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.

Don’t forget the people left behind in the rush to make all things digital

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Yvon's note: I admit, I was a bit cranky when I wrote this. Well, not so much cranky as sad, but I know I can come across cranky at times when I want to cry but end up yelling (ask my husband). I wanted to acknowledge that and ask for your forgiveness if the following comes across too harshly. I seem to be over-reacting a lot these days or maybe it’s an appropriate reaction to the over-the-top stresses of these days. I’m not sure, but I trust the following gives us thoughtful pause as we work to adapt to changing challenges while serving “the least of these.”

It’s been a wild ride in church communications and it isn’t going to smooth out any time soon as we try to figure out what to keep, what to modify, what new things to try, and what old ways of doing things we can toss out. Much well-deserved emphasis and discussion have been on new ways to conduct worship online and that will continue as churches work to figure out how to juggle the challenges of meeting physically together (while properly social distancing apart) and continuing an online ministry for those who cannot meet together.

While these discussions are going on, I’d like some recent thoughts.

Imagine you are older; imagine your health is compromised in some way and staying home is a necessity. Most likely this has been an extremely fearful time.

If you weren’t entirely comfortable with technology, it might have been a challenge to figure out how to participate in an online Bible study or watch a Sunday service.

Imagine that despite your fears, you are just now starting to feel comfortable taking communion with crackers and juice at home and singing along with the worship team on the computer. But on Sunday you are told this will stop. Well, maybe not stop entirely, the church will try to “stream” the service as they meet back in the building, but they are letting people know ahead of time this might not be the same and they made stop doing the online service. [Read more...]

Four guidelines for the challenge of ever-changing communication channels

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Digital composite of web pagesAt one time I thought technology would never get any better than the self-correcting typewriter and press-on letters. Now I'm learning to create HD videos and podcasts.  As I've researched video and podcast hosting and distribution systems, at times my brain felt like a jumble of data that would never sort its way into a linear path of what to do next. I'm getting it figured out, but as I'm working out the next steps, I reminded myself of four guidelines I've used in the past to encourage people to try computers and websites without losing the focus on the importance of fully fulfilling the Great Commission. These helped me and may be useful if you are facing new challenges in communication technology:

#1—Don't confuse the media with the message

The media, the tool you use to craft and share your message is and will be constantly changing. Media changes always seem overwhelming and they are often difficult to get through. The change from typewriters to computers for church office communications, from cut and paste layout to MS Publisher to create the church bulletin, from print only to the expectations of a website and social media communication assortment for every church, from flowers to adorn the pulpit to multi-media projection systems—all of these have taken place in the recent experience of the church. The challenge is not only in learning how to use them, but to not allow the demands of the technology to overwhelm the priority of your message. Technology can be extraordinary demanding, but it must never be your North Star. Every person, every church has a North Star which guides all your communications whether you are conscious of it or not. The only appropriate North Star for the church communicator is to fully fulfill the Great Commission—to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and to grow to maturity in Him. The media is not our message—our message is our message. If our eye is on the goal of sharing Jesus truly and completely and growing followers into disciples , if that is the core of our message, though there are many parts of it and many steps in sharing it, we won't be thrown off course when new tools appear. [Read more...]

Video: Why your church needs to create multi-channel communications

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We have so many ways we can share the messages of our church today, often our biggest challenge is knowing which one to use. The video here is an overview of the communication channels available to church communicators today along with a discussion of the positives and challenges about each one. It also encourages you to create a communication team because no one person can possibly do all the communication in any church today.

This is not a how-to for every channel shown, but an essential OVERVIEW of the church communication channels.

Below the video is a PDF of the handouts for the Video.

This video is FREE for everyone, but the PDF of the notes are for ECC MEMBERS only. We are in the process of adding HD videos for ECC Members, this one was created before we had that ability, but it is still very useful. Membership is one of the best investments you can make in the communication success of your church and is only $9.99 a month or $99 a year for any size church. CLICK HERE for membership information and signup.

