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 be sure your church isn’t confusing the Christmas message

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Christmas Star
A Christmas star may mean a lot to your church members, but be sure to explain its meaning to your guests.

How can the church confuse the Christmas message? Isn't it the secular world with its emphasis on spending and consumption, on parties and secular images the one confusing the Christmas message? We try so hard to make sure everyone knows "Jesus is the Reason for the Season!"

Isn't confusion over the meaning of Christmas a secular issue?

Not really. In many ways, the secular world no longer confuses the true meaning of Christmas. In the past it seemed that there was a sometimes uncomfortable mixture between the birth of Jesus and Santa—currently, almost every trace of Jesus has been erased in secular presentations of Christmas. In the various programs on TV this year, it seemed like the overarching themes had to do with "family" (commendable, but important all year) and something often referred to as "Christmas magic."

The secular world is quite clear that it wants nothing to do with Jesus at Christmas and there is little confusion about that.

Sadly, confusion about Jesus is often found in the church at Christmas though we certainly don't do it intentionally. The following are some thoughts to make sure that we are communicating the message we think we are communicating.

[Read more...]

PLEASE be clear about the finances of Christmas events

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Christmas events should be completely joyful without any hidden agendas or costs, no matter how well intentioned.
Christmas events should be completely joyful without any hidden agendas or costs, no matter how well intentioned.

I hope I am not being too harsh in this and the related article. The true situations that have inspired both are quite upsetting to me. I want to just shake the folks who made the decisions in both instances and ask, "Don't you realize we are in a recession? Don't you realize the extreme financial distress many people are in?"

I don't know if the decision makers in either situation have ever had to decide whether to feed themselves or to feed their child; whether they have been in a situation where they have no idea how a medical or dental problem will be taken care of, or if they will live in a home of their own for another month—but many people in our churches today are struggling with these issues. The financial amounts may seem small to whoever made the decisions, but no financial amount is small to many people today.

I imagine the decisions were made in an unthinking way, with no intention to hurt anyone and with that hope in mind, the following situation (and the article that follows) is shared so that no one in your church will unintentionally hurt anyone else. Read on for the specifics.....

Be very clear about financial obligations in Christmas invitations

True situation here: a church created a ticket for a Christmas concert. It stated that the event was free. That's great. However, on the back, it listed the "Benefit Charities" for each performance.

What does that mean? Is it free or not? Will they be taking up an offering? Will that feel awkward?

After checking into the situation some more, I discovered that:

  • The event was free.
  • Each performance the featured charity would be highlighted.
  • The refreshments served at the event, coffee, beverages, and cookies would be for sale and the proceeds would go to the charity.

The church was also strongly encouraging church members to invite unchurched friends.

Beyond clarity, think through the possible outcome of your decision

Please consider what might happen if:

  • A church member doesn't know about charging for goodies, he has only seen the tickets.
  • The church member has been laid off work, but could really use a night out.
  • The church member invites a neighbor who has several kids because he knows they also really need a night out because the dad has been laid off and mom's salary barely pays for the house payment. Special times or treats aren't in the budget.
  • They show up at church and the kids see the goodies and rush over to the table. "Not so fast.....those cookies are $1. each. It is going to charity you know," says the person entrusted with the cookie table.
  • The church member has no cash with him, since his layoff  he intentionally doesn't carry any so he won't be tempted to spend foolishly. The neighbor has a dollar in his pocket. The kids don't know what to do.

Hard to say how this will end.

May the Lord help us be sensitive to needs

I imagine somebody thought it would be a really nice way to help out some charities because giving is down and that is a good thought.

But there might be alternative ways to do that such as donation baskets by the goodie tables.

Charging for goodies at special events is not a good idea no matter what the motivation. Even many people who can afford it don't always bring cash in these days of debit cards. At best, charging for goodies is being an unthinking host and at worst it might mean causing embarrassment and pain to someone already in the worst financial situation of their lives.

People are hurting today, please please pray and think through sensitivity and how you might give,  not only to charities but to the people closest to you who are in need.

