This time last year, we brought you three free church publications: a newsletter, a guest card, and a connection card. So many of you have downloaded those templates and shared those posts—the response has been truly wonderful.
And since you’re all so great, I thought that you deserve an update. To that end, here are those same three church publications updated a year later. Now, before we get to the templates, I’ll give you some context surrounding these updates.
Style Refresh & Mission Clarification
Over the past year, we’ve been trying to simplify our design portfolio, refreshing our designs by minimizing color and updating our fonts. We went from a serifed font to the more modern Bebas Neue. Essentially, after years of design stagnation, the past three years have seen us on a design “spirit quest,” and this is our latest campsite. Since there’s no accounting for taste, I’ll include links to both the redesigned and older versions of all of these publications.
Lastly, since these are being offered free of any financial restrictions, please give this post some social media love so that others can benefit from all the free template fun.
Connection Card: Attendance, Event Sign-Up, and Prayer Requests
The “connection card” is an incredibly church-specific publication. If you do a search for connection card examples, as I have done, you’ll get a wide spectrum of publications designed for very different churches. In many churches, the connection card is for visitors, while in our church, it’s for regular attenders, though visitors can use it, too.
We use the connection card to track attendance, gather event registrations, and as a way to track response to the sermon, i.e. prayer requests, actions steps, etc. What you see here is our updated, cleaner card contrasted with its the older version.
Download 2016 Connection Card
Download 2015 Connection Card
(All downloads are ZIP files containing the Pages files. Comment below if you need a different version, and I’ll try to accommodate.)
Monthly Newsletter: Now, Mission-Aligned
Our old newsletter was a huge step forward for us, and this newer version is a clearer version that I look at with mixed emotions. I like that it’s been mission-aligned, which means that the inside has been divided into our four core values: celebrate, connect, grow, and serve. We just redesigned our website to fit these same categories, so it only makes sense for the newsletter to match. However, I do miss the use of images, and the sheer amount of text seems a bit overwhelming. This redesign is the freshest for us, so it’s likely to experience a few subsequent changes before it reaches a more stable iteration.
Download 2016 Newsletter
Download 2015 Newsletter
Guest Card: Small Updates for a Simple Thing
The guest card is one of the publications that, really, doesn’t require much thought. In fact, I wonder if we’re currently overthinking it. At this point, all we’ve done to update it is to change the font and clean up a few spacing issues. On the back, you’ll see that we give a $1 donation to the charity of the visitor’s choice when they return this card to our information booth. It’s a nice idea, but I’m not convinced that it’s generating the attention we want so it might be what we change when this card gets a more drastic update.
Download 2016 Guest Card
Download 2015 Guest Card
Conclusion
That’s basically it. I’ll bring you some more templates next year—or maybe earlier, if our design spirit quest should yield results sooner. I hope these templates help you as you find your own design for your church.
Until next year!
**Update: Windows Users**
In my attempts to live by 1 Corinthians 9:22, I have made a Microsoft Word version of all the templates, though I can’t guarantee the quality of the design.
Eric Dye says
Dang! You dropped some great resources Phil!
Phil Schneider says
It’s all for Jesus. And the kids. It’s 70/30, Jesus over the kids.
tabatha johnson says
I don’t have a mac so I’m unable to load these. Would you mind sending in a different version for me?
Just anything I can edit on my pc would be perfect!
Phil Schneider says
Tabatha, I just updated the post with some Windows templates. Just scroll to the bottom.
Amy says
Hi is it possible to get the files at pub files?
Please and thank you!
Phil Schneider says
No, I’m sorry. I don’t have access to a Windows computer, and that’s the one Office program that I wish I had. Your best bet would be to use the Word templates as a guide to recreating it in Publisher.
Or buy a Mac.