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Below is a PDF of the notes for the video above:

[mepr-show if="rule: 23971"]
Multi-channel Handouts
[/mepr-show]

What will you do when an iPad costs $40? and what that has to do with how your church communicates today

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Yesterday, a wise friend of mine, Bev M., asked me this question, "What will you do when an iPad costs $40?"

He went on to remind me that you can get a case of paper for about $40.Obviously today, for most churches it costs much less to print on paper. Everyone has access to paper and every church has a way to print and get it out there. But that could change.

What will we do in our church communication programs when an iPad or any other portable, digital communication tools becomes that cheap and widely available?

Think about it.

How you answer that questions not only has to do with the future of your communications, but how well you are communicating now.

No new technology should scare you

Our task as church communicators is to share the words of eternal life. Our message has not changed in thousands of years and it won't change throughout eternity. The tools we use to share it, however, have changed and will continue to change.

No matter what the technology we must use now or what we will use in the future shouldn't scare us because:

  • Our God is always and ultimately in control of all things.
  • Our God is not intimidated by technology (easy to forget that ).
  • Our God can help us learn whatever we need to learn to do the jobs we are called to do.
  • in addition. . . . . .

You should be communicating through a variety of channels now

If you have gotten into the habit of communicating through a variety of channels—print, digital, people—using all the tools available to you, not elevating one channel over others, but being open and excited about each new communication channel and challenge you'll approach every change with excitement.

If the above statement doesn't apply to you, Effective Church Communications has many resources available to help. Teaching you the importance of Multi-channel Communication is one of the most important tenets of this ministry.

Following is a listing of articles and resources on Multi-channel Communication, the first three are FREE, the second three are in-depth articles, resource listings and a webinar. Click on the title of each to go to the article. To find out more information on how to become a members of Effective Church Communications and have access to ALL the materials on this site, CLICK HERE.

Free articles:
You also communicate by what you don't do—the importance of the people channel
Never forget the people who don’t have access to the easily created communication channels

As you share your message in different channels, don’t change the content or look of your message

For ECC MEMBERS only, in-depth articles, resource listings and a webinar. To find out more information on how to become a members of Effective Church Communications and have access to ALL the materials on this site, CLICK HERE.

Is video the best way to market your church?
What’s the best channel to use to communicate the church’s message? Print? Multi-media? Web?

Webinar: Why your church needs to create Multi-channel Communications, or why you can’t just put your church bulletin on the web and be done with it

Never forget who you are and you'll never be afraid of technology

You are an eternal person because you are eternally loved and saved by Jesus.

When the heavens fade away and the earth is renewed, the $40 iPad or whatever technology may come that will challenge and sometimes intimidate us, will be a distant dream. Then we'll laugh at our former fears and wonder why we worried.

Keep that reality in mind as you face the challenges of technology today.

 

Is video the best way to market your church?

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The title of this article is a trick question. There is no BEST way to market anything to everyone. However, video is obviously an extremely powerful medium as the current advertising campaign by the Mormon Church illustrates. Some comments about that project, some suggestions for creating your own videos, plus some suggestions on how you can combine video with other communication resources follow for an effective multi-channel outreach.

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An extraordinary example of video sharing

Most likely you’ve seen some of the “I am a Mormon” videos on television or on the web. If you haven’t, I encourage you to look at them at www.mormon.org. I must admit to a bit of trepidation in referring you to the site because it is very powerful in advancing the Mormon religion.

My trepidation comes from the fact that I am not a Mormon and that I do not believe it is a Christian faith that correctly represents my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (for excellent apologetic resources about the Mormon Church, go to www.equip.org).

That being said, you cannot help but greatly admire the overall campaign and the extraordinary production quality of the videos and the site. They have taken a large cross-section of people and through video and text have them tell their story. The stories are from women, single fathers, people of various races. The cynic in me notes the somewhat excessive attempt to break from the stereotype of Mormons as primarily white males, but cynical or not, the message comes across that all sorts of people, people like you and me, are Mormon.

