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.

Sample of seasonal jpg file in a church bulletin, and how you can use the ones on this site for your publications

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This is a wonderful example of how a church communicator took one of the jpg images, available to Effective Church Communications Members for all the holidays, and how she took the one for Easter and used it in her bulletin.

Some churches prefer not to have loose bulletin inserts (either way works, it is matter of what your church prefers) and so this church communicator emailed and asked that I do the inserts in a graphic file format. I was every happy to do that and don't know why I hadn't done it before! The RED arrow points to the jpg graphic from Effective Church Communications. If you click on the image you can download a PDF where you can see the entire bulletin. It is very nicely done and I'm sure you'll get some great ideas from it.

Many of the Template files now have images included with them for you to use either in print or social media. Many have a line drawn around the images so they will stand out from background. If you want that removed, you can go to the original MS Publisher files, remove it from the Master Page and resave that page as an image file.

Not only does this illustrate an idea of how to use an image, but two other things:

  1. I really appreciate and try to carry out your suggestions when possible on what you would like on the site and what might be useful for you, so do feel free to send them to me at yvon@effectivechurchcom.com.
  2. It is great to have samples of how people are using materials from ECC in their publications. Please send them to me with your permission to use them.  These GREATLY help your fellow church communicators. For information on our Great Idea Swap, CLICK HERE.

 

Effective Easter Outreach: Door-hangers, an invitation you can’t ignore

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Door hanger about hope
A person is usually alone when they read the message on a door hanger.  It can be an effective way to help them consider the meaning of life, Easter, and personal salvation.

You can't ignore a door-hanger—you literally have to do something with it and even if you toss it, chances are you'll glance at the message. One of the most powerful reasons door hangers can be effective Easter outreach is because often the  person reading them is alone and may not be thinking about anything else.

In addition to this quick glance, I recently read an interesting article about the impact of tangible, touchable marketing. It is from a study done by the Centre for experimental Consumer Psychology at Bangor University in the United Kingdom and used MRI brain monitoring to measure response between ads printed on a paper flyer and ads viewed on-screen. Here are their comments:

The ads that could be physically touched as well as viewed stimulated the most activity on the brain. . . By having something physical in front of them, the brain placed more authority and emotional resonance to that ad versus the one the participant could see only via a monitor. The takeaway from this experiment was physical involvement versus just visual involvement equated to a deeper connection. . . . . . It's also an important reminder that effective marketing needs to integrate all faces of the tools available, from print media to email, display ads to social media, and word-of-mouth to influencer marketing campaigns.
http://bit.ly/2ieEhkU

Here is one more reason door hangers can be effective Easter outreach—often the  person reading them is alone and may not be thinking about anything else.

Finally, there isn't anything magical about print or door hangers, but in addition to the reasons above, their low-cost and the ability to involve your congregation when you give them out (discussed in the article here) make them a useful addition to your Easter mix of outreach.

As the following images illustrate, we have a selection of door hangers for you to choose from for Easter. Some have room on them for church information on the front, others you can put it on the second side. One has a message for you about hope and that is below the images illustrated.

Message on the back of the door hanger about hope:

[Read more...]

PLEASE be clear about the finances of Christmas events

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Christmas events should be completely joyful without any hidden agendas or costs, no matter how well intentioned.
Christmas events should be completely joyful without any hidden agendas or costs, no matter how well intentioned.

I hope I am not being too harsh in this and the related article. The true situations that have inspired both are quite upsetting to me. I want to just shake the folks who made the decisions in both instances and ask, "Don't you realize we are in a recession? Don't you realize the extreme financial distress many people are in?"

I don't know if the decision makers in either situation have ever had to decide whether to feed themselves or to feed their child; whether they have been in a situation where they have no idea how a medical or dental problem will be taken care of, or if they will live in a home of their own for another month—but many people in our churches today are struggling with these issues. The financial amounts may seem small to whoever made the decisions, but no financial amount is small to many people today.

I imagine the decisions were made in an unthinking way, with no intention to hurt anyone and with that hope in mind, the following situation (and the article that follows) is shared so that no one in your church will unintentionally hurt anyone else. Read on for the specifics.....

Be very clear about financial obligations in Christmas invitations

True situation here: a church created a ticket for a Christmas concert. It stated that the event was free. That's great. However, on the back, it listed the "Benefit Charities" for each performance.

What does that mean? Is it free or not? Will they be taking up an offering? Will that feel awkward?

