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.

More than prayers, an idea to help hurricane victims

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Help church communicators.
No matter where you are you can reach out and help church communicators, here's how.

I know all of us are praying for the victims of the hurricanes and I know we will continue to do that through the long recovery process. In addition to that, I recently remembered a very practical idea church communicators did after Katrina.

They helped do the church communications for churches who had lost their offices or the ability to create communications.

A church at a remote location would create the bulletin, flyer, newsletter, postcard, whatever was needed and then would send it to wherever the church wanted it printed.

This plan was organized in a number of ways, either informally through social media or in a more structured way through their denominations.

If you have other ideas or are trying  this, let us know through the comment section here.

But most of all continue to pray.

Raise money for your church communications program with designated giving

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Designated giving advice
It can be a confusing puzzle to raise money for your communication ministry. Designated giving might be an answer.

A continuous challenge for any church communication ministry is having enough money for equipment, software, and training needed to run a truly effective church communications ministry. Though one of the most important ministries in the church and the one on which the success of most other ministries depend, it often isn't a priority when it comes time to set the overall church budget.

But new equipment and training is needed—so what to do?

Designated giving may be the answer

Designated giving is, in short, where church members can decide they want to give money (above their regular tithe of course) for a special project.  This is a greatly simplified explanation and later I'll give you a link to a longer, more complete one, but this is enough for the foundational idea that designated gifts are definitely an area worth pursuing. [Read more...]

Corrected Civility Code available for you….my bad

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In a very courteous email (really, the writer was so kind) an ECC Member emailed me to let me know I'd left a word out of the Civility Code I shared. It is in the last line, I left out the word "to" in the phrase, "to walk worthy."

I truly do appreciate it when someone catches my mistakes.

I corrected the sheet and the zip file containing the new one is available by clicking here: Civility Code

Thank you again Diane, and may we all truly "walk worthy" as we serve our Lord in Church Communications.

A free “Civility Code” inspired by the Global Leadership Summit

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A Civility Code, free download
The darkness of public discourse in our world today is a wonderful opportunity for the church to be salt and light. This Civility Code might help.

There is an obvious lack of civility in our world today and this is an opportunity for the church to be salt and light, not only to those outside the church, but to each other. I've got something for you that will help. First a little background.....

My husband and I recently attended the Global Leadership Summit put on by Willow Creek Church and at the keynote address, one of the topics addressed by Bill Hybels was the lack of civility in our world today and he suggested that churches consider creating a "Civility Code." I took some of his notes as inspiration and created one for you.

CLICK HERE or on the image to download a copy of a PDF of my example.

For a ZIP file that has a PDF, a jpg image of the Civility Code, and an editable MS Publisher file, click the following link: Civility Code

For more about the talk that inspired this and the conference, go to my new blog: www.yvonprehn.com and check out the series of posts on the Global Leadership Conference. More about this new site coming, but if you want to get notices on the entries put on that site, you have to sign up for the separate newsletter there.

Social Media for Churches, where to be and how to use it

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MinTech article on Social Media
If a social media ministry is a challenge for your church, check out this article for ways to make it manageable.

Ministry Tech Magazine just published my article on Social Media for Churches and I wanted to pass on the PDF to you, CLICK HERE or on the image to download it. One of the most valuable things about this article is the advice by Holly Veturis from Saddleback Church on putting together a team of people (advocates, she calls them) to be the primary creators of your church social media.

I heard her talk about this at the Saddleback MarCom Church Communicator's conference this summer and just loved the idea. It seemed to me that it is a fantastic modern-day example of how the Body of Christ can work together. No one in the church office has time to do all the print and website work required, PLUS all the social media that is a vital part of any church communication program today.

At the same time there are people in every church who just LOVE to be on social media. They are good at it and enthusiastic in what they share. Rather than trying to add additional burdens to the people in the church office (unless they happen to be the kind who spend every break and lunch on social media), consider following her advice and putting together a social media team.

Of course you want to set up guidelines when people are putting out social media in the name of the church, just as you would for any kind of communications work volunteers do for you, but with those in place and periodic meetings to encourage and inspire, a social media team can be an effective outreach tool for your church.