Effective Church Communications

One Mother’s Prayer, a new set of PDFs to share for Mother’s Day and anytime for prayer groups

12 April, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

One Mothers Prayer--a true story of the power of Prayer — Prayer is the most powerful gift we can give those we love. Read this true story and be encouraged in your prayers.

This true story has been one of the popular pieces on this site because it is an encouraging reminder of the power of a Mother's Prayers.

Whether someone is a mom biologically or spiritually, our prayers are the most powerful gifts we can give to those we love.

As this true story shows, prayer can totally change the direction of a life and turn someone who may have been openly hostile to the Christian faith into a powerful witness for Jesus.

Below are some new images of it I created recently in Canva. The ZIP file is of ready-to-print PDFs and jpg images.

If you want some of the older images, editable files, and the text file of One Mother's Prayer, go to: One Mother's Prayer, a free and inspiring story for however you want to use it for Mother's Day

To download the ZIP file of the ready-to-print PDFs and jpg images, click the following link: One Mothers Prayers 2020

Why the emphasis on evangelism and discipleship for Mother’s Day

11 April, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Mothers Day Resources — Celebrating Mothers is important on Mother's Day, but we can do more to reach out to unchurched families at this time.

The reasons for doing more on Mother's Day that focusing solely on celebrating Moms has to do with the overall approach of the Effective Church Communications ministry.

Bear with me for a few minutes while I explain (and if you are super busy, just go HERE for free Mother's Day Templates).

Brief background of the philosophy underlying Effective Church Communications

I never imagined when I was astounded with the technical ability of the IBM Self-Correcting typewriter that I'd be communicating today creating images in Canva, doing podcasts, and training videos for church communicators on the web that reach the world.I imagine those starting out with the technology we have today will look back, should they and this world last, and be amazed at what they will use in church communications five decades from now.

Tools are essential, but often a distraction

Though technology and the tools we use to communicate have continuously changed from the use of clay tablets to the Internet (though the pace has accelerated greatly), a human tendency continues to focus on the tools as THE most important ingredient to communication success. At one time it was radio that would reach the world, then television, then the Internet came along and gave birth to the myriad of technologies today.

A bulletin with color added was a big deal at one time; now churches worry that they aren't posting enough on all the latest social media channels.

Each time a new tool appears we loudly proclaim THIS IS IT! Conquer this or that tool and the world will be reached for Jesus. Or at least we'll have a new tool to try. [Read more...]

Free Easter Social Media Images, Postcards, and however you want to use images and messages

27 March, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

One of a collection of Easter related images and messages you can modify for your use in Canva. — This is one of a collection of Easter-related images and messages you can modify for your use in Canva.

This collection of images and messages can be used in many ways including in all sorts of social media, plus you can download and put them into printed postcards or copy the message for online newsletters or Easter-related posts.

Below the images are direct links to the Canva files where you can download them as is or modify them in Canva for your church.

Click on the first image and it will make it larger so you can see the text.

This is a great set of images and messages that you can use in many ways for Easter.

Here is a short video of them, then a gallery of the images and below them links to the Canva files for the various formats:

Facebook images: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFdnClDdNk/ZYxVEIoYYx9AnCN5Y0EqFg/edit?utm_content=DAFdnClDdNk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Instagram images: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFdnZhymEU/jdwYs9LAojhSp9JNu0FZeg/edit?utm_content=DAFdnZhymEU&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

1/4 page postcards: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFdnJHkgXQ/aGyabTWOS6lI8NJ3aHJhdA/edit?utm_content=DAFdnJHkgXQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

1/2 page postcards: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFdbN5yOUE/nDNz2cf7Yb2zj0I0TmQc-Q/edit?utm_content=DAFdbN5yOUE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Linkedin Images: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFdnJHkgXQ/aGyabTWOS6lI8NJ3aHJhdA/edit?utm_content=DAFdnJHkgXQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

From our vault: Everything you need for Easter: Templates, strategy, inspiration and encouragement for all your Easter communications

1 February, 2023 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

This is one of the Easter Invitation Templates. You can link to dozens more from this article.

Effective Church Communications has dozens of Resources, including articles, podcasts, and FREE Templates you can use for all the Easter communications you need for before, during, and after Easter.

These are from our Template and Podcast vaults--we will be creating new ones for 2023, but I know many of you want to get started on Easter planning and many of these designs and the strategy linked to them are timeless.

The FREE templates have all the work of communications done for you: the design, layout, choice of type, and copyright-free artwork is all done saving you many hours. The Templates are in both ready-to-print PDF format (which you can personalize on the back) and easy to modify, MS Publisher files. Please let others know about these resources. Following is the link to all of them:

All Communications Easter Templates
http://wp.me/PDky9-6Qx

We have much more than the Templates themselves because if you are going to be truly effective in your use of them, you need a wise strategy underpinning what you do. The podcasts, article links that follow, and the Church Communications Training course (link at the end) will give that to you.