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.
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

Recruiting Volunteers—Why and How

15 March, 2011 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

Ed.note: Volunteers are often essential if you want to get done the amount of communications needed for all the ministries in a church. The primary ministry assistant usually has more than enough projects in addition to the primary communication work (bulletin, newsletter, website) of the church to keep her very busy. If the various ministries of the church including children's, men's, women's, mission's, singles', etc., are going to get all the needed communications done, the primary ministry assistant will need help. Gayle Hilligoss as usual has some wise and very practical advice on recruiting and working with volunteers.

 

Want to start a lively dialogue among ministry assistants? Bring up the subject of volunteers. After a candid discussion, those present at a seminar eventually did agree that selecting and training volunteers can:

• multiply your time and productivity
• require an investment of time and energy
• be a blessing—or not!

Applied to the church, the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule suggests 80 percent of work is done by 20 percent of the members. A lot of office professionals would like to locate a few people beyond that significant 20 percent and put them to work. In many churches budgets are tight, programs are expanding, and both paid and volunteer workers are overextended. People are busy. Why should they want to handle the office tasks you’d like to give away?

Research suggests people volunteer because they want to:

• share their time and resources
• provide something someone needs
• experience a sense of accomplishment
• feel more a part of the community
• gain experience at a skill
• contribute a skill or knowledge
• heal from a personal loss
• contribute to positive actions
• have influence on how things are done

Understanding motivation helps you build effective volunteer ministries which provide people opportunities to give, to share, and to grow. Everybody wins. Including you.

Those who have successfully recruited and worked with volunteers say a satisfactory experience depends on following proven basics.

Recruit selectively

We call them volunteers, but recruits is more accurate. Not to stumble over terminology, recruit your volunteers. Instead of putting out a blanket SOS, ask specific people to do specific jobs. Being a successful recruiter takes time and effort, but the results are worthwhile. Not only will you gain the help you need, the enlistees benefit from the experience as well.

Start by making a list of jobs you want to delegate. Be specific about what each job entails.

Make a list of possible helpers whose talents and personality make a good match to the tasks. Think beyond the people who already do everything. Consider those whose talents are not presently being utilized at the church. In every church there are individuals, some who are already busy individuals, who are willing and even eager to pitch in.

Write, call, or visit each prospective helper. Make your request and explain the task.

The key to recruiting these people is to let them know you have worthwhile tasks to do and their expertise is needed. People resent being asked to do simple busy work; likewise, no one enjoys being expected to perform far beyond his or her abilities.

Define expectations

Most recruiters do a good job of explaining what needs to be done. Fewer take the equally important step of identifying standards of performance. People perform better when goals are clear and specific; take time to define the quality of work you require.

For all but the most simple jobs, provide written instructions. Include in this job description the scope of the volunteer’s authority and to whom she is answerable. People need to know up front the criteria for excellence.

Ask for a short term commitment

Proceed cautiously. Start with a request for a single project. Or gain a commitment for a week or two. If the arrangement works well, you can ask for a repeat. If not, neither of you will be put in an awkward position to end it. Many longtime assistants suggest no volunteer, regardless of reputation or experience, should be recruited for more than a year at a time.

Provide guidance

Once your recruit has accepted, provide training depending on the complexity of the job. Don’t micro-manage, but do provide adequate instruction on how the job is to be done satisfactorily.

Be prepared to spend some time getting your recruit up to speed. She’s seen the written description, now show her how the job should be done. This is no time to be nonchalant. If you take training time lightly, you send the message this is not so important after all. Once any questions are answered, let the worker take over. Assure her you are available if needed.

Monitor progress

Check back in 15 minutes or so to see how things are going. Answer any questions. If there are problems, make course corrections right away.

Don’t overdo, but do check periodically as the project progresses. Observe what has been done since you last touched base. Ask the recruit to show progress made; discuss any changes to be made.

At the end of the task, spend a few minutes with your worker talking about the experience. Ask what she learned about the job, both positive and negative. Find out if there were any surprises and how she handled them.

An effective recruiter can learn a great deal about workers from this kind of feedback: how suited they are for the job, how they respond to suggestions, their ability to give and take directions, their work ethic, and more. Just as important, this is your opportunity to congratulate workers for good decisions, offer optional solutions, and ask for ideas on how the process might be improved. Good ideas often come from people looking at tasks with a fresh view.

Be pleasant, brief, and kind. You want your volunteers to succeed at their tasks.

Express appreciation

Appreciation and recognition are vital to a successful volunteer program. Churches use scores of devices to encourage esprit de corps: lunches, banquets, day trips, newsletter honor rolls, even a website devoted to volunteers and their activities.

