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.

Look inward before you reach outward: make sure your church is ready for holiday and special event outreach guests

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Church
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...]

Do “man in the street” videos for Easter communication research

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Video Camera or Phone
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...]

Always use holidays for more than celebration at your church

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Make your celebration more than a party
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...]

As you prepare for Easter: four necessary things to do with your website to make it ministry effective

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Be sure to update your website before special events
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...]

Remember—before the resurrection Jesus was utterly forsaken and the hope we have because of that

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Sometimes an unbearably tragic story deepens my faith and encourages me far more than a host of upbeat messages and praise songs. I found just such a story as I was going through the many materials on the website and in our archives to update and share.

This story comes out of one of our Great Idea Swap Resources, a Holy Week Devotional Guide to the right.

You can click on the image to download the entire booklet and it is a useful sample for an Easter publication you could create for your church. Though there are many things I liked in it that make it a useful, timeless example, following is the one story I'd like to share. I hope, as I know these days ahead of work as you prepare your church for Easter and all the times you are responsible for church communications will be challenging, that in your hardest times, it will encourage you.

It was the third hour when they crucified [Jesus]. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.

While there are stages of time, there are also miracles in the world, but most of them get missed because we are too busy or too desensitized to them. I’m starting to see them more this week as I look back. I can spot them with regularity, sprinkling my path with drops of miracle, like blood, that will lead to healing and wholeness. But in the ER, like any hospital, it starts with forms, blood tests and the never-ending interrogation of questions.

“Name?” “Birthdate?” “Why are you here?”

It starts with the first nurse you see and then continues with each new nurse and doctor.

“Name?” “Birthdate?” “What’s been going on?” Again and again. Yes, there are periods of time. Epochs when things change from what they’ve been. But in between these different ages, there are the few moments in between when time stops. The doctor walks in and sits down.

"It’s cancer. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this. It’s not part of  the job that I enjoy."

I realize now that there is no easy way to break this kind of news. It’s better to just say it without any embellishment or corny additions. Just say it. So you sit there and all the air has suddenly left your lungs. You can’t breath and you don’t know what to say. All I want to do is hold Sara’s hand. I reach out for her and we hold onto each other for dear life. For our dear life. The only one we have and one I happen to love.

"But, he’s a young man. He just turned 30." Sara blurts out.

It didn’t seem fair. I had just turned 30 and younger friends asked what it was like.

"Is it a big deal?," they asked, "Were you really upset and did you feel like life had passed you by?"

"No" I said. It wasn’t a big deal. I don’t feel any different and I think I’ve plenty of time to accomplish other things in my life. Well that was just plain old 30. At 30 and 4 months my body started falling apart.

"How bad is it?" I ask.

"Oh, it’s extensive in the abdominal area," he says.

At that moment, I envision my abdomen from the chart I vaguely remember in biology with the stomach, intestines, bladder, pancreas all full of holes like swiss cheese, because the cancer has eaten through it…OR what USED to be stomach, bladder, intestines and pancreas all dissolved into a grey colored gelatinous mass that the surgeon looks at and shakes his head.

"Man, that’s extensive. Just sew him back up and send him home with morphine to enjoy his last few months."

It’s those kinds of  thoughts that make no sense at all. They shoot through your mind at the same time and it all seems so real, even though it makes absolutely no sense. I would like to say that in this situation, I had something profound to say….that my faith was so strong and that I made the best of it and held my wife as she broke down or that I suddenly had a great sense of the Lord’s peace and a light from heaven broke through to shine around my head. But I didn’t.  I cried out...

At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

There would be many times after that I would feel alone, but this was the first time I can remember feeling forsaken. I know it doesn’t compare to the suffering of Jesus, but in the midst of that physical and emotional pain as I held my wife’s hand and watched our dreams die, I had an inkling of what it feels like to cry out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?...With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

I felt forsaken in the ER that day, but I wasn’t alone. The man, Jesus, who was forsaken and knew what it felt like stood by me. He was there with me as I cried. So now I look at him and with the centurion can say, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”

Sam

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