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.

Open Letter in response to a church secretary whose job was cut

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I received the email below from a church secretary whose church terminated her job because of the challenging financial times we are in. In the time spent praying over how to answer wisely, I realized that an answer to her questions and some comments on her situation might be useful to other church communicators, so I am answering in the form of an Open Letter.  Below is her email and then my response, her name and church are confidential.

In this tough economy many churches have had to make the tough decision to no longer have a secretary.  I am trying to communicate to the congregation that I love the Church and support the decision that was made.  On the other hand when I am in service I want to cry because for me this drastic a change is very scary.  So I may need a break not from God but from the Church so I can refocus and not be the cause of any problems (many do not agree with the decision).  Do you have any suggestions on how to communicate this in a positive way to the congregation.  (PS - I have not been able to have a Sunday to just worship since I started 3 years ago.  People always assume I am working if I am here, despite reminder that I will take care of that when I am working on Monday)

My response, an open letter

First of all, let me say that I honestly feel the pain that underlies your question. It is more than theory—my husband was on staff of a large church and we had a huge and successful Single Adult ministry that was our life—and his position was terminated because of budget cuts. While serving as a bi-vocational pastor since then, we have had some interesting experiences with churches promising to pay and “budgets just not working out.” Whatever the reason, when money, one’s income, and all those sorts of financial things get tied up in our church life, it not only becomes challenging financially, but messy and potentially very destructive to our own spiritual health and that of others in the church.

Ultimately, what you decide to do is between you and the Lord Jesus and I know you will be spending much time in prayer and in His Word to decide your actions, but since you asked, let me share some thoughts that I trust are guided by Biblical principles. I will try to summarize your concerns and then offer some thoughts and Biblical advice on them. [Read more...]

Christmas Letter and Handout that includes an explanation of why Jesus is the Reason for the Season and gives an invitation to respond to Him

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Click on the image to download the PDF with this Christmas letter as well as the back side of faith exploration resources. Editable files and more options are available for ECC Members on a link at the end of this article.

At Christmas we work really hard to get people to attend the events we put on, but just getting people to attend an event matters little if we do not introduce them to the reason for Christmas—Jesus.

In addition to events, we often send out personal, church and ministry Christmas letters, but again, if we don’t share with people the real joy of Christmas—Jesus and the salvation He gives us—our Christmas message is incomplete.

This Christmas publication here will help solve both of those challenges. It uses the favorite hymn, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” as an introduction to why Jesus came at Christmas and invites people to respond to him.

The piece to your right is a free PDF of the piece along with the page described below as a second page of the PDF. Additional options are available for Effective Church Communication Members and are shown later in this article.

An additional resources for faith exploration

Many people today, know little about the background of Christmas or little about Jesus. Because of that you may want to print on the back of the handout the list that gives websites where people can explore the Christian faith in depth.

Becoming a Christian is not a decision not to be taken lightly and  this sheet encourages careful exploration of the facts before a decision is made.

Suggestions for use:

This piece can be:

  • Given out during or following any Christmas service
  • Posted on your website for your people to use any way they want
  • Given out on a CD following a service.
  • Printed up and passed out to your people to include in Christmas letters.
  • Copied and sent out on email letters.
  • Any other way you can think of to share the gospel joy this Christmas season!

For Effective Church Communication Members, below is a MEMBERS ONLY ZIP file download that includes:

  • 2 more designs of the publication, illustrated below
  • A PDF booklet of all of them
  • Separated files for printing on a spot color digital duplicator
  • Editable MS Publisher files for all
  • MS Word files for the basic text files of the letter and the resource list
  • PGN images of all the letter and the resource list
Three options for Christmas letter
All of these PDF options, plus MS Publisher editable of each, MS Word text files and images are available for ECC Members.

CLICK HERE  to download the ZIP FILE. Remember to "SAVE IT" to your desktop and then click to open to access the individual files.

 

Ministry opportunities your website may be missing

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Every church knows they need a website and most churches have them today. Sadly, however, many churches buy a website creation program and do little more than fill in the blanks needed to make sure that something is on all the template pages.

