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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Challenges to all church communicators from Catholicism Inc.

18 February, 2013 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

We all have much to learn from the current changes taking place in the Catholic church.
We all have much to learn from the current changes taking place in the Catholic church.

An op-ed article in The New York Times, "Catholicism Inc." by Bill Keller not only challenges the Catholic Church with some suggestions for change during this time of transition between popes, but it inspired me to make some communication suggestions for all churches, based on his ideas. What follows are quotes from the article, and then communication applications suggested by the quotes:

Catholicism is mostly a service industry . . . .  and its deliverables have stood the test of millenniums: instruction in how to live a good life, sacraments to consecrate major milestones, comfort in times of distress, the cleansing therapy of confession, penance and absolution, a sense of place in the universal order and the promise of a celestial payoff. . . . .There is still a robust market for the faith. The problem — evident in the waning confidence of the customers as well as the rising market share of evangelical start-ups . . . is with the management.

Communication application: Though we might use different terms to describe the benefits of our individual churches, a common denominator is that our gracious Creator has met every need of the human soul now and for eternity in the freely offered salvation provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or as he says, "The fundamental problems are not in the catalog."

He goes on to lay the cause for the problems with the management of our churches and church communications are a key part of that.  If the core message of salvation is not getting across to your audience, if new people aren't coming to know Jesus as Savior and growing to mature disciples, if they are not sharing the good news with their friends, practicing their spiritual gifts, and being salt and light in their world, the problem is not with the culture or media or lack of time or the crippling demands of the modern world—the problem is with us, the managers, the communicators. We have to take responsibility  for what is happening our church if the message we preach and teach (or assume we do) isn't a reality in changing lives before we can make necessary changes. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Church Communication Leadership Tagged With: church communication changes, church communication planning, church communication strategy

Planning, Measuring, Evaluating Church Communications, links to articles, tips, training videos

21 January, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

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.

Planning Book Cover
We all want to be good stewards of our communications money and ministry. This book will help you do that.

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.

 

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Filed Under: Planning and Managing Tagged With: church communication evaluation, church communication measurement, church communication planning, church leadership, church planning, yvon prehn

Church Communication Trends for 2012 and what’s essential for your church

12 January, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

At this time of year we are flooded with all kinds of trend analysis articles, what's hot, what's not, what is the latest in social media and gadgets, what's is essential if we want to appear relevant and cutting edge.

After reading a number of these articles and blogs and debating about what to pass on to you, instead of feeling informed and helpful, I've found myself feeling tired and frustrated. I feel like this because even though I'm sure that iPads are incredible devices and Kindles are great ways to read, and that Google Circles are one of the next hot social networking sites, reality is that many churches still can't keep their website updated or afford necessary computer upgrades. I'm behind on the website I do for our Adult Sunday School class (I'm telling myself, later today, for sure after I finish my ECC newsletter I'll get it updated. . . . ). My computer is so old some of the features in Word 2010 don't work on it. I can't afford a Kindle, even though I'm publishing books in that format (CLICK here for my first venture.) I would imagine my technology situation is similar to many in this time of still challenging budgets for communication resource upgrades in most churches. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Planning and Managing Tagged With: church communication planning, church communication strategy, church communication trends

Planning Overview: articles, videos, templates for Effective Church Communication Planning, Measuring, Evaluating

26 June, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

In many churches communications are done because “we’ve always done it that way” or as a response to a pressing need for PR to advertise a church event or recruit helpers for a ministry. Though something gets done and it sometimes gets a response, this approach is not the best way to make your church communications support and further the mission and vision of the church.  An unplanned approach to church communications is also usually not a wise use of financial or people resources.

This series of video training, articles, print resources and templates will equip and enable your to do all the planning, measuring and evaluating that your church needs. Some free for everyone and some of the books are for sale in either download or print versions.

Membership in Effective Church Communications is $9.99 a month or $99. a year for any size church. CLICK HERE for more information or to sign up. With membership you get the free book on Planning, Measuring and Evaluating, plus 30 other useful ebooks on effective church communications.

Click on any of the titles to go to that piece of training.

PDF overview articles on Church Communication Planning

These articles that are free for everyone. I highly recommend you print these off and use them for discussion at your next staff meeting. It's so easy to not plan and rush to produce communications, but without planning, you probably won't get the results you want. On the other hand. . . . we need to be careful not to over plan, as the second article advises.

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

Article: Don’t plan too far ahead in church communications

The following videos illustrate the process of planning and evaluation

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 access 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: 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 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 has the original PowerPoint File, as well as an editable MS Publisher file of the church Survey Form.

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.

Materials for purchase

Downloable FORMS ZIP File

Planning forms, ready-to-print PDFs & editable MS Publisher Files

This download has the FORMS illustrated in training videos. They are in both editable MS Publisher format and ready-to-print PDF. Both sets are in a combined ZIP file for immediate download for only $7.50.

BOOK: Church Communications Planning, Measuring, Evaluating done a new way—big is busted, try tiny!

Immediate Download: $6.99, Click here

Print format: $12.99 Click Here

This book is provides practical training on planning, measuring, and evaluating our church communications to help you make sure that your time and money spent in creating church communications accomplishes the goals of your church.

First, the book looks at the details of planning that form the foundation of a solid church communication program. It then goes into the use of FORMS that will help you gather and organize the facts and the information people need to connect with your ministry or event. The forms will also help you measure and evaluate your communications and enable you to understand what is really effective and what isn’t in your ministry communications and marketing. This approach works in any size church, with any budget. While much extravagant multimedia is only possible on a big budget, any church can make use of the tiny, but significant tips, ideas, and changes suggested in this book to make a significant difference in the impact of your communications.

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Filed Under: Planning, Planning and Managing Tagged With: church communication planning, church communication videos, church leadership, church planning, Communications, yvon prehn

How to create and use a church communication survey, a Webinar On-demand

31 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

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.

The PDF that goes along with the training video is below the video.

This webinar is for ECC Members only. For information on how to join, CLICK HERE

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Video Survey Handouts

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication planning, church communication survey, church survey, yvon prehn video

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