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.
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Multi-channel communication defined and why it is important

10 June, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Multi-channel communication means making the most of every opportunity you have to communicate the gospel message.

Unfortunately this is not something most church communicators want to hear. In this time of ever-changing options for communicating in our churches, it is easy to be overwhelmed and we naturally want to simplify our communication workload. This desire is expressed by the question, “What is the best way to communicate with people today? Is it the web, email, or podcasting? Do we still need to do print? What works best to reach the most people?

When overwhelmed with channel choices, it is natural to want to narrow it down to one or two that will be effective.

I always feel bad as I answer because I know people want me to give them a simple answer and to tell them that one channel, especially if it is the one they prefer, is all they need, but I can’t do that. I can’t do that because to be effective in your church communication ministry, to fully fulfill the Great Commission, there is no one way.

Today to be an effective church communicator, you have to use every channel available to you.

It is the time of both/and, not either /or

No one channel will work because people aren’t any more alike in their communication preferences than they are in other areas of likes and dislikes. Some folks love to go online; others don’t have a computer. Some love words; others prefer images and videos. Some love to listen to podcasts; others don’t have any idea what a podcast is. Some text continuously on their mobile phones; some won’t read anything that isn’t on paper.

It’s challenging because all of folks just mentioned go to your church. We can’t simply pick out one way to communicate because the Lord has put us into a body of wonderfully diverse people and it is our responsibility to create communications that are useful for all of them.

To make this situation manageable for practical application in church communications, I’ve divided the many communication channels into three overall groups. It is much more difficult to communicate in all three channels, but I trust this section will encourage you and give you some strategic ideas how to be more effective as you work.

The three channels of effective church communication

Channel #1: Print

This channel consists of printed bulletins, newsletters, postcards, invitation cards, connection cards, instruction materials, printed matter of all kinds, sizes, and quality that we create in the church. Print, in color, black and white, and all its forms, is still one of the primary and most important ways we communicate with people today and will be for some time. Almost everyone has access to this channel.

Channel #2: Digital

This channel is the latest tool we have to communicate the gospel message and we use it in PowerPoint® presentations, the internet, our website, email newsletters, cell phone and small screen communications, and anything else that makes up the newest, latest, and greatest communication technology. This channel is still emerging, developing in new systems and tools, and is expanding constantly. Not everyone has access to this channel and speed of adaptation varies tremendously with age and socioeconomic groups.

Channel #3: People

This communication channel is often easily forgotten, but it is probably the most important in any church communication program. You can have the most beautifully designed bulletin and the most complete and functional website imaginable, but if the folks at your welcome center ignore visitors and prefer to chat with each other, if the person answering the phone (assuming a real person can be reached) is having a really bad day and takes it out on all callers, or if the members of your congregation ignore visitors, the most beautiful and cutting edge communications, no matter if they are in print or digitally presented, will be useless. People are the church—the church throughout the ages is made up of people. Our people are always the primary message delivery tool of the gospel, accessible at all times to all people.

We are living in a time of great communication transition

We need to keep this transition time in mind as we consider the various channels of church communication. A few hundred years from now, things may settle down a bit and everyone will perhaps receive messages beamed wirelessly into their brain stem in a way that can be turned on and off with the blink of an eye, but right now we are in the midst of the biggest communication revolution in the history of humanity and this revolution floods us with communication options of every kind. In practical terms this means you need to learn and grow in all areas of communication.

That is what this site is about and to help you do that, here are some more resources that discuss multi-channel communication:

In your excitement over new communication channels please read: Never forget the people who don’t have access to the easily created channels

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Filed Under: Multi-Channel Communications, YP Foundational Tagged With: church communication basics, Church Connection Cards, church visitor cards, Church webinars, communication channels, Communications, multi-channel communication, yvon prehn

Effective Church Communicators Toolkits, an Introduction & Overview

27 March, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

To make it easier for you to access the information on this website for your own training and for training others, with or without the computer, I'm organizing the content into ECC TOOLKITS. The TOOLKITS contain instructional webinar/videos, corresponding PowerPoint presentations, PDF notes that go with them, associated e-books, and editable MS Publisher Templates, all focusing on one particular topic in church communications such as: church invitation cards, church visitor or connection cards, church bulletins, church websites, strategy for church communicators, and numerous holiday connected materials.

