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.

Non linear—a valid way to communicate

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Recently a Christian writer was critiquing the communication in current media and computer arenas. He stated that since much of the communication did not take the form of logical, linear thought, that truth could not be communicated. I disagree. Though the importance of truth cannot be denied, there are many ways to communicate it. Consider this passage:

Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Rev 4:6-8

Picture that image in your mind for a moment. If you’ve ever played or seen some of the images in the current computer games this one would fit right in. But though the imaginative, games form of the image would fit, its message is far different than most fantastic video games. It isn’t about blood and destruction, it’s about worshipping God.

Linear, logical arguments are one way to communicate—but look at the book of Revelation, as the passage above illustrates and many of the visions of the prophets in the Old Testament (Ezekiel, Daniel). They’d hardly qualify as linear, logical communication.  I don't think we could fault God for his communication style in them.

We share different teachings in different ways. The lists in Numbers are one form; extravagent, imaginative images fill prophetic passages. God did not limit his communication to us in one form and it doesn't make much sense to try to limit how we share the gospel message to one form.

As I reread some of the passages in preparing to write this article I found myself wondering—wouldn’t they be great illustrated on a computer screen? Sometimes I think we’d understand prophecy so much better if we could see it as the writers did.

If the Apostle John and the Prophet Ezekiel were around today, they would probably feel right at home with 3-D computer modeling and virtual reality to communicate their messages.

Instead of limiting the ways God can use us to communicate, let’s encourage those imaginative with computer tools today to use every means possible to reach our generation for Jesus. Linear, logical word-based communication is one valid and still useful method to communicate truth, but with the tools we have today, it is only one tool in the palette of ways we can share the eternal message of salvation.

adapted from Yvon Prehn’s, The Heart of Church Communication, available at www.lulu.com/yvonprehn

 

Always keep the spiritual and the practical in balance

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So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning (Exodus 17:10-11).

In his devotions, Charles Spurgeon has this comment about the passage above, "So mighty was the prayer of Moses, that all depended upon it. The petitions of Moses discomfited the enemy more than the fighting of Joshua. Yet both were needed."

From this passage in the Bible and Spurgeon's commentary on it, we are reminded that our work always has two sides-the spiritual and the practical. It benefits us to keep them in balance.

The workings of a computer are not beyond the realms of prayer. We can ask for wisdom to understand computer manuals, to remember to slow down, to execute computer commands in their proper order. We can pray about what software to purchase and when; where to get training and for the resources to afford it. We can pray that we might learn all we need to complete our present tasks without overwhelming ourselves.

We can pray for insight as we create ministry communication pieces and that the Lord would prepare the hearts of those who read our message. We can encourage ourselves by remembering that the changing of lives is always, "‘Not by might or by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." (Zechariah 4:6, NAS)

At the same time that we commit our ultimate success to the Lord, we must remember "both were needed." Joshua had to actually fight a bloody, dusty, horror-filled battle. There will be days that our work in ministry communications doesn't feel spiritual at all but is mundane, disciplined hard work. To do our jobs well, we don't stop praying, but we must also we must apply every earthly skill of business organization, communication, marketing, and computer training that we have to succeed in the battle entrusted to us.

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from the book by Yvon Prehn, The Heart of Church Communications. To either download or purchase a copy, go to www.lulu.com/yvonprehn

How to fill your church communications with purpose and power

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Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn. 4: 13, 14).

What is inside us comes out in everything we do and our communications are no exception.

  • If we love sports, our communications will be filled with analogies from sports.
  • If home and children make up our world, our life lessons will come from kitchen and nursery.
  •  If we have a cynical view of life, our words will bite and be tinged with satire.

We are all far more transparent than we realize as Jesus reminded us when he said that out of the abundance of our hearts our mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34).

Christian communicators have the ultimate reasons for wanting their communications to be powerful-the eternal destinies of souls are at stake. Christian communicators don't create sermons, websites, church bulletins, blogs and newsletters only to fill the empty minutes of their days, but to enable people to know Jesus as savior and grow in Christian maturity.

John 4:13 tells us how to accomplish those purposes with power. The core way to do it isn't reliant upon technology or spotting trends or attempting to be relevant to the issues of the day-though all of these actions have a proper place. The core action, the essential thing we must do to communicate with power, is to drink deeply of Jesus.

Jesus, permeating our lives and our message, is the key to communicating with power. If we spend time in his word; in prayer, in study, in worship; if his values and viewpoint permeate our lives it will show.  It will spill out into every piece in print or online that we produce.

Not only will we be refreshed and satisfied when we create out of a heart filled with Jesus, but it will become a "spring of water welling up to eternal life." People are attracted to what truly satisfies. If you want your church communications to satisfy the deepest desires of their souls, first fully fill yours with Jesus.

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Devotions for Church CommunicatorsFrom Devotions for Church Communications by Yvon Prehn, available either as a free download for ECC Members or in paperback book from amazon.com.

The media isn’t our message—our message is Jesus

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Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked,

 "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:40-42).

When Marshall McLuhan, early pioneer of electronic media, pronounced in the early sixties, that "the media is the message," he was predicting that the means of communication would be more important than the message it carried. For his time, the primary media was television; more and more in our world it is computers and the resulting forms of digital communication: desktop publishing, the internet, cell phone, and small screen communications.

Though it is easy to get caught up in the complexity and power of digital communications, as Christians we must constantly remind ourselves that these incredible innovations, and any that are to come, are only tools. The power doesn't come from the tool or media-the power comes from the message.

As the apostle Paul said , "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). The world "power" used in this verse comes form the Greek word, dunamis. It's the same root for our world dynamite and it means a "miraculous, mighty, wonderful power."

Our message, not the media we use to share it, is the source of true power. It was the same for the early disciples writing with pens on parchment, it will be the same for us if we are creating virtual reality holograms to illustrate Bible stories in the years to come.

We live in an age where the pace of change is incredible. Many of you started out in communicating with pencils, progressed to typewriters, and now operate computers on your desk more powerful than the ones they used to put a man on the moon. This pace will not slow down.

We need to always remember that no matter how powerful, overwhelming or impressive the technology, there remains, "only one thing that is needful" -the good news of salvation found in Jesus.

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From The Heart of Church Communications by Yvon Prehn, available either as a download or in paperback book form from www.lulu.com/yvonprehn.