Effective Church Communications
Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission
Business and invitation cards can be used for so many things during the Christmas season: invitations, gift enclosures, links to website explanations about your church or Facebook or Twitter encouragements, cards to encourage people to come back to church, gift tags, or whatever else you can think of.
Below, first is a minute long video to preview the cards, then some cards including ready-to-print PDFs, and editable MS Publisher Templates and hi-res images of all the cards.
How do you find a theme for your Christmas outreach, sermons, blogs, or for content for your website that visitors might read?
One of the best resources is in the classic Christmas carols. The content is rich with biblical references and truth. The carols make a perfect communication starting place because people, both church members and unchurched are familiar with them, but may not be aware of the truth they reflect.
Following are some suggestions of ways you might want to use Christmas carols, but before you pick one, be sure to pick a carol that is in the Public Domain (copyrights expired) so that if you want to quote all or part of it you aren't breaking any laws. Sixteen of the most popular ones are listed below.
For an extensive list of all the carols with lyrics in the public domain, including many little-known, historical ones: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/HTML/index_of_carols_ab.htm
A limited choice of lyrics of some of the more popular carols:
http://songsofpraise.org/christmaslyrics.htm
From: Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
The idea of hope and fear--a combination of emotions as old as the years before Christ and as new as contemporary Christmas expectations.
From: Joy to the World
The title alone is great inspiration.
We all need JOY and the reason we can have it now and forever is because of the second line of the song: "the Lord has come"
From: What Child is This?
A good sermon series or Christmas Day sermon title or for a series of Q & A on your website. The answer is in the song: "this is Christ the King."
From: Deck the Halls
"Deck the halls with boughs of holly......tis the season to be jolly...."
Why is it a season to be happy? Again, back to the idea that salvation has become real and tangible in the birth of Jesus. God fulfilled thousands of years of promise in the birth of the Messiah.
"Nobody reads what we write!" is a common complaint from all church communicators. Often the assumption that goes with it is that people simply don't care about the Christian faith anymore and that's why they don't read.
In reality people do care tremendously about their lives and eternal destinies--as the bestseller response to self-help and popular spirituality shows. The reason people often don't read what is written in church publications is because much of what is written in church publications both in print and digital formats isn't written in a way that makes the message clear and easy to respond to. And the primary reason this happens is that few people in the church realize that writing that reaches people today is not the same style of writing that got you an "A" from your seminary professor. [Read more...]
This page has links to explain the Christian faith, the person of Jesus, 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.
Pastor Gil has been interacting with our site for many years in addition to his many ministries serving God's people. When I got this email, I wanted to pass it on and encourage you to participate. Churches helping those around them is one of the most powerful ways to witness. If you can give money--great--but we can all pray.
To be without power and in the cold--how scary that would be. Pray the Lord turns the current storm away and that many people come to know Him through the love and care of his people.
***At the end of this article, please add in your comments any other links to groups, denominational or those you know and trust for Hurricane Sandy Relief.
Dear Friends,
Oh taste and see that the Lord is good and his mercies lasts forever. Amen. Praying that all is well with you, family, and those around you. I wanted to provide a quick update as to our progress and ways you can help. [Read more...]
