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.
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

How to really love visitors and the members of your congregation with church communications

4 May, 2014 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Love with your actions not just words
To love with your actions not just words, you've got to communicate clearly and completely.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

Imagine a person looking for a new church. They are new in town, lonely and want to connect. After an online search for local churches, perhaps they google the church website and then visit. They want to find out more.

The church proclaims "We love people!" and the person is certainly in need of tangible love.

The person would like to find out more about the church and at the service, someone briefly mentioned that small groups were starting and that it was a great way to connect. It sounded interesting, but many other things were mentioned quickly in the same announcement time.

Wanting to learn more, the searching person looks at the bulletin, the online newsletter, and the website, looking for more information for the details on how to make a connection.

The bulletin had a very fancy graphic that said "Be sure to join our small groups!"

The website had a new landing page under "Small Group Ministries" that had testimonies of people who loved their small groups.

The social media links said pretty much the same things—encouragements to be part of groups, but no connecting details.

The person received a generic note from the pastor telling the person how happy he was that they visited and various other friendly sentiments.

Why none of these communications was loving

Not one of them communicated anything SPECIFIC about how to connect with a small group. They all gave tantalizing bits of information about the small group ministry at the church, but the underlying message was that if you were already part of the group and knew how to connect the small groups were great.

If you didn't know—you could call the church office—but chances are you wouldn't get a real person to talk to and you many not want to leave a message and your contact information with strangers.

You might try emailing the church—but many churches don't answer their emails promptly, if at all.

Why this happens

No one at any church intends to be unloving in their church communications. But it is so easy without thinking to assume that "everybody knows……" about small groups or any other ministry of the church that has gone on for years.

But visitors don't know and if you don't give clear information and detailed information in every channel and/or links to that information every time you mention an event, people will not know what is going on. No one can read your mind; no one knows the good intentions you have to involve people in any ministry if you don't clearly communicate it.

Specific advice on how to create loving communications about small groups or other ministries

Be sure you know all the details. Sometimes church communicators don't have all the information they need to communicate about an event to visitors and regular members. Be sure you get and then pass on the following information:

Time and dates of the events: as well as starting time, be sure you always include duration. Does the event last 1 hour? 2 hours? Whatever it is, be clear.

Location: "At the Johnson's house" or a similar description doesn't count—who are these people, is a question newcomers will ask. Always give a specific address and if the host has a specific role in the church clarify that. For example, at Pastor David's house, who is pastor of Single Adults.

Target audience if that is important: if an event or group is for singles, seniors, married couples or any other specific group, be sure you state it. If it is open to all adults, be clear.

Clarify child care situations: If you charge, what about a single mom who may not be able to afford your fee? If you charge by the child (one church charged $5 a child) that might be great for the host who had one child, but that effectively made the small group cost-prohibitive for the blended family with 4 kids. Consider making child care free and paying for it out of your Missions or Outreach budget—this could be one of the kindest things you might do for a family who really needs to be part of a small group, but who couldn't afford $20 a night for small group child care or a single mom who couldn't come if there was any fee. (Both of these true situations—one turned out well, the other did not.)

Anything else that might be important: do people need a workbook? To they have to pay for it? Is homework expected? Think through and ask yourself if there is anything that would cause someone embarrassment or awkwardness if they first found out about it at the group.

Benefits of attending: sometimes we forget to list the great benefits of church events and ministries because we think they are self-evident—but they aren't or more people would probably attend. Will people learn more of God's Word, our only true guide for life and eternity? Will they meet people who will be fellow travelers in their journey of faith? Will they find people they can pray for and with; encourage and build up? We sometimes become complacent about the tremendous privilege and joy we have of being able to take part in church activities without fear—remind your audience of that.

Clearly communicate where to go or who to contact for more information: In all print communications, have your website and the specific place on it listed for more information. Social media are almost useless here because it is an ever-flowing stream, not something that has specific facts, schedules, and locations. In print, social media and web communications be sure to have contact information—phone, text, email, social media interaction links and most important of all—be sure someone constantly monitors them and responds immediately.

Loving in "action and truth"

As the Apostle John reminded us—it is so easy to say we love people, but to truly love them, we must combine our sentiments with "action and truth."

To do that in your church communications requires detailed, often tedious work as the sections above illustrate—but it is important to do it for our communications to reflect the patient love of our Lord Jesus.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Devotions & Challenges for Church Communicators, Writing Tagged With: Church Visitor communications, clear church communications, how to church communications

friday miscellany #6: How I create training videos, Mobile checkin for Children’s ministry, FREE software for illustration presentations & more

27 July, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Issue #6 of friday miscellany, links that are helpful, useful, fun & inspiring for church communicators

The newsletters sent out during the week link you to sources on the Effective Church Communications site that are primarily "how-tos" in church communications.  However, there are many more resources, sites, tips, and ideas that I come across that may be useful for church communicators. Here are the ones for this Friday.

Please pass this on to your friends and other church communications groups.

Video: How I create training videos--software, process, tips

Over the last few years I've created over 100 videos on a variety of topics to help church communicators. I get great feedback from many of you on how much they help and in addition to that I've had a number of requests for questions on how I do them.  Several church communicators have suggested that this type of video would be great to do to help church volunteers learn various tasks and I agree.
CLICK HERE to go to a video that is an overview of the software I use, my process and some tips.

