Communications | Effective Church Communications

Follow-up after a church holiday outreach event: speed dating or relationship building?

13 May, 2019 By Yvon Prehn 2 Comments

Church visitors, speed dating or relationship building? — How do we treat our visitors? Like speed dating or do we work to build a relationship? This article will help you see the difference. Image from Flicker, Gangplank HQ

What kind of relationship do you have with someone, if you meet them, have a great time, and then walk away, never to call, talk, or see the person again? Not much of one is it?

In contrast, what about a relationship where two people meet briefly but then keep in touch through letters, emails, phone calls, and other get-togethers? What if they take time to interact and get to know each other? We’d label that a meaningful relationship.

If we want any kind of relationship, friendship, or romance to progress, we know we’ve got to expend some effort to grow the relationship.

As a church, we begin relationships with the people in our communities when we host outreach or holiday events. Sometimes they develop into a meaningful, long-term relationship with visitors, but in the majority of cases, they don't. Take time to consider some of the following thoughts and evaluate how your interactions with visitors.

Make your church outreach events more than Speed Dating

Unfortunately, instead of taking time to develop relationships with the guests who visit, many church outreach events are similar to the Speed Dating popular today. If you are unfamiliar with Speed Dating, this is where single people spend a few minutes with a potential romantic interest over coffee, dessert, or some shared activity (one recent speed dating event for farmers had folks weeding a field together) and then they move on to the next person, spend a few minutes with that person, and on to the next one.

Though lasting a bit longer, some churches offer a sort of speed dating experience to unchurched members of their communities. With fall events as an example, the church invites the community to a Community Thanksgiving Service and Christmas Caroling and Hot Chocolate. The visitors are hustled through the event and then leave, hopefully with a nice feeling about the church. The church staff breathes a big sigh of relief to have that activity over for the year.Continue Reading

How to make Mom really happy, cards that will make you smile and challenge family members

12 May, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Don't you wish that the people you love who only come to church on Mother's Day and other special events would come every week? It won't happen by simply wishing it will happen. You have to intentionally let them know you want them to come back to church. You have to invite them back.

Subtle doesn't work as a communication strategy in our world today. Think of how the secular media bombards us with repeated messages to buy this, come to that, don't miss out on some special sale. Though we don't want to be obnoxious we do have to be persistent and clear.

The cards illustrated here will help you do this. They were designed to make people smile, but they also share a true message—that moms want more than anything to share their faith with their children.

This card above is a PDF sample for you. To download it, click on the card or click here.

In the section following, you will find ZIP File download that not only has this invitation, but also has the following five invitations. The ZIP file also has the original MS Publisher files, plus a jpg file of each invitation and a ready-to-print file of each one.

For other materials that will help you make the most of Mother's Day, click here: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/category/seasonal/mothers-day/

Below is a ZIP file that contains:

All four Mother's Day Come Back to Church Invitations
MS Publisher Original files (you must have MS Publisher to use this file)
PDF Files
Resizable jpg files

Click the following link to download the ZIP file of the above items: Make Mom Happy MDay Come Back to Church

After you download the file, SAVE it to your computer, then click on it to "unzip" it and the files are ready for you to use.

Resurrection Cookies, a Free recipe that will teach children and parents about Easter

23 March, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Res Cookie Bunny Verstion — Resurrection Cookies are a wonderful way to remind both children and parents of the real meaning of Easter--the Resurrection of Jesus. Plus it's a fun and yummy project!

For a great strategy to teach children about Easter, involve parents, and provide an outreach tool, NOTHING beats Resurrection Cookies.

When you make the cookies, you visually illustrate Jesus suffering, burial, death and resurrection. Because you are doing it with cookies, it is much less intimidating for people who don't go to church to be involved with it. Sharing cookies is also a much less frightening way to share their faith than other methods might be for the people in your church. To invite neighbors and children over to make yummy cookies is much less intimidating than handing out gospel tracts for many people.

The first example here is a free download for everyone, CLICK HERE or on the image at the start of the article to download it. The other designs in both PDF and MS Publisher format are in the ZIP file below the following illustrations of them.

To see larger images of the pages, click on the first image and a larger slide show will come up.

Additional designs for Resurrection Cookies:

To download the Resurrection Cookie File, click the following link: Church Bunny Resurrection Cookie Files

Later in this article is the text for the handouts, including the introduction, recipe, and Bible verses if you choose to create your own verses of the handouts or if you want to put the material on your website or in a church newsletter. You have my permission to use it freely. The text is the same for all of them—choose a style that suits you best or use the text below to create your own version.Continue Reading

FREE Easter Jelly Bean Prayer for Children’s Ministry

23 March, 2019 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

By using the colors of Jelly Beans, this prayer is a visual way to share the gospel message to children—and to the adults with the children—sometimes candy isn't nearly as intimidating as a sermon.

It is useful at Easter to enclose in goodie bags, to use as an invitation, use as an illustration during a lesson or children's sermon.

The one to the right is an easy download for everyone, just CLICK HERE or on the image to download a ready-to-print PDF of it. Additional designs are illustrated below.