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.

Never forget the people who don’t have access to the easily created communication channels

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After writing an article for Christian Computing Magazine on ways to save money in your church communication programs, I got an email with a question that I know many churches struggle with. The question in shortened from was, "Is it OK to do away with our print newsletter? We'd save so much money if we just put it on the web." As I was putting together the answer, I realized that it is a topic that would be useful to share with all of you.

Though I can totally understand where the woman is coming from who wrote the question, as always, there is more to it than simply saving money, doing away with a print version and putting it all on the web. I'm working on a larger book that deals with this issue, but here is a helpful section from part of it:

Why keep printing some materials:

It is very difficult to take time to do a print postcard for the three people who don’t have internet access when fifty other people in the class are so easy to reach via email. Or to make a copy of the newsletter (in large print at that) and mail it out to the ten people who vow never to use a computer when everyone else in the congregation can get access to it on the church website.

Jesus left us a very clear example of what to do in these situations. He told the story of the shepherd who went after the one little sheep who wandered off.

Jesus isn’t nearly as concerned about the efficiency of our newsletter delivery as he is that we care for the wandering little sheep just as much as he does. That little sheepie was probably a naughty little sheepie and wandered off for no good reason. Jesus still went after him and carried him home lovingly.

Sometimes we might feel that some folks in the church make our communication tasks more difficult just because they are onery—and that might be true. But Jesus still expects us to love and serve them, just as much as the rest of the congregation.


No matter what the cost, people are always the most important consideration, no matter what the cost.

Order of Service in church bulletin, a contemporary and a liturgical example

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There are many ways a church can improve the order of service to make it more understandable to visitors. Below are two of my favorites, sent to me from seminar participants.  One is from a contemporary church and the other is from a liturgical church. Both have many ideas that can make the impact on and response by visitors very powerful.

Many seminar participants have asked for these and I've reprinted them following:

An order of service for a contemporary church:

The following is from a church bulletin for a contemporary, charismatic church. It didn't assume folks knew anything about what would happen and they explained in this way:

Our Worship Service: thanks for joining us today! We will begin with about 30-40 minutes of singing. Feel free to sit, stand, sing, dance or just listen as we express our worship to God using all of our heart, mind, soul and body. If you don't know the songs, hang on, we'll sing them a couple of times-and don't worry, we didn't know them at first either.

The Message: A time of practical teaching from the Bible.

The Offering: This is a time for church members to share with the church financially how God has blessed them. If you are a visitor, don't feel you have to contribute-the only gift we'd like from you is your Connection Card. Consider this service our gift to you!

Prayer Time: there will be people up front after the service to pray for any needs you may have. Please come up if interested!

Refreshments: Join us for coffee, lemonade and munchies in the lobby after the service.

The above bulletin wasn't complex or fancy, but a stranger would know what to do and wouldn't feel awkward. {+}

(ed. note: since the book came out, quoting this, a number of churches have used the following statment either on the cover of their bulletin or as a header on the service order page: "Feel free to sit, stand, sing, dance or just listen as we express our worship to God using all of our heart, mind, soul and body")

Explanations in a liturgical bulletin

This style of service has it's own challenges. Though many in many Lutheran churches and in churches with a similar worship style, have the words of the service printed out, a person who did not grow up in the tradition may not have any idea the meaning of what they are reciting.

As a solution to help visitors feel welcome, some churches provide a running commentary down the left-hand margin of the bulletin that explains what is happening. Below is an example.

On page one this bulletin had the traditional headings of Invocation, Confession and Absolution and Introit of the Day. To the left of each of these sections were the following explanations:

"Invocation" means "calling on" and here we call on the Lord's presence.

In the "Confession" we name our sins silently before the Lord and accept responsibility for the harm they have caused in our relationships with God and each other.

In the "Absolution" the Lord speaks through the office of pastor to apply the forgiveness Jesus won for us on the cross to us in a personal and public way. (John 20:23).

"Introit" mean's "entrance" in Latin. Now that we have been washed clean of our sins the pastor enters into the altar area. The Introit usually comes from a Psalm.

