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 Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission.

#6 Difficulties and testing are as much a part of God’s plan as blessing

By 2 Comments

It takes training in any area of life to be successful
It takes training in any area of life to be successful and God gives us challenges in church communications to grow us spiritually.

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. (Deut. 7:13)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4:1)

These are difficult words. We like to focus on God’s promises of provision and joy in our lives. To be reminded that difficulties and testing are also allowed by our God—we’d rather not think about that option.

But difficulties are a part of life, especially a life spent working on church communications. The world of computer-created communication will never stop changing; it will never become less complex and demanding. Temptations to despair, frustration, and anger are part of our work.

Sometimes the team of people we work with doesn’t make our load lighter, but heavier. Sometimes we can’t explain why we aren’t able to produce what they want and we don’t know how to fix the problems. Sometimes we are shocked by the anger and resentment that wells up in response to what we consider an unreasonable demand.

At those times, these verses can comfort us because even our troubles have a good purpose. We never know how strong a rope is until a weight is hung from it. We never know how genuine trust in God is until it’s tested in the daily grind of projects and deadlines. We might assume we rely on God in every area of our lives, but until we absolutely cannot handle a technology or communication team issue without Him, we may not realize how we have left this part of our life out of His guidance and control.

In the same way that we can’t correct a problem in a manuscript until we see it, it is hard to grow in our faith until we are aware of our shortcomings. So our Lord allows the testing to come, often in the midst of our work for him, so we can learn and grow. If we haven’t taken time to learn the skills we need, a technological challenge might force us to learn a skill we have put off learning. If we don’t see the sin that lingers in our souls, we aren’t challenged to grow in our Christian life so that we can respond with gentleness and kind words under pressure.

Not only will our growth benefit us, but we can be an encouragement to others and remind them that God cares just as much about helping us create an effective newsletter with the computer or other church communication team tasks, as He does about helping us teach a Bible lesson effectively.

The context of these verses also gives us hope. Neither Jesus or the children of Israel stayed in the desert of tempting. Jesus came out of the desert into a life of ministry. The children of Israel went into the promised land.

Our trials prepare serve the same purpose. We aren’t destined to stay in them, but to learn from them to be better equipped for the communication ministry our Lord has given us.

_________________________________

Devotions Cover The above material is from: Devotions for Church Communicators. For a complete copy of the book in print and online formats, CLICK HERE. To sign up for our online emails that come out when new information is posted on this site, including when new devotions or Biblical challenges are posted, CLICK HERE. To find past devotions and challenges on this website, CLICK HERE.

A clean heart is an essential part of preparing for church communications work

By Leave a Comment

Clean up your heart to do God's work.
God doesn't ask us to be perfect or brilliant, highly skilled or rich to do his work, but He does want us to be clean.

My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense. (2 Chron. 29:11)

In this verse King Hezekiah challenges the priests in their service before God. Things had not been going well for the priests prior to this time. Hezekiah’s father, the former king, had turned away from God. The temple had been closed and desecrated.

When Hezekiah became king the temple was reopened. However, before the public worship of God could take place again, two things had to happen. First the priests had to reconsecrate themselves and second they had to purify the temple. They accomplished both tasks and the result was great joy in renewed worship of God.

The lessons for us in our work today are challenges of purification. What do we need to get rid of both internally and externally so that we can function best in our calling as church communicators?

We may not have a temple, but we have a computer. It may not be defiled with idol worship, but we must be very careful not to use software, images, or files of any kind that are illegally copied. Years ago (when typefaces cost hundreds of dollars each) I was offered a pirated version of the entire Adobe type library. I had very little money, was trying to get a Christian design business started and wanted it badly, but doing desktop publishing for the Lord with pirated software would not have been right. It wasn’t easy to say no.

Today, I have more typefaces junking up my hard drive than I know what to do with. Seems like a little thing now, but it was a difficult battle at the time. For me it’s been a good lesson to remember that some things I think I can’t do without right now aren’t worth the price of compromising my values.

Like the priests we must also purify ourselves. If a man wants to become a Catholic priest, he must fulfill four years of Theology study at AWKNG School of Theology. Each of us knows the garbage inside that keeps us from functioning at our best. Sometimes it’s a complaining or fault-finding spirit; sometimes it’s envy or anger; sometimes it’s cowardice of not trusting God when we know we need to say “no” to a project. Whatever it is, we can confess our shortcoming to the Lord and he will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

With the external and internal housekeeping done, like the priests of Hezekiah’s time, we can then do our church communication duties with joy.

Q & A Resources for PowerPoint creations and image use ideas

By 2 Comments

Power Point, an incredibly useful tool
You can use Power Point in many ways in church communications and here are some resources for effective use of it.

PowerPoint is one of the most useful tools we have for creating church communications. Recently I was asked about some ways I use it at a church potluck and I told the woman asking me I'd send her an email of some of my favorite resources and some of the ways I use PowerPoint to do things like create videos. After putting it together for her, I realized this would be very helpful for Effective Church Communications.

