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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.
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The Five Steps Strategy #1: Create multi-channel communication

14 February, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

Multichannel communication is needed in churches
We live in a time of Multichannel communication--a time of both/and not either/or.

In this time of ever-changing options for communicating in our churches, it is easy to be overwhelmed and we naturally want to simplify our communication workload.  This is expressed by the question I get frequently  in my seminars and through email when people ask me, “What is the best way to communicate with people today? Is it the web, email, or podcasting?  Do we still need to do print? What works best to reach the most people?”

People may not realize when they ask, that they are asking for a ranking of communication channels including: print, online, web, small screen, and many more are the communication channels used to communicate today. When overwhelmed with channel choices, it is natural to want to narrow it down to one or two that will be effective.

I always feel bad as I answer because I know people want me to give them a simple answer and to tell them that one channel, especially if it is the one they prefer, is all they need, but I can’t do that. I can’t do that because to be effective in your church communication ministry, to fully fulfill the Great Commission, there is no one way.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: 5 Steps of ECC, Multi-Channel Communications, YP Foundational Tagged With: church website, Communications, Five Steps of ECC, multi-channel communication, Multi-media, yvon prehn

The medium isn’t the message; the message is the message

11 February, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

With all due respect to Marshall McLuhan, referred to by many as the "high priest of pop culture" I believe his dictum, "THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE" has led many communicators, including some in the church, astray in a tendency to focus foremost on the tools they are using to create their messages, rather than the content and results of the message.

I believe he meant the statement as an observation, not a recommendation as to what is most important in communication. Let me explain. In stating the "medium is the message" McLuhan helped us to see that the media used to present a message becomes part of the message itself. For example, a visual image of a rock concert affects the viewer in a vastly different way than a newspaper report of the concert. Stated more correctly, one could say, "the medium influences our perception of the message."

{+}

Not quite as catchy, but I think more accurate. Where things went slightly off track is that somehow this statement in practice turned into "the medium forms the message and gives power to the message."

His statement was popular at the same time many new media in the church appeared: desktop publishing, multimedia projections, the internet. For many churches, it was so hard to learn the new media, (computers, the new software and hardware was not easy), that an unspoken conclusion came about that if we somehow got the message out using these tools, we were communicating.

"We did it with desktop publishing!" "We did it with Adobe Creative Suite!"  "We have a new projection system in the church!" "We now have a web site!" And similar affirmations were heard. The subtle, and often unspoken and unanalyzed, shift assumed that if we created the church communication with a high-end desktop publishing program or we created a multimedia project to teach or market a ministry or put it on the web that it would be successful just because we were using these great, cutting-edge tools. The medium made the message. The implication continued, often unevaluated, that the better we got at the medium, the more color, action, white space, flash animations, or whatever the latest and greatest technology we mastered, the more powerful our message would be.

It didn't turn out that way. Over the last almost 20 years, huge numbers of desktop-published pages, multimedia projections, and web pages have been produced. During this time when our tools to communicate are more powerful technologically than they have ever been in the history of the church, church attendance is declining; biblical literacy is at an all time low; and North America is considered "post-Christian."

The message is the message

Obviously the tools and our expertise in them is not the answer. It's the content of the message itself that is important, not the medium used to present it. It's the story itself, not only the grand theme of salvation, but the details of our individual stories: the times, places, and tangible locations where the salvation story is lived out every day in churches that are important.

For example, today, a church can project an awesome youth-themed, PowerPoint background during announcement times before the service, but if parents don't have a bulletin insert or get a postcard during the week giving them the time, location, and how much money is needed for a church event the following weekend that they can post on the refrigerator, the teenagers in the family most likely won't attend.

If a church newsletter has the awesome graphics, an abundance of white space and typography choices that could win awards, but the writing is boring or judgmental, if the topics would interest only the writer's seminary professors and not address the needs of people in the pew this week, it's almost useless, no matter how much it cost to produce.

If a church proclaims on the outside of the building, with professionally produced banners, that PEOPLE MATTER TO US! but once inside, if the church doesn't provide directions on how to find the nursery or the bathrooms and there is no handicapped access to the adult classes, or visitor information center, the unspoken message that they really don't care comes across loud and clear.

The message is the message. Everything else: the medium used to share the message, the tools used to create it, the money spent, how it looks-all these things have a place, but they are not primary. If people aren't coming to your church and staying; if they are not trusting Jesus as Savior and growing in their faith, no matter what your technology media methods, your communication is not successful.

