Effective Church Communications
Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission
Below are some images of connection cards you can use in your church. Below the images is the link to download them.
Click here to go to the ZIP file containing these and other editable Connection Cards. Save file to your hard drive, click to open and edit in MS Publisher. You have to have MS Publisher installed on your computer for these to work.
People prefer to train themselves and others in a variety of ways, that's why ECC provides a variety of resources for your training. You might want to watch a video for your own training, but you'd prefer a PowerPoint presentation to train others. Because of that ECC has provided a PowerPoint slide show for you that is either available for download.
To download the PowerPoint and the PDF of the notes click on the links below.
Click here to download the PowerPoint Slide Show.
Click here to download the PDF of the PowerPoint notes.
Multi-channel communication means making the most of every opportunity you have to communicate the gospel message.
Unfortunately this is not something most church communicators want to hear. In this time of ever-changing options for communicating in our churches, it is easy to be overwhelmed and we naturally want to simplify our communication workload. This desire is expressed by the question, “What is the best way to communicate with people today? Is it the web, email, or podcasting? Do we still need to do print? What works best to reach the most people?
When overwhelmed with channel choices, it is natural to want to narrow it down to one or two that will be effective.
I always feel bad as I answer because I know people want me to give them a simple answer and to tell them that one channel, especially if it is the one they prefer, is all they need, but I can’t do that. I can’t do that because to be effective in your church communication ministry, to fully fulfill the Great Commission, there is no one way.
Today to be an effective church communicator, you have to use every channel available to you.
No one channel will work because people aren’t any more alike in their communication preferences than they are in other areas of likes and dislikes. Some folks love to go online; others don’t have a computer. Some love words; others prefer images and videos. Some love to listen to podcasts; others don’t have any idea what a podcast is. Some text continuously on their mobile phones; some won’t read anything that isn’t on paper.
It’s challenging because all of folks just mentioned go to your church. We can’t simply pick out one way to communicate because the Lord has put us into a body of wonderfully diverse people and it is our responsibility to create communications that are useful for all of them.
To make this situation manageable for practical application in church communications, I’ve divided the many communication channels into three overall groups. It is much more difficult to communicate in all three channels, but I trust this section will encourage you and give you some strategic ideas how to be more effective as you work.
This channel consists of printed bulletins, newsletters, postcards, invitation cards, connection cards, instruction materials, printed matter of all kinds, sizes, and quality that we create in the church. Print, in color, black and white, and all its forms, is still one of the primary and most important ways we communicate with people today and will be for some time. Almost everyone has access to this channel.
This channel is the latest tool we have to communicate the gospel message and we use it in PowerPoint® presentations, the internet, our website, email newsletters, cell phone and small screen communications, and anything else that makes up the newest, latest, and greatest communication technology. This channel is still emerging, developing in new systems and tools, and is expanding constantly. Not everyone has access to this channel and speed of adaptation varies tremendously with age and socioeconomic groups.
This communication channel is often easily forgotten, but it is probably the most important in any church communication program. You can have the most beautifully designed bulletin and the most complete and functional website imaginable, but if the folks at your welcome center ignore visitors and prefer to chat with each other, if the person answering the phone (assuming a real person can be reached) is having a really bad day and takes it out on all callers, or if the members of your congregation ignore visitors, the most beautiful and cutting edge communications, no matter if they are in print or digitally presented, will be useless. People are the church—the church throughout the ages is made up of people. Our people are always the primary message delivery tool of the gospel, accessible at all times to all people.
We need to keep this transition time in mind as we consider the various channels of church communication. A few hundred years from now, things may settle down a bit and everyone will perhaps receive messages beamed wirelessly into their brain stem in a way that can be turned on and off with the blink of an eye, but right now we are in the midst of the biggest communication revolution in the history of humanity and this revolution floods us with communication options of every kind. In practical terms this means you need to learn and grow in all areas of communication.
That is what this site is about and to help you do that, here are some more resources that discuss multi-channel communication:
In your excitement over new communication channels please read: Never forget the people who don’t have access to the easily created channels
This PDF shows business cards used in a number of ways, all of which are effective for outreach.