Be as plain or as fancy as you like, have fun with it, and just be sure you use the magic words, thank you. Show volunteers they are valuable members of your church office team. Let them know the work they do is important to the success of the ministry. Set the example by your caring attitude, your positive spirit, your effectiveness.

Some churches provide attractive shirts for their volunteers; others use badges or baseball hats imprinted with a distinctive logo to identify their volunteer corps. Many honor their workers with certificates. These little extras not only show appreciation, they encourage team spirit.

An effective way to enlist more volunteers is to make heroes of the ones already serving.

Be realistic

Even though you do your best to choose the right person, equip each volunteer to do his or her best, and sincerely show your appreciation—still, this person is not a paid staff member and will likely operate with a different agenda. Be aware that some volunteers take commitment more seriously than others; don’t be dismayed if a volunteer turns out to be less than reliable.

Nevertheless, expect a good experience. Most of the time that is exactly what volunteers deliver!

 

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Office Skills, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, Communication Teams, Volunteer Management Tagged With: church communication volunteers, church voluteers, Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, volunteers

Webinar VIDEO & PDF handouts: You can do it! You can create all of the communications materials you need, inexpensively, at your church, and by your people

11 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Today everyone is concerned about the costs and the ability of their church to do all the communication they need to do. I firmly believe that every church has the people and ability they need and can afford the necessary training to do all their church needs to do.

This video will give you a flying overview of some of the programs and training that will help your church accomplish its goals. WARNING: it may be frustrating because in many of the areas you'll want me to stop and show you how to use the software or program in depth--that is not the purpose of this video and there is either training on this website in the various areas or there will be. This Webinar/Video was created to show you what is possible.

Here are the PDFs of the handouts for the video.

Handouts for Video There will be a number of additional training materials posted on this site that go into the topics here in more depth. Please be sure you are signed up on our mailing list to receive them.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication basics, church communication resources, Communications, how to church communications, you can create church communications, yvon prehn

Perfection in church communications, inspired by Jesus

11 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Sometimes people don't think they are doing all they can for the Lord, that they aren't excellent or perfect enough in their communications ministry unless what they produce is done in slick, full-color printing or is professionally programmed. Sadly, it also often means that no one in the church is good enough to create the communications in print or on the website, so an outside, professional firm must be hired to do it or only products purchased from a professional company are used. Or, if done at the church, only a select person or two in the church is good enough to produce the quality needed.

But being expensive and professional, as defined by using the standards of a professional ad agency isn't the only standard of perfection for the followers of Jesus.

If we honestly look at Jesus' life, what sort of standards of perfection did he have?

First of all in who He chose as his disciples, the ones who would be trusted to carry out his message-they were a pretty scruffy group and they didn't get much better in three years. Not one of them was a professional religious person.

Second, his meetings weren't very organized affairs: little kids running around, not enough food, constant interruptions by sick people. Not what anyone would consider a professionally managed event.

Third, when he left his remaining disciples with the task of evangelising the world, he didn't leave them with a plan even vaguely perfected. The Great Commission could be summed up as "tell people about me and help them grow in the faith." For a perfectionist manager today, those parting words have a tremendous about of wiggle room that would allow wildly divergent attempts to apply it.

It wasn't that Jesus didn't care about excellence, but he obviously had a different standard of perfection than what we might consider perfection today. Following are two more observations and commentary how Jesus inspires us in our goal for communication perfection: [Read more...]

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication leadership, church communication perfection, church communication teams

Church Directories How-to, ideas from church communications

8 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn 24 Comments

Church Directory Tips
Church directories are great tools for helping people get to know each other in the church--here are some ideas how to create them.

Recently I received this question about pictorial directories and after the question are responses that were sent in and below them is a suggestion of a commercial product that I’ve had a number of folks in my past seminars tell me they really liked. Please put any additional comments or ideas that you have in the comment section below the article.

Question: Do you have any samples or ideas on how to put together an in-house pictorial directory?

We don’t like the traditional 8×10 size like Olan Mills for example prints. We’d prefer the 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 size or 4 1/4 x 11. We want to use photos, names, addresses, phone numbers (home & cell), emails, birthday & anniversaries of each person. All this information is preferred in the same area with the photo, not seperate. But where you can find ALL the information in one spot, but have it large enough to be read.

Looking for ideas. Any you have would be appreciated.

Thanks for all you hard work in making this such a fabulous informative website for church secretaries!

Connie

Idea #1:

Lord of Love has a membership-managing software program, Servant Keeper, which offers formatting for regular & pictorial directories.

I'm not able to export that information to send to you, since it is copywrite-protected, but basically, you can lay out the page with 3 large pictures on the right, with the families' information to the left & horizontal lines separating the 3, or lay out 10 to the page with smaller pictures, photo to the right, info to the left, basically making 4 columns on the page (info, phot, info, photo L - R) with horizontal bars separating each pair of families from the ones above & below.

