Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.

After GIVING TUESDAY—my gift to YOU—dozens of FREE CHRISTMAS Templates!!!!! No strings attached…..really FREE

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Effective Church Communications has gifts for you!
Effective Church Communications has gifts for you--totally free templates for all occassions.

I do love the idea of Giving Tuesday but I must admit many of the ministry requests for giving in the midst of the crush of buying demands for Black Friday often felt like one more case of financial badgering.

I understand the need to raise funds whenever possible. When I was senior editor at both Compassion International and Young Life, I wrote many of those fund-raising appeals myself.

I thought about doing a plea for support for the Effective Church Communications Ministry. But I just couldn't add one more to an already lengthy list of the appeals you received from ministries doing truly important kingdom work. Then I realized......

This is an opportunity for me to GIVE to YOU!

It isn't anything new really, just a reminder of the many TEMPLATES and especially the Christmas ones I have for all of you for FREE!

Here are some of the ones I have and there are many, many more the links to all are at the bottom of this article:

[Read more...]

Video: about ECC TEMPLATES and an overview of FREE CHRISTMAS TEMPLATES

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Christmas is incredibly busy and Templates can be a great time saver when you want to do something quickly without having to take time to agonize over design or legal images or what typeface to use.

Effective Church Communications has created hundreds of Templates for you that will not only save you time, but that will help you accomplish the ministry goals of helping people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to maturity in your Christian faith.

The video here explains how and why our templates can be useful to you and gives you an overview and examples of how we put our ministry strategy into practice for Christmas.

You can download all the Christmas Templates HERE.

Here are just a few samples of what's on that page. [Read more...]

Don’t work like Amazon this holiday season–make room for joy!

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Free templates to make you happy
This season and always let's encourage each other as we work for the Lord!

I just finished reading an article by Gerry McGovern on the brutality of some modern companies in pursuing customer satisfaction at the cost of worker's mental and physical health and safety. Though we can do little to control how secular companies treat their workers, I was challenged with how we view work in our churches and ministries.

Yes, we all want to work hard for the Lord and in advancing His Kingdom, and yes there are times when we might push ourselves especially hard. This last week for me was filled with communications to be created for Sunday, a lesson for a Sunday School Class, Christmas decorations, preparing our home to host our Sunday School Brunch/party and doing all the cleaning, cooking, and shopping for that. It all got done and then I took a 2-hour nap.

It was fulfilling and good, but to push like that continuously isn't a good thing. I remind myself that Jesus said:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt. 11:28-30

It is a tricky balance between working hard for the Lord in ways that are pleasing to Him and thinking WE have to carry the entire load. We need to pray for wisdom and insight in these areas.

We also need to be careful about the guilt and burdens we place on others. If church staff members or volunteers are overly stressed with their workloads,  we might need to adjust our expectations, add time or resources or recruit additional volunteers. Our success in our communications or outreach at Christmas or any time of the year is not dependant on how hard we work but on the blessings of a Savior who can move hearts and change lives with the most humble of communications or services we produce.

We don't work for a brutal employer who primarily cares about the bottom line, but for a Savior who gave his life for us and who walks with us and we live for Him.

My contribution to your sanity

Let me carry some of your load for you. I have dozens of free templates for you to help you get out the true message of Christmas, connect with visitors, and encourage church members. They are in downloadable PDF formats and many are ready-to-print as is. Items such as connection cards, cards that remind people that Jesus didn't stay a baby, and a gospel presentation based on Hark the Herald Angels Sing, all are ready for you with a simple click and download. CLICK HERE to go to the Christmas Templates and scroll through the many items for you.

In addition, most are also in editable PDF format, so you can personalize them or change any of the headlines, etc.

Please pass on this resource to your fellow church communicators.