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.

Leaders for effective church communications, essential characteristics and skills needed

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Communication Coordinator
Finding an effective church Communication Coordinator is an important and challenging task, this article will show you what to look for.

Previously we talked about how church and ministry leaders can't be expected to do all the all the communications work and how a team is an answer to this challenge.

Once the decision is made to find someone to head up the church communications team, then these questions come up:

  • Should the church or ministry hire a professional designer specifically to do church communications?
  • Should they use a professional volunteer or make communication creation part of a staff position?
  • Or should it be a full-time position?
  • What should a church look for in skills? Attitudes?
  • Should the person do all the work, or should they train a team?

We'll look at some of the issues and answers in this post.

Keep first things first—Spiritual Maturity is the most important characteristic to look for

In the same way that a church would not hire a senior pastor simply based on the person's charismatic appeal as a public speaker without evaluating the spiritual maturity, shepherding skills, and godly character of the candidate, the spiritual and servant qualities of a church communications coordinator are equally important. The job involves far more than putting pretty images and catchy phrases on the print and digital communications of the church. The job is a strategic, core, ministry position. Church communicators are responsible for expressing the message of your church and the words of eternal life. The following list of characteristics are essential and following this list, they will be discussed in detail. You will notice that none of them say anything about technical or design skills-I am assuming those skills as a given or the person would not be applying for the job. What follows are the spiritual essentials. Someone can always be trained if their skills are not what we would like them to be. It is much more difficult to change a heart. That's why the following skills are essential for someone wanting to lead a team to produce effective church communications:

Essential characteristics for a church communication coordinator

  • A church communication coordinator must have a servant's heart.
  • A church communication coordinator must understand the scope of communications needed.
  • A church communication coordinator must understand what he or she can personally create and what to delegate.
  • A church communication coordinator must be totally committed to fully fulfilling the Great Commission.
  • A church communication coordinator must be willing to continuously learn and to train others.

A ministry communicator must have a servant's heart

Any decision on hiring a person for church communications should always be looked at as part of the overall ministry of the church, with a strong emphasis on the word "ministry." To minister means to serve and I've seen churches get into huge problems when they hire someone who may be a good graphic artist or designer, but who does not have a servant's heart and who does not understand the unique challenges of communications work IN the church, as opposed to secular design work. Communications and design work in a church setting is usually a collaboration, often with people who have no design or writing skills or understanding of the time and effort required to create spectacular graphic or Internet design work. A Sunday School teacher who needs a simple flyer, a men's ministry director who wants a brochure for the men's retreat often won't care about font choice, white space, or cutting-edge graphics-they just want their PR done. To help them do it or get one done quickly because they forgot work deadlines-these sorts of challenges will be constant and if not approached with a servant's heart, the communication coordinator's job will be constant frustration and misery. The function of church communication is to make a message clear and to involve people in events, not wow them with great design impact. The design person will rarely if ever be thanked or acknowledged for their creative genius and they will be often attacked for seemingly petty reasons. The way in which a typo, a left-out announcement, or a change in a publication can be raised to the status of personal insult and heretical rebellion is unimaginable if you haven't personally experienced it. A servant's heart, and a very tough, yet tender one, is needed for this job.

A ministry communicator must understand the scope of communications needed

The Five Steps of Effective Church Communications and Marketing

Often when a church staff considers hiring a church communications coordinator, they primarily think in terms of the overall bulletin, newsletter, website, possibly social media, and a few other assorted communication pieces for special events. In reality, these pieces represent only a small percentage of the total number of communications necessary for an effective communications ministry in any church. Unless both the church and the person doing the work understand all that is truly needed in communications for a church to function and grow, they will have problems.

