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.
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Effective Church Communicators Toolkits, an Introduction & Overview

27 March, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

To make it easier for you to access the information on this website for your own training and for training others, with or without the computer, I'm organizing the content into ECC TOOLKITS. The TOOLKITS contain instructional webinar/videos, corresponding PowerPoint presentations, PDF notes that go with them, associated e-books, and editable MS Publisher Templates, all focusing on one particular topic in church communications such as: church invitation cards, church visitor or connection cards, church bulletins, church websites, strategy for church communicators, and numerous holiday connected materials.

To access them you have two options:

Option #1: FREE Website TOOLKIT access for ECC MEMBERS

ECC Members have immediate, 24/7 access to all TOOLKIT materials as soon as they are released.

For each topic, all the material we have gathered for that topic will be accessible under the area of TOOLKITS, a tab on the Home Page of www.effectivechurchcom.com.  Each topic will be in a separate TOOLKIT.

PLEASE look at the OVERVIEW file for each TOOLKIT as the contents vary and for suggestions on how to make the most of each TOOLKIT. If you are using the videos for training a group directly from the website, any of videos can be enlarged to full screen size and projected. The quality of the videos projected from an internet connection is not as good or reliable as the ones from the CD, but it is possible to view them with a group in this way.

You also have permission to make copies of the e-books PowerPoint handouts, and other print materials, and the templates for your church communications team without purchasing additional memberships.

The TOOLKITS offer some similar materials, but differ in organization from the Free Member's Download section in that the Download section has separate files (templates, jpgs, e-books, PDFs) that you can download and use individually if you want a specific type of resource. The TOOLKITS are organized around a particular topic, holiday, or communication tool and have everything you need in a variety of formats, in one place, on that particular topic.

Option #2: Toolkit CDs from www.lulu.com/yvonprehn, all $19.95

This option is available for anyone, members or not, who would like the material accessible on a CD. This works especially well for the churches or church support organizations that do not have high speed internet access for the videos and some of the larger downloads.

The CDs will contain one TOOLKIT per CD and are very reasonably priced ($19.95 each) to enable individuals, churches, church support and training organizations to collect a library of TOOLKITS useful for all their members. The www.LULU.com  company that I use for production and shipping produces excellent quality CDs in hard plastic cases with spine labels—enough packaging to be useful for shelf storage and protection, but not too much with wasted software boxes.

The reproduction rights we give you with the TOOLKITS

Because we retain copyright to all the materials in our TOOLKITS, we can be generous with giving these rights to you. We do this because we want you to use the materials not only for your own learning, but to train others.

If we are to do all the communication for sharing the gospel and growing the Kingdom of God that needs to be done, we need many Great Commission-committed church communicators. We encourage you to not only look at these materials yourself, but use them to train others.

That is why we allow you to make copies of the e-books for staff and volunteers at your church if you either are a member or purchase CDs. That is why we grant you permission not only to use our materials to train volunteers if you are a member (you do need larger church or organizational membership for this) or purchase CDs, but you can charge a reasonable amount for that training and keep it.

You have permission to keep the CDs in your library and allow people who are members of your church or organization check them out, put them on their computer, print off e-books and not feel guilty that you are violating a rule about the CD only being able to be used on one computer.

We’d rather you didn’t reproduce the CDs. However, we can grant you a special license or provide group pricing if you want to give CDs to folks at a conference or training event. We can also provide wholesale pricing if you would like to sell the CDs and make a profit.

Questions, suggestions, ideas

If you have any questions about ECC TOOLKITS, suggestions for topics you would like to see in a TOOLKIT, or any other ideas on how we might help you become a more effective church communicator, please email: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

My inspiration for creating the TOOLKITS

Inspiration for this organization method came from an unlikely source. Stephen King who, as a little boy, won his first Bible by memorizing verses for Methodist Sunday School and who now makes lots of money writing scary stories, provided a near perfect description of the situation confronting many church communicators today and an inspiration for how to help in his book, On Writing.

In the book King tells a story of when he was eight or nine, he helped his uncle replace a window screen. Though a fairly simple job, requiring only a screwdriver, his uncle carried a huge toolbox to and from the work site. When King asked his uncle why he went to all the work of lugging around the huge toolbox, when it seemed like a simple screwdriver, carried in his uncle’s back pocket, would have been sufficient, his uncle answered:

“Yeah, but Stevie,” he said, bending to grasp the handles. “I didn’t know what else I might find to do once I got out here, did I? It’s best to have your tools with you. If you don’t, you’re apt to find something you didn’t expect and get discouraged.”

King goes on to say:

“I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities [or to create the best church communications, my note] it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discouraged, you will perhaps seize the right tool and get immediately to work.”

That’s my purpose in creating these TOOLKITS, so church communicators will have a selection of resources so they can “seize the right tool and get immediately to work” to help their churches create communications that will enable us to fully fulfill the Great Commission.