The videos are short and though they focus on people telling their story, each story is a very carefully edited view of life that emphasizes Mormon values without much detailed information about theology. In short, they have perfectly captured the spirit of the age where relationships are primary and asking deep questions is pushed aside for warm feelings and the appeal of being part of a caring, loving group such as this.

This is not the time or place to critique in depth their theology, but as an example of extraordinarily well-done videos to advertise a church, they are brilliant.

A great resource for how to create your own videos

Few churches have the resources to create videos of this quality—though some do and of course this magazine has a sister publication that is filled with great information all about video ministry. Be sure to sign up for it if you don’t get it at: http://www.christianvideomag.com.

A resource that I personally cannot recommend enough is www.webvideouniverity.com. There are lots of video training programs out there that, in my opinion, were too over the top to be really useful to the average person (not video ministry unit in a large church), who simply wanted to do some videos for teaching and ministry.

The person who runs the site, Dave Kaminski is an excellent, teacher who knows his topic extremely well and can explain it effortlessly. I personally highly recommend that you sign up for his video tip of the week and you can do that on his site, www.webvideouniversity.com. He offers an excellent, professional training course, plus training on specific topic including How to do Screencasts and How to use your flip-style camera to create videos. Please remember my ministry does not participate in affiliate programs or take advertising—I recommend what I genuinely like. To read a more detailed article on how his training helped me, go to this link:

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2011/01/powerpoint-to-screencasting-how-to-improve-your-church-communication-on-the-big-screen/

How to combine video with other communication resources

Once you have created videos, you need to let people know they are available. You can do this in a variety of ways.

Social networking is an obvious one. You can upload videos to the numerous video sharing sites available, but if, like the Mormon videos, you may want to drive people back to your primary site, don’t upload all of them to YouTube or Vimeo or whatever else you use. Upload only a few teaser ones with links to your primary site.

Putting up links to short teaser videos, announcements of them, and links to a complete video site are obvious content choices for your church’s Facebook, Twitter and similar sites. We have recently assigned a person in our adult education class at church to be our “internet evangelist.” Her job is to continuously update our Facebook and Twitter accounts, plus interact and link with the main church site and the various members Facebook pages.

Don’t forget the power of paper

If you’ve done some things online that you and your people love, follow the lead of many national advertising companies and use print to inform people that the online material exists and to link them to it. Check out your snail mail this week and note how many advertisements, especially in the form of postcards, are created to get you to a website.

You can either do a postcard mailing from your church or you can create postcards in church office, and make up enough of them for every person in the congregation to have 3 of them. Put them in the church bulletin and then on Sunday morning, have the Pastor ask everyone to give or mail them out to friends or neighbors who might like to look at your videos.

We’ve found business cards with a condensed message are a great way to get people to our church and ministry websites. Make up a large number of them for the members of your congregation, give them out and encourage people to pass them on to friends. In the midst of life, we have lots of conversations and if your people are excited about some videos you have produced online, maybe even if they are part of it, they will want to tell their friends about it. Always having a business card with you that has the URL is a great way to share and connect with friends.

The pastoral uses of paper

Creating print items for your people to give out accomplishes lots more than simply adding another communication channel. You are also involving your people in outreach in an active, hands-on way.

Outreach is the task of everyone in the church—not just of those whose job it is to create professional communications while the people in the pew sit quietly and wait for new people to come. When you have invitation cards or postcards and everyone is involved in handing them out, they will most likely talk to the person to whom they are giving the card and nothing beats a personal recommendation for great marketing, whether it is for coffee or churches.

When the church is growing because people are involved in inviting, it also helps them be more welcoming when newcomers arrive—they are expected and prayed for.

Yes, it is more work to create the print communications and involve your people in using them, but remember when Jesus gave the Great Commission, he didn't pull aside a select group of marketers or pastors to go and share the gospel message. He gave the challenge to everyone listening. Sharing, marketing your church is everyone's job.

Bottom line

Video may not be the most powerful way to advertise your church, but if you create them yourself with honest, true content and use combine your use of video with other channels of communication; you will have a tool in the never-ending challenge of ministry to powerfully communicate your message.