I've even heard the suggestion that in a smaller church, each family can have its own page & add a short autobiography & candid snapshots. It would really take a small church to get all this information gathered in a timely manner!

Judy Rauscher,Secretary

Idea #2:

Hi Yvon,
We put out a pictorial directory in-house about three years ago, but unless some technology changes, I won't be doing another one again any time soon, at least not a printed version. The reasons are below:

1) Printing issues: To effectively print them on a color copier (our color copier was brand new at the time), we would have had to photoshop every single picture because photos output much darker on the color copier than they do on a color laser printer or ink jet. In the end, I couldn't get some of the photos light enough to render the people in them recognizable, so I ended up printing them all on a color laser printer.

2) Cost: The color laser printer I have is about twice the cost of printing on the color copier. When it was all added up, the cost PER DIRECTORY was almost $6. (It was 40 pages, 8.5x5.5 booklet format, with approx. 120 families.) We printed about 150 directories, one for every family, plus extra copies for staff and to give to newcomers, for a total cost of nearly $900.

3) Time cost: I had to spend literally HOURS gathering, cropping, sizing, tweaking and importing photos, not to mention the normal updating, merging, etc. of the data itself. It was way more work than we usually do to put out a directory.

Now, for a positive take:

1) If one has a church management system (CMS), where the congregation can log in and upload their own photo, and update their own info, then there is usually provision for printing a photo directory, and it would be somewhat easier, though still costly to print.

2) Taking it a step further: If we were to do it again, I would convert it to a PDF document and hand out CDs, then each individual family could absorb the printing cost if they even want to print it out at all. In this day of iPads and smart phones, I can see PDF being the preferred format at some point. I have a smart phone, and I think it would be great to be able to access it wherever I am. (Until we have a secure, member-only section on our website, I can't put it online for download.)

Blessings!
Rona Heenk, office manager
East Renton Community Church

Yvon's note on this:

Though I understand the value and impact of color, the most important thing about the directory is to simply see and identify the people and black and white might work nicely to do that. I recently saw a demonstration of a newer digital duplicator from the RICOH corporation and I was astounded at the quality of  the photos. Check it out if you get the chance, it would be interesting to see how that might work out, especially if you didn't do something really formal, but maybe a more casual one.

Idea #3:

Utilizing a local photographer or one in your congregation to take the family photos, you could then use a publisher such as Creative Memories or Blurb.com to produce an incredible book in whichever size you’d like. Blurb will even offer you the ability to have members purchase the books directly through their website, rather than ordering them in bulk. The downside, is that anyone would be able to see said directory. Once you find a good solution, please let me know. We are planning to do this on our next go round as well.

PS, last year we had our church photographers take photos of each family on Easter Sunday, just as a fun service to them. That may be a great time to catch most of your members dressed in their Easter best!

In Christ's Love,
Chaundra Ward
Administrative Secretary  | Clear Lake Baptist Church

Idea #4:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/publisher-help/create-catalogs-or-directories-RZ001078363.aspx?CTT=1&origin=EC001023015

Hi Yvon,
The above link is from Microsoft. I didn't take the "course" as I'm off to work in a few minutes but it looks like you can sit back and watch it or you can keep clicking Next at the bottom and it walks you step by step thru a Catalogue Merge.
If they create a data file (excel, access) with the information that they want to appear in the directory, they essentially do a mail merge with Publisher... except, Publisher lets you merge photos in too... so as long as they sorted their data on last names, and saved their photos by last name, so they would merge in. So as long as they sorted their data on last names, and saved their photos by last name, so they would merge in the right order, it would be (hopefully) fairly simple to do.

Laura
Secretary - Dundas St Centre United Church
Communications Committee Chair - East London Anglican Ministries

Idea from Yvon

In the past I have gotten some very good feedback about this product:

http://www.instantchurchdirectory.com/

They are the same people who make the clip art resources for churches, Communication Resources.

I'd love to hear from any of you that have used it, good or bad--just put your comments in the comment section below the article.

Here is the link to their latest version:
https://www.comresources.com/directory/

And an updated description of what it does:

The new 2011 version of Instant Church Directory offers you all the same ease of use as the 2008, but now with five brand-new features.  Now you can provide your congregation with an updated photo-directory every year – or as often as you like – without dealing with a photo-directory company.

You can do it yourself, right in your church office, with the equipment you already have. And you’ll see the results in hours … not months!

All you need to do is recruit a few members with digital cameras to stand near the doors on a few Sundays and take “head-shots” of families and individuals as they arrive or leave. The Instant Church Directory™ software will walk you through the process from there.

Instant Church Directory™ automatically prints your members’ photos and roster in alphabetical order.

