Welcome to the Church Communications guide 101! Addressing big picture questions like “What is Church Communications” down to the fine details like “what applications can I use to help schedule content?”
As this is a living document, we will continue to add new aspects and recommendations based on changes and developments in the communications.
What is Church Communications?
Church communications is everything involved with making sure people know your church’s message as well as practical aspects of what events are going on and what they can get involved with.
It encompasses everything from sharing the gospel with non-christians who aren’t a part of your church to making sure that everyone knows the date, time and what to bring for the next potlunch.
In the past, Church Communications often focused on a paper bulletin, calling to update the weekly prayer list and buying tracts for evangelistic events. Now, like most of life, it is much more digital and can include.
- Planning, creating and sharing social media updates
- Sending emails regarding events
- Adding the weekly sermon to your website and/or podcast
- Creating social media ad campaigns
- Contacting various staff and members to find out updates to share
- Creating flyers for events
- Creating new member information packs
- Creating signs and banners to publicize events
Depending on your church size, staff and needs, the tasks involved in Church Communications may be very different.
Why is Chuch Communications important?
Church Communications is about fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of all nations. That involves helping those who are just starting to investigate Jesus as well as those who are deeply and passionately committed.
Through effective communication we can help share the gospel more widely and make sure no one turns up to the wrong place at the wrong time for the youth social event.
How should I approach church communications?
We partner with the Holy Spirit
Undoubtedly the Holy Spirit is vital for effective church communications, and we partner with him, but God also gave us common sense and talents to use for his Glory. We seek to bring our all and learn to use the most effective tools and strategies as part of our devotion to God and not because we are trusting in our own strength.
We use compatible best practices
Effective communication has to be Christ centred and means that we sometimes choose to not use some “marketing best practices” because of the conflict with the Gospel. As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:2
“Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”
That is not to say that all best marketing practices are deceptive or incompatible with the Church; many are compatible and some have even grown from Christian examples. We do, however, have to be careful to filter what the world tells us.
We focus on clear communication and simple instructions
Church Communicators often fall guilty of over complicating things. We know so much and think we have to say everything in one go (and with fancy impressive words). It is a real gift to be able to explain a complicated idea or set of instructions so that everyone immediately understands.
Messages that are easy to understand tend to stick better than complicated ones.
Basics of social media
Before we get into specifics, it’s important to consider why you are using social media and what you hope to get out of it. It’s also critical to know who you are trying to reach. If you create a social media plan that follows “best advice” rather than what will help you with your goals, you may go very quickly in the wrong direction.
A simple example: If you are looking to deepen connections with your existing church members, you will focus on a platform which they are already on, but if you are looking to reach more young people who aren’t in your church, you will probably choose a different platform.
Social media guide
Social media content strategy guide
Creating a Church Social Media Policy
A church social media policy will give you and your staff guidelines for how to effectively use social media and navigate difficult situations that often arise. It should cover general conduct, provide guidelines for specific situations and clarify who should be contacted for serious issues.
Read our two part guide for creating a church social media policy.
- Your Church Needs a Social Media Policy #1: Why?
- Your Church Needs a Social Media Policy #2: Personal Reflections
Basics of blogging
Blogging can be a powerful tool for church communicators to help share messages and provide valuable information. As it is a form of online writing, it is important to consider the principles of effective writing while blogging. At the same time, blogging also requires other skills such as graphic design, basic web design, SEO and content management.
- Check out our blogging guide for more on how to effectively blog.
- Check out our writing guide to improve your written communication
Basics of Church email marketing
Email marketing continues to be a key tool in the church communicators tool box largely due to it’s high open rates. Unlike unpredictable social platforms and their algorithms, email means you are (almost) guaranteed to get your message to the recipient. Still, it is important to understand how you ensure that email doesn’t go to spam and is opened.
- Check out our guide to church email marketing
Basics of texting for Churches
Like email, SMS texting is another medium where your message is guaranteed to arrive. In fact, a recipient is more likely to see a text message (and sooner) than any other medium. The main challenge with texting is the character limit.
Accordingly, text messages can serve as a great channel to remind people of upcoming events, inform about last-minute changes and provide an invitation to more information or content.
Tools for Church Communications
It’s not all about the tools, but the right tools can certainly help with your church communication plan. The following tools can help you plan, create and distribute great content to your congregants.
Tools for communications planning
It’s important for everyone to know what content needs creating and publishing and when! Comms planning tools help your team get organized as well as help you see how far along production they are.
Many individuals and teams have their own preferences but there are some common choices.
Tools for messaging
While email is great for certain things, getting caught in a fifty person reply-all thread can be a pain in the neck. Group messaging tools with thread and channels for specific topics can help you stay in the loop about the topics you need to know, shoot the breeze over a digital watercooler and avoid reply-all hell. Here are some options.
Tools for Social media post scheduling
NO ONE should be on Social media 24/7. BUT scheduling social media content in advanced not only allows the social media manager to enjoy some downtime, it also helps post relevant content at the optimal time and keep a consistent schedule (even if the internet goes down at home).
You can find social media scheduling tools that are intergrated into larger platforms (such as coschedules tools that integrate with content production) or platform-specfic options such as Facebook’s content scheduler for pages.
Here are a few of our favourites.
Tools for creating graphics
Visuals matter. As much as we’d love to judge content above all else, we all still form first-impressions from visual. Creating great graphics can help establish a positive first impression that your content can drive home.
Here are a few of our favourite options.
Tools for creating videos
Video is an increasingly important tool for churches, especially with the current lockdowns in place (at the time of writing). Even without the pandemic, the continued growth of YouTube and TicTok shows that video is an important avenue for Church Communicators.
Tools for editing and recording audio
When I was a kid, my church used to record the weeks sermon onto cassettes and deliver them to anyone who was unable to come to the service that week. Now, sharing audio is easier than ever.
Covid Resources
The covid pandemic has affected how churches are communicating and meeting. With that in mind, here are some helpful Covid communication resources to cope with the disruption caused by lockdowns.