Effective Church Communications

Why everything sinful about Halloween makes it perfect for Outreach!

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Halloween outreach
How to take what is evil about Halloween and turn it into a reason to share about Jesus!

Lots of churches don't do outreach events at Halloween because they think they are sinful--but this brief video shows you how the very things that make Halloween sinful and repulsive to many church people--the focus on death, the supernatural and similar things are what make Halloween a PERFECT time for outreach.

We can use these topics and the interest people have in them as bridges to conversations about Jesus. The video here shows you how the Apostle Paul did that and how we can use this time of year to do it in our communities.

CLICK HERE TO go to LINKS to motivation and tools to help you share the good news about Jesus at Halloween

For Successful Fall & Winter Outreach Publications: Clarify and Coordinate for greater lasting impact

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welcoming people
If you are planning a fall or winter outreach event at your church, these tips will help you have lasting success from it.

Fall and winter are two prime times for churches to plan outreach events for their communities. Large amounts of time and money are spent on these events and often the church gets a great community response to the free Harvest Festival or Family Thanksgiving Dinner or Community Caroling and Hot Chocolate Party. But seldom do these activities generate the kind of continuing church involvement a church hopes for. I'd like to offer some suggestions on how to CLARIFY and COORDINATE your message for greater lasting impact.

If you don't want to waste your time and money the following tips are essential!

To help you understand how important this is and to give you a sense of how futile it is to hold events without good communication to clarify and coordinate your message, primarily for the ladies reading this, think about when you buy cosmetics at the department store or online and you are given some free samples. (The gentleman reading this may or may not have some sort of similar situation, regardless the example will make sense.)  The company that makes the cosmetics don't have the samples in the middle of the mall set up on a pretty display that says, "FREE FOR ALL." No, you go to the specific cosmetic counter and you know without a doubt who is giving them to you. [Read more...]

A Case Study to help you be more successful in recruiting volunteers, using Trunk or Treat as an example

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Sucessful fall church outreach
Fall is a great time for church outreach and the ideas here will make sure you get enough volunteers to make your event successful.

Yvon's note: though this material and the video is several years old, it has some extremely useful material that will help you be successful in your fall outreach. Consider the production values and artwork a retro memory and learn from the timeless principles represented.

Recruiting enough volunteers is always a challenge for any church event and few are the churches that report they have enough. When the event takes place and there are not enough people, not only is it tiring for the staff and the volunteers that are there, but it is spiritually trying also. When this happens, we ask ourselves:

Why didn't more people help?
Don't people care about their neighbors?
Doesn't outreach matter?

These and many other questions haunt us and make us hesitant to be enthusiastic about upcoming events.

In evaluating many instances of this kind, I've put together the online Video below that has a Case Study with specifics and samples that I trust will help you be more successful in recruiting people for your next church outreach event.

As you can imagine (this being a church communication ministry) I believe that the primary problem with not getting enough volunteers is in the communication that comes from the church—the problem is not in our people, but in us. Often we don't communicate nearly as well as we think we did to let people know how much we needed their help or even, as you'll see in the case of Trunk or Treat, even what the event is about.

This video would be excellent to watch with your church staff. Remember you can click on the little box of arrows at the bottom of the video to blow it up full size on your screen. Simply hook up the computer to a projector and you can show it to the entire staff. [Read more...]

What About Halloween? A search for Halloween origins and how Christians should respond

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ed. note: We all struggle with what to do about Halloween as a Christian. This article is from a church communicator, Pam Finck, who was kind enough to send it to me, it is wonderful and I wanted to share it with you. Here is what she had to say.......

I’m a Christian, and I’ve been struggling with what to do about Halloween.  On one hand, I love joining in the festivities like carving pumpkins and taking my costumed children door to door for treats.  I don’t believe little children dressed up in red leotards with horns on their heads are demons, and I don’t believe black cats are bad luck or witches incarnate.

But, on the other hand, I’m concerned that joining in might be sending a wrong message to unbelievers.  It’s possible someone could get a wrong idea…like witches are cute, or that Satan is only a small problem.  I wouldn’t want to make anyone stumble (1 Cor. 10:32). [Read more...]

e-book: How to be more successful in recruiting volunteers for church outreach events

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Case Study CoverThis booklet both goes along with the ECC Training Video: A case study to help you be more successful in recruiting volunteers example a church trunk or treat, but it is also a great stand-alone instructional booklet that will give you specific advice on how to recruit any time of the year.

The most important thing (in additional to lots of prayer) to get people to sign up as volunteers in your church is for you to give them clear and complete information about the event you want them to volunteer for and how to sign up to be part of it.

Remember, having a successful volunteer turn-out isn't just about you--it is about helping people grow in their faith and doing work that is pleasing to our Lord.

This e-book is free for Effective Church Communication Members. You can download it by clicking the link below. If you are not a member, click here for membership information and how to join.

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CLICK HERE to download How to be more successful in recruiting volunteers for church outreach events.