Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.

A Free Template of the Christmas Story and short gospel presentation based on “Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”

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Christmas evangelism bulletin insert size
This is a set of bulletin insert-size Christmas evangelism publications--please share!

This has been one of our most popular communications for Christmas—it's an upbeat, but thought-provoking presentation of the good news about Jesus for Christmas based on the popular hymn, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing!" and I wanted to share it with you this year.

When I first created the piece it was a full-size sheet and in a 3-panel brochure format, but after sending that out (CLICK HERE for original article and for 8 1/2 x 11-inch size flyers and for brochure size) I got a request to create a bulletin insert-size piece. What a great idea! And I was happy to do that. The images are below and below them a ZIP file for everyone to download ready-to-print PDFs, the editable MS Publisher file, and images of the pieces.

I wrote it and created the communications and you have my permission to share or use it in any way you want.

Be creative in how you use it

Of course, you can print them up and use them at Christmas outreach events or as a bulletin insert.

You can also copy the text or the entire communication and share it on social media for your church or personally.

It's also useful to make copies for your congregation to put into their Christmas letters. Either with the templates here or the ones in the link above (where there is a full-page version), you have my permission to upload any of the PDFs to your church websites for your people to download to print at home and share with their friends and family. I've printed them out for my Sunday School classes and people have greatly appreciated it.

Encourage your congregation to put them into their Christmas cards or enclose with gifts (remembering Jesus is the greatest gift of all!).

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Follow up for Christmas visitors: content for social media, flyers, bulletin insert, newsletter articles

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#1MS Pub Editable Because He didn't stay a baby
Use this bulletin insert to connect holiday church visitors with your church and encourage them to explore the Christian faith. CLICK HERE to download this FREE PDF.

Many people will came to your church for Christmas Eve or other Christmas-related services because they want to make a family member happy, to keep peace in an extended family, or for many other reasons that have nothing to do with seeking God and who never come at any other time of year.

However, our Lord who stooped to become a baby still seeks them and a communication piece like this may help make a ongoing connection with your visitors and Jesus.

This piece is an extended version of the Christmas follow-up postcards mentioned earlier that reminded people that we don't only celebrate Christmas because of the Baby Jesus, but because of what he grew up to be—our Savior.

This extended piece can be used in many ways: as flyer or bulletin insert, as a print piece inside a visitor letter, as text or graphics or both for social media or your online or print newsletter, it is designed for people to get them to think about Jesus beyond an inspiring service.

On the back you can add some links to online resources to help them explore what it means to be a Christian. You could also add events from your church schedule, your website information about your church, a personal message, or contact information.

PLEASE take the time and effort to make up a communication like this!

Many churches are hesitant to preach challenging evangelistic sermons at Christmas services and while that is understandable, we don't want to miss the opportunity to share Jesus and to give people the resources to explore more about Him on their own. A communication like this isn't intrusive or pushy, but it gently challenges and gives people the resources to check into more about Jesus and the Christian faith. I've suggested some sources, but please add your own or any ways visitors can engage with your church or enter into a dialog or have their questions answered.

Additional designs and editable files

Below is the text of the insert and following that are added designs available in the ZIP file at the end of the article. The ZIP file has:

  • Ready-to-print PDFs of all the designs
  • Editable MS Publisher files
  • Hi-res images of each design
  • MS Word file of the text for the front of the flyer and recommended resources.

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The best way to get visitors to attend Christmas church events–the practical tools to do it

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What would you say is the answer to the challenge of getting unchurched visitors to come to your Christmas events? Is it to purchase a national outreach campaign of postcards? Is it to spend lots of money on advertisements in the local newspaper? Is it to create colorful website banners for the holidays?

Though all of those methods may bring in a few visitors, the most effective way to get visitors to attend hasn’t changed from the days when Jesus walked on this earth—it is a friend telling a friend:

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (Jn. 1:41-42).

1 UP Why invite clipart bulletin insert
Just click to download PDF to encourage your church members to invite their friends for Christmas

Below is a Bulletin insert for everyone and following that is a selection of materials for ECC Members. Click here for information about ECC Membership.

An encouragement to your people to invite their friends

Nothing works better than a personal invitation, but for that to take place, your people have to be motivated to invite their friends to the events your church is hosting this Christmas season. We’d like to think that people will naturally want to invite their friends, but with all the demands of the holidays, it’s easy to forget that an invitation to a church event is not just one more option on the calendar.

If your church event is (and I am assuming it is) more than simply an entertaining Christmas tradition and is one that clearly communicates the gospel, you need to remind your people that inviting friends to your events could literally change their eternity. In an upbeat way, the bulletin insert here will remind them of this truth and encourage them to invite their friends.

This PDF is a free download for everyone. Click here or on the image to download it.

Additional options and outreach reminder materials for Effective Church Communication Members.

If you are an Effective Church Communication Member, by clicking the link below the following description, you can download a ZIP file that has:

1 UP Why invite photo bulletin insert
This version of the bulletin insert, plus the other one, plus PDFs, MS Publisher files, PNGs, and MS Word text file is available in a ZIP file for ECC Members. To download the ZIP file, go to the end of the article.

***Another design of the Bulletin Insert.

***PDFs of both designs, ready to print.

***MS Publisher files of this design so you can modify them it you want to. I did not include a file of the clip art one that is editable because when I checked again, I was not sure of the source of the clipart. But this template could be modified with clipart if you chose to use it.

***MS Word file of the text of the bulletin insert with permission to use it in any publication or website use you’d like.

***PNG-image files of each of the flyers for you to use in bulletins, websites, handouts, PowerPoint presentations where you encourage your people.

Becoming and ECC Member will save you hours work because you don’t have to create all of these items—simply download, modify and use! Lots more are coming for the Christmas season and all through the year, so join now so you don’t miss out!

For more information on how to become an ECC Member, Click here.

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Click here to download the ZIP file that contains all of the materials above. Save it to your desktop and then just click to open and use all the materials.

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