Realizing the message is the message, that the gospel story and details of how to connect your people with how your church is living it out is the core concept to communicate. You do not need to take complex surveys, do up elaborate marketing charts and graphs or spend hundreds of thousands on computers and software to do this. You simply need to get to know the people in your audience (walk the neighborhood, get to know them face-to-face) an d then share with them the gospel story and the stories of your church clearly, completely and frequently with whatever tools you have and in whatever channels they frequently access.

If most churches in America would simply send out a postcard (half of an 8 ½ x 11 sheet) to their members (and the homes surrounding the church ) every week simply listing the seeker friendly events going on in the church with the date, time, (starting and ending), location, if child care is provided, and the cost, along with a paragraph of encouraging words from the pastor in a space on the front, there would most likely be revival in America-or at least increased attendance for events at your church. People are lonely and spiritually searching but I know most homes surrounding churches have no idea what is going on inside the church walls on a weekly basis.

This is not to say that doing our best with the latest and greatest in technology isn't useful. If the postcard above could also direct people to a well-done website with visitor friendly sections, streaming audio and video for those who have the bandwidth for it and interest in it, and perhaps even online chat for those with questions about the Christian faith, it would greatly expand the possibilities for the outreach of the gospel message.

Every additional media channel is useful, but every channel is only that, a channel. If we are tempted to think too highly of ourselves or our tools as we craft the communications of our churches, we need to look outside and remember that Jesus could at any time raise up a stone from the parking lot to communicate his message more eloquently than we can imagine. Being able to serve as his channels, to communicate his message, is not a necessity for him; it is his gift of grace to us.

An edited and expanded excerpt from my book, Ministry Marketing Made Easy, which is currently being revised.

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Filed Under: Multi-media Tagged With: Communications, Multi-media, yvon prehn

Don't be too quick to do away with your TV ministry

8 November, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Recently I heard about a church that wanted to discontinue its television ministry. Though they acknowledged it was watched primarily by the elderly and shut-in, they did not feel it was cost-effective any longer. They wanted to direct all the funds to their internet ministry.  The situation prompted me to remember....

More than a lifetime ago for my nephew who is grown, married, and has a son of his own, I was religion reporter for the Colorado Springs SUN newspaper. In this Vatican of America, home to over 100 Christian organizations, reporting on religion involved much more than retelling stories about the variety of pies at the local church supper. Sometimes I got to interview interesting people in the Christian world and one week my assignment was to interview Robert Schuller.

I was ready for it, with what in my mind were insightful questions that would confirm my pre-determined opinion and expose what a disgrace he was to the Christian faith. I had earlier come to that conclusion as a reader of the Wittenberg Door, a sort of counter-culture Christian magazine of the 1970's, that had recently featured an article on the financial excesses of the building of the Crystal Cathedral. Social justice for the poor was important to me and the article detailed how many hungry kids each pane of glass would feed and similar statistics on the equivalent mission's work that each part of the structure could fund.

{+}

I felt so self-righteous as I drove to the interview. Schuller started his church in a drive-in theater for goodness sakes. What kind of a pastor was that, I thought in the passionate judgementalism that comes from inexperience in real-world evangelism and the arrogant, ignorant authority of youth.

My editor told me I had to go to a bookstore where he was signing books and I could interview him when he was finished with the book signing. I got there and was directed to a chair near his book signing table and told I could wait there until he was finished. I'd called ahead, he had been signing books for hours already, it was late in the day, and I timed my arrival for what I assumed would be close to the time he'd finish. I was highly irritated and impatient when I saw the line out the door and around the block of people waiting to see him. This was going to take hours I grumbled, not quite quietly. Schuller must be tired, he'd been at it all day. I thought maybe he'd close it up. He had every right to big, mega-star preacher that he was.

He didn't. For almost three hours more I watched him sign books. His daughter was helping him. She would open the book and pass it to him. He didn't simply sign the book and push it to the waiting person. While his daughter got the new book, opened it and passed it over, he was totally focused on the people coming to him. For each one, he would pause, look  at the person, ask their name, chat a bit, sign the book. This is going to take forever at this rate, I realized.

Most of the people were not well-dressed. Many were senior citizens.

Again and again people would say, "You are my pastor, I don't know what I would do without you."

"I can't get to church," another would say, "But you encourage me."

Schuller would tell them it was his privilege to be their pastor. Sometimes he would stand up and give an elderly lady a hug. More than a few wanted their picture taken with him and he gladly obliged.

