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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What is honestly unfortunate—communication channel pride

8 November, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

7-29-09 the quote below appeared in USA TODAY in the article: “Governments tap into the power of  Twitter.” Tom Watson, a Labor Party, blogger said:

There are some very bright, digitally enabled civil servants who unfortunately have to write these documents for their bosses. . . who still get their secretaries to print off their e-mails so they can read them.

This situation is can be repeated in every office, governmental, educational, religious, in probably every nation in the world. No disagreement there. But here is what does bother me, not only in this instance are some of the unspoken attitudes expressed in this patronizing, snarky blog comment because they sadly sometimes seep into the church. My concerns:

The equating of digital skill with intelligence

It bothers me that the adjective “bright” is paired with “digitally enabled” and the implied contrast that follows with the bosses who, because their secretaries must print off emails, are obviously not bright because they are not digitally savvy.

This equating of intelligence with the ability to use digital equipment, if carried to it's logical conclusion would mean that the robots who assemble auto parts are far brighter and more intelligent, than the human who work in the factories. The robots after all, follow digital commands with complete understanding and without deviation. Humans make mistakes. That conclusion is obviously foolish when pushed to the extreme, but it is equally foolish in lesser degrees.

Equally bothersome is the pride that comes with the mastery of a new skill

Just because a secretary can use Twitter does not mean she has suddenly become “brighter”than her boss. There is a reason the boss is the boss and the skills required extend far beyond tweetability.

A bit of humility is in order. I couldn't help but wonder if the spelling ability, the penmanship ability, the ability to construct clear, lengthy business plans, and the ability to negotiate complex contracts, were also a superior skills of the secretary. I doubt it.

How this applies in the church

Our hearts are desperately wicked and our pride overwhelming. It is so easy to feel superior when we learn a new skill. So tempting to relegate those who don’t know the new skill as out of touch, and truth be told, not very bright.

No matter what the technology, we remain servants of Jesus. No matter what new skill we learn, we are always to consider others better than ourselves.

If we learn a new technology that is useful and others in the church don't know, understand, or use it, we have three choices:

  1. If it is something that might genuinely benefit them, we can offer to help them learn in a fun, upbeat way. I recently helped a young teacher with some online video creation I'd found great fun to do (www.animoto.com). Though I love this program, it isn't the greatest thing for everyone.
  2. If the person is unable because of time constraints, or other reasons, not able to learn or practice it, perhaps we can help them with it as a fellow worker and servant. Answering my husbands email (a bi-vocational pastor who works hard at a handyman job to work for a church for free) is the sort of work that falls into this category.
  3. We can wait, pray, be encouraging and available to engage others in the skill if and when time and interest are expressed.

The greatest commandment remains that to love each other and that involves all the demanding requirements of 1 Cor. 13, including patience, kindness, bearing all things, enduring all, never failing and related skills that are far more difficult to master than the latest computer communication skill. Mastering those character traits is what will make us bright, indeed.

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Note on context of this blog entry: I didn't write the cautions above as a technophobe. I've emailed since the days that email addresses were numbers; you can follow me on Twitter at yvonprehn. I wrote it to smack myself to never be proud of something I learn, but humble and thankful for the opportunity.

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Filed Under: Multi-Channel Communications, Social networking, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Tagged With: multi-channel communication, Twitter, yvon prehn

PDF:Simple layouts for church business cards

4 November, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Logos from examplesHere are some very simple layouts for church business cards.

Please be sure to read the other materials in this category on Church Business and Invitation Cards and watch the video on how to use them.

They may be tiny, but they can be a powerful ministry and outreach tool.

To download this PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

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Filed Under: Church Business Cards, Church Invitation Cards, Logo creation Tagged With: church business cards, Church Invitation Cards, church logos, Communications, yvon prehn

Real 24/7 support

19 September, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

"Call to me and I will answer you." (Jer. 33:3)

Many computer and software companies promise support 24/7. It sounds good, but in reality that "support" is often an endless series of automatic messages, referrals to canned answers, or a suggestion to go to the web site and there for you to try to figure out the answer. In response you can either keep pushing buttons in frustration, or give up knowing it is almost impossible to talk to a real human being.

In contrast, God's promise of support is personal, immediate, and unconditional. If we call, he answers.

We can call out to him for wisdom. When our work in church communications seems overwhelming and we don't know what to do next, we need wisdom. James 1:5 promises when we ask for wisdom, he will give it to us. Often, we have the skills to do the tasks we need to do, we just can't figure out the order or the process. God can give us that wisdom to put the process in order to successfully complete our projects.

We can call out to him for encouragement. We need it when working with computers. Computers never tire; a computer can work around the clock. People aren't like that, but an odd thing has happened in offices since the advent of the computer. In subtle ways we tend to compare ourselves to the computer. We think we need to be a machine who never wears down or quits or gets discouraged. Sometimes the Lord is the only one who can lift your spirit in an office that, perhaps unconsciously, views people as machines.

We can call out to him for perseverance. Sometimes we think we simply can't learn a new program or figure out one more project. Yet, if we just stay with it an hour or a day longer (praying at the same time for insight and strength) suddenly things become clear.

Train yourself to always call out to God first. So often we ask him for help as a last resort. He is merciful and kind and answers no matter when we remember to ask him, but we could save ourselves a lot of frustration by asking for his help first.

We can call out to him-sometimes not for anything specific at all. Some days it seems like nobody on earth pays attention or cares. That may or may not be true, but no matter. Call out to your God. He cares about you and is ready to listen and help with every concern you have, 24/7.

This devotion is from the heart of church communications, by Yvon Prehn, to download or purchase a copy, go to: www.lulu.com/yvonprehn

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Filed Under: Devotions & Challenges for Church Communicators Tagged With: Communications, devotion, encouragement for communicators, yvon prehn

Returning to the moon, going to Mars, and the timing of dreams

9 August, 2009 By Yvon Prehn

The moon landing memories that were a frequent theme in media stream surrounding the 40th anniversary of the moon landing revived interest and discussion about returning to space. The discussion appears grand and glorious. Frequent references are made to the human quest for adventure and exploration of the heavens.

The quest for adventure and exploration of the heavens does seem to be an innate part of human nature, but  as I listened to the arguments for the return to space, it seems though the desire might be valid, the timing is off. The inappropriate timing of our expectations, demands, and dreams can cause us no end of frustration and mistakes. I thought about this when these stories about returning to the moon brought to mind a little poem I've kept for over forty years. It is a poem that has often reminded me of our glorious future when death will be no more and the planets our playground. Let me share it and then what that has to do with the timing of dreams.... [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: Time, yvon prehn

What is honestly unfortunate—communication channel pride

29 July, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

7-29-09 the quote below appeared in USA TODAY in the article: “Governments tap into the power of  Twitter.” Tom Watson, a Labor Party, blogger said:

There are some very bright, digitally enabled civil servants who unfortunately have to write these documents for their bosses. . . who still get their secretaries to print off their e-mails so they can read them.

This situation is can be repeated in every office, governmental, educational, religious, in probably every nation in the world. No disagreement there. But here is what does bother me, not only in this instance, but also how this applies to our technology interactions  in church communications. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication, church communication team, technology pride, yvon prehn

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