Mobile Check-in–a new way to accommodate the needs of young families

The church management software company, By the Book. has stepped into the digital age in a big way with their new way of checking in children at church with any mobile device. Here is how they describe it:

Imagine deploying your volunteers throughout your church building, armed with iPads or smartphones ready to check folks in.  Then by the time those same folks walk over to the  printing station, their name tags and security tags are already printed and waiting for them.  Do you have a bus ministry?  Now you can check those kids in as soon as they hop on the bus.  When they get to the church, their name tags are there waiting for them.  Well, this is now available. . . .

CLICK HERE to read more.

Linotype, the Film…..or how typesetting was done before computers

Typography is a topic of almost endless fascination to many of us who love words and work hard to craft our messages. Though our message is unchanging, during my lifetime the methods for communicating this message have changed dramatically. One part of the history of type has recently been made into a movie and one of the ECC readers sent me this fantastic movie trailer about Linotype machines, which were extraordinary for their time in how they were able to cast an entire line of type rather than a typesetter having to assemble them letter by letter.
CLICK HERE to see the movie trailer and find out more.

Fun Illustration creation software

This is a situation where I had so much fun playing around with this, I couldn't wait to share it--even though I don't know very much about it. This software, POWTOONS is still in beta, but it is very easy to play around with and allows you to create some sketch-like presentations without actually having to draw anything. It would be great for church announcements.
CLICK HERE for more information on the program.

FREE, legal music tracks for your videos and podcasts

It isn't easy finding truly FREE music  that is legal for your videos and podcasts. Though this site does not have a lot of specifically Christian music it does have many instrumentals that can be used in videos and podcasts. In addition, it is one of the most honest, easy-to-use, free music sites I've looked at.

This is the site I used for the music for the POWTOONS video I created in the article above. I simply downloaded the music from ccmixter and imported it into the POWTOONS file. I copied the attribution and put it in the YouTube video file and on my website. Super easy--I may try putting music on some more of my videos in the future.
CLICK HERE for more.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: how to church communications, how to create videos, how to find legal music, misc. church communications

How to learn from Yvon Prehn Instructional videos

18 July, 2012 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

The purpose of the videos I create for you is so that you will learn how to be a better communicator, but I know sometimes the videos go by quickly and it's difficult to follow the steps. This video shows you how to make the most of the instructional videos by watching a segment, then pausing it while you try the steps and going back and forth, basically copying what I do. I hope this helps--let me know either in the comments or via email at yvon@effectivechurchcom.com:

  • Did this help?
  • What would you like to learn from the videos?
  • Topics, subjects, what have you liked or want more of?
  • Any way I can make videos more helpful or effective for you?

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Skills, Videos Tagged With: how to church communications, how to learn, yvon prehn videos

Webinar VIDEO & PDF handouts: You can do it! You can create all of the communications materials you need, inexpensively, at your church, and by your people

11 March, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Today everyone is concerned about the costs and the ability of their church to do all the communication they need to do. I firmly believe that every church has the people and ability they need and can afford the necessary training to do all their church needs to do.

This video will give you a flying overview of some of the programs and training that will help your church accomplish its goals. WARNING: it may be frustrating because in many of the areas you'll want me to stop and show you how to use the software or program in depth--that is not the purpose of this video and there is either training on this website in the various areas or there will be. This Webinar/Video was created to show you what is possible.

Here are the PDFs of the handouts for the video.

Handouts for Video There will be a number of additional training materials posted on this site that go into the topics here in more depth. Please be sure you are signed up on our mailing list to receive them.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Tweet
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communication basics, church communication resources, Communications, how to church communications, you can create church communications, yvon prehn

Link to Easter Templates of all sorts

Seasonal Templates

  • OVERVIEW of TEMPLATES for Church Communicators, please read first
  • Valentine’s Day Templates
  • Lenten Templates
  • Easter Templates
  • Mother’s Day Templates
  • Father’s Day and Men’s Ministry Templates
  • Graduation Templates
  • Summer-related Templates
  • 4th of July, Canada Day, and GRACE for All Nations
  • See You At the Pole
  • Harvest Festival and Halloween Templates
  • Christmas Templates

Recent Posts

  • Social media images for Easter with challenging messages
  • From our vault: Everything you need for Easter: Templates, strategy, inspiration and encouragement for all your Easter communications
  • Why just “Come to Easter at Our Church” isn’t enough–FREE invitations with short, but powerful messages
  • ESSENTIAL Christmas Communication advice and free tools to implement it
  • A Free Template of the Christmas Story and short gospel presentation based on “Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”

Most read posts

  • Bulletin inserts or social media content for Father's Day; poetry, challenges, encouragements
  • A Prayer for Graduates, Free flyer, bulletin insert
  • An important reminder for Father’s Day that not all the men in your church are married Dads or Dads at all
  • Father's Day and Men's Ministry Templates
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES
  • Six Steps to Simple filing
  • Summer-related Templates

Misc. Church Communications Templates

  • Church Connection Cards
  • Business/Invitation Card Templates
  • Back to Church for Kids in the Fall Templates
  • Church Bulletin Template
  • Volunteer and Encouragement Templates
  • 2-page Senior Adult Print Newsletter Template
  • Misc. Church Templates
FREE Bible Verses and Sayings in both print and social media format at Bible805Images.com
FREE Bible Verses and Sayings in both print and social media format at Bible805Images.com
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • FREE PRINT TEMPLATES

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in