Picture Your Community Impact
I am averse to numbers. I switched from being an elementary education major during my junior year in college when I discovered that I had…
Browsing: Communication
Articles
Separating the Mission from the Medium
A year ago, Encyclopaedia Britannica announced they would cease producing bound volumes. It was a watershed moment when you consider this standard reference was the…
Listening: A Key Team Building Skill
It just may be that the best way to make people feel truly honored is to listen to them with rapt and sincere attentiveness. Few…
The Theology of Social Media
Social media outlets have become indispensable resources to church leaders seeking to be faithful to the Gospel in the modern world. While there are practical…
Developing Your Own “Undo Send” Button
Have you ever sent an email and immediately regretted it? Most of us have. Google added a feature to its Gmail system called “Undo Send”…
Reclaiming the Lost Art of Story Telling
How can we gather and tell the stories of our congregation? Born in an oral culture when stories and traditions were as important as written…
Meeting Your New First-Time Guest
Fifty years ago a person moved to town, looked in the newspaper or phone book for a church of their denomination, visited a couple of…
Your Website is Your Church’s Welcome Mat
Increasingly, those looking for a church begin their search online. Therefore, a congregation’s website must function as a satellite of their church. Consider every part…
The Appropriate Use of Email in Church Leadership
In this era of electronic media, clergy are faced with particular challenges in pastoral conversations — particularly those conducted by email. This wonderfully efficient means…
Expanding Your Prayer Ministry through Twitter
People in your community — many unknown to you — have prayer needs each day. Many of them share their prayer concerns using Twitter, the…
Using Facebook Appropriately as a Ministry Tool
Facebook has become a part of everyday life for many across the world. In 2010 it was the most visited site on the internet. There…
Four Things I Learned About Marketing (and Life) from My Dad
Some people think that marketing is a bad word, particularly when it comes to church. It’s not so for me. My father was in marketing…
Two-Minute Leadership
Leaders communicate a lot, for leaders must find many and varied ways to keep the vision before the people. I have learned that I am…
Focusing Your Congregational Communication
How do your church members get information? Is everything communicated through the bulletin or announcements at church? Or do you communicate with your congregation through…
How Full is Your Menu?
Occasionally I like to visit a local Mexican restaurant. As I scan the menu, I search for items I’ve never tasted. However, I often feel…
How to Make the Most of your Church Newsletter
Even in this day of instantaneous communications, the church newsletter is still an important part of a congregation’s overall communication strategy. Why? Because it is…
Getting Your Congregation’s Story Right
Congregations, particularly mainline and established congregations, commonly tell either safe or weak stories about themselves. In an earlier era, when identity and purpose were clearer…
Leaders Learn the Art of Making Announcements
Making announcements? Whether it’s at your service, meeting, or event, there are things you should know about people if you want them to hear what…
Multicultural Fluency and the Discipline of Dialogue
The Bible has much to say about community. In the very act of creating humanity, God initiated community. For community to have the equality that…
Helping a Congregation Connect to Mission
My congregation has been in an ongoing mission partnership with the Child Rescue Center and Mercy Hospital in Sierra Leone, Africa, since 2000. However, there…
Your Church’s Creation Story
In The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, University of Southern California president Steven Sample makes the case that all leaders should discern the creation story for their…
Communication Strategies for Addressing Conflict
Whenever I work with churches that are experiencing serious conflict, especially those that have reached the point of impasse, communication issues commonly emerge. Regularly, parishioners…
The Transformative Power of Listening
Religious leaders are often socialized to be better at speaking than at listening. It is understandable that preachers want to preach, teach, and lead with…
Focusing Your Message
Ann Michel offers a variety of suggestions to help churches improve different kinds of communication by prioritizing messages. Sometimes church members are poorly informed because…
Outside-in Thinking Improves Church Communication
Ann Michel writes about tailoring the methods of church communication and the content of messages to specific internal and external audiences. Why does church communication…