Super Important–Last Minute, FREE TEMPLATES for Christmas Connection Cards, and communications to get people to return after Christmas events

Wouldn't it be great if just one fantastic church service, event, or sermon could assure that unchurched visitors would come back to your church, learn about Jesus, come to know Him, and become a member of your church? When we create our invitations to Christmas and other special events, we silently hope they will help do just that.

Though we work hard, hope, and pray for great spiritual success, we know one great communication or the event it points people to probably won't do all we wish it would.

Eugene Peterson described the Christian life as "a long obedience in the same direction" and I think successful church communications fit that description. We want to bring people from outside the church into it, involve them with the life of the church, help them to come to know Jesus, and grow to be a mature disciple. It takes many communications online and in print to do that.

Getting people to the Christmas eve or day service or other special event is great, but making sure they come back is even better. To make that happen you need more than the invitation that got them there.

To help you do that, we have a number of communication ideas and free templates that can help. Some will help you get contact information, others will inform people about your church, others challenge them to think about Jesus as more than a baby.

Following are descriptions of essential Christmas Communications along with strategies for using them. The ZIP files below each example contain ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files. You are free to use them in any way you want and to pass them on. All the artwork and text are copyright legal. Or you can use any part of them for inspiration and create your own or pull out the text for digital or social media sharing.

Christmas Event Sign in and Registration Card

One challenge with special events is how do you get people to give you their contact information so you can follow-up. Especially at events where people are moving around, they probably don't want to sit down and fill out a card. Here's an idea we've used these very successfully when we host a Christmas or other holiday event--we do drawings for great door prizes!

One Christmas we had big table at the door and an assortment of wonderful gift baskets. Some had food, others pampering items, all were gorgeously wrapped. One church I know has Target gift cards they give away at all events for when people fill out their information for a drawing.

We are always upfront with people about why we are doing this and what we want the information for. Following is the message on the card; you can also take this message, enlarge it and put it in a literature stand by the cards, when we do that, we have no problem at all with people signing up:

We are so glad you’re here! Please take a minute to fill out this card so you can be entered into our door-prize drawing and so that we have a record of your attendance and a way to contact you about future events for your family. Be assured this information will not be shared or used outside the church office and you can have your names removed from the list at any time by calling the church office.

Following are images of the templates that we have.

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: 2017 Christmas Event Registration Card

Christmas Connection Card

This is more traditional, but still very important. It's important to connect with people who come to special Christmas services so you can follow-up with them. Again, we are always very clear about why we are doing this—we want to stay in touch. One strategic, but very honest way to encourage more people to turn them in is to remind them that you are not only asking for connecting information, you also would like to give them the gift of praying for them this holiday season. Though it's a time of festivities and fun, it's also a stressful and sometimes lonely time for many. This connection card may give you the opportunity to significantly minister to guests and members. To show them that you mean it, when you mention the card actually pause to give them time to fill it out.

It sends the message that you don't really care if you quickly mention a connection card when people are standing up and quickly move on to the next song. People need to be sitting down with something to write with and with all sincerity you need to say something like what is on the card:

Thank you for being part of our Christmas Service!
We’d love to stay in touch, answer your questions, and pray for you. Please fill out the information below and put it in the offering plate.
May your Christmas be joyful!

You can expand the prayer section by saying something like:

If your holiday is partly ho-hum instead of ho, ho, ho—we'd like to let you know you aren't alone. I imagine that first Christmas wasn't totally happy for the parents of Jesus when you honestly think about.

We'd like to pray for you. Please let us know what to pray, our prayers will be our gift to you.

Following are images of the templates that we have.

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: 2017 Christmas Connection Cards

What we do regularly

I don't remember what holiday it was, but the church where my husband was the Single Adult Pastor held a lot of big community events. We were a large church and it wasn't easy to keep track of people. I started a conversation with a woman who told me she was a single mom and she and her kids came every year to the various things the church put on. Because I didn't remember seeing her in our Single Adult Ministry, I asked her what service she regularly attended.

"Service?" she said, "what do you mean by service?"

"You know, the things we do regularly on Sunday," I replied.

"You do things on Sunday?" she said, "I thought you guys only put on special events every few months."

Oh my.

That's when I started creating communications about "What we do regularly" to give out to guests. Though it's hard to imagine a member of the community around your church not knowing what the church did on Sunday, it shouldn't be. If you didn't grow up going to church and many people in our communities didn't, they have no idea what a church does regularly, what time it meets or why they should bother to attend. Below are bookmarks and flyers that you can adapt to let them know.

You can also take this basic information and put it into digital or social media format if that's the primary way you follow-up with guests. If you do a print piece like the ones below have the social media links for people to find out more about your church and invite them to interact with you if they have questions.