When the holidays or anytime doesn’t go as expected–tips on how to grow through conflict

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Things don't always go as we want in the church office at Christmas or any other time--here are some tips to help.
Things don't always go as we want in the church office at Christmas or any other time--here are some tips to help.

Ed. note: We all dream of what the holidays should be--everything perfect and peace and love all around. But if we are working at a church, we also know things don't always go as planned. When this happens, Gayle's advice that follows will, as it always does, encourage and equip you to handle the conflict well in your service for the Lord.

Growing involves having experiences—most pleasant, some not. Positive lessons can be learned even by negative encounters. Here is one assistant’s account of how she grew through adversity. [Read more...]

Christmas Holiday visitors—how to turn them into regular attenders

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Christmas invitations and how to keep them
Here are ideas to keep your Christmas visitors coming back.

As we go into the holiday season, your church will be holding many events that will attract visitors. You want these visitors to become regular attenders and you can help make this possible not only by the quality of your holiday event, but by the follow-up publications you send out.

Successful follow-up publications DO NOT mean a mass generated “so glad you were here….” letter. Instead, try these ideas:

Position your church positively

Sending out a “so glad you were here” publication is OK to do if you have the time and money, but there is nothing usual or memorable about that. People expect churches to be glad they came and of course a church wants them to return.

What might be a bit more surprising is if your church, instead of asking for something, gave something away. For example, what if you sent out a series of postcards or a series of one-page newsletters and tips that would give people ideas that would help them get through the holiday season. What if those publications didn’t ask for anything, but were genuine servant publications with the motive of honestly helping the people they were sent to.

This would put your church in an entirely different place and a very positive one that would cause people to want to return. Following are some specific publications that could do this:

Countdown to Christmas Postcards/flyers or emails

Depending upon how far back from Christmas you start this, let’s assume you have a list of families who attended your Fall Harvest Festival. You make up a series of perhaps five post-cards,  tri-fold flyers, or follow-up emails in bright colors with topics like this:

Countdown to Christmas

Week #1—some inexpensive, creative, and alternative ideas on how to plan Christmas shopping and gift exchanges, drawing of names, deciding to give to charities in the name of family members, what charity opportunities are available in your community, if any churches (your church?) sell third world gift items.

Week #2—some favorite recipes from your congregation: a favorite fudge, a hot cider mix, a special grandma cookie recipe. Many families today don’t have family members close by and many young families don’t know how to prepare holiday items. Make sure your directions are simple and easy.

Week #3—the meaning of advent and some ideas on how to help families celebrate it. Perhaps offer an advent booklet for free by simply calling your church or requesting one from your church website.

Week #4—Offer to pray for people during this busy and sometimes stressful time of year. Have a prayer line where they can leave requests or an email address. Assure them it is confidential and is a gift from your church to them.

Week #5—An invitation to take part and the times your church offers free baby-sitting so busy parents or especially single parents can shop, locations where your church is doing totally free gift-wrapping.

On all these postcards be sure to clearly give the address of your church, your service times and times for children’s church or education programs, contact phone number and web site. Be sure also to always say something like “Your Local Community Church is there for you and your family, not only at Christmas time, but any time of the year. Please contact us if we can serve you in any way.” If you say something like that, be sure there is a team in place and ready to respond.

You could also do electronic versions of the postcards by creating electronic postcards or emails with the same content. The holiday postcard templates at www.constantcontact.com include wonderful designs that can be very useful in this way.

What it’s really all about

Another option would be a series of cards explaining the meaning of different traditions at Christmas. If you do a Google search on the web you’ll find dozens of pages with explanations of various Christmas traditions.

You could choose one tradition a week and again send out a series of cards. Again, many people today don’t know why we celebrate the traditions we do and you can give them a Christian explanation. Be sure to always remind them, that in addition to the reasons we have candy canes or Christmas trees (both with very Christian historical traditions) the “reason for the season” really is that Jesus, who was fully God, became fully man to grow up and become our Savior.

What’s most important

The most important thing about either of these communication/church marketing projects is not how fancy your clip art is or how stunning the type face that you choose. What is most important is if you create these and send them out with lots of love and prayer for the visitors to your church, you have a tangible way to let them know you care.