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.

The importance of involving Children in Easter outreach (don’t just entertain them)

By Leave a Comment

Strategy for Children's events at Easter might consist of simple publications, but these simple publications can have far-reaching results in how they bring people to your Easter church service and how many return on an ongoing basis. Many people today will come to a church they feel is good for their children. They might not personally be interested but they want something wholesome for their kids. As many churches know this is often a wonderful way to eventually get the entire family involved.

To start, children's invitations to Easter events can and should be very different from the ones you send out to your community and that you give to adults. Many churches have wonderful activities for children at this time of year and children are never too young to learn how to be inviters.

The invitations here offer tools to help them do that.

Both invitations are one-quarter page size and are ready to print PDFs. They would work well-printed on light-weight card stock. A heavy paper would also work well. Make up lots of them and give them out to the children in your church.

Along with giving out the invitations, this is a great time to teach children that church events are not just times to enjoy for themselves. Church events are opportunities to introduce their friends to the church and to Jesus.

Join us for Easter Fun InvitationWhen children invite their friends, when they see families come who have never been to church, when they see the people at your church welcome and enfold visitors and when they see their friends come to know Jesus—these experiences will teach them the joy of evangelism in a practical, experiential way.

No matter how wonderful your children's program for Easter, you don't want people to experience one Sunday and never come back.

You need to give them something as they leave your church or children's program that lets them know what else you have going on and invites them to return. No matter how impressed they were or how much the like you, you need to give them the concrete details that will actually link them to your church events.

Bunny Return Invitation
A Bulletin insert or giveaway to remind people to come back to your children's program after Easter.

This ready-to-print PDF can be personalized on the back with information specific to your church. Please be sure to include your website and be sure that on it you have detailed information about your children's program and contact information if people need more information.

Intentional work will result in eternal life-changes

It is a lot of work to do all that needs to be done in your children's ministry at Easter, but taking the time to intentionally involve the children in inviting and to intentionally create complete follow-up materials will result in eternal life-changes for the people who respond to Jesus through your hard work.

In closing I want to emphasize how important it is that you involve the children of your church in the inviting process. It is so easy for kids to think that Easter is all about the goodies that they are going to get and it is so easy for parent's to expect the church to offer a good time for their children. That attitude misses the point of Easter. Please take the time to teach your children to give as Jesus gave and to take the time to invite their friends to Easter events at your church.

All of these are available in ready-to-print PDFs.

Below is the link to it.

Book Cover For Easter PDFs
This booklet has 40 pages of ready-to-print Easter communications. It is free for ECC MEMBERS.

To download the PDF collection (the kids stuff is near the end), click on the following link: #1 Easter 2010 PDFs COMPLETE

Introduction to the Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing

By Leave a Comment

The Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing
The Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing is a plan that will help the communications program in your church to fully fulfill the Great Commission.

We serve a great God—the creator of heaven and earth. We have a great salvation—paid for by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and freely offered to all who believe in him.

We have extraordinary tools to communicate this message with computers in church offices today that are more powerful than NASA had when they put a man on the moon. We have incredible people creating church communications in print and online.

So why is the church losing ground?

Not a week goes by without another study or national news story about the declining of attendance in Christian churches, the growth of the numbers of people who don’t believe anything, and the celebration of aggressive atheists whose books attack the Christian faith. Even more discouraging are the studies that show many Christians no longer believe Jesus is the only way to God, that the Bible is not a source of objective truth, and whose lives are little different in their moral practices than those of the world around them.

Maybe the church deserves this.

If all we communicate is that the Christian faith is about attending a multi-media production on Sunday morning designed to make you feel good about yourself and teach you how to live your best life now; if its primary concern is the health and wealth of its members as it ignores a world of pain and desperate need,if all trusting Christ means is a get out of hell because you said a quick prayer and then go on to live however you want, maybe it ought to fade.

But that is not what the church is about.

The church is the Body of Christ, the risen Savior and returning Lord. The church was left with the mission to share the true, uncompromising message that Jesus, by his resurrection from the dead, proved he is the only way to God. Jesus left his church with the command to share this message and to make disciples who live it. Jesus is with us right here, right now, not just waiting to meet us when we die, to empower and encourage us as we do his work.