But example #1 on the page needs a little more explanation. It is a card that a church can give out to people after doing some sort of service project. For example in the winter, perhaps the youth group shoveled sidewalks or scraped windshields or the church gave folks hot chocolate at rest stops. Whatever the kindness, this is a great way to let people know the church did the action and to invite people to come visit the church.
Some folks might say that perhaps the church should simply do the act of kindness without saying who did it and if that is what the Lord tells you to do, by all means do that. However, if you don't let people know who you are and let them know that the church is there and wants to have a continuing relationship with them, you might be cutting off someone who has a real need and who might want to connect with the church. A third option might be to make up the cards and allow individuals to choose if they hand them out or not.
To download the PDF, click here, or on the image.
Christmas is the time for giving. This year give to the people in your churches communication tools to help them share the gospel. We all know that Ephesians 4 tells pastors and teachers that their job is “to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.” Communication tools can quip your people to do evangelism for the holidays and all year around.
Most Christians know they are to be about sharing the good news of the gospel to people who don’t know Jesus. However, exactly how to do that keeps many people from doing that. Most of them think that sharing the gospel means getting up enough courage to say to a co-worker or stranger, “Are you saved?” and then proceeding to present a 3-minute canned gospel presentation.
God in His mercy does sometimes use that method, but it is probably not the most effective or is it one that most of your congregation look forward to using. In addition, current studies show that in our secular, post-Christian society it usually takes repeated exposures to the gospel message before an unchurched person really understands it and can honestly respond.
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Those repeated exposures usually take place in some church or church-sponsored activity such as a social event or small group. The communication tools you give your people gives them a way to bring friends and invite strangers to church or into a small group where they can get the repeated exposures they need to make an informed decision about the Christian faith. Some of the communication tools are:
You can turn any standard business card from your church into an invitation card by simply placing a blank line where the name would be on the card and just below it, adding “member of Your Friendly Church.” In another place on the card place the words, “BE MY GUEST”. On the reverse side of the card put a map of how to get to the church, service times, website, and whatever additional information you might think is important, such as if child care is provided at all services.
Depending upon the size of your church, make up hundreds or thousands of these cards and ask all the members to take a handful of them, carry them around at all times and give them out.
You could also make up special cards for a special series. One idea would be to make up a small fold-over card the size of a business card. On the outside have a simple cross and the words: What if it’s true? Inside invite folks to a series of upcoming sermons at your church, such as: “Is the Bible Really God’s Word?” “Why Do We Say Jesus is the Only Way to God?” “Why Does a Good God Allow Evil in Our World?”
You can either create ones specific to your church or use ones that you get from the American Tract Society (http://www.atstracts.org/). You can personalize them for your church by adding an address label on the back. The standard 2 x 3 inch mailing labels from office supply stores fit perfectly in the open space on the back of many gospel tracts. Use the label to invite people to a special event at your church. For example, on Christmas tracts create a colorful label inviting people to your Christmas concert or other outreach event.
It is so easy to create CDs these days and many larger churches (and many teenagers) are quite good at doing it. If you need a professional source to create music CDs for you or CDs in bulk, contact http://www.discmakers.com/. They create very professional CDs for excellent prices.
If your church is known for its music and if your music the kind unchurched people respond to, create a CD as an outreach piece. Church members can give it to friends and tell them that if they’d like more, your church has wonderful music like that available every Sunday.
The small business card CDs would make great music invitations to youth programs that have bands.
Discmakers as well as local media production houses in your community can also create DVDs from your church videos. You might want to add a new invitation or introduction or perhaps shoot various programs in your church to include short samples on your DVD for various holidays or different groups.
For each of the communications above, be sure include your web site on all printed pieces and on the CDs and DVDs. On the web site be sure to have current information on all your church events and schedules.
In addition, have links for additional evangelistic and outreach information. For example, to back up the invitation cards, you should have more background about your church, perhaps a bio and picture of the pastor and his or her qualifications for teaching that series. For the salvation tracts let people know that on the web site you answer the “Top Ten Questions People Ask Before They Become A Christian” and similar questions.
