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.Â
Type is one of your most powerful design tools and even though we can easily change typefaces, it takes much more to learn how to use it effectively.
This PDF includes sections on how type is measured, how to choose typefaces, and rules for usage.
To download a copy of the PDF, click here or on the image.
Type is one of the most powerful design tools you have in creating effective church communications.
Even though we are not always aware of it, we've all grown up with a typography vocabulary. For example which one of the two examples below is a headline and which is text:
THIS ONE?
or
this one?
You didn't even have to think about it did you? Bigger, larger, bold means headline; smaller and not bold means text. There are many more unconscious ways we read type and to be an effective communicator you need to understand them and use them wisely. This PDF chapter excerpt will help you do that.
To download the PDF, click here or on the image.
And the LORD said to Aaron, "You priests will receive no inheritance of land or share of property among the people of Israel. I am your inheritance and your share." Numbers 18: 20
A church secretary recently shared with me that she had spent great effort redoing her church bulletin. It looked fantastic. It was much easier to read, her choices in typography and layout were clear and professional looking. But, she said, almost nobody noticed or commented on the changes.
Though it didn't seem like it, her experience was actually a great complement. As the experts in typography continuously affirm the best graphic design and typography should be invisible. The best designed bulletin, or newsletter, or publication of any kind should never cause our audience to say at first, "What a beautiful design!" The first response should be a clear understanding of the message and a proper response to it.
It is often an overly busy, cluttered or unclear design that gets noticed. People will say something is hard to read or they won't respond to the message.
It isn't that we shouldn't work hard to make our ministry publications artistically pleasing and the very best in design and beauty, but those considerations must always be secondary to choosing type, layout, and graphics that work best to communicate the message. This is especially true as we share the gospel.
When we create ministry communications for the Lord, like the priests in the Old Testament, the Lord himself and his favor is often our only reward. Like the old hymn says, we are "channels only." In our work, not only will our audience often not notice changes, but they won't even know who did the work, because much of what we produce will be unsigned.
But our Lord knows. And like the priests of old, he is our inheritance. And it is in his approval we find "the path of life" and "fullness of joy" (Psalm 18: 11, NAS).