That is the message of the church. To help you communicate it clearly and effectively is what this website is about. We can reverse the decline—we can grow our churches in numbers and our people in maturity. We won't do it with only a scattered collection of communications: a contemporary bulletin, a flashy website, the latest social media, no matter how great they look, if they aren't created without being an intentional part of fully fulfilling the Great Commission. To enable you to do that, Effective Church Communications has created the Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing.  Following is an overview of the Five Steps.

The Five Steps gives churches an all-encompassing communication plan to enable them to fully fulfill the Great Commission

Jesus told us what and how to communicate and how to measure success in our communication ministry when he 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." Matthew 28:18-20

This is our Great Commission. this is what all our communications should be about.  Please notice that it isn’t an either/or statement. We are to “go” AND “ make disciples” AND “baptize them” AND “teach them to obey everything” Jesus commanded. It isn’t until we do all these things that we’ve fully fulfilled the Great Commission. For purposes of simplification, throughout the website, I’ve combined terms and define fully fulfilling the Great Commission as these two actions:

  1. To go into all the world, or to introduce people to Jesus
  2. Make disciples, or to grow believers to Christian maturity

These two statements are the goal and measure for success of The Five Steps. To introduce people to Jesus and to grow them to Christian maturity should be the foundation of a measure for success in your church communications ministry.

Helping you do these two things through your church communications is what this website and the ministry of Effective Church Communications is all about. Let's make this practical.

Make fully fulfilling the Great Commission as your primary communication goal

Good looks, expert use of current technology, cutting-edge design are all tools subservient to this one goal. A flashy, great looking church outreach piece, the envy of all your peers that brings people in on Sunday, is not the ultimate goal. A web site that takes advantage of every new technology and social networking links is not the ultimate goal. These communication projects might be part of it, but success in one communication piece does not make an effective church communication program.

An effective church communication program is an overall refocusing of the entire communication program of the church to not only accomplish one goal such as creating a successful piece to bring people into the church, but structuring the entire communication program to create sequential, intentional communications that help meet Jesus and then grow to Christian maturity, to become disciples.

Don’t worry—this is not a pitch for an expensive, complex system of communications. Effective Church Communications can be accomplished with almost no or very little money. It works for church plants, mega-churches, and everything in-between.

As you’ll see as you study this plan, it has much more to do with cumulative faithfulness in the little things of many prayerfully and thoughtfully created communication pieces in a variety of formats, in print and online, than in the difficult or expensive creation of one or two showy or cutting-edge technology projects.

Effective Church Communication goes beyond Sunday morning

This a radically different approach to church communications because many churches, when they realize that they need to do more in reaching their world, (setting aside discipleship goals for the moment) focus primarily on creating or buying marketing-oriented materials that are designed to get people to come to church on Sunday or to a special event at the church. The colorful, glossy, mass-produced postcards that many churches send out are an example of this. These can be useful, but in only a limited way.

Their help is limited because they only help a church start to obey the Great Commission. Through colorful PR campaigns, targeted mailing lists, and encouraging members to share them, they do bring folks in on Sunday mornings. It might seem like this is THE successful way to do outreach—they do produce some new visitors. But attracting even a large number of visitors on Sunday or to a holiday event does not fully fulfill the Great Commission, which has at its core, the command to make disciples and teach them to obey all Jesus commanded. Jesus did not allow for incomplete evangelism, for the far-too-often church practice of satisfaction with Sunday attendance and expecting nothing more from the majority of attendees.

There is a plethora of books out recently that bemoan the lack of discipleship in the church and there are an equal number of methods to change this and all of them can work. But regardless of what system you follow to grow disciples (and your choice depends primarily on your audience, location, local church and neighborhood culture for success more than any innate value of one over another), whatever system you choose, you have to create lots more print and digital communications in a logical, sequential, measurable way to support growing disciples.

