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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We are unlimited in our potential to share the gospel message; what are we doing with it?

13 July, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Charles Spurgeon, in his introduction to Lectures To My Students, wrote:

Should this publication succeed, I hope very soon to issue in similar form a work upon Commenting. . . . . I shall be obliged by any assistance rendered to the sale, for the price is unremunerative, and persons interested in our subjects are not numerous enough to secure a very large circulation; hence it is only by the kind aid of all appreciating friends that I shall be able to publish the rest of the contemplated series.

I often talk about the incredible opportunities available to us in communications today, but the the reality of that statement struck me as never before when I read Spurgeon's words.

If I want to communicate something today, I do. I can blog. I can write for my websites. I can write, design, typeset, create a book and publish it with lulu.com. I can record a podcast and create a video at my computer. In minutes I can make these communications available to the world.

Spurgeon did not have that luxury. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles

Bible teachers should teach, not conduct public therapy sessions

5 June, 2009 By Yvon Prehn

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. . . . . . if it is teaching, let him teach (Romans 12:3-7, italics mine).

Teaching is an exacting form of communication. Based on a biblical foundation, teaching in the church is an essential element in enabling people outside the church to understand the truth of the Christian faith and inside the church to aid believers to grow in Christian maturity.

There is much lamenting about the lack of basic biblical knowledge among Christians today and it is instructive for leaders in the church to examine what their people are actually being taught. If our people don't know the Word and don't live according to it, if we are their teachers, what have we taught them? We have at most, a couple of hours each week to teach, and it might serve us well to look at how we use those precious minutes. Some considerations:

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: Apostle Paul, Bible teachers, Bible Teaching Communications, yvon prehn

Listen now to Yvon Prehn's interview on BlogTalk Radio by Chris Walker, the Evangelism Coach

2 June, 2009 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

I had a great time on my hour-long interview with Chris Walker, aka, The Evangelism Coach, last Thursday.

If you weren't able to listen to it live, you can  listen to the interview by clicking on the link below and from there clicking on the BlogTalk Radio file.

http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2009/how-to-get-church-visitor-contact-information/

While you are there, take some time and look around Chris' website—he has quite a few great resources for evangelism.

He has also written a book on How to Welcome Church Visitors, that has lots of helpful tips in it.

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communicators devotion, Church Connection Cards, church marketing, church visitor cards, Communications, yvon prehn

What not to do in connection card ministry, part one

13 May, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

What not to do with Connection Cards, part 1
PLEASE don't do these things if you really want to connect with visitors!

note: this is an excerpt from the book: Connection Cards, connect with visitors, grow your church, pastor your people

I’ve been teaching church communications for over twenty years and have looked at many communication cards and discussed their use with many church communicators during that time. From my experience, and many years of personally using them in a variety of church settings, I’ve found the following activities and tools don’t contribute to maximum communication success in getting either initial contact or continuing ministry information from people.

I also realize that, though not the most successful, many of the following practices have been done by many churches for a long time and it is difficult to imagine doing things a different way. If that is your situation, please suspend defensiveness or judgment until you’ve finished this entire publication to see the recommendations that might replace these actions.

Change is always challenging and difficult and if your church does some of the things listed below, I appreciate your willingness to consider alternative ideas. After each suggestion of what not to do, I’ll briefly list the alternative action as “A better idea,” and after this section, the alternative actions will be discussed in more detail.

#1 Don’t use “Friendship Pads/Booklets”

In some churches, much more so in the past than today, the procedure for capturing contact information from visitors and members involves a booklet with lined pages inside that is passed down the pew for people to fill in and then passed back down the pew to be collected by ushers.  As it is passed back, the leader often recommends that people “Notice who is a visitor.”

This tends not to work very well for visitors today. There are a number of reasons why, one of the main ones being the current privacy concerns of people. To many, this is simply too public a way to give out personal information.

Perhaps I am more sensitive to this because I work with single adults, but to a ask a single woman who visits your church to write her name, address, phone number, email, and then pass it down a row of strangers, while adding that people make note of new people in the pew beside them—she probably won’t do it.  Most likely you don’t have people in your church who will stalk or take advantage of a single woman alone, but the trust level towards the church or strangers, for many people today, men and women, is quite low.

These “Friendship Pads” may have worked well years ago when the world at least seemed to be a safer and more friendly place, but our world has changed.  In addition to personal safety issues, privacy concerns and concerns about identity theft cause many visitors to pass them on without filling them out.

A better idea: a card that can be filled out, folded over, and personal information handed in without being made visible to others.

#2 Don’t use a tear-off piece

There are several reasons for this—consider them carefully  before discounting my comments, because this method is used in lots of churches and it seems like such a simple and easy way to do things.First of all, if you primarily use connection cards to find out about visitors, keep in mind that study after study shows that visitors do not like to stand out. Being the one person in your row tearing out a piece of paper in an otherwise quiet church service is a rather loud operation and one guaranteed to turn heads in the visitor’s direction. Few people want that to happen.

To avoid that situation, some churches have everyone “tear it off all together.” That seemed like a good solution to me (it’s what is done at the church we now attend) until we brought to church a dear woman who had recently become a believer in her late 60s. As everyone was tearing off their form in church, I was watching her out of the corner of my eye and noticed she was having a rather difficult time grasping the flimsy paper. The arthritis in her hands made it difficult and after several tries, obviously embarrassed, she glanced around and tried to unobtrusively put the bulletin down beside her. Her connection card did not get turned in; no follow-up came from the church, and though she wouldn’t really tell me why, she didn’t want to come there again.

My heart hurt watching her and I thought if it makes one little lady embarrassed, if she can’t communicate to the church her visit, her recent spiritual decision or perhaps a prayer request, perhaps there are better ways to use a connections piece. There are lots of little ladies in our world. People come to know Jesus and visit at church for the first time at many ages and with disabilities of varies types  and we don’t want our method of paper handling to get in the way of connecting with them.

A better idea: a separate connection card made of card stock that does not need to be torn out and that is easy to write on. Specifics on how to create the card are discussed later.

____________________________

Church Connection Cards

.......for more read the rest of the book:

This 8 1/2 x 11 book connection cards has 111 pages of instruction, samples and detailed how tos. It is FREE for ECC Members and can be bought for immediate download. CLICK HERE to go to it. To go to the Kindle and paperback versions, CLICK HERE.

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Filed Under: Church Connection Cards Tagged With: church connection, church leadership, church marketing, church visitor cards, church visitors, Communications, free communication tools, yvon prehn

What not to do in connection card ministry, part two

13 May, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

What not to do with Connection Cards, part two
Connection Cards don't work automatically--and here are some reasons why.

note: this is an excerpt from the book: Connection Cards, connect with visitors, grow your church, pastor your people

#3 Don’t tell people about connection cards without giving them time to fill them out.

This is probably the single biggest reason churches do not get connection cards turned in. In most churches, either the pastor or another church leader will mention the connection card very quickly in passing, often when people are still standing up after singing a song. Sometimes it will be mentioned when people are sitting down, but often then it is part of a long series of announcements and no time is given so people can actually fill it out. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Church Connection Cards Tagged With: church connection, church leadership, church visitor cards, Communications, Religion, seeker sensitive, yvon prehn

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