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.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do this year—read through the Bible in Chronological order—and I’d like to help you do it

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Reading through the Bible in chronological order will change your life! I'd like to invite you to join me as I teach through it in Sunday School class and in a podcast in the coming year.

This falls under the category of putting your own oxygen mask on first before you help someone else.

YOU have to be spiritually strong if you are going to successfully serve in the ministry of Church Communications in the coming year. To do that, you need to be strong in God's Word and I know from many years of experience that the BEST way to do this is to read through the Bible Chronologically. I've done it this way for many years and this year I'm not only encouraging you to do it, but I started a podcast, Bible 805 that is available on iTunes and many other sources that will guide you through the readings.

The podcast initially has a foundation series of Podcasts, "Truth and History" series that goes through why we can trust the Bible by showing how it is based on historical truth.

Then there is a podcast on the Six Benefits of Reading through the Bible in Chronological Order, I also have a copy of the text below that you can use however you'd like (be sure to read it through yourself) and finally, starting next week (after you've done a week of readings) I'll do a podcast from the Sunday School class I'm teaching on this. I plan to do a weekly podcast on this every week this year (pray for me....).

To also help you and if you want to encourage your congregations, I've created two schedules for this way of reading through the Bible that you can download below, one is a full-year, one page schedule and one is a bookmark I'm doing for my church (but I took my church info off it) that I'll do monthly and pass on as I go.

The PDFs of both are below, click on either image to download the file: [Read more...]

PODCAST: More than a Pretty Face–Free Templates with a Ministry Strategy

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FREE Church Communication Templates
Peacocks are pretty, but useful? Not so much. Our church communications should do more than just look good and there is a ministry plan and message behind the ECC Templates.

There are lots of church communication templates out there, so why should you use our? First of all they are FREE, but more than that there are 4 reasons why our templates are unique.

First of all, they are in PDF and MS Publisher format so they can either be printed immediately or easily modified. Most important is that our templates are more than a pretty face, but actually visual representations of ministry strategy to help people come to know Jesus as Savior and grow to Christian maturity.

To go to the Templates, go to:www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/

Personal note—once again fires raging in California

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After the fire
What remains of a mobile home park that burned. From parks like this to the homes of movie stars, once again fire tore through our area.

Last Thursday afternoon a phone call came, “Camarillo Springs is on fire.”

Camarillo Springs is a mobile home park not far from Ventura where we live, and we have several elderly friends there. They were told to evacuate. We were texting them and their families and though it was scary for one lady in a huge traffic jam with 2 trembling little dogs with her, everyone made it out OK.

That mobile home park was spared, and they were able to return. But many homes were not. From older mobile homes in the canyons to the mansions of the rich and famous in Malibu, the fire tore through to the ocean with what we call the “Santa Ana winds,” scorching 30-50 plus mph winds that come through our area in the fall.

When I was much younger the Santa Ana winds were a pleasant diversion as the weather turned chilly this time of year. Yes, anything below 50 we consider chilly in S. California. Now they are dreaded because they fuel hellish fires in bone-dry areas and can turn an ember in minutes into an entire hillside erupting in flames—as happened in several places this morning. [Read more...]

Don’t be a Secret Saint—a better way to do outreach and connect people to your church!

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Don't be a secret saint
When we do outreach or acts of kindness in our communities, we need to let people know who is doing them so they can find out more about Jesus and connect with our church.

Have you ever been in a situation where you do outreach activities or acts of kindness as part of your church, but you never see anybody come to church because of it? Well, I've got some ideas for you that can change that.  That's the topic of this podcast. You can either listen to the podcast here or on many aps listed HERE.

For FREE templates that you can use to create communications that will help identify your church and bring people to it after your event, check out the templates for the holiday or special event you are celebrating. You can reach the overall Template section by CLICKING HERE.

Welcome to a Better Way for Church Communicators! I'm Yvon Prehn and our topic today is “Don't be a Secret Saint, a better way to do outreach on the holidays or anytime to effectively reach people for your church and Jesus.” 

Below are the show notes, a transcript of the podcast

Here's a true story about a lost opportunity in a situation just like this in our area. One church often does a compassionate outreach at a laundromat in an area of town where many homeless people do their laundry. My husband was recently talking to a young man who had taken advantage of it and he heard him talking about “some guy who paid for my laundry.” My husband asked him asked him who did it and what they talked about, and the young man responded “Well, the guy didn't say anything. He and his wife just sat in a corner for two hours. I would have talked to him, I would have talked about anything with him. I kind of waited for him to come over, but he never said anything to me! But the guy put in 10 bucks for my laundry.”

Now, my husband and I both thought how sad to pay for washer and dryer use for people who must choose sometimes between clean clothes and a decent meal is a fantastic way to demonstrate caring in the name of Jesus, but only if people know that you're doing it in the name of Jesus.

You see it really isn't fair to them or to your church or ministry if you are a secret service Christian. [Read more...]