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.

FREE videos, graphics and other resources and a new ministry model to create them

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Muddy River media
Muddy River Media is a site that offers free media resources for churches based on a missionary supported model. Do check it out and consider donating if you use the resources.

The challenge for both churches and for the people who create resources for them is always how to have enough money to do what we all feel called to do. Creators would love to give away everything they do –but somehow the bills have to be paid. Churches struggle with how to balance budgets while finding the resources they need to do their ministry.

I just discovered a site that provides lots of FREE images, full-video clips and has a different ministry model to fund them. The site is: http://www.muddyrivermedia.org.

They truly do provide FREE video clips, images and assorted media for free. Check out their ever-growing collection.

A different model for support

Rather than sell their materials or charge a subscription, they are doing their work as digital missionaries. This means they solicit donations to support what they do. So please do consider a donation if you use what they create. I've often thought this would be a great way to do this kind of ministry, though a challenging one.

I like their material and hope to be in contact with them and find out more about what they do--but for right now I wanted to pass on what I did know so you can take advantage of it.

Enter a comment below if you have an opinion on this way of funding resources.

Even better, send a donation and pray for the success of the ministry! http://www.muddyrivermedia.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q & A: Where can you find Free PowerPoint resources, artwork and templates?

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Question:

"Our church has recently added a video screen to our sanctuary. We are in the beginning stages on learning how to use it for announcements and other parts of our church service. We have found some resources for slide backgrounds, videos and countdowns. Most of the video and countdown sites have a fee to use these. We are a small church and just wondering where the best sites are for these things, and possibly free usage sites also. Any suggestions?"

Answer:

Though there are many excellent companies that create PowerPoint presentations for churches, many do charge a hefty fee for their materials. As someone who creates resources for churches, I know everyone needs to make a living, but at the same time, I as someone who is married to a bi-vocational pastor and whose work at the church is done for no compensation, I do know that church resources can be very tight, while ministry demands can be challenging.

I did a good bit of research on this and found the following websites have some excellent FREE resources! Rather than simply telling you about them, I did 3 video reviews, so you can actually see the sites. Following are video reviews of the sites I found most useful with preliminary comments and direct links to them.

PLEASE respond in the comments section if you have other sites that you use either free or paid for. Any extra comments would be very helpful. Thanks so much!

Free PowerPoint Templates from Christian sources

Heartlight.org
http://www.heartlight.org/powerpoint/2262.html
This site is just WONDERFUL! Lots of free materials, really good quality, and I found the overall attitude of the site encouraging and uplifting. Not only PowerPoint, but lots of other materials you'll find very useful for church communications.

Ebibleteacher.com
http://www.ebibleteacher.com/
I didn't find this as useful for worship-type PowerPoint as some, but I really like their teaching materials. Good graphics and maps section and OK background images. I use a lot of maps and historical images in my Bible teaching to remind people that the Christian faith is rooted in real history that took place in real places.

Hyperpixels Media
http://www.hyperpixelsmedia.com/motion-background-loops/fire-flow
I really liked the materials here. This site has mostly materials that cost, but they also have some free materials, that change and that are wonderful. Their quality is excellent and their prices are very reasonable. This does cost, but their video: A Man's Thesaurus had me laughing out-loud. Check it out when you need a bit of humor.

Free PowerPoint Templates for Churches Video Review

Free PowerPoint templates from Secular Sources

PowerPoint Styles.com
http://www.powerpointstyles.com
This is a weird site—but useful weird. Be sure to look at the video before you go to it. It has some GREAT material and it's all FREE, but what is weird about it is all the junk ads, software download boxes and other stuff that clutter up the site. But if you take a few minutes with it, you'll be rewarded with some really great PowerPoint Templates.

Microsoft.com
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=presentations
The link above goes directly to the free PowerPoint templates from Microsoft. As you'll see the best ones they offer don't come from Microsoft themselves, but from companies that give free resources to them. It is a little tricky to find and access these resources, but the video that follows shows you how.

Free Templates and Clipart for Churches from Secular Sources

Free Power Point Training Resource

Indezine.com
http://www.indezine.com/
This is a very interesting site—it does have lots of free templates for PowerPoint and the video below shows you how to access them, but it also has lots of educational information on all sorts of topics related to PowerPoint, such as an extensive tutorial about presenting on the iPad. There are lots of links to books and other resources related to PowerPoint and links to downloads of software trials. Their religious templates feature ones for non-Christian religions, which could be very useful for world religion classes. Bookmark this site as the offering and education materials change often.

Free PowerPoint Templates and Training, a video review of Indezine

Don’t let the need for custom graphics keep you from creating your website–do them with MS Publisher!

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Create your own website header with MS Publisher--it's easier than you think!
Create your own website header with MS Publisher--it's easier than you think!

You may be considering creating the website for your church or for a personal blog with WordPress, which is a great idea and one I strongly recommend. But though WordPress is a very easy way to create a website, you may be concerned about how to create the custom header nameplate and maybe some custom graphics for special events.

You have a reason to be concerned because many people will tell you that you need to create these in programs like Photoshop, but your church doesn't have money for the program and you have no time or desire to learn it. But did you know that you can create headers and custom graphics with MS Publisher? Really. You can. And it is SUPER easy to do. [Read more...]

Q & A: Is it OK to freely use music from iTunes or Amazon in my church videos if I give them credit?

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Loving a song doesn't give you permission to legally use it.
Loving a song doesn't give you permission to legally use it--here are the rules and resources for legal ones.

QUESTION:

I am wondering about getting permission to use music. I understand the copyright law to mean that as long as we properly cite copyrighted material, we can use it. Is that not right? I always buy the song for 99 cents on Amazon.com and then cite it at the end.

ANSWER:

Though my specific answer here will involve music, this question of the proper use of copyrighted materials has caused confusion for decades for church communicators and the confusion has only gotten worse because the internet makes it possible for us to easily download and use anything that is online. I usually find a few good Christian music on https://musiccritic.com. After I find something that my ears love, I download them somewhere else. But we often forget the legalities of such actions as we only use them personally.

In addition to ease of use, another confusion enters in with the idea that, as the person above mentioned, that it is OK to use something as long as you cite the source. Here's a synopsis of how I'll answer these questions:

Is it OK to freely use music you download so long as you cite the source?   

The short answer is "no." I'll explain why and why there is confusion about it. [Read more...]

Video: Image and Training Resources, a brief video tour

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From our Great Ideas & Samples Swap this brief video shows some of the Image and Training Resources sent in. The video gives you a preview of the sites and some tips on how to make the most of them. The video links, plus additional tips and resources can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.