The Five Steps goes beyond adapting the latest technology

There are many reasons why your church may or may not want to adopt a certain technology, but effective communication and marketing that fully fulfills the Great Commission isn't dependent upon any technology for success. It makes the most of every one available, while realizing again that no matter how revolutionary and essential something seems today, it will quickly be replaced by something that seems even more revolutionary and essential. This is never an excuse to become cynical or drop out of innovation, but to hold our tools loosely.

At one time printed books were a radical way to share the gospel message. Few people could read and fewer still could afford a book or Bible of their own. Television was both a huge mission tool and an abomination. Radio was revolutionary and then not so useful, and now is bursting back as an extraordinary church communication tool with podcasting. Social networking is all the rage today, but keeping up with formats is a shifting challenge. Just when some churches get most of the congregation on an email list, they realize that many of their congregation never look at their email and if they don't get a text about something,or post it on Facebook, it isn't happening. We know the Apostle Paul encouraged us to “be all things to all people that we might win some” (I Cor. 9:22). But we wonder how well he'd manage blogging and tweeting from a prison cell.

The Five Steps is useful no matter what technology is used. We can be certain that what is the latest and greatest tech tool today will be outdated shortly. Because of that to focus too intensely on one technology and to think that this new, great technology will be the communication salvation of your church is not a wise approach.

I recently read a book that stated that every church must use Twitter and must do it on an iPhone. I’m not certain where the author lived, but in the farming community I live in, I’m not sure how many folks my church is trying to reach have iPhones and how many of them are desperately seeking spiritual advice with them. It’s not that the technology might not work for some churches in some locations, but I imagine that even for those who do rush to it, they will find it has limited success as the one and only communication solution for the church.

A focus on fully fulfilling the Great Commission and using whatever tools you have available is a better approach. If you apply what I’ll teach you in this ministry in a consistent and thoughtful way, you won’t experience the roller-coaster ride many churches are on where “This is the great technology that will reach people!” and then the next year (or month or week) it’s, “No! This is what will bring young families into our church!” Focus on the task; pick up and lay down tools as needed.

The Five Steps are only one part of fully fulfilling the Great Commission

There are many factors that contribute to churches not fully fulfilling the Great Commission. The Five Steps and the lessons related to church communications are only one part of fully filling the Great Commission.

Even well-produced communications can’t help if the people in your church don’t want to grow the church in numbers or themselves in personal discipleship. Some pastors have shared with me that their churches really don't want new people or that they don't seem to see the need to grow in their faith as disciples. If that's the case perhaps some study on the Great Commission, our responsibility to unsaved friends and family, the New Testament emphasis on intentional growth as disciples so we become like Jesus, plus lots of prayer may need to lay a foundation for communication changes.

But if you and your people want your church to grow in numbers overall and personally as disciples, an expanded view of the place of church communications and a plan to put them to use is essential for your success. You can’t grow a church in numbers without effective communication and without an effective plan you'll waste time, money, and effort.

Also, without good communication disciple-making is impossible to do once a person commits to Jesus as savior

Disciple-making requires a large amount of tangible information be communicated in a sequential way. Disciple-making takes time. Disciple-making takes repetition. Few churches today are intentional about creating communications in print and online that build believers in the faith and consistently communicate a process to develop disciples.

Even churches that spend large amounts of money on outreach materials seldom spend the time and communications work needed to get people into maturity-producing programs. The lack of maturity of the average Christian in the pew is evidence of the lack of disciple-building communications.

We can’t stop in our communication process until we have developed mature disciples who are able to share their faith, live their faith, and lead others to Jesus.

________________________________

For a PDF chart that summarizes and give you an overview of The Five Steps, you can either click here or on the image.

 

The importance of a COMPLETE gospel message at Christmas and always

By Leave a Comment

In the past, when the culture, school system, and world view was Christian, when you talked about Jesus and accepting him as your personal Savior, most people knew what you were talking about. They may not have believed it, they may not have thought it applied to them, but part of their cultural worldview was a Biblical view of the historical Jesus. Again, they may not have accepted it personally but they knew the facts about who and what they were rejecting. It is very different today.

