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.

Jesus and Perfection in Church Communications

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Jesus Christ our Lord
Of course we want our work to be pleasing to Jesus, but let's look at what really matters to Him.

Sometimes people don't think they are doing all they can for the Lord, that they aren't excellent or perfect enough in their communications ministry unless what they produce professionally perfect, high-tech exciting creations day-after-day, no mistakes allowed. Now all those qualities can be wonderful, but  sadly, it also often means that no one in the church is good enough to create the communications in print or on the website, so an outside, professional firm must be hired to do it. Or, if the work is done at the church, only a select person or two in the church is good enough to produce the quality needed. In other words, the church needs to have the design standards of a professional advertising agency to be pleasing to the Lord.

Being expensive and professional, as defined by using the standards of a professional ad agency, though it might be commendable, isn't the only standard of perfection for the followers of Jesus. [Read more...]

The importance of complete church communications if you want people to connect with church events

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If there is one thing that I think would change the destiny of the Christian church and make it far more successful at reaching our world today and effective at communicating our message,  it would be for church communicators to stop assuming that everyone knows what they are talking about and to communicate the church message completely.

In communication after communication, in print and online I see incomplete messages. As a result people don’t respond. Then church leaders get discouraged and think people don’t care anymore.

But they do! People care about their earthly well-being and eternal destiny, as the huge following of every new self-help or spiritual guru program shows us. But many are not responding to the Christian message because church leaders and communicators forget what it’s like to be an unchurched person or a casual church attendee.

Why complete communication is more important than ever

The world today is post-Christian. Many people grow up not knowing anything about church, the Bible, what it means to be a Christian. One part of our brain knows this, but from over 20 years of evaluating church communications, I’ve found that churches in general seem to forget this reality when they sit down to create their communications both in print and digitally. Because of that, we need to evaluate our communications when people have a hard time connecting with us and understanding our message.

For example, churches might think they are “seeker-friendly” and really want others to come to faith, but if your bulletin is filled with phrases such as:

“Adult Bible Study at the Johnson's, same time, same place.” (Does this mean only people who know the Johnson’s can attend?)

“The kids will be doing their yearly Lock-in & Movie Marathon. The cost and format same as last year.” (What is a “lock-in?” What if I was there and can’t remember what it cost? What if I’m new and my son is shy, who do I call?)

“Fill out the form on the website if you want to be part of a small group.” (What if I’m really lonely and want to be in a group, but don’t have a computer?)

Additional note on this last one: for all of us working at the church or if you are reading this on the web, it is difficult to comprehend that many people today (I'm writing this in March 2012) still do not have computer access at home. If we don't provide options (print, email, mobile phone) for contact and sign up we automatically exclude some people from some church activities.

The list of examples such as these is almost infinite. The details that connect people to ministry may seem small, but they are the vital links. Today few people will take time to call the church office for more information. Many people do not have access to the internet. We need to put COMPLETE information about events in every communication piece we produce. It is impossible for people to connect without these details.

It isn’t easy

Putting in these details is excruciating, detailed, hard work, impossible to understand in its difficulty if you have not had to personally track down the details of the multitude of events going on in a church and then put them into a pleasing, clear form in the church bulletin, newsletter, and now website. But these details are the keystone; they are the foundational links that if not there, all the hard work of praying, planning and putting on a ministry event will not accomplish our prayed-for results.

People are not universal mind readers. If you don’t completely communicate about an event people simply won’t show up. It is not the responsibility of the audience to find out all the details needed to connect with you—it is your responsibility.

 

Don’t only master church communication technology—measure results

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How did your church do this last year in church technology? Did you finally get involved in new social media beyond Facebook and Twitter? Did you make your website smartphone and tablet-friendly? Did you create an app for your church? Did you move back-up files to the cloud? Though these accomplishments might count for bragging rights at church geek gatherings, there a more critical question for Christian geeks, techs and communicators and that is:

How did your church communication technology help your church fully fulfill the Great Commission?

Though we all love technology, the foundation for all we do in tech, communications and life is found in Jesus command to us:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:18-20.

Our Great Commission, the command to share the good news of salvation in Jesus alone with others and to help them become mature disciples is what it means to fully fulfill the Great Commission. This is not only the North Star and measure of success in our Christian lives; it should be our measure for success in everything we do in our church technology and communication ministry.

Just because you love Jesus and want to serve Him, don't automatically assume that your hard work in technology, especially in the church communications area, which is vital to the spiritual success of any church, is contributing to fully fulfilling the Great Commission. Though it isn't always easy to measure precise spiritual growth, we can measure whether our audience is accessing the communications we create with the intention of  helping them come to know Jesus and grow to discipleship maturity. To begin to measure our spiritual effectiveness, a good place to start is to measure how much people access our communications. However. . . .

