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.

Better Verbal Church Communication

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Better verbal communications essential
Better verbal communications are essential in the church office if we want to do our best in serving our Lord.

According to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, there were 340,213 cell phone users in the United States in1985; by the start of 2004 there were more than 159 million. Wikipedia reports that as of April 2014 there were over 327 million cell phones in the U.S. If technology made us better communicators, we would all be masters by now. Certainly we talk more, but do we communicate better? We can. Both on the phone and face to face, ministry assistants daily have countless opportunities to demonstrate these characteristics of the excellent verbal communicator.

• Approachable and available
Members like to feel comfortable about calling the church office for all sorts of information. Consider those calls an integral part of your job. Your value to ministry increases as you get to know the members, their personalities, their needs, and the roles they fill. They want to know you too.

Some assistants say that accepting invitations to have lunch with groups meeting at the church is one of the best, and most enjoyable, ways of building rapport with those groups. And it is always easier to communicate with those with whom we have a common bond.

• Informed
No matter how long you have been on your job, there will always be more to learn. Add something to your store of knowledge every day.

Master the art of knowing where to go to find answers—to a person, a book, online, wherever. When asked a question to which you have no answer, you communicate better by saying, “Let me look into that and get back with you,” rather than “I’m sorry; I don’t know.”

• Engaged and interested
As the one at the hub of the church communication wheel, the assistant needs to be an interested listener as well as a giver of information. This is not to say you are to spend endless amounts of time. To the contrary. You will use your communication skills to pleasantly find out what your callers need, to meet those needs efficiently, and to conclude conversations with all concerned feeling good about the church and about you.

• Observant
More than words go into verbal messages. Listen for tone of voice, speed of the speech, and the emotion displayed. Be aware, too, of what is not being said. One-on-one, notice facial expressions and body language.

New members in particular may be hesitant during visits to the office. Your awareness helps you anticipate their needs. They want to fit in, but are not familiar enough with the church to know what to ask for. Can you offer a pictorial directory, program information, a quick tour of the building?

• Impartial
Some people are more pleasant to talk with, more gracious, more appreciative. The best communicators don’t play favorites. Bias, past negative experiences, or personal prejudices cannot be allowed to hinder clear conversation.

• Thorough
One of the weakest links in the communication chain is that of follow-up.

Someone says, “Call me if you need help with that big mailing.” Call her. Even if it’s for a different task; she is offering willing hands. Someone sends a gift. Send a prompt thank you. You meet with a group of volunteers and discuss plans. Follow up with a written memo of the conclusions reached. In a discussion with a member you say you will do such and such. Be certain to do in a timely manner whatever you promised. Then, let the member know you’ve done the task.

Being thorough, tying up all those loose ends, is a sure mark of professionalism.

Incorporate these essentials into your verbal communication. They will make a positive difference!

 

How to really love visitors and the members of your congregation with church communications

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Love with your actions not just words
To love with your actions not just words, you've got to communicate clearly and completely.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

Imagine a person looking for a new church. They are new in town, lonely and want to connect. After an online search for local churches, perhaps they google the church website and then visit. They want to find out more.

The church proclaims "We love people!" and the person is certainly in need of tangible love.

The person would like to find out more about the church and at the service, someone briefly mentioned that small groups were starting and that it was a great way to connect. It sounded interesting, but many other things were mentioned quickly in the same announcement time.

Wanting to learn more, the searching person looks at the bulletin, the online newsletter, and the website, looking for more information for the details on how to make a connection.

The bulletin had a very fancy graphic that said "Be sure to join our small groups!"

The website had a new landing page under "Small Group Ministries" that had testimonies of people who loved their small groups.

The social media links said pretty much the same things—encouragements to be part of groups, but no connecting details.

The person received a generic note from the pastor telling the person how happy he was that they visited and various other friendly sentiments.

Why none of these communications was loving

Not one of them communicated anything SPECIFIC about how to connect with a small group. They all gave tantalizing bits of information about the small group ministry at the church, but the underlying message was that if you were already part of the group and knew how to connect the small groups were great.

