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 most important communications you’ll be doing this busy holiday season

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The most important thing in the balance of church communications
In the midst of balancing many things this holiday season, always keep your eye on what is most important to Jesus.

As we go into the busy fall and winter season of church special events and outreach, it's easy to focus on the visible, tangible aspects of our church communications: the design and graphics we use, a discussion on what should be printed and what should be sent out digitally. All these are important, but they aren't the most important thing.

As we prepare for the huge amount of work ahead, we need to stop and as church communicators and as a church staff commit to what is most important in our upcoming communications. To do that as disciples of Jesus, let's look at what is most important to Jesus.

How do we determine what's most important to Jesus?

We don't have to wonder—the four Gospels paint a clear picture of Jesus' priorities. Clearly, his priority was people. He spent his time with people, teaching, challenging, touching them. One of the most astounding things about his interactions with people was how he seemed to go out of his way to interact with people considered unimportant by the rest of society: lepers, the blind, tax-collectors, women with bad reputations.

Though he preached to crowds, we have many stories of how he focused on individuals. In John 3 we have the record of his conversation with Nicodemus, where one of the most important summaries of his mission and purpose, John 3:16 was shared with one man, not announced to a crowd. In Luke 8 he stops on the way to heal an important man's daughter to talk to a woman with a crippling, life-long disease. Though she was "unclean" to the rest of her world, Jesus took time, spoke to her and healed her.

One of the most important summaries of what is important to Jesus is in Matt: 25:37 through 40, when at the final judgment he summarizes what he considers most worthy of reward:

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

I've often thought how foolish it is for us to argue about the signs of end times and wonder about what will happen, when Jesus has clearly shown us what we wants us to be about before that time comes. If we want it to go well for us in the last judgment, we want to be about what is pleasing to Jesus. With this background of a clear picture of the priorities of our Lord, let's get practical. [Read more...]

Church Secretaries & Office Administrators: History and Importance

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Church Communicator
The position of church secretary or ministry assistant is one of the most important in the church and one with a great history!

Ed. note: In other posts published this week ( CLICK HERE  &  HERE to go to them) I've wanted to encourage all of you who do church communications. As we all know it is only in very large churches that communications is the only work you do. In most churches, communications is part of the incredibly demanding work of the church secretary, administrative assistant, or church office administrator. Though one of the most vital positions in the church, it is also one of the most invisible—until the person doing the work is sick for a week and the church almost closes down.

Below Gayle Hilligoss wrote an interesting story about the First Ministry Assistant and in addition to sharing that, I also wanted to share what she enclosed with it that she put into her church newsletter, along with publishing the piece about the First Ministry Assistant. I wanted to highlight this because I think it is a very gracious, yet effective way to point out the essential work being done. Also in talking about the professional group, it shows how people who do this work take their work seriously and are involved in continuing education.

Think of some way you might do something like this in your church—not to simply promote yourself, but to encourage people to pray for and respect the vital ministry you work so hard on each week. With that introduction, enjoy the two articles from Gayle Hilligoss:

Who Was the First Ministry Assistant?

Although I can’t say with certainty who the first scribe who assisted in ministry was, ministry assistants have been around a long time.

Jeremiah 36 reads, “…this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Take a scroll and write on it every word I have spoken to you… Then Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, and he wrote on the scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words which the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.”

Throughout religious history, the secretary’s role has been a significant one. Although work is often done in the background, these vital support tasks allow the more visible ministries to succeed. [Read more...]

Encouraging Quotes and Pins for Church Communicators

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Church Com images set
This is one of the PINS and images set for church communicators--enjoy!

Something very different in this post today—graphics to encourage you! I did this because sometimes I feel like an Old Testament prophet of doom on this website—warning church communicators to Do this! Do that! And whatever you do, don't ever do this because what you do is SOOOOO important. And it all is very important because we've been entrusted with the words of eternal life and the eternal destinies of people. However, in the midst of all the heavy responsibility is great JOY! What incredible work we've been given to do!

The Devotion for today is incredibly important for you to read and let sink in because all of you doing work in church communications truly are the GREAT ONES in the Kingdom of God. I decided to do a Pinterest size graphic for that and share it on my Pinterest Boards (https://www.pinterest.com/yvonprehn/quotes-for-church-communicators/) which I've just started updating again. Then I decided to do that for all the Devotions for this year and share the graphics with you. Below are all the images and then below that is a link where Effective Church Communication Members can download the graphic files to use in any way they want.

Below you can download all the graphics to use however you want in any communication or website to encourage church communicators or others in ministry.

CLICK HERE:  Pinterest quotes, set #1 to download the ZIP file of Images

 

Typesetting for kid’s communications

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PDF of Typesetting for Kids publicationsCreating communications for children can be lots of fun, especially with the fun typefaces you can use.

This PDF gives you some guidelines to make your use of them more effective. Though it has some useful tips, the companies cited are no longer in business, but http://www.fontspace.com/ is and below are some of their current fonts that are great for children:

All the fonts above are from:  http://www.fontspace.com/ and are free downloads.

Google fonts also has a great selection of free fonts

One very important guideline to keep in mind is to NEVER use the typefaces that have reversed letters (such as a reversed "e" or "s"). It might seem like that would be a harmless, cute thing to do, but when little children receive a printed piece from a respected person in the church and the penmanship is all wrong, it can be confusing.

Have fun, do kid-friendly things, but always remember the position of authority and influence you have in young lives.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Great Idea Swap: Samples of Children’s Ministry Communications

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Note: these are from a previous GREAT IDEA SWAP, but are some wonderful samples for Children's Ministry that I thought would go well with the Postcard samples we just shared.

Children's ministry requires a large number of communication pieces for a successful ministry. The following pieces are a from various churches and should give you some ideas for your ministry. These samples are from our Great Idea Swap. A brief description and a few comments goes with each one.

Click on the the image to download the PDF and to be able to see the entire communication piece.

Children's ministry Brochure

This brochure that describes the Preschool ministry at this church is short, sweet and to the point, but it gives you the information you need and how to contact someone at the church for more information.

One other thing I really like is the image used to illustrate the ministry—instead of just a piece of clip art of children (and there is really nothing wrong with that), they used the watering can and water illustrating growth—neat image and I have an idea a really neat ministry also.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

Christian growth bookMy Christian Growth Book

Don't let the simple cover fool you, this booklet is a jewel.

It has a detailed, complete program of discipleship for children presented in a systematic, upbeat way, with prizes and rewards as the children work through different levels.  The program includes becoming a Christian, baptism, life-style guidance, learning books of the Bible and the flow of Bibical history, plus a group of key passages and verses for the children to memorize.  You can of course adapt the material to the training of your church, but the important thing here is that this can inspire you to have a discipleship training program for your children.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image. [Read more...]