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; Effective Church Communications can help.

Why ministry leaders aren’t always good communicators and what to do about it

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Leaders communication challenges
Leaders can't sit at their desks to create all communications needed--they need a team to help.

The important term in the headline here is "aren't always." Ministry leaders, including pastors, leaders of groups like Young Life, and missionaries are almost always great verbal communicators or they wouldn't be in ministry. They do great talking to groups, teaching, challenging, motivating. But in today's multi-channel communication universe, that isn't enough.

What's needed today

When the Apostle Paul said he needed to be "all things to all people that he might win some," he had no idea of the multitude of communication tools and effective ministry program needs today, but his words couldn't be more true in this area.

You need a variety of communication tools because no church or ministry is a homogeneous group when it comes to what communication tools works best for each person in it.Your message stays the same, but for different groups of people to take it in and act on it, you need different ways to reach them. Here are some examples:

What works in a church

In the church, some people like the traditional bulletin and print newsletter to find out what's going on at the church. Others prefer to get their church news online. Others will only pay attention if they get a text message just before an event and others need large print format to stay informed. In the church if you want your people to know what is going on and to take part, it doesn't matter what you as a leader like or think is useful and proper for the church. What matters is what channels of communication are the various people in your church are responding to.

In the church we always need to remember that the majority does not rule when it comes to being a servant to all. There may only be 4-5 or 10-20 people who still need the newsletter printed out and mailed to them, but we must always remember that our Lord went after the one little sheep. He expects us to value the straying and weak in the same way. [Read more...]

Challenges to all church communicators from Catholicism Inc.

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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...]

What is difficult about YouTube and what it teaches us about church communication

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YouTube has a lot to teach us about communications
YouTube has a lot to teach us about communications creation.

The popular perception of YouTube is that it is really simple, easy, and anybody can slap up a video. In addition--if it is catchy, funny, or  inspiring enough that the video will go viral and the video creator will gain immediate fame and fortune.

It doesn't work that way.

I've spent a lot of time on YouTube lately trying to understand how it works and how I can make the most of it to equip and inspire church communicators. Part of that has been to study some of the popular producers and to look the advice YouTube gives on realistically how to make a video channel that will have significant impact on the audience you want to reach. My first conclusion is that it is much, much harder and more difficult than I imagined. [Read more...]

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

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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...]