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 best way to get visitors to attend Christmas church events–the practical tools to do it

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What would you say is the answer to the challenge of getting unchurched visitors to come to your Christmas events? Is it to purchase a national outreach campaign of postcards? Is it to spend lots of money on advertisements in the local newspaper? Is it to create colorful website banners for the holidays?

Though all of those methods may bring in a few visitors, the most effective way to get visitors to attend hasn’t changed from the days when Jesus walked on this earth—it is a friend telling a friend:

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (Jn. 1:41-42).

1 UP Why invite clipart bulletin insert
Just click to download PDF to encourage your church members to invite their friends for Christmas

Below is a Bulletin insert for everyone and following that is a selection of materials for ECC Members. Click here for information about ECC Membership.

An encouragement to your people to invite their friends

Nothing works better than a personal invitation, but for that to take place, your people have to be motivated to invite their friends to the events your church is hosting this Christmas season. We’d like to think that people will naturally want to invite their friends, but with all the demands of the holidays, it’s easy to forget that an invitation to a church event is not just one more option on the calendar.

If your church event is (and I am assuming it is) more than simply an entertaining Christmas tradition and is one that clearly communicates the gospel, you need to remind your people that inviting friends to your events could literally change their eternity. In an upbeat way, the bulletin insert here will remind them of this truth and encourage them to invite their friends.

This PDF is a free download for everyone. Click here or on the image to download it.

Additional options and outreach reminder materials for Effective Church Communication Members.

If you are an Effective Church Communication Member, by clicking the link below the following description, you can download a ZIP file that has:

1 UP Why invite photo bulletin insert
This version of the bulletin insert, plus the other one, plus PDFs, MS Publisher files, PNGs, and MS Word text file is available in a ZIP file for ECC Members. To download the ZIP file, go to the end of the article.

***Another design of the Bulletin Insert.

***PDFs of both designs, ready to print.

***MS Publisher files of this design so you can modify them it you want to. I did not include a file of the clip art one that is editable because when I checked again, I was not sure of the source of the clipart. But this template could be modified with clipart if you chose to use it.

***MS Word file of the text of the bulletin insert with permission to use it in any publication or website use you’d like.

***PNG-image files of each of the flyers for you to use in bulletins, websites, handouts, PowerPoint presentations where you encourage your people.

Becoming and ECC Member will save you hours work because you don’t have to create all of these items—simply download, modify and use! Lots more are coming for the Christmas season and all through the year, so join now so you don’t miss out!

For more information on how to become an ECC Member, Click here.

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Click here to download the ZIP file that contains all of the materials above. Save it to your desktop and then just click to open and use all the materials.

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Resource collection: How to effectively recruit the volunteers you need for fall outreach and always

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With all the fantastic opportunities fall provides for church outreach, no doubt your church calendar is filling up. But as your calendar fills, your worries also grow as you wonder how you will ever staff all the events. Will you get enough volunteers? Or will you be so tired as the holiday season approaches you can barely drag yourself through it?

Be encouraged! I've put together a number of resources for you that will help you recruit all the volunteers you need. Some are free for everyone, a number of them are for Effective Church Communication members only--and these are so useful, the ones offered this week alone are reason enough to join! Before we talk about the specifics of recruiting volunteers, I'd encourage you to consider this....

Providing help isn't the most important reason to work hard to get church volunteers

Recruiting volunteers is an extremely important ministry in the church, that's true. You may have primarily thought about recruiting volunteers primarily as something you needed to do so you'd have enough people to help at your upcoming event. But it is so much more than that.

As Christians, we know that one day we will stand before Jesus to be evaluated on the work we've done while we are here on earth (2 Cor. 5:10, 1 Cor. 3:8-15). We remember how the Apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians in Eph. 2:10 that they were created to do good works. In reality, when we make it possible for people to volunteer, we are helping them grow to spiritual maturity and to do the works Jesus wants them to do.

Though we may have lofty and true spiritual goals we want to achieve with our outreach events, to accomplish them takes detailed, focused earthly communication work. The following resources will help you do what it takes to have the volunteers you need for the ministry God has called you to. The result will be that you and everyone you work with will be blessed.

Video: How to be more successful in recruiting volunteers, a case study

This on-line video will take you step-by-step through a real life example of what a church did to try to recruit volunteers for a fall outreach event (and failed miserably) and what could be done for success. The principles taught here will work in any volunteer recruiting situation.

This ECC Training video (and many more like it) is one of the benefits of this website You can use these videos to train yourself and you can also project them and use them to train your church staff and church communication volunteers.

Click here to go to the online webinar.

PDF Book: How to be more successful in recruiting volunteers for church events, a case study

Many people have told me that a step-by-step PDF really helped them carry out what was taught on the video. I put together a 17-page booklet that takes you step-by-step through all the processes, plus has extra articles on how to recruit and retain volunteers. This article has the FREE link for ECC Members and links to how to buy it (only $5.00) for non-members.

Click here to go to the book overview.

Free article: Communications for a good continuing relationship with your volunteers

Getting volunteers to sign up or help you once is one thing, getting them to continue is another. this free article will give you some ideas on how to form lasting and productive relationships with your volunteers.