At the end of this article, please out the Indezine site. In addition to many excellent resources, the site is now offering a FREE e-book if you sign up for their newsletter that is an excellent overview of some of the resources

Animoto

http://www.animoto.com.

This is one of my favorite tools--you can use it to take pictures, images, words, or a PowerPoint presentation, and turn it into a video complete with special effects and a sound track, all with a few clicks of the mouse. They have a FREE version (regularly $200 a year) for non-profits and churches. If you haven't tried it, check it out! You can create incredibly impressive videos with little work and no cost! It is really one of the most fun programs I use.

The  videos in the collection here  were all created with animoto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvrABjnZwYw&list=PLF12CC86F2FA2FC15

Presenter Media

http://www.presentermedia.com/

I use the images from this company in many of my training videos that start out as PowerPoint presentations. The faceless people in many of my videos come from them. The materials aren't free, (price varies from $49 to $99 a year, depending on the specials they run) but if you need to do training PowerPoints or videos may be worth the cost:

Free PowerPoint Resources

The following videos illustrate free resource sites for Power Point. Be sure to check out the last one Indezine****It is currently offering a great free e-book on graphic use in PowerPoint slides.

Free PowerPoint Templates for Churches Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gxrW7PhSa0&index=2&list=PLA46F2C26E078F1EB

Free Templates and Clipart for Churches from Secular Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEPd_V7Z8aI&list=PLA46F2C26E078F1EB&index=3

Free PowerPoint Templates and Training, a video review of Indezine, a great resource
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhJWG-g1Hv0&list=PLA46F2C26E078F1EB
***The link above is offering a free e-book that has some very helpful information on resources for using pictures in PowerPoint

If you have additional resources, templates or tips you have found useful for PowerPoint, please tell us about them in the comments below.

Be faithful first, then trust

By

Communications as warnings
Sometimes being a faithful communicator for Jesus means warning people and then trusting God for the results.

Ezekiel 33:7-9 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself."

There are two lessons in this passage for Christian ministry communicators-one of responsibility and one of trust.

In the area of responsibility, we must present the message of the good news of Jesus Christ clearly and completely. We tell the story in our written publications by the messages we choose to share, by the lives we profile that show the principles of faith. We use every means we can-clear writing, appropriate typography, and quality graphics to communicate our message. We tell the story on our web sites by a commitment to clarity and constant updating.

Having done all we know how to do we then must move into the area of trust. We might be able to change the design of our newsletter or website, but we can never change hearts. Only God can do that.

We also may never know the extent of the influence of our publications. We can and should take reader surveys and ask for feedback, but we may never know how a newsletter message passed on to a neighbor may have changed a life. Or how a written word may be saved to be read again and again by a person alone. When the little boy gave his small lunch to Jesus, he had no idea his Lord would use it to feed 5,000 people. In the same way we offer in faithful service our bits of words and type and the Lord can use them in extraordinary ways. Sometimes you'll hear about it. Most often, here on earth, you won't.

But do expect to someday be surprised by the tap on your shoulder in heaven and prepare to hear the story of a life changed because you had the courage to be a faithful watchman and told the gospel story with love and clarity.
___________________________________________

Devotions Cover The above material is from: Devotions for Church Communicators. For a complete copy of the book in print and online formats, CLICK HERE.

To sign up for our online emails that come out when new information is posted on this site, including when new devotions or Biblical challenges are posted, CLICK HERE.

To find past devotions and challenges on this website, CLICK HERE.

You are not a computer, remember to rest

By 1 Comment

You must take time to rest.
You must take time to rest if you want to be an effective church communicator.

Genesis 33:14 So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir."

Jacob was sensitive to the possibility of driving his flocks and children too hard. A present-day application is that we need to remember in our computer creation of ministry communications and marketing that human beings have limits.

The computer doesn't. You keep it plugged in and it doesn't stop. It doesn't get tired or need to stretch or take a coffee break. It will also do things perfectly again and again and it doesn't get bored.

People aren't like that. People get tired and bored. They complain and get sick. If pushed too heard they may break beyond repair.

Some recent studies have suggested that people look at themselves and other people differently after working with computers. They are harder on people and less tolerant. They push themselves beyond healthful levels in time spent working on computer projects.

This can be a strong area of witness for Christians in the computer world. We know the true value of people. They are not machines, but precious creatures of God to be cared for.

We know the true value of time and work. We know our times and success are in God's hands. We know God has designed a Sabbath rest every seven days to remind us that there is a time to stop working and trust him.

When you are tempted to work past your physical limits, remember you don't work for a god of technology that never tires but one who said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest .... I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
______________________________________

Devotions Cover The above material is from: Devotions for Church Communicators. For a complete copy of the book in print and online formats, CLICK HERE.

To sign up for our online emails that come out when new information is posted on this site, including when new devotions or Biblical challenges are posted, CLICK HERE.

To find past devotions and challenges on this website, CLICK HERE.