Founder & Editor-in-Chief - Christian Computing Magazine

our church involved in small groups.”
2. Next comes the most important thing: You need to look at
the final ACTION (note it is ACTION) that people need to
take for you to accomplish your communication goal. For
example: “The volunteer would have to fill out a sign-up
sheet and talk to Miss Amy.” “The person has to show up to
a small group and get involved consistently with it.”
3. Now work backwards from that final action and determine
what the church needs to have available in terms of people
and places for the person to complete this action. If you are
going to advertise a sign-up table for VBS after the church
service, be sure the communication team talks to the person
who will do it and double checks before the video is shown
that the table is set up and ready to welcome volunteers.
4. Next, what are the concrete communications that need to be in
place for people to take the required action? This is the part
that is almost always ignored because many of the communication
pieces that need to be created seem really boring to put
together. This step includes providing complete information
about the ministry communicated in print, on the web, in a
brochure, or in the bulletin. This includes things such as the
listing of job descriptions, who to contact, responsibilities
and training in the case of the VBS volunteers and lists of
small groups, study topics, leaders, contact information and
if there is a cost involved for small groups. This is the really
hard part because these pieces are often boring to create, but
they are the ones that actually connect people to the church
ministry.
5. After all the nuts and bolts and support pieces are in place, then
and only then should the flashy, overall PR to advertise the
ministry or to get attention be created.
Follow through to make certain that your communications
result in action
A word to church leaders—please be sure that when you want
communications and marketing to take place to grow your people
and your church:
You follow through to make certain that all of the communication
steps take place that assure people not only know about the
ministry, but that they are enabled to take the concrete actions that
will enable them to connect to the ministry.
Also, be sure you give your communications team the time
and resources to create not only the flashy, fun communications creations,
but also the sometimes detail-oriented, difficult-to- produce
and a- challenge-to-keep-updated communication pieces that are
essential that enable people to link with a ministry and by so doing
grow in their faith.
It’s much more work to make sure all of the pieces are created
to make a church communications about a ministry successful, but
though demanding when it is all over, you will have the satisfaction
of successful ministry growth instead of communication frustration.
For many more ideas on how to create effective church communications;
please go to my website
www.effectivechurchcom.com.
Christian Computing® Magazine
August 2008 36