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.

Church Bulletins are STILL a vital piece of Church Communications, plus links to Four (one free) eBooks about them

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As many churches work hard to build back ministries decimated by Covid, complete and frequent communications that contain the essentials of what is going on in the church are extremely important. Your church bulletin is a unique communication piece in how it can be accessed by anyone and can contain a tremendous amount of material along with links to where to find out more.

For decades I've taught, written about, and helped many churches make effective bulletins and have collected much of the material in the eBooks below.

***Check them out for both strategy and practical implementation ideas.

Four books on Church Communications, all from the Effective Church Communications Library

The first one is a FREE DOWNLOAD and is highly recommended as a foundation for why church bulletins are STILL ESSENTIAL communications for churches. Just click on the cover to go to it.

Are Printed Bulletins still needed in the church? eBook
In the time of digital communications and social media, many want to get rid of bulletins, but this short booklet might help you think again.
Church Bulletins, an archive of tips eBook
The church bulletin is often the first piece of church communication an unchurched person sees--what does it say? This book will help the experience be a positive one.
Church Bulletin Gospel Presentations eBook
The Gospel, the good news about Jesus is our most important message, here are examples of how some churches share it.
This is a collection of articles from Effective Church Communications about church bulletins that are both strategic and practical.

Complete details in all church communications are essential for people to connect with church events

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The importance of each link
If only one link is broken, the entire chain fails. The connecting details in our church communications work the same way.

UPDATE editorial note: I've recently downloaded software that was attractively and appealingly advertised. Then I tried to use it and found that the creators apparently used all their energies in selling the software, but almost no time in the hard work of showing how to USE it. We can do the same if we have a splashy advertisement for a church event, but don't do the work to put in the connecting details that will get people to the event. This article from our archives will help you to avoid that mistake. We always must remember that our task is not to simply wow people with our witty, brilliant designs and catchy phrases about upcoming events, but to simply get them there so God can help them grow in their spiritual lives.

"He that is faithful is that which is least, is faithful also in much," (Luke 16:10), is a biblical principle we are all familiar with. It is also an important principle to remember in your church communications when you want people to respond to your church communication with concrete action. We don’t do church communications for people to think they look fantastic or to impress them with our technological prowess—we do them so lives and eternities will be changed. The details must be included for people to be able to respond.

If you don’t include the little details (time, date, location, duration, contact information) completely and consistently in every church communication you produce, the great design, writing, typography choices, and graphics will not mean anything. All of these design issues that many church communicators work so hard on, are virtually useless if you don’t have the details included that will actually connect people to the church events. This not to discount the importance of good design. Good design is important, but similar to James reminder that "faith without works is dead," so too, great-looking design is useless if it doesn't result in actions.

In the rest of this article I’ll talk about why we leave out church communication details and then I’ll give you a list of the details that are essential to include. PLEASE  take time to read/review this article for maximum results from the hard work you do in your church communications. Pass it on, make copies of it for your staff to discuss.

Why we leave out the details in our church communications

Our default mode when creating church communications is to leave out connecting details. We do this for a number of reasons and here are some of the most common reasons why we leave out essential details in church communications:

Over-familiarity

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If you truly care about visitors to your church—keep doing a paper bulletin

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It can be very confusing to guests if they don't know what's going on in the church. Printed, paper church bulletins can help relieve some of that confusion.

I recently attended a church event where I was extremely uncomfortable.

Mind you—I'm a church person, one who grew up in the church, loves the church, is there every week. My father was Catholic, my mother Protestant and I'm comfortable in many types of services.

But I wasn't at this one.

I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to embarrass the church, but the reason I was uncomfortable (church person that I am) is that I had NO idea what was going on or what would happen next. It took place on a Sunday morning with additional things going on in their regular service.

We didn't know what was happening; what would happen next; how long it was supposed to go on, what we were expected to do. We had no idea who the various people were who got up to speak (and there were a number of them on this day). We had no idea what they were talking about when they briefly mentioned upcoming events.

What was good about what happened

I got a sense of what it is like for an unchurched person to come into a church. I try in many ways to remind people of how confusing it can be if you did not grow up in a church of any kind to make sense of what goes on in any church.

However, in most instances, a total newcomer is saved because when they come in they are handed what to them is "the Program." Most of us call it the church bulletin, but even if the guest doesn't understand all the terms they have a sense of the cast of characters and the order of the events that are taking place. They also get an idea of what the church is about and what else is going on there.

What goes on may seem odd—perhaps like a play to someone who is unfamiliar with that type of play or the actors, but they can follow the structure if not the details in content. Without a Program or explanation of any kind, the uninformed audience member may walk out.

A printed, paper, bulletin changes all that

Even the most simple bulletins make a stranger to the church at least feel comfortable with a small sense of what is going on, who the people are, and what's next.

But it wasn't changed for us. When my husband went to ask for the bulletin (perhaps we came in the wrong door we thought), he was told, "oh we quit doing those."

I confess to fighting anger and irritation, but I kept reminding myself, "This is what it feels like to not know—to not be one of the "insiders" at this kind of religious meeting.

The result—to encourage you to keep printing church bulletins

I know there are many blogs and chats that tell you they aren't necessary—that everything is digital and nobody reads them anyway (which simply isn't true–just because someone doesn't want to come to something you advertised, doesn't mean they didn't read about it).

But printed bulletins are still important. I don't want to repeat myself more than necessary on the reasons why, but below are links to two FREE e-books about church bulletins and why they are important.

