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.

The Six Benefits of reading (or listening to) the Bible in Chronological order and probably why you haven’t done it

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Thru the Bible In Chronological Order Lesson #1 6 Reasons Why Yvon's note: this is from my Bible Blog and podcast website: www.bible805.com. For all of 2019 my project was to first, share why we can trust our Bibles (lessons from history), and then to go through the Bible in Chronological order with my commentary on readings each week. I finished the project (whew!....) at the end of 2019, but all of the podcasts and notes are available for you on the site if you would like to go through the plan anytime. In the following year, I'll be doing various topical studies for the podcast each week. The reason I'm including this on the Effective Church Communications website is because Church Communicators need to be spiritually strong to communicate for the kingdom of God and to be spiritually strong, you must know God's Word. In addition to working in church communications, I have a Master's Degree in Church History, attended seminary, taught church history at a Jesuit university and love teaching the Bible. The podcast is available on iTunes and many other podcast channels. For links to all of them and to all of last-year's podcasts, go here.

Podcast Intro:

Along with losing weight, getting more done, simplifying your life and other commendable goals, is reading through the Bible one of your resolutions for the year? Do you know how many books are in the Bible?

If so, I’d like to share a way for you to do it that will change your life more significantly than any diet will!

Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn and Welcome to Bible 805!

Today we’re going t to talk about…..

The Six Benefits of reading (or listening to) the Bible in Chronological order, and probably why you haven’t done it

There are many ways to read through the Bible each year—but there is one that is by far the BEST way to do it (and I’ll be going into the reasons why it’s best shortly) and that is to read through the Bible in Chronological order. That means to read the books (or parts in some cases) in the order they happened, not the order you find them in the Bible.

Don’t worry about figuring that order out—I’ve got a schedule you can download to do it and I’ll be doing podcasts in the coming year to guide you through it. (starting Jan. 6 for 2019)

But for now, since reading through the Bible in Chronological order is a somewhat daunting task, it's worth asking why do it? To answer, ask yourself, why read anything, watch any movie, learn any new information in a certain order? [Read more...]

FREE Templates and motivational articles: Read through the Bible in a year—Templates for handouts, booklets

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One of the most important things you can do for your congregation is to encourage them to read through the Bible in a year in chronological order. I've created a printed schedule, booklets, and motivational articles to help you do that. Now is a great time to be planning ahead to do this.

All of it FREE to everyone. Please pass on and share with others.

This post has:

  • A short summary of why it is important to read the Bible in chronological order this is beneficial, at the end of this post are two more articles. You can use these in any of your communications to encourage your people.
  • Handouts for the schedule in MS Word
  • A Booklet of the Schedule in MS Publisher
  •  A short video that shows you how to create the booklet
  • Two more motivational articles from my Bible blog, www.bible805.com

[Read more...]

Invite visitors to interact with you after Christmas

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After Christmas follow up materials
Either on social media or in the mail, do whatever you can to follow up with Christmas visitors and to help them connect with the church and learn more about Jesus.

If you want to get visitors to interact with your church after Christmas you need to invite them to do that.

Few people will take the initiative to reach out to your church with their questions about the meaning of Christmas, but they might be willing to do so with a gentle invitation from you. In the file below is the card illustrated here, plus more simple and generic ones that invite visitors for coffee and discussion.

The following are communications you can use in either postcard or social media format. Below the images is a ZIP file that contains them as jpg images and in ready-to-print PDF format, and editable MS Publisher format.

Below is the text from the card that you have permission to use in any way you want:

Christmas a bit much?

After all the food, festivities, ho, ho, ho, and perhaps a church service thrown in, do you ever wonder why all the bother?

It certainly doesn’t seem worth it for the commercial excesses all around us.

But what if it was really about God
becoming human?

What if the ancient prophecies that God would be with us to show us what God was like and how to live in a way that pleases him were true?

That would be worth celebrating.

