Effective Church Communications

Why everything sinful about Halloween makes it perfect for Outreach!

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Halloween outreach
How to take what is evil about Halloween and turn it into a reason to share about Jesus!

Lots of churches don't do outreach events at Halloween because they think they are sinful--but this brief video shows you how the very things that make Halloween sinful and repulsive to many church people--the focus on death, the supernatural and similar things are what make Halloween a PERFECT time for outreach.

We can use these topics and the interest people have in them as bridges to conversations about Jesus. The video here shows you how the Apostle Paul did that and how we can use this time of year to do it in our communities.

CLICK HERE TO go to LINKS to motivation and tools to help you share the good news about Jesus at Halloween

Church Halloween Celebrations: why simply having fun and not sinning is not the point of why we do what we do

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Halloween is about more than fun, it's an opportunity to share the gospel
If the reason for your Halloween outreach is only about kids having fun and getting lots of candy, you've missed a great opportunity to share the gospel.

Is having fun what defines a Christian? Is FUN what makes a church even worthwhile? Is fun why we do what we do (whatever it is) in the Christian life?

When you look at many church communications, you'd assume the answer was "yes." A recent scanning of material on the web as I was researching alternative Halloween events overwhelmingly advertised events or promoted activities where the FUN promised is promoted as the primary reason people should attend. Though the focus of this article is on the combination of Halloween communications and the emphasis of FUN (intentional shouting with the all capital letters), the same concerns and cautions apply to our communication of many church outreach events.

How fun becomes the primary motivation for Halloween alternative events

Much of the thinking process behind many of these "Christian" alternatives to Halloween on the web seems to go something like this:

  1. Halloween is evil.
  2. To take part in a traditional secular celebration of Halloween is evil and sinful.
  3. Christians shouldn't do evil and sin.
  4. Instead Christians should have good, clean fun.
  5. Therefore our church will do a fun event for Halloween.
  6. People will see we are Christians by our fun.

I don't have a problem with the list up to #3—much of traditional Halloween celebrations are evil. Maybe not as evil as some timid folks fear, but probably not activities that would fall into the class of edifying Christian activities. Dressing up as demons and witches and glorifying magic is not what Christians ought to be doing. Sending your kids out alone to beg for candy in most areas today isn't safe. But the alternative to fighting evil or working to fulfill the Great Commission is not to simply have safe fun. [Read more...]

We could all use good news now and here is the best news—all about salvation in Jesus

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Good news is found in Jesus
When so much of the world is filled with bad news, there is good news to be found in Jesus. Check it out and be encouraged!

Pandemic, crazy weather, racial injustice, and political turmoil—wherever we turn, bad news fills our world. There is one place the news is good—in the good news about Jesus. Many call this the gospel.

There are two reasons why it’s essential to explore the gospel now. First, for those of us familiar with the gospel, we do well to remember what great news that is, no matter what else is going on. And for those who aren’t familiar with it, this news has implications for you far beyond the hysterical headlines that currently fill your news feeds. The gospel is good news, the best news ever.

Why the gospel is GOOD NEWS

Good news. That is the dictionary definition of the term gospel. The question to answer next is, of course, “What is the good news?” or “Good news about what?”

The best answer to that question is in the Bible, where John 3:16 tells us that: “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The good news is that God didn’t sit up in heaven, watching humanity make a mess of their lives and their world. He did something about it with extraordinarily important implications for people both now and eternity. To explore the good news in more detail, let’s look at our situation and what God did for us.

Without God, making a mess of our lives is pretty much what we do.

It doesn’t take unique insight to know our world is a mess right now. But now, let’s look away from the world. [Read more...]

The PERFECT VACATION—FREE Instagram and other media–and an encouragement for your congregation, when you can’t do traditional vacations

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The Perfect Vacation in Jesus, images and commentary
Though it might be challenging to take the vacation we'd like, in Jesus, we can always find the true rest and renewal our soul needs.

Staying at home isn't so hard when it's windy or rainy and there are schoolwork and chores to be done.

But it's a whole different situation when school is out, the sun is shining, and it's time for a vacation! We want out! We want fun! We want anything but feeling guilty about leaving the house.

But. . . . . . no, the virus is not going to magically disappear. So what do we do when everything in us screams we want to get out of the house, but our sensible mind, considerate of long-term health and family, says, stop and think a minute?

This is very real to me

After being a virtual prisoner in my home for almost two years because I couldn't walk, after my surgery to fix things, I couldn't wait to get out.

But. . . . . .

I won't give away my struggle and spiritual resolution (that's in the Caption/Commentary below), but it motivated the Media Made for You set included today. I am going to be moving these to a paid section of the website in a while, but I'm still moving pretty slow so it's all free for now. Below are

  • Thumbnails of the images. These are available in ZIP files with formats and sizes for Instagram, Pinterest, Presentation size, Facebook post, 600 x 600 jpg files, and MS Publisher Ready-to-Print PDFs.
  • A copy of the Caption/Commentary I did for Instagram. You have my permission to use this in any way you want if you want to use the images on a newsletter, print, or email or whatever. Please, however, if you use it, do not edit it. I am going to be doing more of this. Somehow the images and the microblog format of the caption space works for what I feel the Lord wants me to communicate now. It isn't the usual use of INSTAGRAM for many I know and I'll be experimenting with it. If you want to simply capture and share the image and caption, you can follow my INSTAGRAM account: https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn/
  • Of course, you can also use the images in any format you want and write your own caption or commentary, or not even use one if you don't want.
  • Below the commentary are the ZIP Files for you to freely download

[Read more...]

A walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” and an update on my (Yvon Prehn’s) hip surgery

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Jesus as shepherd
When knowing Jesus as my totally trustworthy Shepherd moves from a mental construct to palpable reality, it is worth any challenge.

Wonderful church communicators,

As you many of you know, on June 25, I had hip replacement surgery after numerous postponements because of the virus. Thank you so much for your prayers and kind emails going into it.
All went well during the surgery. Despite the severity of the situation, the surgeon told me just before it, he had no idea how I stood it for so long—I told him it was because of the prayers for me, afterward, he said he was very happy with the reconstruction.
However, after a physical therapy session on Friday the 26th, in the midst of respiratory therapy, something went terribly wrong—and I crashed, or more accurately my heart crashed.
What happened next was like a scene out of a movie (odd how we relate so much to movies, but that's what it seemed like to me as I was vaguely aware of what happened next).

[Read more...]