Please read them and consider what they have to say. I'm a church person, I love the church and I'll be back. If I was a lonely, confused visitor, I'm not sure I would be.

Click the link following each title to go to the article to download the book:

 Are written bulletins still useful in the church?   https://wp.me/pDky9-t3
 Archives of church bulletin tips, articles, advice   https://wp.me/pDky9-1Gv

 

FREE e-book download: Are written bulletins still needed in the church?

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Are Written Bulletins Needed
Church bulletins can accomplish many things to keep people involved in the church that digital media cannot. CLICK on the image above to download your FREE COPY of this e-book.

From my email:

"We're doing our announcements on PowerPoint and we have all the information about our weekly activities on our website. We are an outreach oriented, contemporary church and our staff has been wondering-do we still need a written bulletin in this age of technology?"

This is a great question. The answer is more complex than a simple "yes" or "no," so let's take some time to explore the issues.

The context of church communication today: multi-channel

Before we look specifically at the bulletin, it helps to look at the context of church and ministry communications overall. At my church communication seminars, I am often asked, especially by churches involved heavily in technology, if there is ONE way to communicate that works best for churches today: it is the web, email, PowerPoint, and texting, or through blogs, podcasting, twittering and social networks?

Understandably churches feel overwhelmed by the volume of communication that needs to take place and if they could just concentrate on one or two technologically powerful tools, church staffs often feel life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, ministry communications isn't an area where church life can be simplified. The reason is in the church today we have people who span every level of involvement in technology from those who are never unhooked from their web-enabled cell phone and who check their email as it comes into those who will live long, happy and fulfilled lives and never go online.

If we follow the biblical command to "be all things to all people that we might win some," yes, we need the latest tech tools and means  of communication, but along with the killer website, witty and engaging social media, and fantastic slide shows at worship, handwritten notes from the pastor and printed calendars are still useful-and so is a written bulletin.

We live in an age where we do need to keep adding forms of communication technology to our ministry, but where we can't really do away with anything. We need to communicate through every available channel so that no matter where people are in terms of technology they can understand and respond to our message.

How being outreach-oriented applies to decisions about bulletins

If a church is truly outreach-oriented, and if newcomers are attending each week, though we may feel that cutting-edge technology is useful for the worship service and image, it may not touch people who are new to the church.

For example, if someone comes in late, if they had trouble parking or locating childcare, they may not make it into the service to see the announcements you've just shown on PowerPoint. Also, a new person may not even know you have a website or what is on it. Your bulletin might be the first place they learn you have a website. Without a written bulletin they will have no idea what sort of activities you offer during the week or what is happening in the worship service itself.

For a truly unchurched person to visit your church, for a service to start with 30 minutes of people singing songs they don't know, and then watching an often amateur skit, all with no explanation of what it's all about and not knowing what comes next isn't particularly "seeker-friendly." I often remind pastors that it can be a mentally challenging obstacle course for a new person to make it to the part of your service where you get a chance to present your relevant and life-changing sermon. A written bulletin can explain the process and purpose and put the worship activities in perspective from the minute a visitor sits down.

For regular attendees, even if they see the PowerPoint announcements before church, chances are when Thursday night comes around and they need to remember what the kids are supposed to bring to youth group and where it's going to be held, they won't remember the PowerPoint, no matter how beautiful the graphics. For regular attenders, if it isn't on the refrigerator in the form of a postcard or bulletin insert, the chances of them attending an event late in the week are greatly reduced.

Use your various communication tools: web, PowerPoint, printed in the bulletin and other places, to enhance each other

The website is a fantastic tool to refer to in the bulletin-many church members haven't visited it and don't know it has anything for them. Your church web site can be a great place to store the pastor's sermons for downloading with accompanying notes in PDF format. It can give in-depth discussion and links of a topic the pastor mentions in the sermon. In addition, if the website is continuously updated, it can provide background, directions and more information about weekly events.

PowerPoint can be a powerful worship tool and sermon learning tool. In addition, it can work well for announcements at the beginning and end of the service for things that are going on immediately after the service, such as to invite people to the Fellowship Hall for coffee and questions.

Bottom line: though we need every tech-savvy tool to illustrate our message and for the impact and repetitions they provide, written bulletins are still a useful tool for ministry communications. They are often a visitor's only link to understanding what is going on at the service and in the church overall. They can hold tangible message reminders such as inserts to put on the refrigerator, sign-up forms for camps and conferences, and sheets for taking sermon notes. They can be scribbled on by children, read by anyone, sent to the homebound, and used as reminders of events.

Keep exploring, using and improving every new tool to enable your church to better communicate the gospel message, but don't let go of the time-tested and reliable methods such as a written church bulletin.

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Are Written Bulletins Needed

For the FREE ebook, Are Printed Bulletins Still Needed in the Church? CLICK HERE:  Are written bulletins still needed in the church

Still useful: archive articles on Church Bulletins

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Church bulletins remain one of the most important pieces of church communication and this book features PDFs of articles by Yvon Prehn Cover Of Bulletin Archive bookall on the topic of how to create and use them most effectively. In addition to theory, this book has quite a number of articles that illustrate how to layout your bulletins for maximum readability and for ease in scanning.

These come from our archives, but still, have many relevant tips and ideas for church communications today.

The content of your bulletins is also discussed as is one of the most contentious areas of church communications: the bulletin insert—prepare to be challenged in your thinking about them.

This e-book is a free download by clicking the link below.

Click here to download the PDF of the Bulletin Book.