He never rushed anyone.  He would hold a trembling, older hand and pray. He prayed as if there was no one else in the room, except for that person in front of the book-signing table and the Lord. A large Latino family came up to the table and the father said something I couldn't hear to Schuller. Schuller stood up, walked around the table, laid his hands on the heads of the children and prayed.  He was blessing the children. He was their pastor. He took that responsibility very seriously.

I was trying very hard not to dissolve in tears. My assumptions melted. When it finally came time for our interview, I babbled and could only ask in a rather inane way why he did some of the seemingly outrageous things he did. He laughed and said, "People don't understand, I'm very conservative at heart, but the drive-in theater, the Crystal Cathedral,  is what the people need in Southern California. I'm their pastor. I do what I need to do to reach them for Jesus."

That's what we are all trying to do I realized then and now, simply trying to reach people for Jesus whether it's with a crystal cathedral or streaming video and podcasts. And though I'm all for technology (this is a blog after all), I think it would be a sad ministry mistake if the church that asked about about dropping their TV ministry (or any other church so enamored with current technology it forgets the older folks who don't even know the meaning of the term podcast) does drop its TV program. Yes, the web is a lot cheaper, a lot less trouble, but there are lots of folks who can't afford a computer with high speed access.

Sadly, cost-cutting probably means some churches will drop TV ministries. They will make self-justifying noises about how they will perhaps help the older folks, the poorer folks learn how to use the computer. May they will follow up and do it, maybe not.

But if they drop their TV service, I hope they tell their home-bound folks about Robert Schuller. He's still on TV, and I'm certain, still ready to be their pastor.

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Filed Under: Multi-Channel Communications, Senior's Ministry Tagged With: church leadership, Multi-media, yvon prehn

Flashy multi-media in church communication and why it doesn’t always work

2 August, 2008 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

True story here: A church wasn't getting the response they wanted to get people to attend the various events of the church including small groups.

Their response: Instead of asking folks why they weren't coming, or doing an informal survey to see what they were or were not communicating with current materials, someone made the suggestion that the church start a new video newscast during the church service. The thinking was something like  "this is what will appeal to people today."

Two interns from the local Bible college were the newscasters, and with a team and a bit of time and effort, produced a highly entertaining video. Announcements were made for more folks to join the news team and to help with the production; mention was made of upcoming events of the week and the congregation encouraged sign up for small groups. The congregation loved the videos for the two weeks they were produced. They were filled with chatty banter, silly jokes, and tasteful humor.

Did that increase attendance at church events and especially in small groups?

Sadly, no. There was no increased attendance in small groups. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Church Outreach and Marketing, Leading & Managing, Multi-media Tagged With: church leadership, Communications, Multi-media, PowerPoint in church, video in church, yvon prehn

The media isn’t our message—our message is Jesus

21 July, 2008 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked,

 "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:40-42).

When Marshall McLuhan, early pioneer of electronic media, pronounced in the early sixties, that "the media is the message," he was predicting that the means of communication would be more important than the message it carried. For his time, the primary media was television; more and more in our world it is computers and the resulting forms of digital communication: desktop publishing, the internet, cell phone, and small screen communications.

Though it is easy to get caught up in the complexity and power of digital communications, as Christians we must constantly remind ourselves that these incredible innovations, and any that are to come, are only tools. The power doesn't come from the tool or media-the power comes from the message.

As the apostle Paul said , "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). The world "power" used in this verse comes form the Greek word, dunamis. It's the same root for our world dynamite and it means a "miraculous, mighty, wonderful power."

Our message, not the media we use to share it, is the source of true power. It was the same for the early disciples writing with pens on parchment, it will be the same for us if we are creating virtual reality holograms to illustrate Bible stories in the years to come.

We live in an age where the pace of change is incredible. Many of you started out in communicating with pencils, progressed to typewriters, and now operate computers on your desk more powerful than the ones they used to put a man on the moon. This pace will not slow down.

We need to always remember that no matter how powerful, overwhelming or impressive the technology, there remains, "only one thing that is needful" -the good news of salvation found in Jesus.

_________

From The Heart of Church Communications by Yvon Prehn, available either as a download or in paperback book form from www.lulu.com/yvonprehn.

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Filed Under: Misc. Advice and Articles Tagged With: church communicators devotion, Jesus, media, Multi-media, Religion, yvon prehn

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