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.
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Effective WEBSITE strategy for Children’s Easter follow-up and a handout to go with it

13 March, 2021 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Children's Easter Return Card
CLICK on the image above to download the PDF. You can add specific information from your church on the back to help people return after Easter.

Many churches have special events at Easter for children. Many churches have an Easter Egg Hunt. One church in our city has a petting zoo every year. It's a fun event for kids and they serve snacks, play games, and get to interact with baby animals. Lots of unchurched people from the neighborhood surrounding the church attend.

The church doesn't do a petting zoo every Sunday. They don't serve special snacks each week to the kids and they don't have an Easter Egg Hunt each week. Also, the children's ministry doesn't even meet at the same time on a regular basis that they hold the special events for Easter.

Yet somehow, because of the petting zoo, and all the money and time spent on the goodies and the Easter Egg Hunt, the people in the children's ministry assume that the unchurched families in the area surrounding the church will come back to Sunday School the following Sunday because their kids had so much fun.

When they don't, the church staff is often disappointed, but they forget parents aren't mind readers. They have no idea what this church or any church does on a regular basis and no hint of why they should bother to get out of bed early Sunday morning to take their kids to some program they know nothing about.

A flyer like the one here is essential to give out at Easter. On the back you can invite families to your regularly scheduled children's ministry events. In addition to that, a clear link to your website can make a huge difference in ongoing response. Following are some ideas how this works.

How your website can help change this response

If you are a parent of young children, when you see an advertisement for a program for kids, a new game, a special food, anything advertised for kids, what is the first thing you do to check it out?

You will check out the website. On any commercial product or program of any kind, the website is always prominently displayed. That is the next step to find out about the product.

On the site it explains and illustrates the benefits of the product. It will answer questions, tell you where to get the product, and give you instructions on how to contact someone for more information if you have questions.

If this is the obvious that any commercial business does; why do we assume in the church that people will know all about what we offer kids on a weekly basis if we don't tell them? [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Children's ministry, Easter Tagged With: Children's ministry, Church Websites, Communications, Easter, web, yvon prehn

Little communication details can accomplish miraculous results

16 May, 2013 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Naaman being healed
To be healed, Naaman had to do a little thing--just wash in the Jordan. In the same way, it's often the little things in our church communications that accomplish the most.

The story of a stubborn general in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, illustrates the critical importance of not ignoring the seemingly little things in church communication because of a focus on the expensive and extravagant. For example, when churches spend lots of money on big communication projects such as a website redo, buying high-end design software with thinking the software will result in impressive designs, or spending so much time on launching a social media campaign that you forget to put adult Bible class schedule on the web. When the large amount of time or money spent does not produce the desired results, discouragement and questioning often result.

The danger of ignoring small actions

It's not that these things may not be important and there are times when they may need to be done, but we mustn't forget the importance of little things, when we do them in God's service. The Old Testament story of Naaman illustrates this lesson well.

Naaman in 2 Kings 5, was commander of the armies of Aram. He expected significant results from extraordinary efforts on the battlefield and he was successful in his expectations. But when he got leprosy, he found an enemy he couldn’t conquer. On the advice of a captive servant girl in his household, he went to the prophet Elisha in Israel to be cured.

As befitting his status, Naaman expected the prophet to appear and with thundering words and grand gestures, heal him of his leprosy. That didn’t happen. “Go wash in the Jordan seven times,” was the message delivered by Elisha’s servant to the general. Naaman was not pleased. In anger, he vented his opinion and prepared to return home, until his servants convinced him to try the little thing suggested by the prophet.

Naaman dipped himself into the Jordan seven times and the seventh time, “his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy (2 Kings 5: 14).”

Applications to church communications

Often as I interact with pastors, church leaders and church communicators, I find they know something isn’t working well in their church communications program. It may not be leprosy, a life or death of the church situation, but it is serious. Most often the key symptoms, even though the church prays and plans, are in following categories:

  • Lack of church growth: not enough people coming into the church.
  • Lack of member spiritual growth: not enough people attending the events outside Sunday morning that will help them grow to Christian maturity.

Right answer, wrong approach

Improved communications are often seen as the answer and I agree with that conclusion.  But just as often, I see the desire to improve communications takes a wrong turn. The wrong turn is that like Naaman, a church will often look for the grand and glorious; the latest and greatest either software of new social media as THE solution to their communication problems.

Remember when email was advertised as the solution to all church communication problems? Currently we're told Facebook and other social media are absolutely essential to church communication success, but a couple of weeks ago NPR had an extended program with the headline:

Letters are dead. E-mail outdated. Text messages so passé. What’s going on with how we communicate? (http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/04/03/communication)

The feature interviewed people who have shifted to the new social media and texting platforms including: WhatsApp, kik.com, and Snapchat, while declaring that Facebook for many was so outdated.

This is the true story of a church that decided that lots of money and impressive design would solve their communication problems: they hired a national company to create an incredible website for them. They spent thousands of dollars. It took months to create. Their communications director contacted me and asked me to look at the website and a redesigned bulletin that went with it because with all the money and time spent, little had improved in terms of people response. The church spent a lot of money, but attendance had not only did not improve, it declined.