Click here to go to the article

Effective Church Communication MEMBER LINKS:

Membership in the Effective Church Communications website certainly DOES have its privileges and this month they are incredible. Not only do you have 24/7 access to the training webinar, but you get the following (click on the title area of each entry below to go directly to it):

PDF of the PowerPoint notes

That go along with the Video, so that whenever it would work out for you to show it to your staff or volunteers you can print out this PDF for them to take notes with.

An e-book copy of the book

On how to be more successful in recruiting volunteers for church outreach events. In addition you have permission to make as many copies of it as you need for volunteers and church staff members.

PDFs of Samples of Church Volunteer Samples from churches

THIS IS INCREDIBLE--you really have to see the sample materials here to understand how valuable it is. These are copies of volunteer recruitment samples from real churches. There are four pieces here including a 25-page handbook: Community is Contagious, that is an instructive and inspiring volunteer, church team guide. There are also volunteer recruitment booklets and one of the best ministry brochures I've ever seen included.

ECC Member Article: Clear communications help you create effective volunteer recruitment and retention

This article goes into more depth on how to actually write recruitment material for volunteers than the video has the time or format to do. No matter what the communication channel you use to recruit, web, print, bulletins, brochures, whatever, this will be helpful.

Be encouraged and keep working at equipping and involving volunteers

Doing the work needed to recruit and train volunteers effectively is not easy, but may the Lord use the samples and ideas here to give you inspiration and strength. When you, along with your volunteers and the people who came to know Jesus because of the events you held meet Jesus face to face it will all be more than worth it.

Volunteer recruitment, a how-to booklet that will help you this fall and for all events

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CASE STUDY BOOKLET
This booklet is FREE for ECC Members along with the many other ebooks and templates  available to them.

This booklet not only goes along with the video on recruiting volunteers, but it is also an extremely useful guide for any time of the year when you need advice on how to successfully recruit volunteers.

Yes, it would be wonderful if people just showed up whenever we announce we need them, but real life in real churches doesn't work out that way.

To get more volunteers churches sometimes think they need to attend conferences, read huge books, follow complex plans and while some of these things can be useful, try a far more simple and extremely effective solution: tell people what is going on, what you want them to do, and how to get in touch with you so you know they want to be part of it.

That sounds so easy, but I cannot tell you how many "volunteer" announcements, flyers and brochures I see that don't do this. This book walks you through step-by-step the kind of information you need to include for truly successful volunteer recruitment. It is available in three ways:

For Effective Church Communication Members it is is a free download. If you are not a member, check out becoming one so you can receive this and many other resources like it for free 24/7.
Click here to go to the free member download.

 

Back-to-School Backpack Ministry, church communication resources to motivate your congregation

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Back-to-School  is a time with great outreach potential. Backpack Ministry, where your church assembles and gives children backpacks filled with school supplies, now more than ever, is a greatly needed ministry. Children in homeless shelters, kids whose parents have lost their jobs, or whose jobs have been cut back, many of them face a sad and embarrassing time—to be forced to go to school without the required supplies their parents can't pay for and the schools don't provide.

To keep that from happening to any little child in your community, below are PDFs of bulletin inserts (two styles, same content) you can download and print up for your church with the specific details for your church on the backside. First are some links for websites that will give you additional ideas not only on Backpack Ministries for this time of year, but year-round for needy children.

Many families need help on a continuing basis. These backpacks aren’t filled with school supplies, but with food for children who may not eat on the weekend without help. Check out churches in your area who may do this and if none do, consider starting that ministry at your church.

May the Lord burn into our hearts the needs of children and make us motivated to meet those needs. May the Lord give you, the church communicator, the passion, power and prayers to create communications that will link needs with resources.

You may freely download, copy, share, use the following inserts in any way you want.

Backpack Ministry Bulletin Insert, click here to download PDF

 

 

For another set of designs, PLUS a downloadable ZIP FILE of editable MS Publisher files of the new designs, jpg, png and a text file of the content CLICK HERE

It’s always personal: how to communicate effectively and professionally as representatives of Jesus

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Church communication needs to be personal
No matter what channel we use, church communication needs to be personal.

As I was preparing to write this article and introduce the topic of the importance of personal communications, including how we communicate on the phone, my husband who is a bi-vocational pastor (unpaid pastoral position at church, handyman for income) came home for lunch and shared this story with me.

My husband was doing some repairs on the mobile home next door to the home of a Christian man who passed away a few days earlier. The son was in town to take care of the details for the funeral. The mother was frail and both parents had not been able to attend church consistently over the last couple of years because of ill health. The son wanted to hold his father's funeral at the church they had attended for a number of years in the past.

He shared with my husband, over the course of a couple of days, his attempts to reach the church to arrange the funeral. He left messages. He talked to one person and was referred to another. He left more messages. He himself was a pastor and told my husband that the family had over 100 relatives in town who would be coming to the service, most of whom who were not Christians. After a few days of not receiving a call back, he decided to hold the funeral service at the clubhouse of the mobile home community and he, the son, would do the service. Other than being an emotional support and encouragement, my husband was extremely sad and frustrated as he told me the story. I'm making it sound over-spiritual--I think my husband wanted to punch somebody--but knew that would not be appropriate.

Obviously somebody dropped the ball in a big way in this situation, but these days of answering machines in churches that route calls to answering systems of staff, it's not hard to imagine this happening. Who knows why this happened, but what could have been a time to personally minister to a hurting family and unreached friends became a situation of sadness, resentment and pain--all because phone messages were not answered. [Read more...]