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ministry communication Are your church communications accomplishing what you want them to? http://effectivechurchcom.wordpress.com Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com We have extraordinary tools available to create church communications and to wow people with our multi-media technology creations. Churches of every size can create and challenge members with video, media-rich websites and colorful print graphics. Dedicated church communication teams work hard to turn church leadership vision into reality. So what happens when we create these great communication pieces, but few people show up or volunteer for our ministry event? Read on for analysis and solutions: Two sad, but true stories: Christian Computing® Magazine Story One –Communications to get volunteers to sign up to help at Vacation Bible School The Communications Team created an upbeat, colorful video about the upcoming VBS program. It took lots of time to shoot, edit, and produce. Included in the video were humorous yet, impassioned pleas to sign up and help with the program. To do that people were directed to a VBS table in the lobby to sign up after the church service. When presented to the church it received a rousing round of applause. On the Sunday the video was shown, there was no VBS sign-up table in the lobby for volunteers. The bulletin listed the participants in the video, but no details were given about the VBS program itself or who to contact. The church website had the dates and location of the program and a rather long, sign up form to print off and fill out for children wanting to attend. Nowhere on the website was a name or contact information if you wanted to volunteer to help. There was no description of jobs, responsibilities or training for volunteers. Results: The church had very few people helping with the program. So few in fact, that the pastor was recruited to be one of the teachers. He wondered, after the amount of time and money spent on the video and people’s obviously positive response to it, why it didn’t result in more volunteers. Not only did they not get the needed volunteers, but one potential volunteer was so frustrated in trying to find out how to sign up to help after not finding anyone at the promised table and no written information in the bulletin or on the website that she ending up leaving an angry message on the church answering machine and vowed never to try to help again. Story two: Communication to increase participation in the small group ministry of the church The Communications Team, following the request of the August 2008 34
pastor to create communications that would get people into small groups, created banners that were put all over the church to remind people of the importance of small groups. A Small Group section with colorful graphics of upbeat people was added to the website. The pastor frequently mentioned small groups in his sermons and encouraged people to join. The bulletin proclaimed: “Small groups are very important at our church!” It also said there were a variety of groups available, but didn’t tell you what they were, when they met, or any contact information about the leaders. None of this information was on the website either, but it did have a lengthy form to fill in, and email to the church if you were interested in joining a small group. Results: The pastor’s message was persuasive. A previously uninvolved church member became convicted of the need to be part of a small group. After his conviction, he didn’t know what to do next. There was no list or contact information specifically about small groups in the bulletin, at the Welcome Center or on the website. He filled out the email form on the website and sent it in. He also sent a personal email to the church asking for information on the men’s small groups. He never received a response. He never joined a group and his church attendance has become sporadic at best. What is going on? Obviously in both situations, what the pastor thought was being communicated did not accomplish the primary task of church communications which is to enable people to take action that will either help them come to know Jesus as Savior or grow in Christian maturity. Sadly, I have many, many more stories similar to the two included that illustrate similar situations. To prevent the disappointment of not having people respond to what you thought you communicated, let’s break down the process into detailed steps and then see what could have changed. 1. The pastor or other church leadership decides a ministry needs to be communicated or marketed more effectively to get more people involved. 2. That desire is passed on to either a communications team or a person whose job is to create the communications and marketing to get people involved. 3. The church communicators create the communications and marketing pieces using the latest and greatest tools they have and the newest, most exciting ideas. The emphasis is on something that will “get people’s attention,” something eye-catching and appealing to today’s visually-oriented audience. The communication piece is launched with great excitement. 4. People don’t sign up or show up at the event or get involved in the ministry. 5. In frustration the communications team concludes if they just spent more money, had a more flashy website or video announcements or maybe created their bulletin using InDesign instead of MS Publisher, or many other technological or artistic options, they would get a better turnout. As frustrating as this situation can be to a communication team and church leadership, they are looking in the wrong place for an answer to their dilemma. What could have made all the difference? For a church message to be successful and for it to result in a completed action, you need to approach it from a different direction than one or two attention-getting communication pieces and working primarily on them. Instead try these suggestions: 1. Decide upfront what you want the communication to accomplish. This needs to be a measureable action you want people to take. Put a clear goal and number to it, e.g. “We want to have 20 people sign up as helpers in VBS.” “We want to get 50% of Christian Computing® Magazine August 200835
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