Effective Church Communications

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

27 February, 2024 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

FREE Valentines Day templates, ideas, plus a reminder to church leaders to be nice to church communicators

2 February, 2024 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Valentines to remind us of God's love — We all need to hear how much God loves us. These communications will help you share that.

Here is a list of links to articles and resources to help your church make the most of Valentine’s Day. Though many of the resources are specific to Valentine's Day, a number of the cards and ideas are useful any time of year you feel your congregation and community need to be reminded of God’s Love.

Templates: Valentine’s Day Outreach Postcard with room for Church Info

https://wp.me/pDky9-6OU

Valentine’s Day Templates

Below are the sets of Templates with preview images, click on the link at the bottom of the list to go to them.

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/valentines-day-templates/

Valentines for Church Communication Creators, what church leaders need to do

https://wp.me/pDky9-19E

***PLEASE note—this one is formatted for you to print off (just hit the little print button at the bottom of the page) and give to church leaders. Not terribly subtle I realized, but tell them I made you do it.

Templates: Door Hangers for Valentine's Day Outreach, plus why they work so well for outreach

https://wp.me/pDky9-6OH

Community Outreach for Valentine's Day—a door hanger sample and a postcard

https://wp.me/pDky9-5FQ

These are real-world examples from a contributor and dear friend of our ministry Gayle Hilligoss

Templates: Valentines for believers, remember how much Jesus loves you!

https://wp.me/pDky9-6Oh

Lent is for everyone, Templates, text, and a variety of ways to communicate it

31 January, 2024 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Observing Lent isn’t about a denomination, or whether your church is liturgical or not. Lent helps us to put the Christian life into a biblical perspective. It’s a time to practice saying “no” to ourselves in little things so we can say a bigger “yes” to God in the bigger decisions of life.

We know the value of discipline to achieve our goals in every other area of life and this time of year reminds us of the importance of discipline in the Christian life.

The PDFs pictured below are appropriate for any church. You can use them as bulletin inserts with perhaps some additional verses on the back side or invitations or reminders about your Easter schedule. You can post them in newsletters or online, whatever works best for you to encourage your people.

These can be used at the start of Lent or anytime during the Lenten season as a devotion or challenge.

Not only are there already finished templates for you in these sets, but at the end of this post is the text content so you can make your own, or copy and paste that into any church publication you want.

CLICK on the first image in the sets below and you'll see a larger one that you can read.

[Read more...]

Valentines for Church Communication Creators, what church leaders need to do

30 January, 2024 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Valentines Day, a reminder of God's love — Gifts are wonderful, but at Valentine's Day the most important thing is how we treat each other.

(For pastors, church business administrators, church communication directors, and anyone else who oversees people who create church communications--this is addressed to you. In addition, it is useful advice for church communication directors of volunteers. For all of you in similar positions, church communicators don't need more chocolate; they need the things I'm about to talk about....well maybe them AND some chocolate.) First is the video and then the longer text version of it.

by Yvon Prehn, www.effectivechurchcom.com

Valentine’s Day is a wonderfully Christian holiday in that it is all about love and loving is what Christians are to be about. We celebrate it by giving gifts, often flowers and candy, to those we care for—but flowers fade and candy adds on pounds. For those in a leadership position, who want to show caring to the people in your communications ministry, whether paid staff or volunteers, below are Five Valentines you can give that will have lasting, positive results. Print this off and discuss it during a staff meeting for a Valentine's Day that is a real gift for growing our relationships with each other.

Gift #1—Give them authority

In church communications, the church leadership should decide on basic themes and messages and perhaps even the overall look of publications, but seldom on layout, or the final editing of articles or announcements. The people actually doing the creative work need the final authority in these areas. Have a meeting to discuss and clarify these issues and then publicly announce and print your decision. You might say something like this:

"Jenny Smith, our communications coordinator has final editing authority on the layout, deadlines and content of materials that go into the bulletin, newsletter, website and church social media (and whatever else you want to list). She has posted her guidelines and submission deadlines on our website. Please support her decisions and deadlines."

[Read more...]

A free Valentines Day postcard, flyer, or bulletin insert to remind people of God’s love, plus strategy to make the most of it

12 January, 2024 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

St. Augustine quote — Many people today have restless hearts. This Valentine's Day, help them find rest in Jesus.

Today many people have restless hearts. Life may not be what we wanted, dreamed about, or even find tolerable. Our restless hearts may be in many areas of life, but Valentine's Day shines a laser focus on the restless disappointments in our hearts. This flyer or Bulletin Insert might help your church minister to those restless hearts.

A restless heart isn't anything new, nor is the answer on how to fill it, as this quote from almost eighteen hundred years ago from St. Augustine reminds us when he said, "Thou hast made us for thyself oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

You can use his quote and the message that goes with it to reach out to the restless hearts in your community.

There are plenty of them as this time of year we're reminded of every romantic disappointment and broken dream with every TV ad and the gauntlet of flowers, cards, and chocolates when we shop. We may be alone in that we don't have a special someone in our life or the special someone slot may be filled, but we still feel alone. The media tells us we shouldn't ever be satisfied until we do everything we can to find that rush of complete, overwhelming, all-consuming, and satisfying human love, to go along with our perfect bodies and leisurely lives. But few of us live in that media fantasy and even fewer have the energy to try to event try make it real.

What the media doesn't tell us is that no matter how perfect we are, how much money we have, or how single-mindedly we pursue a perfect human romantic partner that no human love, no matter how deep or true or quietly wonderful it might be, (and some are blessed with that) will ever totally fill the place in our heart only God is designed to fill.

Valentine's Day is a perfect time to share the reality of God's forever satisfying love with the people who come to your church and here is a ready-to-print communication to help you do it.