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.

Don’t dump the TV ministry, it may not be as unimportant as you think

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Recently I heard about a church that wanted to discontinue its television ministry. Though they acknowledged it was watched primarily by the elderly and shut-in, they did not feel it was cost-effective any longer. They wanted to direct all the funds to their internet ministry.  The situation prompted me to remember....

More than a lifetime ago for my nephew who is grown, married and has a son of his own, I was religion reporter for the Colorado Springs SUN newspaper. In this Vatican of America, home to over 100 Christian organizations, reporting on religion involved much more than retelling stories about the variety of pies at the local church supper. Sometimes I got to interview interesting people in the Christian world and one week my assignment was to interview Robert Schuller.

I was ready for it, with what in my mind were insightful, cutting questions, that would expose what a disgrace he was to the Christian faith. I was a reader of the Wittenberg Door, a sort of counter-culture Christian magazine of the 1970's, that had recently done an article on the financial excesses of the building of the Crystal Cathedral, with the numbers on how many hungry kids each pane of glass would feed and similar statistics. The guy started his church in a drive-in theater for goodness sakes, what kind of a pastor was that, I thought in the passionate judgementalism that comes from inexperience in real-world evangelism.

My editor told me I had to go to a bookstore where he was signing books and I could interview him when he was finished. I got there and was directed to a chair near his book signing table and told I could wait there until he was finished. I'd called ahead, he had been signing books for hours already, it was late in the day and I figured he was almost done. I was highly irritated and impatient when I saw the line out the door, around the block . This was going to take hours I groushed; Schuller must be tired, he'd been at it all day I thought, but  it didn't seem like he was going to send them away.

For almost three hours I watched him sign books. His daughter was helping him, she would open the book and pass it to him. He would pause, look up at the person, ask their name, chat a bit, sign the book. This is going to take forever at this rate, I realized.

Most of the people were not well-dressed. Many were older.

Again and again the older people would say, "You are my pastor, I don't know what I would do without you."

"I can't get to church," another would say, "But you encourage me."

Schuller would tell them it was his privilege to be their pastor. Sometimes he would stand up and give an elderly lady a hug. More than a few wanted their picture taken with him and he gladly obliged.

He never rushed anyone.  He would hold a trembling, older hand and pray. He prayed as if there was no one else in the room, but that person in front of the book-signing table and the Lord. A large Latino family came up to the table and the father said something I couldn't hear to Schuller. Schuller stood up, walked around the table, laid his hands on the heads of the children and prayed. He was their pastor. It was obvious, he took that responsibility very seriously.

I was trying very hard not to dissolve in tears. When it finally came time for our interview, I babbled and could only ask in a rather inane way why he did some of the seemingly outrageous things he did. He laughed and said, "People don't understand, I'm very conservative at heart, but that is what the people need in Southern California--I'm their pastor. I do what I need to do to reach them for Jesus."

I think it would be a sad ministry mistake if that church (or any other church so enamored with current technology it forgets the older folks who don't even know the meaning of the term podcast) does drop its TV program. But if they do, I hope they tell their homebound folks about Robert Schuller. He's still on TV, and I'm certain, still ready to be their pastor.

Bible teachers should teach, not conduct public therapy sessions

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Teaching is an exacting form of communication. Based on a biblical foundation, teaching in the church is an essential element in enabling people outside the church to understand the truth of the Christian faith and inside the church to instruct believers to grow in Christian maturity. Successful teaching in the church also involves more than our content alone, but it also involves the character of the teacher.

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. . . . . . if it is teaching, let him teach (Romans 12:3-7, italics mine).

If the lives of our people are not reflecting the kind of Christian maturity we would like to see, if we find ourselves  lamenting their lack of basic biblical knowledge among Christians today—it is instructive for leaders in the church to examine what their people are actually being taught.

We have at most, a couple of hours each week to teach, and it might serve us well to look at how we use those precious minutes. Some considerations:

  • How much time is spent actually sharing content, solid Biblical content?
  • How much time is spent giving Biblical background and Biblical application?
  • How much time is spent putting the Biblical narrative in a historical context?
  • How much time is spent sharing your personal opinion of the lesson and associated topics?
  • How much time is spent sharing your past life experiences or recent domestic dramas?

The Apostle Paul is an instructive example here to contemporary folks who seem compelled to share every detail of their childhood and the weekly status of their marriage in a time theoretically set aside for the teaching of God's Word.