Now, when you mention Jesus, you need to be very complete and clear what Jesus you are talking about. Are you talking about:

  • A Jesus who is in every person, a sort of divine spark, which is what many new-age folks believe?
  • A Jesus who was a first century Jew and who did good works and taught ethical precepts, but was not the Messiah, as Jewish people believe?
  • A prophet, but not the prophet, as the Muslims believe?
  • Or are you talking about the eternally existing second person of the Trinity, who came to earth, died, was buried, physically rose from the dead, and who is coming again, which is what evangelical Christians believe?

This is just the start of what you need to completely communicate about Jesus: his life, substitutionary death, his physical resurrection, his intercession for us today, his coming return. All of these truths are not part of most people’s current world view. You cannot assume that people have any knowledge of them when they come to your church. You can’t ask them to commit to a savior if they don’t even know who he really is.

A practical example of the dangers of incomplete communication about Jesus

Imagine it is Christmas and your church hosts a Christmas concert: wonderful organ music, uplifting choir pieces, moving poetry, and Bible passages all as background to a moving Christmas pageant. In the beautifully designed program (that the church communicator worked for hours to create and that cost a small fortune to print), is the statement:

If you have not accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, we trust that the joy of the music and message will so fill your heart that you will accept the true peace and joy of Christmas and become a Christian.

I do not want to be cynical, the Spirit can move in any way he desires, but if a person would then check on a card that he or she responded to this message, what does that mean? Does that person have any idea of the complete gospel message? Of the Jesus of history and not just the Jesus of beautiful hymns? Of cross-bearing and the crucifixion of Jesus and not simply Jesus the tiny baby in a manger? You may feel that you shared the gospel, that you challenged people to become Christians, but if someone responded to this incomplete gospel presentation, what really happened?

The early church required that potential converts go through a lengthy teaching time of many weeks and in-depth instruction before they were allowed to publicly proclaim their faith and be baptized. If we are not careful to completely proclaim the Christian gospel and completely teach people what a response to that gospel involves, we may be responsible for souls who think they have become a Christians but who are tragically, completely wrong.

Beyond the details of events and the essentials of salvation

The need to be complete goes beyond being certain we have all the details of events in place, though this is very important if we want to connect people with life-changing events. Being complete also moves beyond being certain people understand what it means to become a Christian, though that is the essential starting point.

We must also be complete in preparing our people to defend the faith. If we don’t take the time to completely explain, defend, and teach in depth about our faith, our people will be unprepared for those who oppose the Christian message, but who take time and care to completely put forth their false teachings. Though this component of effective church communications is most emphasized in Step 4, INSTRUCT; we must keep it in mind in every step of our communication ministry.

The challenge of those who do not believe the biblical, Christian message are sometimes more complete in their communications than we are.

The enemies of our faith are complete in their attacks. For example, a New York Times best-seller, Misquoting Jesus, the Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman, has been weakening and  destroying the faith of many for years. Ehrman, who claims to have been a believer at one point in his life, drones on and on and on for 218 pages, in complete (though often distorted) detail, about why we cannot trust the Bible. His book is not difficult to refute, as his logic is faulty, his conclusions dubious, his seemingly shocking statements about supposed biblical inconsistences hardly news to any reputable biblical scholar. In addition, for any so-called scholarly author to use himself and his books, again and again as a primary citation of the truth of his facts, as Erhman does, is ludicrous.

But he is complete in a rambling, false, repetitive way and for a casual reader the simple volume of his argument is persuasive. I am not recommending his method, but it is effective.

Why his volume of distortions convince people

We somehow assume that if an author or authority takes the time to expound on a topic in detail and depth that it is important. Conversely, if we aren’t told about or taught about an important topic in depth it is easy to assume it is not very important. Consider the above two examples:

1. A Christmas gospel presentation of one paragraph.

2. A lengthy book detailing why the Bible can’t be trusted.

Based on the sheer volume, number of citations, seeming care and time taken to explain each topic, it would seem that author of  the book about the Bible took his topic much more seriously, that he obviously cared enough to research and write about it in more detail.  An uniformed seeker might consider it more true because of its completeness.

In contrast, a challenge to consider an eternity-changing decision presented in one brief, emotional paragraph, doesn’t have the same apparent importance. You may protest that a Christmas program is not the place to do into a lengthy, apologetic discussion of the Christian faith and that’s true. However, the lack of space in the program does not mean we should not explain the plan of salvation in its completeness.