Once the directory is on your computer, it’s a snap to make changes and keep it current. Simply print out updated copies anytime on request – as many or as few as you need (Instant Church Directory™ is designed to print on 8 1/2 X 11 portrait format only).

It’s like having a professional photo-directory without the hassles of a directory company. Or without obligating your members to buy expensive portraits.

And just like a professional photo-directory, Instant Church Directory™ will help your members get to know one another better, help build a sense of community, and strengthen member care.

Don’t expect your members to tolerate an outdated directory or loose supplements. Put an updated photo-directory into their hands that they’ll appreciate … and you’ll be proud of!

Instant Church Directory™ is also great for producing photo-directories for your Youth Groups, Choirs, Sunday School Classes, Pre-school, Women’s, & Men’s Organizations, Fellowship Groups, and other ministries of your church.

New Features for 2011!

New! Birthday Page - Quickly add birthdays to any member.  The ALL-NEW birthday page displays member birthdays by month.
New! Custom Pages - Insert any PDF page right into the directory.
New! Custom Information Fields - Two new custom fields allow you to add any special information.
New! Reorder Pages - Now you can tell the software which order to print your pages.
New! High-Quality PDF Directory - A high resolution image quality option for printing

_________________________________

Below are the websites of the companies that produce the professional directories.

I am not crazy about either of these companies, but I included them as something to check out for ideas or to compare options. Any directory is better than no directory at all and they do provide a useful service for busy church staffs.

http://www.lifetouch.com/

http://olanmillschurch.com/

Please add your comments, ideas, input and information in the comment section here. Thanks so much!

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Photos, Print on Demand, Printing methods, Printing your own books, Web-based printing companies Tagged With: membership directory, pictoral church directory

Webinar: Why your church needs to create Multi-channel Communications, or why you can’t just put your church bulletin on the web and be done with it

7 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

What is the best communication channel for your church to reach people  today? Do you put everything, including your church bulletin, on your website and quit? Or is social media the answer to all your needs? Is print outdated or is it essential? Given that churches have limited time, money, and resources, how can we know we are using all of them in the best ways possible?

This webinar may surprise you with some of the proposed answers, especially with what it has to say about the continuing importance of a printed church bulletin. The webinar would be an excellent one to show during a staff meeting and to discuss following the viewing.

Below the video is a PDF of handouts for the webinar and these are for Effective Church Communication Members only. For ECC Members there is also a link to the ebook: Are Written Bulletins Still Needed in the Church?

Here are the handouts that go with the video.   Print them up ahead of time, so people can take notes.Church Handouts Mulit channel

Just click on the image and the PDF will open on your screen for you to print.

 

 

 

 

 

The ebook, Are written bulletins still needed in the church?, is also free for Effective Church Communication Members. CLICK HERE to go to it.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Church Bulletins Tagged With: church bulletin inserts, church bulletins, Communications, multi-channel communications, yvon prehn

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 164
  • 165
  • 166
  • 167
  • 168
  • …
  • 205
  • Next Page »
Link to Easter Templates of all sorts

Seasonal Templates

  • OVERVIEW of TEMPLATES for Church Communicators, please read first
  • Valentine’s Day Templates
  • Lenten Templates
  • Easter Templates
  • Mother’s Day Templates
  • Father’s Day and Men’s Ministry Templates
  • Graduation Templates
  • Summer-related Templates
  • 4th of July, Canada Day, and GRACE for All Nations
  • See You At the Pole
  • Harvest Festival and Halloween Templates
  • Christmas Templates

Recent Posts

  • Social media images for Easter with challenging messages
  • From our vault: Everything you need for Easter: Templates, strategy, inspiration and encouragement for all your Easter communications
  • Why just “Come to Easter at Our Church” isn’t enough–FREE invitations with short, but powerful messages
  • ESSENTIAL Christmas Communication advice and free tools to implement it
  • A Free Template of the Christmas Story and short gospel presentation based on “Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”

Most read posts

  • A Prayer for Graduates, Free flyer, bulletin insert
  • Bulletin inserts or social media content for Father's Day; poetry, challenges, encouragements
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES
  • Graduation Templates
  • The MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do this year—read through the Bible in Chronological order—and I'd like to help you do it
  • Church Signs, what works and what to be careful about
  • Father's Day Power Point Slides and Videos of inspiring quotes and verses

Misc. Church Communications Templates

  • Church Connection Cards
  • Business/Invitation Card Templates
  • Back to Church for Kids in the Fall Templates
  • Church Bulletin Template
  • Volunteer and Encouragement Templates
  • 2-page Senior Adult Print Newsletter Template
  • Misc. Church Templates
FREE Bible Verses and Sayings in both print and social media format at Bible805Images.com
FREE Bible Verses and Sayings in both print and social media format at Bible805Images.com
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in