PLEASE take time to look at the chart and read the article on The 5 Steps of Effective Church Communications. This will give you an idea of the volume and type of materials you need to produce for a truly effective communication ministry in your church that will get people into the church, involve them in the church, and grow them to Christian maturity. Your communication coordinator must understand this system and be committed to it for your church communication program to be an active tool in helping your church fully fulfill the Great Commission. At the start of the hiring or volunteer recruiting process you need to clearly define all the work that needs to be done and then clearly communicate your expectations for getting it done. When you look at The 5 Steps chart, it is easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done. That is a correct assessment of the situation. There is an overwhelming amount of work-we are communicating to alter the eternal destinies of people. What is important to understand is that all the work can't be done by just one person. That is why the following characteristic is also vitally important:

A church communication coordinator must understand what he or she can personally create and what to delegate

To get all the communications work done that you need to, it's important to divide your church communication production in the following way and to recruit more people to help in the overall communication ministry. In addition, if you understand these two levels it helps to define the job description for your communication coordinator. These two levels are explained in more detail in the article, The Two Production Levels of Effective Church Communication, but a brief summary/review follows:

1. The PR Communication Level

2. The Ministry Communication Level

It is important to understand these two levels in terms of:

1) the communications produced in each one,

2) who does the communications and

3) the guidelines and standards for each one.

For both of the levels described below, keep in mind the publications can be in either print or digital formats.

The PR Communication Level

  1. Communications produced: overall pieces that represent the church, such as the logo, stationary, business cards, primary bulletin, newsletter, major outreach pieces, primary website and social media, and major ministry brochures.
  2. Communications producer: usually a staff person, often the communication coordinator, whose job may or may not have other responsibilities. The larger the church, the more it is recommended that the church hire someone specifically to create and oversee communications. This could also be done by a volunteer who has the time and commitment to work closely with the church staff.
  3. Communications standards: usually somewhat strict, as these pieces reflect the overall vision and reputation of the church.

Ministry Communication Level

  1. Communications produced: everything else in the church outside the communications listed above, from very simple notices, lessons, flyers and announcements to more complex communication projects.
  2. Communications producers: THIS IS IMPORTANT: here a staff person, such as your communications coordinator, or perhaps a key volunteer may oversee, train, encourage and help, but that person cannot do everything needed for a complete communication ministry in the church, nor should they. Ideally, every ministry in the church (children's, youth, men's, women's, etc.) should have at least one person who can help do the communications needed for that ministry. At this level, the church communications coordinator becomes a coach and encourager.
  3. Communications standards: much more flexible. You do not need the same standards of design or perfection for a one-time postcard that is going to remind the guys of the men's breakfast that you do for the four-color, outreach brochure for the church. If you are too hard on volunteers, they'll quit. People do improve in communication creation skills with time, training and encouragement and the ministry communication person needs to decide what is really important in standards and what is picky personal preference. Train to bring up to important standards and let the personal preference issues slide.

The church communication coordinator must be totally committed to fully fulfilling the Great Commission

Fully fulfilling the Great Commission means to make disciples. The articles on discipleship (please take time to read the article at this link) on this site go into detail on why this is so important, but this core characteristic cannot be overlooked. I have seen so much in the over twenty years I have traveled and taught church communications, but one thing that continuously amazes me is how obvious it is when church communications are created with the glory of God, obedience to the Great Commission, and the fulfillment of God's purposes as the primary goals, how God blesses that church.

What is also often amazing to me is that the person responsible for this kind of work varies tremendously in their formal training or skills. Some have training in writing, design, and advertising; some have no formal training at all. Some are young and new at their job; some have worked in the church office from the days of typing blue stencils. The one thing that unites all these men and women, that comes out clearly as we chat is for each of them, no matter what it takes in time, training, discovering skills, tools, or tips, the primary goal of their communications work is they want people to find Jesus and to grow as his disciple. They are truly the Great Ones. Their churches are growing. Though challenging, there is often joy in the church office and the challenges of their jobs. Sadly, I also meet a smaller number who bring me what on the surface appear as beautiful church communications: often glossy printing, impeccable design, clever writing. However, the person presenting these items is often angry or frustrated because:

  • People at the church don't appreciate them.
  • They can't get all the rest of the church communications to match up to their standards.
  • They had no idea that working in a church would be this hard.
  • They are astounded that people are not responding and want to know who to blame, because the problem is certainly not with their design.

