It’s always personal: how to communicate effectively and professionally as representatives of Jesus
As I was preparing to write this article and introduce the topic of the importance of personal communications, including how we communicate on the phone, my husband who is a bi-vocational pastor (unpaid pastoral position at church, handyman for income) came home for lunch and shared this story with me.
My husband was doing some repairs on the mobile home next door to the home of a Christian man who passed away a few days earlier. The son was in town to take care of the details for the funeral. The mother was frail and both parents had not been able to attend church consistently over the last couple of years because of ill health. The son wanted to hold his father's funeral at the church they had attended for a number of years in the past.
He shared with my husband, over the course of a couple of days, his attempts to reach the church to arrange the funeral. He left messages. He talked to one person and was referred to another. He left more messages. He himself was a pastor and told my husband that the family had over 100 relatives in town who would be coming to the service, most of whom who were not Christians. After a few days of not receiving a call back, he decided to hold the funeral service at the clubhouse of the mobile home community and he, the son, would do the service. Other than being an emotional support and encouragement, my husband was extremely sad and frustrated as he told me the story. I'm making it sound over-spiritual--I think my husband wanted to punch somebody--but knew that would not be appropriate.
Obviously somebody dropped the ball in a big way in this situation, but these days of answering machines in churches that route calls to answering systems of staff, it's not hard to imagine this happening. Who knows why this happened, but what could have been a time to personally minister to a hurting family and unreached friends became a situation of sadness, resentment and pain--all because phone messages were not answered. [Read more...]
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Telephone Techniques Matter by Gayle Hilligoss
With the phone ubiquitous in our culture the assumption seems to be “no training required.” Few employers provide any training for this most important communication tool. After all, who doesn’t know how to use a telephone? As it turns out, a lot of people. You have probably been on the other end of the line with some of them.
Rudeness, even dispensed unintentionally, is never pleasant but is often overlooked in some business circumstances. Sometimes we’re just happy to be talking with a real person and not an automated assistant. But, people who call the church office expect courtesy. Telephone manners create an image of one’s church, organization, or business—perhaps accurate, perhaps not—but nevertheless lasting. Nothing sets you apart from the crowd more than a warm and appealing telephone presence.
When you answer the church phone you never know what’s waiting—a simple request, an upset member, a stranger seeking help, a happy announcement, some tragic news, a salesperson. What a challenge! Without question, proper phone techniques should be at the top of the skills list for every church office professional. Be aware, callers may not remember what you say, but they surely will remember how you say it. [Read more...]
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A church communicator reminds the staff that personal interactions matter
Sometimes in the course of our work as church communicators we forget that we need to repeatedly share what we have learned about communications with the church staff. As with any skill, because we practice it on an ongoing basis, we forget not everyone has the knowledge base we have. If we don’t share why we do what we do, or why it is important to communicate in the ways we know best, our churches won’t be as effective as they could be in outreach and communications.
I recently received this email about the importance of multi-channel communications and wanted to pass it along. I really like that the person who did it called his communication an “Insight Note.” What a gentle and kind way to educate the staff of the importance of what you do in church communications. Many in leadership have not studied communications other than the communication involved in preaching. You can be of great service by helping them understand effective ways to share the church’s message.
Note from a church communicator:
Last night I went to a "Church Council" meeting and presented my regular report to which I had quickly appended a note adapted from your material about there being three primary channels of communication. I was quite surprised when I was asked to explain the note and the "lights that went on" when I mentioned that we tend to not emphasize the third channel enough. And, yet, the third channel is probably the most important.
My note is reproduced below.
Insight Note: Communications is now multi-channel, with three primary channels:
1) Print Channel (articles, posters, leaflets, signage, bulletins, newsletters, business cards, stationery, door hangers, tracts, ads, invitation cards, calendars, etc.)
2) Digital Channel (email, websites, social networking, video, podcasts, etc.)
3) People Channel (conversing with neighbours and friends and sharing print and digital resources to invite/inform others. One function of the church (PR) is to provide resources and tools that people can use to invite others. We tend to not adequately emphasize, equip and support the “people channel” when planning church communications, yet the “people channel” is probably the most effective method of communication.)
All three channels are needed in today’s communications.
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For the article that prompted this Insight Note, The Five Steps Strategy #1: Create multi-channel communication, click here.
Our thanks to Ewald Wuschke for sending his comments. Please send any comments you have on what has worked in your church communications to: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com. We learn the best from learning from each other.
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Annotated list of resources I use to create online training and webinars
Though I recommend that you view the video first (click here to go to it) that shows you and explains in more detail the software and workflow involved in creating training resources, I also thought an annotated list of the products mentioned would be helpful.
When you download this list in PDF format, you should be able to click directly on the links to go to the websites. If you can't just copy and paste the URLs. {+}
Click on the image below to download the PDF.
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