Paul most certainly would have had some incredible stories to share. Stephen was only one of many whose death he facilitated. Did he have nightmares about the families he threw into prison, the lives he destroyed?  His relationship with his family, who paid to have him study with Gamaliel, and who had proudly watched him become a "Hebrew of Hebrews"  only to turn into a Christian evangelist most likely would have yielded some colorful stories.

But we know nothing of them. His focus was not on public therapy sessions of sharing, but instead:

"One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things (Phillipians 3:13-15)."

Immaturity in any Christian teaching situation is evident when the teacher's focus is on his or her past, personal experiences, and pain. People do not come to church to get to know the pulpit personality; they come to see Jesus.

We have so little time to teach the truths that can change lives for time and eternity, as church communicators, if we are called to teach God's Word, we should teach.

Church jargon can sabotage your outreach effort—examples and solutions

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Jesus commanded us to reach our world and most churches make a serious effort to do that. At the same time a  survey by George Barna shows 91% of unchurched people feel the church is not sensitive to their needs. Why is that happening if our primary calling is to reach them for Jesus? I think part of the answer is in our church jargon in our publications.

Jargon encounter:

An unchurched person walks into your church. Maybe a friend invited them, maybe they were simply lonely and wanted to be around people on Sunday morning. We know that they have a god-shaped vacuum inside. We know their hearts are restless until the rest in Jesus. We know the Holy Spirit is at work to convict them of their need for salvation. They sit down in the quiet minutes before the service and they will read anything we put in their hands.

What do we give them? The church bulletin.

What does it say? Try to put yourself in the place of a total stranger who may not have grown up in a church or ever read the Bible. Imagine your response.

Bulletin cover: often either picture of church, clip art, or color picture of scenery. Names of church staff, address, sometimes lists of other names of elders, board members, etc.

Possible response: Who are these people? I know what the church looks like, I walked into it, I'm sitting in it. Why a picture of it?

Inside the bulletin:

There may be an order of service...or maybe not, which means the person has no idea how long the singing will last, how long the service will last, what will happen, what they are supposed to do. If there is an order of service it may contain terms like:

Prelude songs or Introit

Congregational reading

Songs of praise

Hymns such as "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus", choruses: "Open the Eyes of My Heart, and Be Magnified" no words or page numbers given

Announcements (actual examples given):

"We are so glad for those who were able to come to the licensing Service for Rusty. I know you received a blessing from the Lord."

"AWANA GRAND PRIX RACES: Check in 11 am. Racing begins at 12 noon. There are racing divisions for: Chubbies, Sparks, Pals, Chums, Pioneers, Guards, and Leaders. "

"Moses had Aaron and Hur to hold his arms up. Would you be willing to join a pastoral prayer team to hold up our pastoral staff? Sign up on the Feedback Sheet."

"Upcoming events: Friend Day with Cathy McBride-November 4; Greater than Rubies-November 13; Caring Hearts Luncheon-November 28"

Possible response to all of the above that made little or no sense to the visitor reading it: What are these people talking about? As an outsider, I obviously don't belong here.

We often aren't aware of our jargon

We know we shouldn't use terms like justification and sanctification when we are first talking to unchurched folks, but we don't even see so much of our church jargon. The examples above are all out of real church bulletins and similar ones could be repeated thousands of times.

Our insider talk, terms and jargon permeates the initial printed pieces we give visitors telling them that this church is for those in the know only. We don't even see it, but they do and they don't come back.

Get visitor input

Look at your bulletin and other publications that are first seen by visitors and ask the Lord to help you see them as a visitor would. One eye-opening way to find this out is to hire (that's right, pay them a decent hourly wage) to look at your church bulletin and simply ask them to put into their own words what you are saying.

Don't ask them if they like it or if it makes sense or anything like that—many folks are honestly nice and they will lie to you to make you feel good. But if you ask them to resay what they just read and you find them stumbling around and saying things like: "Well, I think here you are talking about...um....little kids? Or what is promise land again? Or what are the "Becomers" becoming?....or I think you're supposed to put a little key code (this really was the case in one church) on this slip of paper and then tear it off and put it into a box in the back if you want to participate in a beach clean up...is that right?...." If this is the sort of response you get, if what you want people to do, isn't immediately clear, you might want to work on your communications to improve their clarity.

Paying people to test and see if they can use your website is a very big deal today; it's the  world of "usability testing." Though I agree this is extremely important to do if you want your website to be useful it is just as important to make sure your church bulletin is useful.