Sadly that something is often no more than a paragraph, that once entered is often forgotten.

The church can say it has a website, but a website like this misses many ministry opportunities, including:

The staff misses the opportunity to become real people to their community.

Is the pastor a real person? What does he or she really think about God or problems or people? Are they in touch with the real world? If the pastor writes a blog or articles, people checking out the church can get a real sense of what that person is like. Not only the pastor, but Bible class teachers, the staff, ministry leaders, small group leaders, all would benefit from an online presence. People in your community are looking for real people with the answers to spiritual questions. The web provides a priceless opportunity to allow people to get to know you.

One caution: NEVER have your blog written by someone else—blogs or online articles do not have to be perfect literary masterpieces to touch people, but they do have to be honest. [Read more...]

Why it is incorrect to think that graphic images mean the same thing to everyone who sees them

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Images should be used only if they add to the message expressed primarily in words. They are not enough in and of themselves to communicate much of anything. They may look nice, they may create an emotion, designers may congratulate each other on their brilliance when they share their creations, but if you want to communicate a significant Christian message, images alone won’t do it.

Some of you may object: “But, a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Whenever I hear that statement, I always respond with the question, “What thousand?”

People often make the first statement as some sort of understood truth that images say more than words do. That is simply not true. Reality is that the same picture can mean as many different things to as many people who look at it. Not convinced? [Read more...]

The best way to get visitors to attend Christmas church events–the practical tools to do it

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What would you say is the answer to the challenge of getting unchurched visitors to come to your Christmas events? Is it to purchase a national outreach campaign of postcards? Is it to spend lots of money on advertisements in the local newspaper? Is it to create colorful website banners for the holidays?

Though all of those methods may bring in a few visitors, the most effective way to get visitors to attend hasn’t changed from the days when Jesus walked on this earth—it is a friend telling a friend:

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (Jn. 1:41-42).

1 UP Why invite clipart bulletin insert
Just click to download PDF to encourage your church members to invite their friends for Christmas

Below is a Bulletin insert for everyone and following that is a selection of materials for ECC Members. Click here for information about ECC Membership.

An encouragement to your people to invite their friends

Nothing works better than a personal invitation, but for that to take place, your people have to be motivated to invite their friends to the events your church is hosting this Christmas season. We’d like to think that people will naturally want to invite their friends, but with all the demands of the holidays, it’s easy to forget that an invitation to a church event is not just one more option on the calendar.

If your church event is (and I am assuming it is) more than simply an entertaining Christmas tradition and is one that clearly communicates the gospel, you need to remind your people that inviting friends to your events could literally change their eternity. In an upbeat way, the bulletin insert here will remind them of this truth and encourage them to invite their friends.

This PDF is a free download for everyone. Click here or on the image to download it.

Additional options and outreach reminder materials for Effective Church Communication Members.

If you are an Effective Church Communication Member, by clicking the link below the following description, you can download a ZIP file that has:

1 UP Why invite photo bulletin insert
This version of the bulletin insert, plus the other one, plus PDFs, MS Publisher files, PNGs, and MS Word text file is available in a ZIP file for ECC Members. To download the ZIP file, go to the end of the article.

***Another design of the Bulletin Insert.

***PDFs of both designs, ready to print.

***MS Publisher files of this design so you can modify them it you want to. I did not include a file of the clip art one that is editable because when I checked again, I was not sure of the source of the clipart. But this template could be modified with clipart if you chose to use it.

***MS Word file of the text of the bulletin insert with permission to use it in any publication or website use you’d like.

***PNG-image files of each of the flyers for you to use in bulletins, websites, handouts, PowerPoint presentations where you encourage your people.

Becoming and ECC Member will save you hours work because you don’t have to create all of these items—simply download, modify and use! Lots more are coming for the Christmas season and all through the year, so join now so you don’t miss out!

For more information on how to become an ECC Member, Click here.

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Click here to download the ZIP file that contains all of the materials above. Save it to your desktop and then just click to open and use all the materials.

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