Humans are notorious in our ability to deceive ourselves

We do this all the time. "Donuts aren't really fattening on Sunday—this is the only time I eat them and besides, they are in pieces and everyone knows that the calories drain out in cut-up donuts." is one of my favorite self-deceptions. This is closely followed by, "A big meal after church and/or on Sunday night is OK because I'm doing it for fellowship in ministry."

Another one that is easy in church communications and technology is: "We've just finished redoing the website and people will love it and access it a lot." A close one to this is: "Facebook and Twitter and oh my, my Google Circles really keep our church connected." Or "Our videos are greatest -- people are looking for humor when they want to find a church--and they are smart phone accessible!"

Honest measurements help keep us honest

I may love my Sunday donuts and overeating in the name of ministry, but I am also attempting to lose weight and when Monday comes around, there is one infallible way to test my Sunday food assumptions: I step on the scale.

If we want to be honest in how well our technology preferences result in real ministry impact in the lives of church members and the people outside the church, we need a scale to decide whether our assumptions are true or not. One scale that is useful is to take a Technology and Communication Survey of your congregation. Following is one you could use. At the end of this article is a link to a ready-to-print PDF of it and other resources on Church Communications Planning.  Using the survey is like stepping on the scales--it can give a useful shot of reality in how impressed your audience is with your communications, how often they use them and if they are helping them grow in their faith.

 You want an honest measure and to help you get that, the following two guidelines are very important:

  1. The ONLY way you will get enough answers for it to matter is for you to hand it out on Sunday morning (yes, gasp), have people immediately fill it out (it will take no more than 5 minutes) and immediately turn it in.
  2. It has to be totally anonymous.

If you don't do BOTH of these, don't bother—you won't have a true representation of your church and/or it won't be an honest response.

Formatting note for the sample survey below-- the PDF and editable MS Publisher file of this survey has boxes where the bullets are.

Church Technology and Communication Survey

What technology do you have to receive messages from the church? Check all you have; put a star by the ones you use frequently.

  • Computer at home
  • Computer at work
  • Computer at school
  • Laptop
  • Mobile phone
  • Smart phone
  • Tablet computer

Which of these channels do you regularly access for church information or teaching? Check the box.

***Please a star by the channel or channels YOU PREFER to get your information from.***

  • Church Email newsletter
  • Church Website
  • Sermons online/podcasts
  • Church or pastor's blog
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Circles
  • Printed Church Bulletin
  • Printed Church Newsletter
  • Others (please put in any other communication channels you use here)

Three additional questions, please be honest in your answers:

How well informed are you about church events? How can we do better?

Do the church communications encourage you in your Christian life, help you grow as a Christian, and teach you to share your faith? How can we do better?

Anything you'd like to ask or tell us about the technology or communication ministry of the church? Overall, how can we serve you better in technology or communications?

What this will help you learn

A survey like this will put your excitement about what you are sharing on the scales of reality and will help you answer and analyze some of these questions:

How many people in your congregation have the technology to receive what you create?

It is easy to forget that not everyone has the same tech tools you have. For example, creating videos for mobile phone access and QR codes might not be time-justified if very few people have phones that can access them.

In my own experience in a church that has been hard hit by the recession, I know several pastors and leaders with iPhones and Blackberries, but the congregation members who are out of work or underemployed and who are concerned with their ability to pay for one phone line of any kind greatly out-number them. But that's my church—yours might be completely different. You won't know unless you survey them.

How often do people in your congregation access the church information in the channels you send out?

This is important for you to know how often you need to update your material—but this also needs to be paired with the additional comments people make because your responses may be a little circular in results. What this means is that if you frequently update your website and social media, people will probably access them often. If people don't access them or if they are not starred as something they access frequently, even though you may update them often, it may say more about  the quality of your information.

If you update things often and your people don't access them, take some time for one-on-one conversations and in a nonthreatening way try to find out why they don't.

What is your congregation's preferred method of receiving information from you?

It's great if the way they want to hear from you is what you are doing. If not, it may be they don't know how to use the channel or they don't understand why it is valuable to them. If that is the situation, you may want to do a demonstration on "How to use our Facebook page" or "How to receive Twitter updates from the church" or "What our church website has for you."  After you do some training in these areas, track to see if it makes a difference in who is accessing these areas. One great thing about websites and social media is that we get statistics on access, which is one more way of stepping on the scale for a reality check. You may think you have the most clever and interesting twitter feed ever, or the most clever church Facebook page, but if your stats are flat or declining, your congregation may not be as impressed as you are.

Beyond the channel, evaluate the content

The questions following the check boxes on the survey above, specifically:

Do the church communications encourage you in your Christian life, help you grow as a Christian, and teach you to share your faith? How can we do better?

are one of the most important parts of the survey because people don't go to a church website for fun or entertainment value. They go there looking for help in their spiritual lives.