At some time during the service be sure to point out the communications and to personally invite people back.

Following are images of the templates that we have in two formats. The first is bookmark size and the second is bulletin insert size

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: 2017 Christmas Bookmarks, what we do regularly

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: Christmas, Bulletin Insert, what we do regularly

Because Christmas is just the beginning

We don't celebrate the birth of Jesus because he was an exceptionally cute baby. We celebrate it because it was the start of a life that would end with his death as a sacrifice for our sins. We may not be able to tell the whole story at our Christmas events, but we should give people something to let them know there is more.

Following I have two ways to do that. First is a card that you can either send as a follow-up or include in your Christmas program. You can also take out the text and use it anywhere. Second is a longer piece that can either be a bulletin insert or again, you can use the text anywhere you want.

One more thing—I know everyone is very tired—but consider question and answer times, a study for spiritual questions, or some other interactive event to invite guests to after Christmas.

You can also link to videos or other information on your website or have something that explains Jesus life and offer of salvation.

Here are the templates that we have and below them a link to download them.

Quarter-page, Postcard size "Because He didn't stay a baby"

Because he didn’t stay a baby. . .
we want to tell you the rest of the story. . .

During the holidays you heard that Jesus was the reason for the season. You heard stories, sang songs, and got Christmas cards—all about Him.
In the middle of all that, did you ever wonder, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” What was there about this baby that split history in two and has the world celebrating his birth?
Those are great questions and we’d love to discuss them with you. On the back of this card are some opportunities to explore this question and we hope you'll check them out.

Following are images of the templates that we have.

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: 2017 Christmas Follow up Because He didn't stay a baby event insert card

Half-page or bulletin insert size

Because he didn’t stay a baby. . .
we want to tell you the rest of the story. . .

At Christmas, we focus on the baby in the manger, the angels’ praise, and the shepherds’ worship, but there is much more to this story.

The angels’ praise and the shepherds’ worship weren’t solely for a cute baby with a touching back-story about his parent’s struggles that brought them into a barn for their baby’s birth.

The praise and worship were for the fulfillment of centuries of prophetic promises. Though their words were often dimly understood and often misinterpreted, the prophets’ consistent message was that God had not abandoned a world that had turned its back on Him.

The praise and worship were because the temple sacrifices of thousands of innocent lambs would cease now that the redemption they represented had come to earth. Immanuel, “God with us” was no longer a vague promise, but a baby in the manger. The redemption He would purchase with this death on the cross would pay our sin debt in full.

The praise and worship were for what that baby would become: a teacher, healer, and ultimately the Savior of humanity.

The praise and worship were because that baby was living proof that someday, anyone and everyone, no matter what their past, if they accept the salvation the Savior would offer, could walk with God in peace, full of joy, and forever.

Our church is here to share that story in all its fullness, to answer your questions, and to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus.

We’d consider it a privilege to share it with you and on the back of this piece are opportunities to explore the Christian faith and to interact with us.

Following are images of the templates that we have.

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: Because-he-didnt-stay-a-baby

Christmas Follow up Bulletin insert or flyer: Because He didn't Stay a Baby

Follow up after the service

One church communicator shared me the following note (true story here) she received late in February from the church secretary:

I'm so sorry to be just getting these to you now. This is the list of the visitors at our Christmas Eve service.
I've been really busy.

Oh my. I had no idea how to respond.

Hopefully, that will not be your situation and you know that you need to respond immediately to the connection cards you collected at your Christmas service. To help you do that, following are some you can make up ahead of time and have ready to send out.

First, I have some very restrained cards--a simple coffee cup illustration and the words:

have questions?
about christmas or anything else about the christian faith?

have coffee with us
. . . . .discuss answers

Then my favorite is the picture of a little girl in a red and white Christmas outfit with an orange piece stuffed half in her mouth and the words:

Christmas a bit much?
After all the food, festivities, ho, ho, ho, and perhaps a church service thrown in, do you ever wonder why all the bother?

It certainly doesn’t seem worth it for the commercial excesses all around us.

But what if it was really about God becoming human?

What if the ancient prophecies that God would be with us to show us what God was like and how to live in a way that pleases him were true?

That would be worth celebrating.
We think that is what Christmas is really about and we’d love to discuss it with you. On the back of this card are ways we can connect.

Following are images of the templates that we have.

Here is a link to download the zip file of ready-to-print PDFs and editable MS Publisher files: Christmas Follow Up Cards

The most important thing of all to share: the good news about Jesus

Many of you have already downloaded these communications, but if you haven't they are wonderful reminders that the purpose of Christmas is the salvation we find in Jesus. To remind people of it is a card or bulletin insert and a bulletin insert size version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing, But Why?"