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Filed Under: Church Invitation Cards Tagged With: Church Business & Invitation Cards, church business cards, church communication basics, church outreach, ECC Toolkits, yvon prehn

Constant change is not necessary for effective church communication

5 March, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

A current conference advertises itself with this statement:

Constant change is necessary to reach our culture with the unchanging message of Jesus Christ.

Why?

On what basis?

It can't be on the basis of any kind of current marketing theory. Consider some of the most successful brands today:

  • Has Coke ever changed its logo colors?
  • Has Nike ever changed "just......"  you know the rest of the statement.
  • Did the Olympic committee alter its logo from interlocking rings to interlocking squares to keep the image fresh?

Many time-honored brands have not changed their distinctive characteristics for years and they won't. They know that change would be deadly to their brand identity and profitability. There is nothing intrinsically good or beneficial about change. In fact, change can be a destructive and distracting—especially for churches. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: change in churches, church marketing, Communications

How to create resizable graphics with MS Publisher, Webinar, On-Demand

2 March, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 3 Comments

Wouldn't it be great to have graphic images you could resize and use both on the web and in print? Wouldn't it be great to use something like that for a unified graphics look for holidays or ministry campaigns? Wouldn't it be great to be able to create something like that inexpensively without using an expensive program like Photoshop?

YOU CAN! With MS Publisher! This video and PDF tutorial will show you how.

Use either one or both to see how to do it--they cover the same process.

How to create customizable graphics with msPub
PDF Tutorial: How to create customizeable graphics with MS Publisher

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Filed Under: Graphics, Images, MS Publisher, Videos Tagged With: church communication design, church communications video, church outreach cards, Communications, yvon prehn

Summary of the generous reproduction rights you have with a purchase of the ECC TOOLKITS

27 February, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Because we retain copyright to all the materials in our TOOLKITS, we can be generous with giving these rights to you. We do this because we want you to use the materials not only for your own learning, but to train others.

If we are to do all the communication for sharing the gospel and growing the Kingdom of God that needs to be done, we need many Great Commission-committed church communicators. We encourage you to not only look at these materials yourself, but use them to train others.

That is why we allow you to make copies of the e-books for staff and volunteers at your church if you either are a member or purchase CDs. That is why we grant you permission not only to use our materials to train volunteers if you are a member (you do need church or organizational membership for this) or purchase CDs, but you can charge a reasonable amount for that training and keep it.

You have permission to keep the CDs in your library and allow people who are members of your church or organization check them out, put them on their computer, print off e-books and not feel guilty that you are violating a rule about the CD only being able to be used on one computer. We’d rather you didn’t reproduce the CDs. However, we can grant you a special license or provide group pricing if you want to give CDs to folks at a conference or training event. We can also provide wholesale pricing if you would like to sell them and make a profit.

SUMMARY:

With either the purchase of a ECC TOOLKIT CD through www.lulu.com/yvonprehn, or as a MEMBER of this website, you may take the materials in the TOOLKIT sections and:

  1. Make copies of the e-books, PDFs, templates on the computers who need them in your church and your communication volunteers.
  2. Print off copies of the PDFs, e-books, and handouts for the people who need them in your church and for your communication volunteers.
  3. Show the videos at training sessions either for your church and volunteers or for a group you oversee.
  4. You may charge a fee for training and keep the fee (we know it costs to do these things). On your honor, make the fee reasonable and affordable and free to folks if they need it.
  5. You may not reproduce the CD, but you can purchase it at a wholesale discount if you want to distribute it or resell it. Contact yvon@effectivechurchcom.com for information on this.
  6. Be reasonable and fair and don't worry about the letter of the law (my usage laws have very few letters....).

Any additional questions, contact me at yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

Share freely, pray lots, and with enthusiasm train others to be Great Communication Communicators!

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: CD communication training, ECC Toolkit, Training from Yvon Prehn, Usage of materials

The Five Steps Strategy #1: Create multi-channel communication

14 February, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

Multichannel communication is needed in churches
We live in a time of Multichannel communication--a time of both/and not either/or.

In this time of ever-changing options for communicating in our churches, it is easy to be overwhelmed and we naturally want to simplify our communication workload.  This is expressed by the question I get frequently  in my seminars and through email when people ask me, “What is the best way to communicate with people today? Is it the web, email, or podcasting?  Do we still need to do print? What works best to reach the most people?”

People may not realize when they ask, that they are asking for a ranking of communication channels including: print, online, web, small screen, and many more are the communication channels used to communicate today. When overwhelmed with channel choices, it is natural to want to narrow it down to one or two that will be effective.

I always feel bad as I answer because I know people want me to give them a simple answer and to tell them that one channel, especially if it is the one they prefer, is all they need, but I can’t do that. I can’t do that because to be effective in your church communication ministry, to fully fulfill the Great Commission, there is no one way.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: 5 Steps of ECC, Multi-Channel Communications, YP Foundational Tagged With: church website, Communications, Five Steps of ECC, multi-channel communication, Multi-media, yvon prehn

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