If you didn't know—you could call the church office—but chances are you wouldn't get a real person to talk to and you many not want to leave a message and your contact information with strangers.

You might try emailing the church—but many churches don't answer their emails promptly, if at all.

Why this happens

No one at any church intends to be unloving in their church communications. But it is so easy without thinking to assume that "everybody knows……" about small groups or any other ministry of the church that has gone on for years.

But visitors don't know and if you don't give clear information and detailed information in every channel and/or links to that information every time you mention an event, people will not know what is going on. No one can read your mind; no one knows the good intentions you have to involve people in any ministry if you don't clearly communicate it.

Specific advice on how to create loving communications about small groups or other ministries

Be sure you know all the details. Sometimes church communicators don't have all the information they need to communicate about an event to visitors and regular members. Be sure you get and then pass on the following information:

Time and dates of the events: as well as starting time, be sure you always include duration. Does the event last 1 hour? 2 hours? Whatever it is, be clear.

Location: "At the Johnson's house" or a similar description doesn't count—who are these people, is a question newcomers will ask. Always give a specific address and if the host has a specific role in the church clarify that. For example, at Pastor David's house, who is pastor of Single Adults.

Target audience if that is important: if an event or group is for singles, seniors, married couples or any other specific group, be sure you state it. If it is open to all adults, be clear.

Clarify child care situations: If you charge, what about a single mom who may not be able to afford your fee? If you charge by the child (one church charged $5 a child) that might be great for the host who had one child, but that effectively made the small group cost-prohibitive for the blended family with 4 kids. Consider making child care free and paying for it out of your Missions or Outreach budget—this could be one of the kindest things you might do for a family who really needs to be part of a small group, but who couldn't afford $20 a night for small group child care or a single mom who couldn't come if there was any fee. (Both of these true situations—one turned out well, the other did not.)

Anything else that might be important: do people need a workbook? To they have to pay for it? Is homework expected? Think through and ask yourself if there is anything that would cause someone embarrassment or awkwardness if they first found out about it at the group.

Benefits of attending: sometimes we forget to list the great benefits of church events and ministries because we think they are self-evident—but they aren't or more people would probably attend. Will people learn more of God's Word, our only true guide for life and eternity? Will they meet people who will be fellow travelers in their journey of faith? Will they find people they can pray for and with; encourage and build up? We sometimes become complacent about the tremendous privilege and joy we have of being able to take part in church activities without fear—remind your audience of that.

Clearly communicate where to go or who to contact for more information: In all print communications, have your website and the specific place on it listed for more information. Social media are almost useless here because it is an ever-flowing stream, not something that has specific facts, schedules, and locations. In print, social media and web communications be sure to have contact information—phone, text, email, social media interaction links and most important of all—be sure someone constantly monitors them and responds immediately.

Loving in "action and truth"

As the Apostle John reminded us—it is so easy to say we love people, but to truly love them, we must combine our sentiments with "action and truth."

To do that in your church communications requires detailed, often tedious work as the sections above illustrate—but it is important to do it for our communications to reflect the patient love of our Lord Jesus.

What will really make Mom happy for Mother’s Day

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Mothers Day can inspire Moms to pray.
Mothers Day can inspire Moms to pray.

Flowers and candy are nice and at church praise from the pulpit for all Mom's hard work is always appropriate. But in addition to those things, we've got two others that may have more eternal impact.

Inspiration to pray for her kids: One Mother's Prayer

This short piece, One Mother’s Prayer, has probably impacted more people than anything else I’ve written. It is the simple, but true story of a young man One mothers prayers, cute onewhose life was going very wrong, whose Mother prayed, and his life changed.

It was first published in Today’s Christian Woman magazine. It was repeated in their Best of Ten Years of writings, it has been reprinted and republished all over the world, and it continues to bring tears to the eyes of any group I read it to. You are free to use it any way you want and share it however you want.

It is useful for Mother’s Day, for Moms in Touch and other prayer ministries and to give out in Children’s ministries. CLICK HERE  to go to One Mother's Prayer.

