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 a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.
If we don't create connecting communications at our seasonal celebrations and few people return to church after them, we are bound to wonder what we did wrong. This article and website can help!
Ed. note: I have shared this story before, but it is such an important reminder of how we need to create communications that will help people connect with the church AFTER the big event.
This is a true story. Though the specific event discussed is Easter, the lessons learned from it can apply to any event. In addition to applying to any event, we can all identify with the situation here. The challenges of ministry are so huge, it is very easy to get overwhelmed in one area and totally forget another one. May the Lord have mercy and help us all.
In one of my seminars, at the break, a woman literally came running up the aisle to talk to me.
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said, “Now I understand what went wrong.”
I had just been discussing the same ideas I’ve presented here about the importance of an overall communication plan for maximum results from your holiday outreach. I knew it was useful, but her response was more excited than most so I asked her to tell me more about her experience.
She then told me about a special Easter service her church put on that was a huge amount of work and an equally huge disappointment in results. They were a new church plant and wanted to reach out to their community at Easter.
They were meeting in the grade school, but they wanted to grow and to do that committed to reach their community for Jesus this Easter. On faith, they rented the high school gym so they would have room for a huge crowd. They prayed hard and worked hard to get lots of community involvement. They got it—merchants put up posters; they got lots of media exposure. The day came and the church of 300 had over 1500 at the Easter service held at the local high school gym.
They were so excited. The next week back at the grade school, they set up hundreds more chairs, printed lots of extra bulletins. They were excited to see what would happen.
It doesn't matter how gorgeous your church is if the bathrooms are messy. Be sure every part of the church is at its best before Easter.
Around my home and for most people I know, one thing that always accompanies the holidays or any time guests are coming is a flurry of activity—cleaning, putting up decorations, making certain the bathrooms have nice soap and towels, flowers in the guest-room perhaps, and in special cases repainting and major household repairs. With actions big or little, we all do what we can to make guests feel welcome and the holidays special.
This is not only important for our homes when we are expecting visitors, but even more so for our churches. Not only is a check-up and perhaps some improvements important for the sake of a successful event, but if we want to make guests feel comfortable and come back, must make certain our church is ready for them.
Following are some areas that are important for you to check out and perhaps do a bit of renovation on before you invite your guests for holidays and special events so you'll not only be ready for the event itself, but for the growth in your church after it.
The physical plant of the church
The peeling paint in the bathroom, the junk stacked in the corner from a special event that has no permanent storage, the lack of handrails or handicapped access, the plants that need trimming—there are many things that we no longer see, because we see them every week, that are ugly eyesores to guests.
Take a clipboard in hand (or iPad these days) and go around the church asking the Lord to enable you to see the church as a visitor would see it. Note what needs to be done and schedule a "Welcome Home for the Holidays" workday at the church to tackle these tasks. [Read more...]
Grab a video camera or a phone to shoot "man in the street" research videos for Easter.
What makes Easter special to you and your church?
The obvious answer is that we celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead and the joy of knowing that, if we trust Him as Savior, we too will live forever, forgiven of our sins and loved by our God. I Cor. 15:3-4 reminds us that "of first importance" in our faith is that:
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Do you think your community, the people you want to reach this Easter season have any idea that is what Easter is all about? Probably not.
To answer that question, to find out what they really think about Easter, do a little creative research.....
Consider "man in the street videos"
For honest research to find out what the people in your community think about Easter, do some informal "man in the street videos."
This doesn't need to be fancy or take lots of time. You can do it or get a volunteer and then:
Take your video camera (or phone) and, wander around the neighborhood or local mall and ask people:
"Why do you celebrate Easter?"
"What is the meaning of Easter?"
Pretty simple questions, but the answers should be interesting.
Use the resulting videos, not only to help you plan communication strategy, but to show to your congregation to help them understand their neighbors. [Read more...]
Celebrations are great fun and should be a part of every church, but you can also use them as spiritual growth opportunities
God used celebrations in the Old Testament to focus on and teach about events in salvation history. The best known example is the Passover (Exodus 12-13), wherein every part of it: what is eaten, how the food is prepared, the words spoken over them, are all combined to remind the participants of God's salvation of the Jews from Egypt and to point to his final salvation in the death of the Passover Lamb Jesus.
In the New Testament, Jesus began his ministry at a celebration, a wedding (John 2), where he performed his first miracle. He often used meals as times to teach (Luke 7: 36-50) as he did when the woman poured the perfume over Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair.
Just before leaving his disciples, he celebrated with them and gave new meaning to the Passover, which they were to celebrate while remembering Jesus. Whenever we observe the Lord's Supper, no matter what our tradition, we are reminded of the story of his sacrificial death for us.
We can use them in similar ways
Celebrations force us to pause in our frantic lives and focus on something outside the day-to-day demands. We have fun; we eat special foods; we sometimes exchange gifts; we celebrate with friends and family; and for a few hours we focus on something outside ourselves. [Read more...]
Be sure to update your website before special events because many people will come to it first.
Obviously, today almost every church has a website, but sadly many church websites are little more than a newspaper or yellow pages ad for the church (the basic facts and little else) posted online. Unless someone is already interested in your church and is only looking for an address or service time, there is little to engage them.
There is even less reason for a person who is not already a believer to linger at your site. Information might be provided on how to get to the church, but little outreach or any other kind of ministry is done.
The reasons for this ministry challenge are not because of graphics or design short-comings, but of organization and content. Below are four suggestions to take your site beyond being an ad only to become an effective ministry tool as you prepare for Easter outreach and for the rest of the year. [Read more...]
