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.

How to make Bible school more than a happy memory

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Make the joy of VBS last -- invite people back to church!Some of the happiest times of my life as a child were in summer Daily Vacation Bible School and that wonderful experience continues in many churches today. Kids have a wonderful week, but thoughtful communications can extend that week into a continuing relationship with the church.

There are several ways you can do this, but the over-riding idea is that you need to intentionally communicate connect with parents, let them know what else is going on for their children at the church, and invite them to take part in it.

Why this is so important

If you asked a person in the neighborhood of your church, who does not go to your church, "What does our church do on Sundays for children?" you would most likely be met with a blank stare. Most people who do not go to church have no idea what people do in church other than the media picture of people standing around singing with their hands in the air.

The parents of the neighborhood children you worked so hard to reach so their kids would come to VBS are no different. To many of them the church is providing a nice summer community service and they get a few hours of free (or almost free, as many VBS programs charge these days) child care for a week. That the church has anything else of value for their kids is probably something that never crossed their minds.

For the church staff putting on VBS that's difficult to imagine, but it's true and though you want people to so love VBS they will bring their kids back on Sunday to your children's program and begin a relationship with the church, this won't happen unless you are intentional about it. Here's how to do it: [Read more...]

Multi-channel communications advice from the publisher of USA TODAY

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Multichannel communication is needed in churches
We live in a time of Multi-channel communication and here is advice on how to work together as a team  to make the most of it.

When Larry Kramer, founder of the successful MarketWatch website, took over as the new publisher of USA TODAY he made some comments that provide a challenge to communication ministries in churches when he talked about how he wants to give people the news. He said, “The paper will build ‘closer relationships with our readers’ through new uses of technologies. ‘We’re going to give people what they want, when they want it, where they want it. You want it on your watch, I’ll give it to you. Or inside of your sunglasses.’ ” (http://wapo.st/Jw8EBg ) In the church, we may not have all these options to communicate through all the channels available to Kramer, but we have a world to reach with the gospel, so what can we do?

We don’t have the money, but we have the resources

Individual churches don’t have the money to provide communications in the multitude of channels—print, digital, and every variation imaginable in both these areas—in the ways that USA TODAY can. But that doesn’t mean churches can’t keep up with this constantly changing communication revolution with the resources that make them successful in every other ministry endeavor. That way is to realize that the task of providing communications in every channel needed for the church, isn’t a one-person job, but a challenge for the church body. No one person can keep up with technology; no one person can create all the communications needed for a church communications that ministers to all the people at all the church. In practical terms this means:

You need a communications team made up of people who are proficient with the various channels

Quit looking for one person who can do it all. You need a team made up of some who love print; some who dream in HTML code; some who love images; some who love type and words in order; some who can create a great postcard and others who can text with their eyes closed, some who love the discipline of a monthly newsletter with consistent columns and articles, others who gravitate to the free-flowing forms of social media. You need people who are good in person-to-person communications, people who love the web, and people who manage databases effortlessly.

Please reread the paragraph above. Many churches today think they only need to work on what they consider "cutting-edge communications" and that they need to get the youngest, most tech savvy person available to do them. But the church is made up of many people of many ages and skills, of many degrees of access to different technologies. As a church body, we must be committed to serving all of them.

As you do that, here are Four Suggestions on how to create and manage multi-channel church communications: [Read more...]

Ministry Assistant Challenge—Conduct a Self-evaluation

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Ministry assistant challenge for Self-evaluation
Because so many ministry assistants work alone, it is even more important that you take time to evaluate the work you do.

One of the absolutely best things about being a ministry assistant is the opportunity the position gives to serve—and by your service to make a real difference in the lives of people. Your work has the potential to be more than a fulfilling job. Because working in the church requires skills beyond spelling and grammar, it really can be ministry in the best sense of the word.

While your work is more than managing records, fielding phone calls, scheduling events, and producing publications, how you manage those routine tasks is the heart of your responsibilities. Being involved in ministry does not justify being less than professional in your performance.

Your technical and organizational skills are vitally important.

One meaningful way to show people how much you care for them is to be conscientious in your service to them, to deliver excellence. And yet, in too many offices no one is evaluating administrative effectiveness.

A recent discussion turned to annual job evaluations. “I think I am doing a good job,” remarked one office professional, “but I suppose I don’t really know. We’ve talked about doing evaluations in our office, but no one is interested enough to set them up.” [Read more...]

Foundation of The Five Steps: Disciple-making

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The importance of discipleship for church growthWe all know we should obey Great Commission and that the Great Commission commands we make disciples, but beyond the personal  spiritual significance of that command, it’s easy to forget the practical power of disciple-making in church growth. Building disciples isn’t only what we are supposed to be doing, it’s how to grow people and churches.

Discipleship ministry at first appears to take excessive time to develop a few people when aggressive outreach marketing seems to reach many more people much faster. But first appearances can be deceiving as this article will show you.

It’s important to read this article before getting into the practical nuts and bolts of creating church communications. The purpose of The Five Steps is to fully fulfill the Great Commission and that means to make disciples. If discipleship is your goal, if fully fulfilling the Great Commission is the measure of success in your church communication process, you will approach your communication ministry much differently than if success is measured by how many people you get in the door on Sunday or how impressed visitors are with your website.

Why discipleship is essential for the church to survive —and why your communications are essential to develop disciples

Today we have aggressive atheists who are the darlings of the popular press. When men like Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris slander and malign the Christian faith in a way that is not only false, but nasty and vicious, their mockery is quoted and promoted without question throughout the internet and across the globe.

Church leaders who are exposed to public scandal are reported in the in press and individuals Christians don’t fare much better. Studies frequently show Christians behave no differently than non-Christians in morality and that many people who call themselves Christian have little or no understanding of what the Bible says and how it teaches them to act (which is probably why their behavior is no different than that of their unbelieving friends).

I could bore you with reams of studies and statistics, but you know in the quietness of the your heart and the turmoil of your mind that the Christian church is losing ground, so let’s skip the statistics and get to solutions. [Read more...]

Mother’s Day Resource List

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From motivational videos and e-books to invitations, postcards, bulletin inserts and one of our most motivations pieces for prayer, Effective Church Communications has materials for you. We have ideas and samples, ready to print PDFs, editable templates, graphics, everything you need for outreach and celebration for Mother's Day at your church.

Following each area is described, just click on the title to go to that selection.

***CLICK ON THE TITLES below to go to the resource.

VIDEO: Mother's Day, communications that will help you make the most of the outreach opportunities, Webinar On-Demand

Take a few minutes to watch this and you'll never look at Mother's Day at your church in the same way.

Mother's Day has the third highest attendance of any Sunday and it isn't because of all the mothers there. It's because of the unchurched spouses and kids who come with mom!

This is a fantastic day for outreach, but you have to intentionally make the most of it. Below is a short video that will give you great ideas on how to do this. I STRONGLY recommend you take a few minutes in your staff meeting to discuss this and plan how you can make the most of this day for outreach.

Included with the video is a PDF of the handouts for the presentation. [Read more...]