This bulletin continues in this way and provides excellent help in understanding for a visitor. Every church has terms that might not be familiar. Take time to explain them and it will do more to market your church positively than an expensive billboard on the freeway.

Faith Resources for seekers that you need to put on your communications

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Resources for more information about the Christian faith
Here are resources for more information about the Christian faith--use in your communications.

This page has links to explain the Christian faith and that help seekers explore what it's all about. In our post-Christian world we want to make sure that when we challenge people to make a decision to trust Jesus as Savior that they know what it means.

There are many other sites that are very useful in clarifying the Christian faith--check out recommendations from friends and your denominations. PLEASE add any you have found useful in the comments section below.

But whatever resources you use, please use links like this on your website, your bulletins, newsletters and on your outreach communications. 

Even if they only make a brief connection with your church at a special event, give seekers opportunities to explore the Christian faith,  Links like this could change their eternal destiny.

Websites for those exploring the Christian faith: [Read more...]

Someday the iPhone won’t be cool—a gentle reminder to those enamored with cutting-edge technology

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It will happen.

Someday there will be a technology that you don't understand. You will find yourself hanging on to a communication system because that is the primary way you and the friends your age prefer to interact with your world. But your numbers will grow less with each year and some day perhaps your church will look at was once cutting edge and risky. Discussions will take place as to whether it should be continued.

At that time one of two things will happen:

Possibility number one:

The leadership may decide that your favored, older method of technology needs to be abandoned. They will give reasons of money and efficiency.

You will remind them, "But that is the only way.....certain people interact with the church."

They will smile, briefly voice concern, and promise to do something about it once they get the new technology functional.

Possibility number two:

The leadership may decide that your favored, older method of technology needs to be abandoned. They will give reasons of money and efficiency

But at the same time, they will point to decisions made long ago at the start of technology challenges where the church decided to not abandon any technology in the church if even one person would not be able to receive communications from the church without  it. Back then it meant sending out postcards to those without email and printing large print bulletins and newsletters for those who needed them.

What future will be at your church?

You are making the decisions today in how you treat people as you change technology that will set a pattern for how you and many others in the future will be treated.

Don't let the seeming need to adopt cutting edge technology too quickly cause you to forget the needs of the people the technology is supposed to serve.

Remember Jesus went after one little sheep in need. Today that one little sheep might be the elderly person without a computer.

A few years from now the person who doesn't want to participate in the new technology might be you—still clutching your  first iPhone and vowing you'll never give it up—no matter what those young kids think.

Paper, Printing, and Production

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Paper work on caption
This PDF covers a variety of issues, some timeless, such as the importance of paper choice in the quality of your communications and some issues not so timeless, such as delivery methods.

Much of what we do in church communications is timeless—but some isn't and this chapter has a little bit of both.

It is a PDF reprint of my first book on desktop publishing. The information on paper is timeless. The paper choice you make has a big impact on your message and the PDF gives you some good tips for choosing the right paper. I encourage you to read it because there are always church communications pieces printed on paper that was not intentionally chosen, but randomly pulled from the shelf. This method of unthinking production is not a nice way to produce a publication someone labored for hours to produce; nor is it often effective if a cheap paper literally cheapens the message.

The material on printing and the advice on providing mockups is always a good idea.

The material about other production methods, e.g. audio tapes, CDs, is a bit of a retro look back. For many new to church communications, you cannot imagine how revolutionary and shocking it was for me to challenge church communicators to distribute content on CDs. Few computers had CD drives, CD audio was not wide-spread and the few CDs used for data distribution tended to be very expensive. To create movies with computers cost tens of thousands of dollars and to burn your own CDs was impossible. It wasn't until over 12 years later that I started to produce CDs and now their capacity seems a bit confining. All of that to emphasize a frequent refrain in this ministry: our tools will always be changing, but seize every one possible to communicate the gospel.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.
The chapter is from Yvon Prehn's first book on desktop publishing, The Desktop Publishing Remedy, published in 1993 by David C. Cook. The book has gone through numerous editions and reprintings since then and is still a useful source of basic instruction for church communicators. All of the chapters are for sale in both download and spiral bound versions at http://www.lulu.com/yvonprehn under the title of Back to Basics, foundational skills for church communicators.