To access them you have two options:

Option #1: FREE Website TOOLKIT access for ECC MEMBERS

ECC Members have immediate, 24/7 access to all TOOLKIT materials as soon as they are released.

For each topic, all the material we have gathered for that topic will be accessible under the area of TOOLKITS, a tab on the Home Page of www.effectivechurchcom.com.  Each topic will be in a separate TOOLKIT.

PLEASE look at the OVERVIEW file for each TOOLKIT as the contents vary and for suggestions on how to make the most of each TOOLKIT. If you are using the videos for training a group directly from the website, any of videos can be enlarged to full screen size and projected. The quality of the videos projected from an internet connection is not as good or reliable as the ones from the CD, but it is possible to view them with a group in this way.

You also have permission to make copies of the e-books PowerPoint handouts, and other print materials, and the templates for your church communications team without purchasing additional memberships.

The TOOLKITS offer some similar materials, but differ in organization from the Free Member's Download section in that the Download section has separate files (templates, jpgs, e-books, PDFs) that you can download and use individually if you want a specific type of resource. The TOOLKITS are organized around a particular topic, holiday, or communication tool and have everything you need in a variety of formats, in one place, on that particular topic.

Option #2: Toolkit CDs from www.lulu.com/yvonprehn, all $19.95

This option is available for anyone, members or not, who would like the material accessible on a CD. This works especially well for the churches or church support organizations that do not have high speed internet access for the videos and some of the larger downloads.

The CDs will contain one TOOLKIT per CD and are very reasonably priced ($19.95 each) to enable individuals, churches, church support and training organizations to collect a library of TOOLKITS useful for all their members. The www.LULU.com  company that I use for production and shipping produces excellent quality CDs in hard plastic cases with spine labels—enough packaging to be useful for shelf storage and protection, but not too much with wasted software boxes.

The reproduction rights we give you with the TOOLKITS

Because we retain copyright to all the materials in our TOOLKITS, we can be generous with giving these rights to you. We do this because we want you to use the materials not only for your own learning, but to train others.

If we are to do all the communication for sharing the gospel and growing the Kingdom of God that needs to be done, we need many Great Commission-committed church communicators. We encourage you to not only look at these materials yourself, but use them to train others.

That is why we allow you to make copies of the e-books for staff and volunteers at your church if you either are a member or purchase CDs. That is why we grant you permission not only to use our materials to train volunteers if you are a member (you do need larger church or organizational membership for this) or purchase CDs, but you can charge a reasonable amount for that training and keep it.

You have permission to keep the CDs in your library and allow people who are members of your church or organization check them out, put them on their computer, print off e-books and not feel guilty that you are violating a rule about the CD only being able to be used on one computer.

We’d rather you didn’t reproduce the CDs. However, we can grant you a special license or provide group pricing if you want to give CDs to folks at a conference or training event. We can also provide wholesale pricing if you would like to sell the CDs and make a profit.

Questions, suggestions, ideas

If you have any questions about ECC TOOLKITS, suggestions for topics you would like to see in a TOOLKIT, or any other ideas on how we might help you become a more effective church communicator, please email: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.

My inspiration for creating the TOOLKITS

Inspiration for this organization method came from an unlikely source. Stephen King who, as a little boy, won his first Bible by memorizing verses for Methodist Sunday School and who now makes lots of money writing scary stories, provided a near perfect description of the situation confronting many church communicators today and an inspiration for how to help in his book, On Writing.

In the book King tells a story of when he was eight or nine, he helped his uncle replace a window screen. Though a fairly simple job, requiring only a screwdriver, his uncle carried a huge toolbox to and from the work site. When King asked his uncle why he went to all the work of lugging around the huge toolbox, when it seemed like a simple screwdriver, carried in his uncle’s back pocket, would have been sufficient, his uncle answered:

“Yeah, but Stevie,” he said, bending to grasp the handles. “I didn’t know what else I might find to do once I got out here, did I? It’s best to have your tools with you. If you don’t, you’re apt to find something you didn’t expect and get discouraged.”