After checking into the situation some more, I discovered that:

  • The event was free.
  • Each performance the featured charity would be highlighted.
  • The refreshments served at the event, coffee, beverages, and cookies would be for sale and the proceeds would go to the charity.

The church was also strongly encouraging church members to invite unchurched friends.

Beyond clarity, think through the possible outcome of your decision

Please consider what might happen if:

  • A church member doesn't know about charging for goodies, he has only seen the tickets.
  • The church member has been laid off work, but could really use a night out.
  • The church member invites a neighbor who has several kids because he knows they also really need a night out because the dad has been laid off and mom's salary barely pays for the house payment. Special times or treats aren't in the budget.
  • They show up at church and the kids see the goodies and rush over to the table. "Not so fast.....those cookies are $1. each. It is going to charity you know," says the person entrusted with the cookie table.
  • The church member has no cash with him, since his layoff  he intentionally doesn't carry any so he won't be tempted to spend foolishly. The neighbor has a dollar in his pocket. The kids don't know what to do.

Hard to say how this will end.

May the Lord help us be sensitive to needs

I imagine somebody thought it would be a really nice way to help out some charities because giving is down and that is a good thought.

But there might be alternative ways to do that such as donation baskets by the goodie tables.

Charging for goodies at special events is not a good idea no matter what the motivation. Even many people who can afford it don't always bring cash in these days of debit cards. At best, charging for goodies is being an unthinking host and at worst it might mean causing embarrassment and pain to someone already in the worst financial situation of their lives.

People are hurting today, please please pray and think through sensitivity and how you might give,  not only to charities but to the people closest to you who are in need.

SIX TIPS to chose paper wisely for the greatest church communication impact

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Paper choices for church communications
It's easy to get buried with paper choices for your church communications, but this article will help you choose what is most effective.

As we go into the holiday season, many churches are tempted to use colored papers to print brochures, flyers, newsletters and other materials. Lots of orange, brown, green and red paper will be used and though these colors might be appropriate to the season, they may not be the best to get across your message and help people show up to your events. Following are SIX TIPS on paper choice for the holiday season and year round to make for more effective church communications.

#1 Remember Readability

The most important aspect of the paper you use is how well it contributes to the readability of your newsletter or other communication. If people can't read your message nothing else really matters.

People don’t judge a holiday communication based on how fancy the paper is, what color it is or if it is slick or not. What matters is how easy is it to read. If a publication is difficult to read, today’s busy, stressed out readers will simply put it aside and won’t read it.

With these comments in mind, let's look in more detail on:

  • Paper opacity
  • Paper color
  • Publication reproduction method

[Read more...]

Clear communications help you create volunteer recruitment and retention

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volunteer instructions
Clear recruitment and training communications make volunteer recruitment much easier.

Ed. note: last week I shared some samples of volunteer communications and this week an article I have an article for you that will help you write effective volunteer recruitment materials.

When it comes to recruiting volunteers, many churches operate on what I call the 20/80 fallacy. We’ve all heard that “20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work.” That is true in many churches, but I call it a fallacy because it does not need to be that way. We forget that statement is merely a business observation—it is not scripture.

The Bible tells us that in the church of  Jesus Christ, we are to have 100 percent involvement. We may be involved in different ways, but everyone has a job to do.

When we believe the 20/80 fallacy, the result is that the leaders of the church do all the work (and often complain about it) and the congregations sit back, watch, and expect to be cared for and entertained. The biblical models of church growth do not support this situation. In the church the leaders job is to “equip the saints to do the work of the ministry” Eph 4:11-13. Leaders are to equip and encourage. Congregations are to practice their spiritual gifts and do the work of the church.

This process will not happen automatically. We can help turn the biblical model into reality in our churches by creating clear and complete volunteer communications. Your church communications can play a vital role in the success of your volunteer programs. Here are some helpful tips on how to create successful ministry volunteer communications:

Volunteer publication planning

1. Make a list of all the jobs you’d like to have filled by volunteers at the church.

2. Don’t assume anything as you prepare to write this publication! You may know what it means to be an usher because you’ve been one for 10 years, but a new believer who might want to try welcoming people to the church may not have any idea what is involved.

3. Ask those in charge of  the jobs to fill out a form that has the following information. It is very important that information be complete and clearly written:  Job title, e.g. Sunday School Teacher, Youth Volunteer, etc. Don’t use church jargon titles that potential volunteers might not understand. For example, write something like “Grade School Age Sunday School Teacher”, not  “Promiseland servant/helper.” [Read more...]