Why the money was wasted

After looking at the website and the revised bulletin I could see why. Both had beautiful graphics, lots of color, pictures, action, etc. The problem wasn’t in the big things, but in absence of the seemingly little details that were essential for people to actually connect with the church events. Lots of graphics, few meaningful links to information that actually informed you of specific events.

The church bulletin was worse. Not in looks—it was beautiful and probably because someone thought they needed “white space” there was a beautiful graphic design and lots of open area, but in the section to inform visitors of ministries going on in the church outside Sunday morning there was a list. That’s it—just a list of the ministries. No information whatsoever on when they were meeting, how to attend, who to call, social media links, website info, who to contact for more information, nada.

The designer designed a beautiful bulletin, but people don't automatically know what time the discipleship class meets and if child care is provided when they look at lovely graphics and cutting-edge typography.

Do the simple things seven times

Interesting graphics do not guarantee people connections—the simple repetition of connecting details does. It doesn't matter if you use Twitter, Facebook, email or send a postcard—a great graphic or the newness of the technology doesn't actually get anybody anywhere. Clear content: who it’s for, when things start, when they end, how to get there, who to contact, how much it costs and if child care is provided—this is what actually connects people with events that will change their lives.

And you need to repeat these details through the various channels of communication: print, web, email, social media, projected media, postcards, whatever you can. In addition, to be sure people get the message, professional marketers tell us you need to get out this information seven times, in seven ways for effective communication. Just like Naaman had to dip himself into the Jordan seven times, though he probably didn't understand why the repetition was necessary, and though we can't figure out why people don't remember something when we tell them about it one time—that's just the way it is and we have to repeat information for it to change lives.

These little details are the links that connect people to the church events that will result in church growth and in personal spiritual maturity for your people.

Why, why are these things routinely left out and money spent on the big and extravagant?

This is a question I agonize over.

  • Maybe, I wonder, is it because of our human tendency is to want to do the big, the quick, the extraordinary to get results and get them now?
  • Is it an unconscious carry-over from the world of business that assumes that throwing money on a problem is a way to solve it?
  • Is it a lack of faith that if we only do the little things, like print boring details week after week, that God can really use them?
  • Is it that if we put our money and time into training the staff to do something like the website instead of hiring an outside professional that we have that we might have to trust God for results we won’t see immediately?
  • Is it because we are impatient and forget that the often used analogies in the Bible, about farmers, shepherds, about growing and tending plants all teach us to wait for results that only come in small, incremental ways?
  • Are we a bit blinded by the media that reports and idolizes the big and spectacular when Jesus described the Kingdom growth as yeast permeating, a small seed germinating?

Our churches need healing and I wonder what would happen if we’d stop looking for the spectacular solution and humbly focus on the little things, the communication tiny tasks that connect people. I wonder what would happen if we focused on training our people at church to do communications, even though it might take longer, instead of hiring for immediate results. Like Naaman, after his seven trips into the water, in our church, after weeks of training and encouraging the people closest to us and a focus the little details that actually connect people to life-changing events, we might be surprised at the new life and healing that results.

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Filed Under: Leading & Managing Tagged With: church bulletins, Communications, details in church communications, web, Yvon Prehn blog

Why you shouldn’t plan too far ahead in church communications

25 December, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Plan ahead in your church communications, but do so cautiously.
Plan ahead in your church communications, but do so with wisdom and prayer.

At the start of the year, it's natural to want to do some planning, but planning can be both a positive and a negative thing. It's always challenging as I was reminded when several churches have asked how to create a communication plan for the next five to seven years. Each of them has mentioned that new technology can be costly and they want to be prepared, in their budgeting and for training. Though I admire their desire to be good stewards, planning ahead for five years in church communications, especially when it involves trying to figure out technology needs, is futile.

Could you have envisioned your communication world today five years ago?

Think about it. Five years ago, could you:

  • Have  imagined or planned for the iPhone and iPad?
  • Known texting would be a major way your youth group would communicate and your youth pastor would need a high-end mobile phone?
  • Have known that skill with Facebook  would be useful, if not essential, when you hire a church secretary?
  • Imagined that Tweeting would be a skill your senior Pastor might want to learn? Even known the meaning of Tweeting or that social media in any form would be able to overturn governments and raise millions for charity? [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Leading & Managing, Planning and Managing Tagged With: church communication, church communicators devotion, church leadership, church website, communication planning, Communications, iPhone, Jesus, technology and Christianity, web, yvon prehn

What makes an effective church website?

1 June, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 3 Comments

The debate is over—churches today realize they need to have a website. The question now is, what makes a website an effective ministry tool for the church? With many companies vying for your website development dollar, this is not an easy question to answer....or is it? Actually I think it is very easy to answer and in this article, we'll not only answer that question, but give you some resources to make a website incredibly effective (and either free or for very low-cost for your church).

The answer is simple: CONTENT

We need to remember when we are creating websites for the church that the purpose of the website is ultimately the purpose of the Great Commission: to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and to grow to maturity in the Christian faith.