King goes on to say:

“I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities [or to create the best church communications, my note] it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discouraged, you will perhaps seize the right tool and get immediately to work.”

That’s my purpose in creating these TOOLKITS, so church communicators will have a selection of resources so they can “seize the right tool and get immediately to work” to help their churches create communications that will enable us to fully fulfill the Great Commission.

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Filed Under: Church Invitation Cards Tagged With: Church Business & Invitation Cards, church business cards, church communication basics, church outreach, ECC Toolkits, yvon prehn

Overall Church Newsletter Samples #1

24 January, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 5 Comments

Below is a selection of church newsletters sent in as part of our Great Idea Swapalong with brief comments by Yvon Prehn. Church newsletters are still one of the most useful church communication pieces whether they are sent out or delivered digitally and the samples below are shared to help make yours more effective.

These samples are not shared for design and layout ideas alone, but for a variety of layout, content, and style considerations that are highlighted with the brief comments by each one. Study the newsletters from other churches always with the prayer of what you can learn that will help you be more effective with your congregation.

To study each more closely, you can click on the image and it will take you to a downloadable PDF of the newsletter.

Newsletter Out of BlueOut of the Blue
The Blue Ridge Bible Church

This is one instance where the name of the church provides a great name for the newsletter--it doesn't always work out this way, but it's fun when it does.

The editor of this newsletter has a wonderful way with words in other areas of the newsletter:  the children's ministry is called ZONE which stands for: Zeal for God; Oneness in relationships; Nurtured with the Truth; Expressing the Love of Christ. One more: "Why do we dye?" an article about Easter Eggs—great stuff!

To download a PDF of the newsletter, click hereor on the image of the newsletter.

Newsletter from Laurel ChurchThe Family News
The Laurel Church of Christ

Notice how nice and clean the layout is on this newsletter. Though there are lots of colors and images used, the creator stayed within the grid lines. The grid is the invisible underlying structure of your communication piece.

To see what I mean, look at p.3 and notice how each entry stays within the three column lines. Many church newsletters don't do this. They may have similar collections of ads, updates and information, but they scatter them around the page without regard to any underlying structure. Because of that they look much less professional.

To download a PDF of the newsletter, click here or on the image of the newsletter.

Smaller Size NewsletterThe Net
St. Andrews Lutheran Church and Early Childhood Center

You don't have to be big in size to be big in impact. This smaller-size newsletter packs a lot into its pages: articles, church service schedules, birthdays and other special events, plus a number of excellent resources for people attending the church to get a program to listen to the Bible as well as online devotions.

To download a PDF of the whole newsletter, click here or on the image of the newsletter.

East Presbyterian NewsletterThe Eastminster Light
Eastminster Presbyterian Church

I really like the logo of the church in the name of this newsletter and it is another example of using an image intrinsic to the identity of the church (the light) to tie in with the name of the newsletter.

This newsletter does a really good thing in these days of multi-channel communications where the editor uses a printed piece to talk about the website and other forms of digital interaction. Each channel of communication has its own strengths and audiences and our communication is most powerful when we use all we can.

To download a PDF of the newsletter, click here or on the image of the newsletter.

Church Newsletter, plain thoughtfulSaints & Sojourners
All Saints Lutheran Church

Every church has a tone, a style, a personality that says "this is this unique Church." That tone and personality should be the same when someone comes into the church and when they read the newsletter from the church.

The gentle, thoughtful tone of this newsletter is different from some of the ones on this page (all wonderful in their own way) and it's a great illustration of why we should always be ourselves when we create our communications. Read through the different newsletters and envision in your mind's eye the folks who created them—and you will most likely be nearly correct.