I'm never certain what to say because I usually sense the person asking really doesn't want an answer but an ally to agree with their anger. But I can't. When I suggest perhaps a spiritual solution-time spent in humble prayer to discern the Lord's will and answer and a reminder that God can't bless our work when we are fighting with those with whom we work and serve-sometimes it makes sense. Sometimes tears appear and the person says, "I never realized this was a ministry."  There is hope for that communication ministry.

Sometimes, my suggestions are dismissed with barely concealed contempt and my advice relegated to the, "What does she know about it?" category. In this situation there is also an often unspoken, "what does prayer have to do with people not appreciating me?" Things probably won't get better at that church and often the person finds work in a secular setting where their skills can be used without the spiritual baggage.

Please don't dismiss the necessity for spiritual maturity in a communication coordinator as unrealistic. God does not need anyone, no matter how talented to get out his message, but he can use anyone if their heart is right. The Bible is filled with stories of ordinary people who God used to do extraordinary tasks. People can be trained for any skill if willing, but training a heart to care about the Great Commission is more challenging. Find a person with a good and godly heart who cares passionately that people come to know Jesus-that is what is most important in a church communication coordinator.

A church communication coordinator must be willing to continuously learn

Though a good heart with a proper focus on fully fulfilling the Great Commission is essential, it is irresponsible to not train the person with the good heart in the practical skills they need to be a proficient church communicator. In this area, we ought not lie to ourselves or to our communications coordinator by thinking that skills training in church communications is easy, quick, or once done, taken care of. On the contrary, to be a skilled church communicator you must:

  • Master many complex skills: writing, design, layout, typography, media, marketing
  • Learn new and ever upgrading and changing software and digital skills
  • Master production using the computer and other church office equipment
  • Learn how to integrate and create communications in print, online, and in whatever new channel appears
  • Manage people, pray for wisdom and peace in leading and organizing a team
  • Constantly be open to new ideas, skills, tips, insights
  • Do it all with an impossibly low budget and crushing deadlines

Though the challenges are constant, the church must attempt to provide the time, money, and encouragement for needed training. The church communication coordinator must be open to continuously learning, but the opportunities for it must be available. Don't even think about hiring or designating a church communication coordinator if you do not commit to support, train, pray for, and encourage that person. Effective Church Communications has many resources, links, and recommendations to enable you to do this. Much is free, many excellent resources and the membership subscription cost for our training videos is very little.In addition, a membership in Effective Church Communications is for the entire church, so any of the resources, templates, ebooks, and training videos can be freely shared with other staff members and communication volunteers.

In addition to training and tools, the most important training gift you can give to any church communication coordinator is the gift of time. As part of their job description, block out time, several hours each week, where that person is assured of completely uninterrupted time to read articles, take an online class, try things to improve their skills and help equip volunteers. If you do that, your church communications will be more effective and your church will grow.

Finally, it isn't easy to hire a church communication coordinator, but it is worth it

It isn't easy to find a person with all the spiritual and practical skills to do an effective job. Most likely you will have to help train and mold someone into the position. A significant amount of prayer and time is required, but essential because your ministry communicator and their team will be the ones who will literally incarnate the message of your church to your community.

A MAJOR UPDATE for Effective Church Communications

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Looking into the future
We can't see into the future, but here are some things I'm focusing on now.

Easter is less than a week away and we are all looking at celebrating it in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few months ago (and may still not have figured out).

Hopefully, at this time most of us have realized that God is in control and we find our comfort and hope in Him alone. If not, hunker down and spend some serious time with your Creator and Savior before you do anything else. Read a modern translation of the Psalms and immerse yourself in the cries of David who had no idea if he would live another day when an army was chasing him with the one goal of killing him. The same God who protected David is with you right now and you will get through this.

One other reality that is slowly sinking in is that this is not going to go away quickly. Things will never be how they were before, and we don’t have any idea of what the “new normal” might be.

What do we do?

I’m not going to give you a list of 5 things that have changed in the church or any such nonsense because nobody really knows at present.

We might have some hints or ideas but I’m quite tired of the online prognostications that state so assuredly what is going to happen and what direction the church will take going forward. I’ve found many major on whatever technology the person writing the piece happened to favor before the outbreak took place.