That help is most often expressed by a simple desire to find out, for example, what small groups are available and when they meet, or what the pastor is like as a person as revealed from his or her blog, how to become a Christian, or how to grow in your Christian life. If your website  or other social media don't have significant, useful content, it doesn't matter how many images scroll on your home page or how fancy are your images.

Fancy moving images are everywhere on the web.

Significant, eternity changing content is hard to find. No matter what channel you use or how technically advanced it is, if the content is challenging, useful, uplifting and spiritually helpful, your people will access it. If it is just a pretty shell, they'll bypass it.

Make your content worthy of the Lord and reflective of Him. Use your content to help people come to know Jesus and grow in their faith and not matter what channel you use, your people will access it.

Don't lose track of your North Star

Technology has its challenges and it can be great fun to learn new technologies and to create new communication systems. But we must never lose sight of the people we are creating the communications for. We must always make sure that we are serving them and in doing that fully fulfilling the Great Commission given to us by our Lord.

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 CLICK HERE To go to the PDF of the survey, an editable MS Publisher file of it and a png image (so you can use it on a PowerPoint to tell your congregation what you want them to do).

 

 

 

 

 

Church Communication tools to help people grow to Christian Maturity, a key goal for the New Year

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We need to do more in our church communications than reach out to people to get them to church the first time. You probably had lots of people visit for the first time during the holidays, but you don't want them to come week after week and leave with only nice feelings about the Christian faith.

We need to give them enough information to make an informed decision about the Christian faith and after they become a Christian we need to keep helping them learn about the faith until they grow to mature disciples.

People grow in the Christian faith by learning about God and His guidelines for living as they are taught in the Bible. To grow your people you need to get them into the Bible and to get the Bible into them. Below are some simple communication tools that can help do that.

Bible reading plans

Everything is easier with a plan. Give your people a plan to read through the Bible in a year. To make it more manageable and enjoyable print up the schedule a month or quarter at a time and turn it into an attractive bookmark that people can keep in their Bible and check off for each day they do their reading. You could also provide a link to a read-through-the-Bible –in-a year program on the web.

There are many free Bible downloads or podcasts on the web for people who might prefer to listen rather than read their Bibles. Don’t think for a minute that listening to the Bible is inferior to reading it. For most of human history, the majority of believers have not had their own Bibles to read—join the saints of the past and listen to the Word of God.

This year the adult discipleship ministry at our church that my pastor husband and I lead will be be going through the Bible in a year in chronological order. We are using the reading plan at: www.bibleplan.org. The plan we are using is the Chronological, read in a year. This site has a number of useful features

  • They will send the daily reading to you via email.
  • You can then read it online.
  • Or you can click on the link to the Bible Gateway and listen to it.

Memory verse cards

In many ministries we’ve worked in we’ve used business-card size verse cards to help our people memorize verses. These are so easy to create with any desktop publishing software, such as MS Publisher and the pre-perforated business card stock you can get at office supply stores. Do these up for Sunday School classes, small groups, and for all of the various teaching ministries of your church. For special occasions, you can turn the verse card into a refrigerator magnet. We’ve frequently done that for key verses for ministries or as a holiday gift to ministry groups.

Web site support

For  the Bible reading plans, refer people to a place on your web site where you have additional background on the books of the Bible, the history of the books, profiles of the key characters, how that book of the Bible is part of the overall story of salvation. Add links to other Bible study sites and you have a great tool to encourage your people to get into the Bible more deeply. A good site to start with is www.blueletterbible.org.

Another great site that has both lots of help on Bible studies, yearly Bible reading plans and one of my favorites, the links to classic Bible commentaries is: http://www.ewordtoday.com/  Be sure to go to the bottom of the page because at the end of the page are links to some excellent sites--be sure you go to: http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/

A key to successful outreach and growth in the Christian faith is not for church leaders to do it all, but for them to equip their people to do the work of the ministry. Technology is a great tool that gives us new ways to equip the saints to do work of eternal value.

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

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Plan ahead in your church communications, but do so cautiously.
Plan ahead in your church communications, but do so with wisdom and prayer.

At the start of the year, it's natural to want to do some planning, but planning can be both a positive and a negative thing. It's always challenging as I was reminded when several churches have asked how to create a communication plan for the next five to seven years. Each of them has mentioned that new technology can be costly and they want to be prepared, in their budgeting and for training. Though I admire their desire to be good stewards, planning ahead for five years in church communications, especially when it involves trying to figure out technology needs, is futile.

Could you have envisioned your communication world today five years ago?

Think about it. Five years ago, could you:

  • Have  imagined or planned for the iPhone and iPad?
  • Known texting would be a major way your youth group would communicate and your youth pastor would need a high-end mobile phone?
  • Have known that skill with Facebook  would be useful, if not essential, when you hire a church secretary?
  • Imagined that Tweeting would be a skill your senior Pastor might want to learn? Even known the meaning of Tweeting or that social media in any form would be able to overturn governments and raise millions for charity? [Read more...]