Come Back #4 IMAGEMother’s Day: Come Back to Church Cards

One of the things that will make Moms most happy is for the people they love who only come to church on Mother’s Day and other special events to come every week. It won’t happen by simply wishing it will happen. You  can help this happen for Mom's by providing a way to intentionally let visiting family members know you want them to come back to church. Come Back #1 IMAGE

You have to invite them back.

Subtle doesn’t work as a communication strategy in our world today. Think of how the secular media bombards us with repeated messages to buy this, come to that, don’t miss out on some special sale. Though we don’t want to be obnoxious we do have to be persistent and clear.
The link here will help you do this: CLICK HERE to go to it.

eAdditional resources of all sorts for Mother's Day

Inspirations and how-to videos, ebooks, connection cards and bulletin inserts for Mother's Day are all at this link:  https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/mothers-day-resource-list/ 

 

Mother’s Day is your church’s BEST opportunity for evangelism!

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When you think about Mother's Day celebrations at your church, evangelism probably isn't the first think you think about--but it should be!

Mothers Day Book
Click here to download this free e-book. Read and share with your church staff and it will change your view of Mothers Day.

If we are to "make the most of our time" and our calling is to introduce people to Jesus and help them grow to mature disciples, we need to realize that Mother's Day brings many unchurched spouses and kids to church who seldom come any other time. If all we do is give out roses for Mom and say a few nice words (nothing wrong with that), we will miss out on the opportunity to give Mom the best gift ever--kids and husbands introduced to Jesus.

This free e-book will give you a new view of Mother's Day--just click and download.

For more resources for Mother's Day, CLICK HERE.

ALL of the materials are free for Effective Church Communication Members, in ready-to-print PDFs and in editable MS Publisher files. For more information on membership and to sign up, CLICK HERE.

#6 Difficulties and testing are as much a part of God’s plan as blessing

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It takes training in any area of life to be successful
It takes training in any area of life to be successful and God gives us challenges in church communications to grow us spiritually.

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. (Deut. 7:13)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4:1)

These are difficult words. We like to focus on God’s promises of provision and joy in our lives. To be reminded that difficulties and testing are also allowed by our God—we’d rather not think about that option.

But difficulties are a part of life, especially a life spent working on church communications. The world of computer-created communication will never stop changing; it will never become less complex and demanding. Temptations to despair, frustration, and anger are part of our work.

Sometimes the team of people we work with doesn’t make our load lighter, but heavier. Sometimes we can’t explain why we aren’t able to produce what they want and we don’t know how to fix the problems. Sometimes we are shocked by the anger and resentment that wells up in response to what we consider an unreasonable demand.

At those times, these verses can comfort us because even our troubles have a good purpose. We never know how strong a rope is until a weight is hung from it. We never know how genuine trust in God is until it’s tested in the daily grind of projects and deadlines. We might assume we rely on God in every area of our lives, but until we absolutely cannot handle a technology or communication team issue without Him, we may not realize how we have left this part of our life out of His guidance and control.

In the same way that we can’t correct a problem in a manuscript until we see it, it is hard to grow in our faith until we are aware of our shortcomings. So our Lord allows the testing to come, often in the midst of our work for him, so we can learn and grow. If we haven’t taken time to learn the skills we need, a technological challenge might force us to learn a skill we have put off learning. If we don’t see the sin that lingers in our souls, we aren’t challenged to grow in our Christian life so that we can respond with gentleness and kind words under pressure.

Not only will our growth benefit us, but we can be an encouragement to others and remind them that God cares just as much about helping us create an effective newsletter with the computer or other church communication team tasks, as He does about helping us teach a Bible lesson effectively.

The context of these verses also gives us hope. Neither Jesus or the children of Israel stayed in the desert of tempting. Jesus came out of the desert into a life of ministry. The children of Israel went into the promised land.

Our trials prepare serve the same purpose. We aren’t destined to stay in them, but to learn from them to be better equipped for the communication ministry our Lord has given us.

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Devotions Cover The above material is from: Devotions for Church Communicators. For a complete copy of the book in print and online formats, CLICK HERE. To sign up for our online emails that come out when new information is posted on this site, including when new devotions or Biblical challenges are posted, CLICK HERE. To find past devotions and challenges on this website, CLICK HERE.