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.

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...]

Use school supply sales to communicate your love for children for backpacks and Christmas Shoe boxes

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Shop the summer sales to get great supplies for Backpack ministries
Shop the summer sales to get great supplies for Backpack ministries and to save for Christmas Shoe Boxes--here are links to free Bulletin Inserts to encourage your church to be involved.

“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.’ Matt. 25:40

Loving and caring for those less fortunate is a way of showing love to Jesus and at this time of year, you can do that by shopping for school supplies at the greatly discounted prices on the pre-school sales and using them for Backpack Ministries and saving them ahead for Christmas Shoe boxes.

To encourage and inspire the people in your church to take part, Effective Church Communications has links at the end of this article to entries that have church bulletin inserts in a variety of illustration formats that you can use to remind and encourage your congregation to get involved.

Some of the bulletin inserts are  PDFs that you can personalize on the back. There are more designs available in editable MS Publisher format that you can download and modify.

In addition to printed bulletin inserts you can take the same material and use it on your website, postcards, and as email reminders.

The first two links are for Backpack Ministry Inserts, the third one encourages people to shop for your Christmas Shoe boxes when the fall sales are on, and finally a personal article on why this ministry is so important to me.

No matter what else you read, or what you do, take some time and a few extra dollars to love kids in Jesus name by buying supplies they might not have if you didn't care and share.

Click on any title to go to the articles:

Back-to-School Backpack Ministry--an opportunity to bring joy to needy kids

A new set of designs with templates for Effective Church Communications

My personal reasons why backpack ministry is so important to me

Bulletin Inserts: Shop for Your Christmas Child Boxes in August--Samaritan's Purse shopping Tips!

Mobile Check-in–a new way to accommodate the needs of young families

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Children's checkin
Make your children's ministry check-in a service and not a bother for parents--check out this system for how.

The church management software company, By the Book. has stepped into the digital age in a big way with their new way of checking in children at church with any mobile device. Here is how they describe it:

Imagine deploying your volunteers throughout your church building, armed with iPads or smartphones ready to check folks in.  Then by the time those same folks walk over to the  printing station, their name tags and security tags are already printed and waiting for them.  Do you have a bus ministry?  Now you can check those kids in as soon as they hop on the bus.  When they get to the church, their name tags are there waiting for them.  Well, this is now available using Roll Call Mobile CheckIn.

What a great way to minister to the tech-savvy families attending your church! It may seem like a little thing, but when so many churches want to meet the needs of young families, a system like this shows you are willing to go the extra mile to accommodate their life-style needs with the systems in your church. We communicate to visitors in many ways and a system like this communicates you want to meet needs.

Below is a video that illustrates the system and following that a press-release with lots more information about it:

 

Unshackle Your Children’s Ministry with Mobile Check In Church Software

Mobilize Your Children’s Check In Routine Using iPad®, Tablets, and Smartphones with Roll Call Mobile CheckIn

BYRON, IL., July 26, 2012– Keeping children secure through the use of a computerized children’s check in system is a prerequisite for nearly all children’s ministries. By the Book has taken children’s check in a step further to provide churches with ultimate flexibility by offering Roll Call Mobile Check In, which allows churches to use iPads, tablets, and smartphones for kid’s check in procedures.

“We feel the mobile check in option will give the church the ultimate in flexibility in how they do children’s check in,” says Kim Conley, co-owner of By the Book, software for churches and nonprofits.“Roll Call Mobile CheckIn allows the church to deploy volunteers throughout their facility to check families into classes or even worship services.”

Imagine a church that offers a bus ministry: Armed with an iPad that has 3G capability, the volunteer could check in kids as soon as they arrive on the bus and have name tags printed and waiting for them upon arrival at church.

The Roll Call dashboard will give ministry workers real time headcounts so the children’s ministry leader will know right away if any classes are getting too full or if they need to enlist more volunteers.

“They’ll also be able to check in visitors right from the mobile device and even walk them to the appropriate classroom if they’d like,” adds Conley.

“This children’s check in system has been the easiest out of any I have used. I love the ability to grow with more computers, tablets, or key cards as our ministry expands,” comments Angela C. from Summit Ridge Church.

Children’s Check In/Out Process

The child check in system in Roll Call allows users to check students into their classes, record attendance, and print nametags and security labels. With Mobile CheckIn, volunteers can check students in using a mobile device by looking up last name or last four digits of their phone number, then print labels at a centralized print station. To check students out simply compare the security code on the child’s name tag with the security code on the parent tag.

Technology Specifications

In order to run Roll Call Mobile CheckIn, churches will need to have Roll Call church management software installed on at least one computer. This computer must be running Windows Pentium 4 (minimum) or Mac (Intel) OSX 5.8 or greater. More details on technical specifications can be found here.

Churches will also need a mobile device such as an iPad, tablet, or smartphone that can connect wirelessly to their local network. If using the mobile device outside of local network, that device must be able to access the internet through a 3G or 4G network. If churches will be checking students in from outside the church’s local area network, they will need a fixed IP address for the Roll Call Server machine.

About By the Book

Founded in 2002, By the Book (http://www.bythebook.com) offers robust desktop and internet accessible church and nonprofit management software. Roll Call Church Management Software meets the needs of churches from small to large through membership management, attendance monitoring, visitor follow up, contribution tracking, and background check management. Roll Call Child CheckIn and Mobile CheckIn add on solutions offer churches peace of mind by securing children through PCs or mobile devices. Honor Roll Fundraising Software offers nonprofits complete donor management tools, pledge tracking, and contact management. Free trials are available of all of By the Book’s software offerings. Email, call, or sign up today: info@bythebook.com or 1-800-554-9116 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting FREE 1-800-554-9116 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Press release from: Lauren Hunter, http://churchtechtoday.com/

Bulletin Inserts: Back-to-School Backpack Ministry, ways to involve your congregation

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Backpack Image 1
Back-to-school, Backpack Ministries are a fantastic way to care for the children of your community. This article and the one linked to it provide ideas for church bulletin inserts that will communicate your message to the congregation.

Back to School was always a wonderful time of year for me, but for many kids, it can be a time of sadness if they don't have what they need. This is a simple, but powerful ministry your church can do. Below is the introduction to the church bulletins:

Back-to-School Backpack
Ministry
—an opportunity to bring joy to needy kids

School is about to start and it’s a time of excitement, fun, and discovery for many children. But for some children, it means showing up at school without crayons or pencils, notebooks or glue, without the supplies they need. Sadly today, many parents can’t pay for them and schools are unable to provide them.

But the body of Christ can. Our church has a ministry where we provide filled backpacks to little kids who need them.

We have four ways you can help:
......and the inserts go on to give specific advice

Last year's bulletin inserts are free CLICK HERE to go to them.

For a personal article on the meaning of this ministry to me, CLICK HERE.

This year, samples for inspiration and editable files

The samples on this page are new versions of the Bulletin Inserts. At the bottom of this page is a link to a ZIP FILE.

The ZIP FILE contains:

  • PDF ready-to-print files of the inserts
  • MS Publisher editable files
  • MS Word text file if you want to create your own
  • PNG low-res images if you want to promote them on your website
  • JPG hi-res images if you want to print them

Below is the Free ZIP FILE --simply click on it, save on your hard drive, click to open and use as you will!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE

Last year's bulletin inserts are free CLICK HERE to go to them.

For a personal article on the meaning of this ministry to me, CLICK HERE.

For the bulletin inserts in the video on Sales Tips for Children's Shoe Box, CLICK HERE.