Nothing is worse than working incredibly hard on something and to later find out your efforts accomplished little. All of you who work in church communications, work very hard at what you do and you want to make certain your hard work results in eternal life changes. To help you do that, the following resources will help you plan, measure, and evaluate your work.

Over 2,500 years ago, Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I would propose that an unexamined church communications program isn't worth all the hard work you put into it.

Measure and evaluate your work so that it won't be in vain, but will accomplish all it can to bring people to Jesus and to help them grow to Christian maturity in Him.

Plan, Measure, Evaluate your Church Communications

Following is a list of links, click on the title to go to each one. These materials are useful for you personal learning, but to make a difference in your church, they should be shared with and discussed by your church staff.

For Effective Church Communications Members, (CLICK HERE for Membership Info) keep in mind that your membership is for your entire church--your one username and password can be shared with staff and volunteers. You have permission to print out ebooks (both free downloads and purchased ones) and to make as many copies as you want.

Foundational Book, essential reading for effective church communication

Newly revised and updated Book: Church Communications Planning, Measuring, Evaluating done a new way—big is busted, try tiny!
Essential book for church communication leadership. This link provides access  to both an immediate download and to amazon.com paperback version

Articles: the following articles are useful for staff discussion

Print copies, share and as a group, look at what you are doing and how you can evaluate your work. For this to work effectively, you must have pastors, business, admins, and church communication creators involved. One person evaluating church communications alone can turn into a private complaining session--the church staff taking some time to look at it together can make significant changes.

Article: Don’t only master church communication technology—measure results

Article: Why you shouldn’t plan too far ahead in church communications

Article: The disappointing results when you jump into church communications production without planning and how to change them to positive ones

Article: Measure success correctly—or why a big turnout doesn’t necessarily mean a successful event

TEMPLATES:  either print off the PDF or modify MS Publisher files

TEMPLATE: Church Communication and Technology Survey

TEMPLATES: editable church communication planning and evaluation forms, plus PDFs

VIDEOS: nothing helps more than a training video to show how and why planning and evaluation is important.

The following videos are normally for Effective Church Communication Members. However, for our newsletter and Facebook page friends, we are making (LIKE US here if you haven't as yet--and get special Facebook UPDATES)

For ECC MEMBERSHIP information, CLICK HERE. These four videos will give you both excellent theoretical reasons to do church planning, measuring and evaluating, but they will also give you the practical resources you need to carry out a successful church planning, measuring and evaluating program. All of the videos come with a PDF of the notes that go with the video. This makes them useful for Lunch & Learns, staff and volunteer training. You need to get access to them through this website.

VIDEO: How to plan, measure, and evaluate church communication effectiveness

When you have advertised a church need, such as when you want volunteers to help with a ministry in the church, if you don't get the response you want, how do you respond?

Many churches respond by assuming that: 1) by simply doing the PR they communicated the need and that people will respond; 2) that if people did not respond that the church needs to improve the way the message was presented, e.g. be more cutting-edge, catchy, or interesting; or 3) that people simply don't care about others or helping the church these days.

As this video will show you none of these assumptions are correct and through careful planning and evaluation of your church communications you can make a huge difference in how people will respond to your church communications.

This is an extremely important video for your church staff to watch as a group—it is guaranteed to bring up some lively discussion that should result in a more effective communication program for your church.

VIDEO: How to create and use church communication surveys, how to decide what really works

Because we all tend to communicate in ways that are most comfortable to us and because, as church leaders, we make decisions for people, in this time of changing communications, we may be totally missing out on what the types of communications our audience needs for them to hear the gospel message or our challenges to discipleship growth.

How do your various audiences take in your messages? What communication channels do they access the most?

Most of us if we are honest really don't know. This is where a survey can be extremely helpful. This webinar/video will show you how to do one for your church.

One bit of advice--before you do the survey, pray that the Lord will make your heart open to make changes whatever the results might be. Nothing hurts your credibility more than asking people for their opinion and then ignoring it totally when they give it to you.

This VIDEO has two BONUS features for ECC MEMBERS: a ZIP file that contains the original PowerPoint File, as well as an editable MS Publisher file of the church Survey Form.

VIDEO: Church Communication FORMS: to help you plan, measure, and evaluate communication effectiveness

This video goes over a set of forms that will help you be more effective in your church communication ministry. It shows you step-by-step how to use them and explains why they are useful for ministry.

Many problems in church communications planning and management can be solved if the church uses forms because forms take opinions about communications and helps you effectively evaluate the validity of your opinions.

For example, if someone says: "The web is the best way to advertise!" and another person on staff responds, "No, nothing beats bulletin inserts and postcards!" the use of forms puts this discussion into an objective evaluation of what works best.

VIDEO: How to create online polls with Poll Daddy, Webinar On-Demand

Online Polls are a useful and fun addition to any website. This video shows you how to create them quickly and easily using the free Poll Daddy software. Poll Daddy Software is free and it allows you to create a variety of polls and surveys.