Start by being clear with your welcome

Ask yourself what would make you feel welcome? What would be confusing to you if you were a complete stranger to church?

At the least, as part of welcoming people, tell them what is going on. On pages of announcements, in addition to explaining the event, give complete information such as beginning and ending times, locations, contact phone numbers, etc. In addition, to let guests and infrequent attenders know they are welcome at events outside Sunday morning, you  might consider some sort of heading such as:

Church Family Activities: below are all of the events taking place in our church this week. We realize that newcomers might not be familiar with all the programs or people. Please call xxxxxxx, email xxxx or visit our website xxxx for explanations and more complete descriptions. We welcome you and invite you to participate in all of the activities of our church.

A brief notice such as that at least acknowledges that strangers might be in the congregation.

Don't assume understanding, follow up

Follow up with some visitors-especially those who are new to church and ask them what would make them feel more welcome, what would they like to see in the initial literature they get when they come in the door.

Some churches send out postcards asking for feedback along with a welcome letter. A number of churches in my seminars have found this very helpful. I personally think it's really irritating and bothersome, but it has worked well for quite a few churches. Others do casual phone calls and ask for feedback; others wait until someone is part of a membership class and then as part of it they ask how welcome they felt as visitors, what made sense and what did not. Bottom line here is that different methods work for different styles and types of churches. Try different ones until you find something that works well for you.

However we decide to do follow up after we do it, make some changes and then ask for responses again. We have incredible communication tools and technology and we may need to fine tune our communications and get rid of our jargon so visitors feel the church cares for them as much as the Savior who died for them.

The Lord's approval, often the only reward for our work

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And the LORD said to Aaron, "You priests will receive no inheritance of land or share of property among the people of Israel. I am your inheritance and your share." Numbers 18: 20

A church secretary recently shared with me that she had spent great effort redoing her church bulletin. It looked fantastic. It was much easier to read, her choices in typography and layout were clear and professional looking. But, she said, almost nobody noticed or commented on the changes.

Though it didn't seem like it, her experience was actually a great complement. As the experts in typography continuously affirm the best graphic design and typography should be invisible. The best designed bulletin, or newsletter, or publication of any kind should never cause our audience to say at first, "What a beautiful design!" The first response should be a clear understanding of the message and a proper response to it.

It is often an overly busy, cluttered or unclear design that gets noticed. People will say something is hard to read or they won't respond to the message.

It isn't that we shouldn't work hard to make our ministry publications artistically pleasing and the very best in design and beauty, but those considerations must always be secondary to choosing type, layout, and graphics that work best to communicate the message. This is especially true as we share the gospel.

When we create ministry communications for the Lord, like the priests in the Old Testament, the Lord himself and his favor is often our only reward. Like the old hymn says, we are "channels only." In our work, not only will our audience often not notice changes, but they won't even know who did the work, because much of what we produce will be unsigned.

But our Lord knows. And like the priests of old, he is our inheritance. And it is in his approval we find "the path of life" and "fullness of joy" (Psalm 18: 11, NAS).

All of the devotions on this website and many more have been collected into The Heart of Church Communications by Yvon Prehn. To either download or purchase a copy, click here.

Our publications reflect what is in our heart

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You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good words from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil words from an evil heart.Out of the abundance of the heart not only does the mouth speak, but the computer creates. Matthew 12:34

The quality of the ministry communications we produce never ultimately depends on circumstances outside ourselves. It's easy to blame tight deadlines, inadequate equipment, and the difficult people we work with for doing less than our best, but ultimately the quality of our ministry communication reflects our hearts.

We always have choices within circumstances. Tight deadlines can challenge us to streamline our methods, to focus our work. Inadequate equipment can challenge our creativity to see just how much we can get out of this old machine. Difficult people can drive us to prayer and force us to learn interpersonal skills.

It's in our hearts that we decide whether or not we believe that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans. 8:28, NAS).

If our heart is the key, how can we make it overflow with what is pleasing to our Lord?

Overflow comes from an abundance of what is already inside. Fill your heart with the things of God. Spend time in his Word; read your Bible daily; listen to Christian tapes and music; be with other Christians in church and conversation. Think about God's promises and challenges; write his encouragements and promises on cards to post by your computer.

If you consciously work to fill your mind with the things of God, if his Word and will is your priority, your heart and work will naturally and joyfully reflect it.

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All of the devotions on this website and many more have been collected into  The Heart of Church Communications by Yvon Prehn. To either download or purchase a copy, click here.