We think that is what Christmas is really about and we’d love to discuss it with you. On the back of this card are ways we can connect.

CLICK following to download the ZIP FILES: Christmas Follow Up Cards

Follow up for Christmas visitors: content for social media, flyers, bulletin insert, newsletter articles

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#1MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby
Use this bulletin insert to connect holiday church visitors with your church and encourage them to explore the Christian faith. CLICK HERE to download this FREE PDF.

Many people will came to your church for Christmas Eve or other Christmas-related services because they want to make a family member happy, to keep peace in an extended family, or for many other reasons that have nothing to do with seeking God and who never come at any other time of year.

However, our Lord who stooped to become a baby still seeks them and a communication piece like this may help make a ongoing connection with your visitors and Jesus.

This piece is an extended version of the Christmas follow-up postcards mentioned earlier that reminded people that we don't only celebrate Christmas because of the Baby Jesus, but because of what he grew up to be—our Savior.

This extended piece can be used in many ways: as flyer or bulletin insert, as a print piece inside a visitor letter, as text or graphics or both for social media or your online or print newsletter, it is designed for people to get them to think about Jesus beyond an inspiring service.

On the back you can add some links to online resources to help them explore what it means to be a Christian. You could also add events from your church schedule, your website information about your church, a personal message, or contact information.

PLEASE take the time and effort to make up a communication like this!

Many churches are hesitant to preach challenging evangelistic sermons at Christmas services and while that is understandable, we don't want to miss the opportunity to share Jesus and to give people the resources to explore more about Him on their own. A communication like this isn't intrusive or pushy, but it gently challenges and gives people the resources to check into more about Jesus and the Christian faith. I've suggested some sources, but please add your own or any ways visitors can engage with your church or enter into a dialog or have their questions answered.

Additional designs and editable files

Below is the text of the insert and following that are added designs available in the ZIP file at the end of the article. The ZIP file has:

  • Ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs
  • Editable MS Publisher files
  • Hi-res images of each design
  • MS Word file of the text for the front of the flyer and recommended resources.

[Read more...]

Reminder to send out a Christmas follow-up postcard—Because He didn’t stay a baby

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#1MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD
Send out a postcard to the people who visited at Christmas to invite them back to find out more about Jesus.

Right after special Christmas or other holiday events is a prime time to invite people to come back to church to find out more about your church and Jesus.

Here is the message you can put on a card, flyer, social media content or however you want to use this message to get people to come back to church after Christmas. The headline says:

Because he didn't stay a baby. . . we want to tell you the rest of the story.

Hopefully, you collected Connection Cards at your event--now is the time to respond to them with an invitation to return. At the end of this intro is a ZIP FILE with not only the ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs, but editable MS Publisher files, hi-res images and the MS Word text file of the content.

The card here can be used in several ways:

  1. You can send it out with reminders of the regular services offered at your church. If people attended a Christmas Eve event or special event for children, that doesn't mean they have any idea about what your church does regularly.
  2. You can direct people to websites both at your church and other places that explain the Christian faith in more detail and answer their questions.
  3. You can invite them to a seeker Bible study, latte with the pastor or any other event where they can interact and ask questions about the Christian faith.
  4. It can also be left as a gospel tract at restaurants or anywhere else you leave tracts.
  5. You can take the content or the entire image and share it on social media.

Text for the card:

During the holidays you heard that Jesus was the reason for the season. You heard stories, sang songs, and got Christmas cards—all about Him.

In the middle of all that, did you ever wonder, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” What was there about this baby that split history in two and has the world celebrating his birth?

That’s a great question and we’d love to discuss it with you. On the back of this card are some opportunities to explore this question and we hope you'll check them out.

The additional designs illustrated below are all available in the ZIP file link below the article

#3MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD#4MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD#5MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD#6MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARDMS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby FOLLOW UP POSTCARD

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE to download the ZIP FILE, of all the communications shown here, SAVE to your desktop and CLICK to open.