We really don’t know what technology will explode or implode. Zoom was the tool to unite us all a few days ago and now it’s the insecure boogeyman about to reveal all our secrets.

It’s most likely neither. Time will tell.

What I’m working on this week

I really don’t like to talk about myself, so I deleted that stuff.

Now let me tell you about the latest with Effective Church Communications. This is what is important and PLEASE pray I can get everything done that the Lord wants me to do on it. It is exciting!!

The Effective Church Communications Academy & the Effective Church Communications Bookstore

This is the BIG project I’ve been working on—getting the lessons I’ve learned over the years and current ones I continue to learn into a format that is affordable and accessible.

I’m almost there. Within a couple of weeks, I’ll be releasing it.

I wanted to tell you it is coming. It won’t be perfect, but it will be useful and good.

The reason it won’t be perfect

Putting together an online membership program and particularly if you want to offer lots of classes and courses is an EXTREMELY complex project.

There are all sorts of programs out there that tell you they can do it and how easy it is and that may be true if you have one class or a very simple system to offer. But if you have dozens of classes and want to offer all of them for one low price and have them organized in a way that makes sense (I trust) to church staff people, it is incredibly difficult.

Believe me, I’ve tried them all and invested thousands of dollars trying different systems over the past years. Though I’ve spent far more than I could afford, what I tried were off-the-shelf systems. When I checked into hiring programming to customize some possible solutions, well, let’s just say it was not realistic for me.

I found a useable system. Not perfect, but useable and I think I’m close to launching a project that you will enjoy and learn from.

Not perfect extends beyond the program

The not so perfect parts of the program are more than the imperfect computer set-up of the system. Operator error plays a part also.

The Effective Church Communications Academy & the Effective Church Communications Bookstore are not the product of a big ministry or organization. They are all from me—what I have learned over many decades of working in church communications and with thousands of church communicators all over the world in online interactions and from years of traveling and teaching.

I am far from perfect. I miss typos and grammatical errors. I work alone and can’t afford the staff to fix my messes. I can be narrow-minded and opinionated, and I’ve been called, a “Bible thumper” in that I’m always trying to go back to biblical foundations, motivations, and imperatives for what I do. I’m not saying that is a bad thing, that is who I am, and I do always try to base my life and teachings on God’s Word, but that view is not always appreciated.

I don’t live on social media (though I like it much more than I did) in that I have limited time to create what needs to be done and content creation always takes preference over online chatter.

But I do believe God has given me useful experience and skills. I believe I have a unique viewpoint that though I love new technology and try to keep up with new tools and pass on what is useful, I think some of my greatest strengths are to teach you strategy and skills that are timeless. I have been doing church communications for a long time and I think that perspective is useful.

I wanted to make almost every course better before I released it (though there are some I’m very happy with) and many of the ebooks I wanted to wait to share until I redid them, though some are newly updated.

But the material is all useful as it is. Not perfect, but useful. In fact, I think extremely useful.

I don’t believe you’ll find similar training or advice elsewhere online.

Most of all I believe that the Lord wants me to pass on what he has given me to all of you, what I have now though I’m working to constantly create and improve things, much of it is, as the song says, “just as I am.”

What about the ministry now, this week?

It’s Easter week, Holy Week.

What can I do now to help you prepare when much of what I have for a traditional Easter service no longer works when people aren’t meeting together in a physical space.

Right now, I have a few ideas.

I’ve been overwhelmed with working on the school and bookstore and my brain has not tackled how to redo Easter communications. I may get some done in the next few days, I’m not sure. I do have one thing and one thought.

One thing: Resurrection Cookies—these are a great recipe of meringue cookies that end up hollow inside (if your oven is working properly) and that you can use to tell the Easter story with kids. CLICK HERE to go to the article on them.

One thought: Jesus conquered death! If there was ever a Holy Week that the pall of death permeates our world, this is it. We have GOOD NEWS! Whether my weary brain can come up with additional ways to share it or not, please tell at least one other person on the phone or online or any way you safely can that Jesus is alive and wants to give that eternal life to everyone.