back-to-School Backpack Ministry, ways to involve your congregation

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Backpack Image 1
Back-to-school, Backpack Ministries are a fantastic way to care for the children of your community. This article and the one linked to it provide ideas for church bulletin inserts that will communicate your message to the congregation.

Back to School was always a wonderful time of year for me, but for many kids, it can be a time of sadness if they don't have what they need. This is a simple, but powerful ministry your church can do. Below is the introduction to the church bulletins:

Back-to-School Backpack
Ministry
—an opportunity to bring joy to needy kids

School is about to start and it’s a time of excitement, fun, and discovery for many children. But for some children, it means showing up at school without crayons or pencils, notebooks or glue, without the supplies they need. Sadly today, many parents can’t pay for them and schools are unable to provide them.

But the body of Christ can. Our church has a ministry where we provide filled backpacks to little kids who need them.

We have four ways you can help:
......and the inserts go on to give specific advice

Last year's bulletin inserts are free CLICK HERE to go to them.

For a personal article on the meaning of this ministry to me, CLICK HERE.

This year, samples for inspiration and editable files

The samples on this page are new versions of the Bulletin Inserts. At the bottom of this page is a link to a ZIP FILE.

The ZIP FILE contains:

  • PDF ready-to-print files of the inserts
  • MS Publisher editable files
  • MS Word text file if you want to create your own
  • PNG low-res images if you want to promote them on your website
  • JPG hi-res images if you want to print them

Below is the Free ZIP FILE --simply click on it, save on your hard drive, click to open and use as you will!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE

Last year's bulletin inserts are free CLICK HERE to go to them.

For a personal article on the meaning of this ministry to me, CLICK HERE.

For the bulletin inserts in the video on Sales Tips for Children's Shoe Box, CLICK HERE.