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; Effective Church Communications can help.

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.

 

Don’t work like Amazon this holiday season–make room for joy!

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Free templates to make you happy
This season and always let's encourage each other as we work for the Lord!

I just finished reading an article by Gerry McGovern on the brutality of some modern companies in pursuing customer satisfaction at the cost of worker's mental and physical health and safety. Though we can do little to control how secular companies treat their workers, I was challenged with how we view work in our churches and ministries.

Yes, we all want to work hard for the Lord and in advancing His Kingdom, and yes there are times when we might push ourselves especially hard. This last week for me was filled with communications to be created for Sunday, a lesson for a Sunday School Class, Christmas decorations, preparing our home to host our Sunday School Brunch/party and doing all the cleaning, cooking, and shopping for that. It all got done and then I took a 2-hour nap.

It was fulfilling and good, but to push like that continuously isn't a good thing. I remind myself that Jesus said:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt. 11:28-30

It is a tricky balance between working hard for the Lord in ways that are pleasing to Him and thinking WE have to carry the entire load. We need to pray for wisdom and insight in these areas.

We also need to be careful about the guilt and burdens we place on others. If church staff members or volunteers are overly stressed with their workloads,  we might need to adjust our expectations, add time or resources or recruit additional volunteers. Our success in our communications or outreach at Christmas or any time of the year is not dependant on how hard we work but on the blessings of a Savior who can move hearts and change lives with the most humble of communications or services we produce.

We don't work for a brutal employer who primarily cares about the bottom line, but for a Savior who gave his life for us and who walks with us and we live for Him.

My contribution to your sanity

Let me carry some of your load for you. I have dozens of free templates for you to help you get out the true message of Christmas, connect with visitors, and encourage church members. They are in downloadable PDF formats and many are ready-to-print as is. Items such as connection cards, cards that remind people that Jesus didn't stay a baby, and a gospel presentation based on Hark the Herald Angels Sing, all are ready for you with a simple click and download. CLICK HERE to go to the Christmas Templates and scroll through the many items for you.

In addition, most are also in editable PDF format, so you can personalize them or change any of the headlines, etc.

Please pass on this resource to your fellow church communicators.

 

How to be sure your church isn’t confusing the Christmas message

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Christmas Star
A Christmas star may mean a lot to your church members, but be sure to explain its meaning to your guests.

How can the church confuse the Christmas message? Isn't it the secular world with its emphasis on spending and consumption, on parties and secular images the one confusing the Christmas message? We try so hard to make sure everyone knows "Jesus is the Reason for the Season!"

Isn't confusion over the meaning of Christmas a secular issue?

Not really. In many ways, the secular world no longer confuses the true meaning of Christmas. In the past it seemed that there was a sometimes uncomfortable mixture between the birth of Jesus and Santa—currently, almost every trace of Jesus has been erased in secular presentations of Christmas. In the various programs on TV this year, it seemed like the overarching themes had to do with "family" (commendable, but important all year) and something often referred to as "Christmas magic."

The secular world is quite clear that it wants nothing to do with Jesus at Christmas and there is little confusion about that.

Sadly, confusion about Jesus is often found in the church at Christmas though we certainly don't do it intentionally. The following are some thoughts to make sure that we are communicating the message we think we are communicating.

[Read more...]

Free images for Giving Tuesday

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GIVING TUESDAY LOGO, free to use
This is one of the logos that are free to use from Giving Tuesday.

I'm sorry this is so late in coming to you—I was waiting to confirm that you could indeed use the images they created and they just recently got back to me. I was asked by a church communicator if I knew of free images for Giving Tuesday.

I found their site and they had a great selection of what looked like free images BUT (and this is a lesson to all of us) NO WHERE did they tell you that they were free or terms of use or anything. As I'm very concerned to not use anything on the Effective Church Communications site or pass on anything that is not 100% copyright and attribution free, I emailed to ask if it was OK. They just got back to me.

Having said that I realize it is an incredibly lame excuse because I should have worked to contact them earlier so I could pass on the information to you in time for it to be useful. I apologize.

I just added a note to my Google calendar to remind me at the end of July next year to look at their website and start planning ahead. I'd encourage you to do the same because to make a significant difference on this day, we need time to coordinate resources and communications. I promise to remind you much sooner next year. It is a wonderful alternative to the excessive consumerism of Black Friday and as a reminder of the importance of giving. [Read more...]

Christmas Strategy—Christmas Connection Cards—effective tools to get people to return after Christmas

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FREE Christmas Connection Card
Click on this image to download the FREE PDF file.

After all your hard work to get people to come to your Christmas events, you want to make sure you make a connection with them so that they will return to your church after the holidays. To do that you need to capture names and contact information.

These Connection Cards and Registration for Christmas are a simple-to-create, but very useful tool.

At the end of this article is a link to a ZIP FILE that has ready-to-print PDFs of all the images below and editable MS Publisher files of all the cards plus hi-res images of them.

The strategy behind the cards

Churches often put on Christmas events as a gift to the community and some have told me that they don't want to be "too pushy" during that event and so they don't do anything to try to get information from their guests.

Though I understand the thoughts behind this thinking, we need to remember that the kindest and the best thing we can do for our Christmas guests (or church guests at any time of year) is to introduce them to Jesus. We may begin that introduction at Christmas, but what is strategically important to remember is that it takes at least SEVEN exposures to any idea for acceptance. For many people in our world today, the idea that Christmas is about Jesus or that he is more than a baby that inspires kind thoughts and lots of parties this time of year is a totally new idea. [Read more...]