Churches create websites for different reasons than secular groups do and we must NEVER forget that if we are to have an effective website. It isn't flashy graphics or the latest technology or how "cool" or "edgy" that our site looks that is most important, it is our CONTENT.

Content that is important

Content that is important falls into several categories:

  • Basic church information: times, dates, locations, all the details about ministries that actually will connect people with the ministry.
  • Overview information about your church: this content answers basic questions, including: Who are you? What do you believe? Are you part of a larger group? Who is that group or denomination? Why is that important and what do they believe?
  • Core content about the Christian faith: What does it mean to be a Christian? How do I become one? What does it mean to grow in faith and how do I do that? Your denomination may have a unique way of explaining this, do that on site.
  • How your church expresses the basics of the Christian faith and what it means to grow to mature discipleship.
  • Articles on how staff members either explain the Christian faith or their approach to ministry.

All of these areas of content are vital. In addition, you need more than just a sentence or two to describe them and they need to be constantly updated to be of any use at all.

You must know how to get this information on your website and how to continuously keep it updated. It isn't enough to buy a website with a fancy front page and then nothing but filled-in forms when people click-through for more information.What would you think of any company that did that for a product you wanted to learn more about? You'd think they were lazy and didn't really know what they were doing. People don't think any better of a church that looks great on the homepage, but is thin on content.

What you probably don't want (but might be doing) on your website

Most of you would probably agree with what I just wrote. I doubt if anyone would say:

  • "No, I want a website for my church that is static, boring, and with almost no content about the Christian faith."
  • "What I really want is a constantly out-dated site so visitors will think we are sloppy and lazy about our information."
  • "I want people to think Christianity is some sort of secret club. That's why I don't want my website to really tell them anything about our church or what our denomination believes."
  • "Most of all, I want people to think we are phony. To do that I'll use stock photos of smiling, happy, perfect people on my home page—people that nobody in our church or community actually looks like."

You may not verbalize any of these things, but it is pretty obvious that many church websites by the content that they have that without meaning to they are sending these messages.

How to get the content you want

Bottom line: you need a website creation system that will allow you to create and keep updated the content that is an important to your church and core to the Christian faith.

I can help you do that! I have a series of webinars that will guide you step-by-step how to do that.

If you want to see my latest real-life church responsibility--my husband a bi-vocational pastor who has recently been appointed  in charge of small groups at our church (smallish church now, been through big trauma, from one of the biggest in city to under 300 now)--you can go to the WordPress blog/website I created for the Small Group Ministry that almost totally died at the church. We are still building and have a long way to go, but this site and the interaction it has generated has been great at the church--here it is: http://smallgrouplinks.wordpress.com

This is a very simple site, I write all the content and send out weekly emails to update small group leaders, but it has really revitalized an almost totally dead ministry. It has lots of CONTENT and it is changing lives--people who never used online tools, or got into theological discussions, or been involved in small groups are going to the site   and commenting to me and the staff about it. It is a very small step, but the content is making a difference.

What the site cost to create—lots of time and NO money

We live in S. California and the economic recession has slammed our church. Our giving is less than half of what it was over a year ago. The church laid off half of the paid staff and more cuts are coming. That is why my husband is bi-vocational (has a handyman business that supports our ministry habits). This site cost zero dollars to produce, so fits well into the church budget now.  Obviously many hours of my time have gone into it, but I'd much rather use my free time to change lives for eternity than in other pursuits.

Even though the site for small groups didn't cost a penny to produce or host, as you can see, it still has a lot of things on it: lots of content, videos, graphics, pages and posts, tag clouds. In addition, the custom nameplate and side-bar video were both created in MS Publisher (the same process as described here).  I could have done much more, but as I said, I did it totally in volunteer free time and as always I didn't have enough time to do all I wanted to.

WordPress.com is what I used to create the site

The site you are on now was created with WordPress.org; the church website with WordPress.com.

You don't have to have fancy, moving graphic images to change lives. Simple sites with rich content can be used greatly by our Lord who delights in using small things for His glory.

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Filed Under: Website Creation Tagged With: church useful, church web creation, church website training, Church Websites, Communications, web, yvon prehn

The possible future of church communication channels

29 December, 2008 By Yvon Prehn

Once again Apple did it—and the i-phone has changed everything.

A white paper sponsored by Neu Star (Jan. 2007) began with this quote:

Mobile marketing offers one of the most effective and rapidly evolving opportunities to engage with target audiences in new ways. In the developed world, the cell phone is the ubiquitous "third screen" in most people's lives and one that they are rarely without. For hundreds of millions of people in the developing world, the cell phone represents the "only screen" in their lives and makes these new audiences easily and individually reachable for the first time. Today, cell phones represent the most personal and intimate way to communicate with individuals.

Small screen is an important channel in the future of communications. The trend for many years has been to complicate, enlarge, and illustrate. Much of that will remain, again in the channel of large group experience of communication, but much person to person communication is moving to the small screen, specifically to the screens of mobile phones.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Multi-media Tagged With: Church Websites, communication channels, web, yvon prehn

Seasonal Templates

  • OVERVIEW of TEMPLATES for Church Communicators, please read first
  • Valentine’s Day Templates
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Recent Posts

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