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 Lord's approval, often the only reward for our work

By

And the LORD said to Aaron, "You priests will receive no inheritance of land or share of property among the people of Israel. I am your inheritance and your share." Numbers 18: 20

A church secretary recently shared with me that she had spent great effort redoing her church bulletin. It looked fantastic. It was much easier to read, her choices in typography and layout were clear and professional looking. But, she said, almost nobody noticed or commented on the changes.

Though it didn't seem like it, her experience was actually a great complement. As the experts in typography continuously affirm the best graphic design and typography should be invisible. The best designed bulletin, or newsletter, or publication of any kind should never cause our audience to say at first, "What a beautiful design!" The first response should be a clear understanding of the message and a proper response to it.

It is often an overly busy, cluttered or unclear design that gets noticed. People will say something is hard to read or they won't respond to the message.

It isn't that we shouldn't work hard to make our ministry publications artistically pleasing and the very best in design and beauty, but those considerations must always be secondary to choosing type, layout, and graphics that work best to communicate the message. This is especially true as we share the gospel.

When we create ministry communications for the Lord, like the priests in the Old Testament, the Lord himself and his favor is often our only reward. Like the old hymn says, we are "channels only." In our work, not only will our audience often not notice changes, but they won't even know who did the work, because much of what we produce will be unsigned.

But our Lord knows. And like the priests of old, he is our inheritance. And it is in his approval we find "the path of life" and "fullness of joy" (Psalm 18: 11, NAS).

All of the devotions on this website and many more have been collected into The Heart of Church Communications by Yvon Prehn. To either download or purchase a copy, click here.

Real 24/7 support

By Leave a Comment

"Call to me and I will answer you." (Jer. 33:3)

Many computer and software companies promise support 24/7. It sounds good, but in reality that "support" is often an endless series of automatic messages, referrals to canned answers, or a suggestion to go to the web site and there for you to try to figure out the answer. In response you can either keep pushing buttons in frustration, or give up knowing it is almost impossible to talk to a real human being.

In contrast, God's promise of support is personal, immediate, and unconditional. If we call, he answers.

We can call out to him for wisdom. When our work in church communications seems overwhelming and we don't know what to do next, we need wisdom. James 1:5 promises when we ask for wisdom, he will give it to us. Often, we have the skills to do the tasks we need to do, we just can't figure out the order or the process. God can give us that wisdom to put the process in order to successfully complete our projects.

We can call out to him for encouragement. We need it when working with computers. Computers never tire; a computer can work around the clock. People aren't like that, but an odd thing has happened in offices since the advent of the computer. In subtle ways we tend to compare ourselves to the computer. We think we need to be a machine who never wears down or quits or gets discouraged. Sometimes the Lord is the only one who can lift your spirit in an office that, perhaps unconsciously, views people as machines.

We can call out to him for perseverance. Sometimes we think we simply can't learn a new program or figure out one more project. Yet, if we just stay with it an hour or a day longer (praying at the same time for insight and strength) suddenly things become clear.

Train yourself to always call out to God first. So often we ask him for help as a last resort. He is merciful and kind and answers no matter when we remember to ask him, but we could save ourselves a lot of frustration by asking for his help first.

We can call out to him-sometimes not for anything specific at all. Some days it seems like nobody on earth pays attention or cares. That may or may not be true, but no matter. Call out to your God. He cares about you and is ready to listen and help with every concern you have, 24/7.

This devotion is from the heart of church communications, by Yvon Prehn, to download or purchase a copy, go to: www.lulu.com/yvonprehn

Always keep the spiritual and the practical in balance

By

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.

________________________

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