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.

Flashy multi-media in church communication and why it doesn’t always work

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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 like  "this is what will appeal to people today."

Two interns from the local Bible college were the newscasters, and with a team and 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 sign up for small groups. The congregation loved the videos for the two weeks they were produced. 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 attendance in small groups. [Read more...]

Don't hide your PR materials on your website

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One of the attendees at my seminar asked me to look at her online newsletter and website.

The website was attractive and welcoming, but there were no links to a "newsletter." However, because I see the publications from hundreds of churches each year, I suspected that the label "Messanger" was probably the newsletter. I clicked on it and it was.

I emailed her back and let her know that though both the website and newsletter were well-done and very seeker friendly, this was a good lesson for all of us--when we know and love certain publications in our church, we need to remember that unchurched folks visiting a website might not know the favorite name that we have for the publications.

A church newsletter is a great way to introduce your church to potential visitors who may be checking out your site to see if they want to attend your church--but if they don't know the name of your newsletter they may not be able to find it.

Application: make it easy for people to find things. Use their generic name: church newsletter (not The Messanger), children's ministry (not PromiseLand), single adult ministry (not OASIS) and so on.

Make it easy for people to connect, come visit and get involved.

Communication strategy frees captives

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A daring rescue of captives in the jungles of Columbia took place this week and as the details have been revealed, one comment I heard on NPR provides a useful challenge for church communications.

NPR commented on the critical part communication made in the rescue when it was revealed that the government was able to disrupt and confuse the communication of the rebel group so that the rescue could be made.

What a great analogy and challenge for us as church communicators—to disrupt the communications of the enemy so captives can be freed.

In our world today, the enemy of our souls holds the hearts and minds of people captive to all sorts of useless and soul-killing bondage and most of it promoted through the communications people daily receive. We have the message of freedom in Jesus, but are we getting it out there so that souls can be freed?

To do that won’t happen by accident. The government forces carefully studied the communication of their enemy and then strategically replaced them with their messages that resulted in freedom.

Here are some  practical suggestions for church communicators:

1.  In a world filled with websites for every imaginable media outlet, feedback and comments are solicited. Take the opportunity to comment from a Christian viewpoint.

2.  Whenever you attempt to speak for the kingdom of God, be certain you have your facts straight. One essential component of quoting correctly is that if you are going to use the Bible as a proof text, be sure you quote it in context. Don’t pull verses out of context and throw them out as a proof to support your viewpoint. Study the verse, in context, in history, in interpretation. Read the entire chapter and book it is in and commentaries on it to be sure you are quoting and using the verse with integrity. People to whom you speak may not be familiar with the passage, but most people have an innate sense of when someone is distorting a quote for private purposes.

3.  When quoting the Bible, I have often found that it helps to acknowledge that the people reading or listening to you probably do not view it as the Word of God. In a secular context, I will acknowledge that upfront by saying something like, “I’m not asking you to take this statement as words from God. For the basis of our discussion, think of the Bible as the historical text that reveals what Christians believe about this topic.” God’s word is true and powerful, whether your audience believes that or not.

4.  Always present your comments with “gentleness and respect.” Remember you are to be a witness, not the prosecuting attorney.

If you are a consistent, gentle, clear communicator of the truth of the Christian message, in time the Lord may use your words, spoken and written, in print and on the web, to free captives held by false messages of a world passing away.

Don't launch a website too soon

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People go to church websites for information.

I constantly emphasize that in my seminars—they are not going to your church website for their multi-media thrill of the week. A flash intro, moving parts, great graphics—these do not equate to a great church.

I was reminded of these lessons, when this week, I was looking at a new church website. This church was very excited about finally having the money to do a really "professional" website and they paid a bucket of money for it, as I discovered when I clicked on the link at the bottom of the page that took me to the company that made it. It had a great opening page, lots of moving parts, and color and excitement.

But I really wondered about the integrity of the company that created it and the wisdom of the folks at the church who ordered it because many of the placeholders for content, e.g. bios of the staff, including the senior pastor, schedules, photo albums, details about the various ministries in the church,  were all empty.

The place-holders were there, but little content was behind the initial click.

As a potential visitor or seeker, if I was checking out a church I don't think I'd be very impressed with one that had a fancy opening page, but didn't tell me a thing about the senior pastor or any of the other staff.

PLEASE, put content on your church websites and don't launch until you have all the sections with something in them. You don't have to have a deep and extensive website at the beginning, but the basics, such as who is the pastor, and the basics about core ministries are really essential.

Without content, it's worse than no website at all—it says this church didn't plan ahead, this church cares more about show than substance. This is definitely not the kind of information you want people to get from your website.

Do we really want to serve others with our church communications?

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If asked, "Are you serving yourself or your people with your church communications?" of course I'd answer "My people." But this morning I read an email newsletter that challenged my assumptions.

The newsletter is from Gerry McGovern, a secular web guru and consultant, who consistently provides thought-provoking materials that have useful application in church communications. Today in his newsletter he had an article, “WEB PROFESSIONAL: ARE YOU READY TO SERVE?”

Those of us who do communications work in churches like to think that we are motivated by service, but are we really? Read the extended quote below and replace his work “customers” with those you are trying to reach and grow in Jesus. {+}

"It is impossible to create a website with excellent service if there is not a culture of service within the web team that manages the website. All great web teams are founded on a philosophy of service. They like and are interested in their customers. They are constantly thinking about their customers' needs. They want and like to serve.

Many web teams are unfortunately filled with people who have little interest in serving. In fact, many web teams don't even accept that their primary job is to serve customers.

Some web teams think that their job is to manage technology. They spend their time thinking about technology. They get excited by talk of content management systems, search engines, portals, RSS feedback and mobile computing.

Some web teams think about traditional communications. They have all this content to put up. They think that their job ends after they have written the content. The want to communicate at, rather than to, customers, and they expect customers to listen.

Some web teams are excited by things like branding and graphic design. They often change a website because they're bored with the old one. They secretly long for Flash Intros and sometimes create website designs more for their peers to admire than for customers to do stuff on.

Web teams tend to be isolated from customers, and because of this isolation a culture of service rarely exists. In some organizations, web teams are not even allowed to talk to customers! It is simply impossible to design an effective self-service website without a deep understanding of, and ongoing interaction with, customers.

Great web teams constantly talk about the needs of their customers. The technology, the content, and the graphics only exist in the context of creating a more effective self-service environment.

From: http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/ Content management solutions by Gerry McGovern,
Note: I strongly recommend that you go to the website and sign up for his newsletter, great ideas, challenges and insights that you can apply to church communications.

Let me repeat his last paragraph:

It is simply impossible to design an effective self-service website without a deep understanding of, and ongoing interaction with, customers. Great web teams constantly talk about the needs of their customers. The technology, the content, and the graphics only exist in the context of creating a more effective self-service environment.

In not only our websites, but in all our church communications it is so easy to talk at people instead of listening to then, to get overwhelmed by technology, or to work to please our peers instead of constantly seeking to meet the needs of those we serve in the church.

Dealing with technology—the latest web graphic or whatever, is often much more fun than figuring out why the youth group volunteers don’t understand how to use your new interactive calendar or appreciate the innovative graphics you are using.

But if we do these things we aren't serving—and serving is never easy. Jesus took off his robes, wrapped himself in towel and washed the disciple’s feet—and then he told us to do likewise. We need to strip off anything in our communications work that keeps us from serving the people Jesus has given to us. We need to constantly think about their needs; we need to be thinking about how to meet them, and praying for the strength and wisdom to do that.