You don't want surprises when people see your website or read your newsletter and then come to your church—that's not nice. Not every person seeking God is under twenty and in need of being entertained by lively graphics. Quiet and thoughtful is the still voice that draws many. Be who you are in print and online and allow the Lord to draw to you the people perfectly suited to worship with your church family.

To download a PDF of the newsletter, click here or on the image of the newsletter.

__________________________

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Filed Under: Church Newsletters Tagged With: church communication basics, church newsletter, church newsletters, church outreach, Communications, newsletters, yvon prehn

Newsletter, some basic advice and layout samples

7 January, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Newsletters remain one of the most useful ways to effectively communicate. This PDF will give you some simple, foundational help to create them.
Newsletters remain one of the most useful ways to effectively communicate. This PDF will give you some simple, foundational help to create them.

This PDF is an excerpt from my basic book on church communications. It consists of both overview materials and then a collection of  sample newsletter layouts.

In this PDF, the instruction section reminds us, newsletters are made up of primarily two parts:

1.  News    2.  Letter

News: no lengthy, fluffy writing, all the facts, dates, times, locations. People read church newsletters to find out information, not for recreational reading.

Letter: letters are personal, be yourself, let the personality of your church or ministry come through.

The most important thing about newsletters, whether you ultimately mail them out, post them as a PDF on your website or use an online newsletter to create them, is the CONTENT in the newsletter. People do not read church newsletters to check out the great graphic design skills of the church—they read them to find out connecting facts and inspirational updates:

  • when and where the youth group is meeting
  • if the church event has a cost and/or childcare
  • how to become part of a small group
  • they read the pastor's column to learn more about him or her as a person
  • they scan the updates that head of the ministry in which they serve to see has to share this month that affects them

Bottom line: if your newsletter provides relevant, timely, useful content for the people of your church it is effective and successful.

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Filed Under: Church Newsletters Tagged With: church communication basics, church newsletter, church newsletters, Communications, yvon prehn

Church communicators, resistence fighters for the Kingdom of God

20 December, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I chose this quote  for the first on this website because it summarizes much of my motivation for this ministry because it reminds me that, in many ways, church communicators are like the French Resistance fighters living in Paris near the end of World War Two. D-Day was June 6th, but Paris was not liberated until August 25th.

The Nazis would not admit defeat and poured all of their power and persuasion into the belief that they would be victorious. The resistance fighters using underground presses, hidden radios, and graffiti proclaimed, “No, freedom is coming! No matter how powerful the ruling party, no matter how oppressive their actions, no matter the personal cost of resistance, we will proclaim the truth—freedom is coming!”

We know the outcome—Paris was liberated; the Nazis were defeated.

The collaborators who sided with the Nazis, were publicly humiliated and condemned. For the the vast majority, who did nothing, there was most likely overwhelming relief, perhaps interrupted with thoughts of  "I would have done more, but I was too tired . . .or fearful . . .or busy. . .or something...but I wished the Allies well."

For the resistance fighters, the years of clandestine, sleepless, dangerous work to get out the true message of freedom was suddenly worth it and they were celebrated as heros. Theirs was was deepest joy. They believed the truth and at the risk of life and loss of comfort, acted on it.

You, church communicators are the resistance fighters for the kingdom of God. Our D-Day was the third day. The Lord Jesus conquered death, removed the curse and chasm between creature and Creator and rose victorious from the grave.

But our Lord has not yet taken possession of the land.

The enemy of human souls rules the minds and hearts of many with his lies. Some who collaborate share wealth, power, and influence unimaginable. Many can't imagine a Lord beyond immediate needs, appetites, self-preservation or indulgence. Many are too poor or hungry or frightened to think beyond the next day. Many have heard rumors of a resistance army, but suspect it's only for the fanatical and besides, there is another sale to attend, a meal to cook, a romance to pursue.

Church communicators, you are called, as Lewis said, to a "great campaign of sabotage." It may take many forms and many years, but we must pour our hearts and time into letting our world know the ruler of this age is defeated.

Our Lord has won the victory. Join us and joyfully look forward to his return when he takes full possession of this world.

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication basics, Church communication quotes, Communications, Religion, yvon prehn

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