Here is where the communication tools we have today and the ability to do multi-channel communication can be useful. We don’t have to put the complete details about salvation in the Christmas program. Keeping in mind the multi-channel resources we have,  in the Christmas program, could be a short statement like this:

Becoming a Christ-follower is a decision that will change your eternity and the way you live the rest of your life on earth.

Don’t make the decision lightly. To explore what it means to be a Christian, please check out our website at www.churchwebsite.com.

There you’ll find answers to questions, links to explore the faith, and email addresses of folks waiting to interact with you. Not wanting to go there?  Call 555-5555 and there will be someone to talk to.

We need to take time to be certain the messages of our church and the gospel are presented in completeness. Yes, setting up a complete web links, finding and training people to interact through email and the phone is difficult and time-consuming. But, if the enemies of truth can take the time to do this, we can do no less. Even if you can’t go into this much detail, at least including a well-done tract would be useful, but without anything more than a brief mention to consider Jesus, it’s hard to take the challenge to consider Jesus as Savior and Lord seriously.

One more note: An in-depth, complete critique and series of articles showing the falseness of Bart Erhman’s thesis is available on www.equip.org, the Bible Answerman’s website. In addition, one of the most complete apologists of the Christian faith is Lee Strobel and his book, the Case for the Real Jesus,  deals with Erhman’s and other current critics of the Bible and Jesus and provides in-depth answers to their false claims. I highly recommend both sources and have used them prior to Christmas to do a series of lessons on Why Jesus is the Reason for the Christmas Season.

_____________________

As you write for different communication channels, don’t change the content or look of your message

By Leave a Comment

Multi-channel communication creation
When you have to create communications for a variety of channels, you don't have to change content or design!

Writing multi-channel communications,creating content for both print and digitally forms is easier than many people who create it in church offices realize. That is because a common misconception in the church office is that if you create communications for various channels, e.g. brochure, web, email, brochure, you need to redo the content, restructure, rewrite, and reformat it for each channel. The truth is that you don't only not need to, but if you do change things in each channel, you will confuse people.

This article will explain:

  • what content details you need to include in every channel
  • the important visual elements that need to stay consistent
  • suggestions of what channels to use
  • how often you need to repeat your message

The essential content details that connect people with the ministry or event of your church

These details need to stay the same no matter what channel you use:

  • Name of event (clarify acronyms and church jargon)
  • Who the event is for
  • Time, including duration
  • Date
  • Location & how to get there
  • Contact information of person putting on the event
  • If childcare is provided
  • If there is a cost
  • Why people should want to attend, the text that explains and invites.

Getting these basic details together is often the hardest part of any communication process. Always remember that though these details seem small, they are the vital links that actually get people connected to an event. Once you have them, you simply need to repeat them.

Warnings:

You will always be tempted to leave some of them out thinking that people have already seen them, but remember that just because you have seen something 5-10 times as you put it into different communication channels--every piece you put out will always be the first piece some people see.

YOU MUST include all the important details in every piece you send out or with an easy link to them. NEVER (the shouting is intended here) tell people to "contact the church office for more information." Nobody has time to do that and even if they do, chances are that since you did not have the information when you first put out the communication, you don't have it now.

Getting the little details from people holding events and putting them into every channel of communication is some of the terribly hard servant work of church communications--but these details are essential to link people to life-changing events. For example, a newly-single mom at your church may want to come to an event, but if you are unclear about child care or child care costs she may not have the emotional courage to contact the church and ask about it.

In addition to consistency in your words, you also need visual consistency

What would you think of a team that changed its team colors to make the team "more interesting?" Doesn't make sense does it? It doesn't make any more sense for your church communications to change the items below to "make things more interesting."

Remember, people do not read church communications because they are "interesting" or not. They read them to find information, to meet needs to grow spiritually. It might not be as interesting for you to create consistent, but what might seem like boring designs, but consistency will serve your people well.

