effective church communication

True story here: A church wasn’t getting the response they wanted to get people to attend the various events of the church including small groups.

Their response: Instead of asking folks why they weren’t coming, or doing an informal survey to see what they were or were not communicating with current materials, someone made the suggestion that the church start a new video newscast during the church service. The thinking was something along the lines of “this is what will appeal to people today.”

Two college guys were the newscasters and, with a team and quite a bit of time and effort, produced a highly entertaining video. Announcements were made for more folks to join the news team and to help with the production; mention was made of upcoming events of the week and the congregation encouraged to join in. Folks loved the resulting videos for the first couple of weeks. They were filled with chatty banter, silly jokes, and tasteful humor.

Did that increase attendance at church events and especially in small groups?

Sadly, no. There was no increased attendence in small groups. For their feature on how additional help was needed for Daily Vacation Bible School, not only did it not result in additional volunteers, but because they said during the broadcast that there would be a table out in the lobby for people to sign up and there was no table, it actually had a negative effect on sign ups.

Here’s why this production didn’t work (and these comments apply to many similar church communication multimedia):

• Multimedia used like this tells about an event. It is useful for announcements, for information.But telling along or making an announcement about an event is not the same as connecting people with an event.
• Muti-media is useful to spark attention or interest as it is taking place.
• Interest or attention does not actually get you to the small group or other event the day or evening of the following week.
• There was no information either in print, in the bulletin or a bulletin insert or on the website that gave concrete connecting information on what small groups were taking place in the church or how to actually connect with them.
• Without this concrete information, people responded to the videos as they do to television commercials: they were entertained momentarily and then promptly forgot what they were about when the church service was over.

To make multimedia effective and use it to accomplish something other than a few minutes of entertainment do these things:

• Pair your multimedia presentation with other communications that will tell people more about the event or ministry.
• The additional communication needs to be in more than one channel because different people respond favorably to different channels of media.
•  One channel should be your website, printed often and everywhere, so people can go to it for in-depth explanations, schedules, locations and contact information about ministries.
• Other channels include a printed form giving the details of the event that you created interest for on the video. For example if you want to get people to help out in a ministry and did a snappy little bit to create interest in it, that interest won’t go anywhere if you don’t have printed in the bulletin who is coordinating the ministry and how to reach them including the contact phone and email.
• If you want people to show up to an event, be sure there is a bulletin insert/flyer that people can take home and put on the refrigerator with the details printed on it: time, location, map, cost, child care or not, who to contact for more information. People might remember that the church is doing a “really fun thing next weekend” but the memory of the cute video won’t get them there. The flyer will get them into the car, on time and get the to the correct location with the money they need to bring. In addition, if they want to invite a friend, a bulletin insert/flyer can be passed on to a friend.
• Be sure to have the information always updated on your website so that people can check the details there. Also, check to make sure that the sections for checking out information on your website can be accessed through a cell phone.
• Don’t forget the importance of the people channel. A helpful and friendly welcome center, sign-up tables for small group membership, a booth for newcomers information-nothing beats a friendly face and a kind person to answer questions and give personal information.
• Remember we live in a time of multi-channel communication print, the web, multimedia, people. No channel can stand alone if we want to not only catch the interest of people, but actually connect them with a ministry at our church.

This is a sample of the kinds of information we will cover at my new fall seminar: How to Create Effective Multi-channel Communications and Marketing: how print, digital media, and the internet can work together to grow your church and change lives. 

No matter how easy or appealing it might be to want to communicate primarly through one channel our message, the words of eternal life deserve our expertise in using every channel available.