The visual content that needs to stay consistent includes:

  • Logo, if one has been created for the event or ministry
  • Key images or pictures.
  • Colors used in advertising, or tied to an event
  • Layout if unique

Once this core content is created: DO NOT CHANGE IT!

The content of your message needs to be consistent and don't change identifying colors or images.

The most successful advertising campaigns are ones where a company finds a slogan, image or person that works and they repeat it again and again. Some phrases have even become part of our vocabulary:

  • Can you hear me now?
  • Just do it!
  • Where's the beef?

Though we aren't attempting to become part of the national jargon, the same secret for success applies in church communications. For example, if your church has decided to use the slogan, "Everyone in One!" for a small group campaign, don't use that slogan in your printed material and "Never study alone!" as your theme on the website. People will be confused and think you are promoting two different programs.

Decide on your content and design and then take that content and design and put out the message using the various channels. For example, perhaps your content is a campaign to get the congregation involved in small groups. The communication team members, using the same content and perhaps similar colors and images, can create a variety of communications to carry out your ministry goals including:

  • a print brochure
  • a bulletin announcement and insert
  • a PowerPoint presentation
  • a website directory of small group times and locations
  • a print directory with the same information for the welcome center
  • cards for the various groups that people can take home
  • an email newsletter designed to inform and encourage people to sign up
  • social media that links to information and encourages sign-up

You may use more or less of it of the basic core of information (but always with the same look, color, slogan) in the various channels. For example on the web you might list every small group with detailed information about what is being studied and detailed directions on how to get to each small group, whereas in the church bulletin, you might simply give a list of topics, times, and a link to the website.

Finally, each channel should repeat the same message several times

Remember nobody sees all the channels and no one in your congregation will see each communication each time it is presented. Though the number changes with the authorities cited, most marketing experts agree that people need to see a message at least 5-7 times for it to register at all. We may be sick of repeating it, but you can be sure that after you send out the same message 10 times in at least 5 different channels, there will still be someone who says, "Thank you so much for that one (text, postcard, email, bulletin announcement)--I didn't know that was happening, but when I saw it, I went and it changed my life."

Don’t just change the music! or why you might need different bulletins for different services as well

By Leave a Comment

A "seeker-friendly service" involves more than a praise band and upbeat singing. If you really want to reach a variety of people, you may need to change more than the music. Your worship guide or church bulletin may also need some changes.

In recent years many churches have realized that not everyone likes the same sort of music when they worship God. After fussing and fighting for a number of years it seems like churches realize that they don't need to totally change the style of music for the entire church. A much more peaceful and positive response in many churches has been to have different styles of music and worship at various times on Sunday mornings and Saturday night.

In addition to changing the music, if churches are serious about communicating to specific audiences within their churches, the style of communications given to them needs to change also. Many of the announcements and basic messages can be the same, but some modification in design, typeface, illustration style, and some of the content can make a world of difference in communicating effectively  to your specific audience.

If you use the same bulletin for everyone, it would be like expecting everybody to get their news from the Wall Street Journal. Some folks prefer the Journal, but others read USA TODAY and others prefer televised news on CNN or social media. The same news is reported each day, but it's modified to the tastes of each audience. The core of your message and the truth of the gospel remain the same but you might want to modify your presentation in terms of your communication styles.

How this might work out in practice

Let's use as an example a church of about 1200, that has a new pastor with a desire to reach his community for Christ. The church has three services, each of which is designed to appeal to a specific group of people. Below are some possible suggestions for church communications for three different kinds of services. First I'll describe the services, the target audience for each one, and then some suggestions for how you might modify the worship guide or bulletin for each one.

The church services:

The 8:00 service is very traditional, designed for folks who have been coming to the church for many years. The service is the one the majority of the senior adults attend.

The 11:00 service is the contemporary service. The worship leader is part of a contemporary Christian rock group and the music includes a drummer, keyboard, guitars and piano where the worship leaders sits and sings. The motto for this service is:  the 11th Hour: it's never too late for truth, god and rock and roll.

Yes, the word, "God" is in lower case-that alone offends some of the folks from 8 am, but seems normal to an age group where many music covers have all the words in lower case type and text messaging is all done in lowercase.

The 9:30 service not only meets at an in-between time, but the format of the service is a mixture of traditional and contemporary. It's the service attended primarily by families.

Suggestions for the Bulletin or Worship Guide for each service

8:00: a traditional service needs a traditional bulletin.

Whatever your church has been doing in the past is probably primarily what you'll want to do for these folks. When a church is making lots of other changes in services, times, and music there is no need to change the traditional bulletin just for the sake of making changes.

Some possible modifications:

-Consider using larger type that is easier to read for an audience primarily made up of seniors. 12 point would be the smallest you'd want to use and you might even try 13 or 14 points. A little extra leading (the space between lines) makes text easier to read also.

- A serif typeface, (something like New Times Roman or Cambria) is more traditional in look and will probably be preferred by this audience.

-Don't use too many typefaces or a variety of wild and crazy typefaces for this group.

-Section of prayer requests can be more detailed and is often expected by these people who are often the prayer warriors of the church.

11:00 a contemporary service needs a contemporary bulletin

If the person doing the traditional bulletin doesn't like contemporary, Christian rock music, they may not be the best person to design this bulletin-it helps to love the life-style or at least appreciate it to create publications for it.  The inspiration for this bulletin would come from online music covers, publications that appeal to that audience, television channels such as MTV, and the graphic style it uses.

Some possible modifications:

-There are two overall options you could consider for this group. One would be a very colorful look or the other option would be a totally black and white look.

-For either one use lots of images and less words.

-Make the church websites or sections of the web site ea for more information and make the website, Facebook, Twitter or other social networking connections printed on the bulletin.

-Use contemporary typefaces for the majority of the publication. Clean, sans serif faces such as Ariel, Eras, Franklin Gothic (actually any of the "Gothic" styles would work well) or Verdana could work well. Combinations of the regular type with bold have a contemporary look. Many contemporary publications use type at smaller sizes, 9 or 10 points with lots of leading (space between the letters).

-For some groups or advertisements, try the grunge typefaces. These are the typefaces that look like the letters are broken.

-Don't use funky, old-fashioned clip art here. Either use something contemporary like Art Parts, or leave it off altogether. Photographs , especially just a few used more as graphic illustrations can work well with this kind of design.

9:30 a family-oriented service needs a family bulletin

This bulletin or worship guide would probably have lots more information than the others. It's important to remember that the bulletin for this group is key to involving them in additional activities for the church. Also, what you put in this bulletin will let families know how you feel about children at your church.

Some possible modifications:

-In addition to the worship guide or bulletin itself, consider producing a children's bulletin in addition to the one for adults. A fun sheet with Bible games, a place to doodle and perhaps a short lesson, plus a pencil to write with can be a great gift to parents as they come in with their children.

-Be sure to give complete details on all the programs in the church for families.

-For special events, create bulletin inserts designed to be posted on the refrigerator. Many churches now call these mini-billboards, Refrigerator Reminders, because they know for a busy family, if it is on the refrigerator, the family will remember to attend. If the event is just part of a list in a bulletin, it will probably stay in the Bible til next week and the event will be missed.

-For typefaces, Bookman is the classic typeface for children's materials (that's the one the Dick and Jane books were set in), Century is a very easy to read typeface for adults and kids. Comic Sans is a fun face for special events advertisements for kids. A variety of typefaces for different sections or advertisements can work well for this group.

-This would be the bulletin for fun clipart and graphics. Colorful, family oriented pictures of people on the cover would also work well for this group.

There are so many ways you can modify your publications to better serve the various groups you are trying to reach. The above ideas hopefully will serve as inspiration starting points. To figure out what will work for you, observe who attends what service. If possible spend a little time finding out what publications they like to read. Look at them and design your publications in the same style.

Possibly a time to develop a communication team

Yes, it is a lot of work to do different bulletins for each group. This might be an opportunity to recruit and develop a communication team. The members could be volunteers who would take the basic church information and adapt it for each group. From working on the bulletin, the team members might expand to helping create other communications for each group.

If you take the time to do these modifications, it will be one way to illustrate to your people a picture of our caring Lord, who loves each of us individually and who has an individual plan for every life.