Navigating Church Communications: A Guide for Small Churches
The Challenge of Overwhelming Options
For many pastors in small churches, one word often describes their experience with church communications: overwhelming. The landscape is filled with countless options, each claiming to be the best solution for your church's needs. From church management systems to website platforms and mobile apps, the choices seem endless.
This abundance of options brings its own set of challenges:
Decision Paralysis: With so many choices, it's difficult to know which solution is truly the best fit for your church.
Pressure to Keep Up: There's a constant feeling that if you're not using the latest platform, you're missing opportunities to grow your church and reach people.
Steep Learning Curve: Most pastors aren't trained in marketing and communications, making it challenging to navigate these new technologies and strategies.
These factors combined can make improving church communications feel like an insurmountable task. Where do you even begin? Is it about branding, staffing, or something else entirely?
The Church Communications Assessment: A Starting Point
In my experience helping churches improve their communications, I've found that the most effective first step isn't to dive into new projects or strategy sessions. Instead, it's to take a step back and conduct a simple church communications check-up.
This assessment focuses on four essential areas of church communications:
Strategy
Team
Branding / Creative
Systems / Platforms
Let's explore each of these areas in detail.
1. Strategy: Your Communications Playbook
Your communications strategy is the roadmap that ensures your efforts have purpose and direction. While strategies can vary between churches, there are three key components that every church should consider:
Outreach Strategy: How do you reach new people in your community?
Visitor Strategy: What process do you have in place to help new visitors get connected?
Member Strategy: How do you guide attendees towards becoming active members?
These strategies work together to create a journey from initial contact to full integration into the church community. While communications isn't solely responsible for this journey, it plays a crucial role in making people aware of your ministries, helping them connect, and inviting them to participate.
2. Team: The Backbone of Your Communications Ministry
Effective church communications is inherently collaborative and interdisciplinary. You need a team to handle various aspects of your communications efforts. This is especially important for small churches that may not have the budget to hire specialists for every role.
Your communications team should ideally include people with three types of gifts:
Administrators: These are the visionaries and organizers who direct the overall strategy. (e.g., team leaders, project managers, pastors)
Creatives: These are the content creators who bring the vision to life. (e.g., graphic designers, photographers, videographers, copywriters)
Systems People: These individuals create and manage the platforms that make the vision a reality. (e.g., website managers, ChMS administrators, app developers, social media managers)
Having a well-rounded team ensures that your communications efforts are sustainable and effective in the long run.
3. Branding / Creative: Consistency and Effectiveness
Your church's branding goes beyond just a logo. It encompasses your entire visual identity, including color palette, fonts, and overall design aesthetic. Consistent and effective branding serves two main purposes:
It makes your church's communications easily identifiable to your audience.
It provides clarity and direction for all creative expressions within the church.
When evaluating your branding and creative efforts, consider these three areas:
Brand/Logo Design: Does your visual identity reflect who you are and resonate with your target audience?
Brand Application: Have you consistently applied your brand across all platforms, marketing materials, and physical spaces?
Marketing Graphics: What's the overall quality of your graphics for sermons, events, and announcements?
Remember, it's crucial to establish brand clarity before undertaking major platform overhauls, such as redesigning your website.
4. Systems / Platforms: The Tools of the Trade
While systems and platforms are essential, their effectiveness depends on the health of the previous three areas. Without a clear strategy, a capable team, and consistent branding, even the best platforms won't reach their full potential.
That said, there are three key systems that every church should have in place:
Church Management System (ChMS): This manages people, groups, registrations, giving, and more. (e.g., Planning Center, Realm, Breeze)
Website: Your church's most important marketing platform.
Direct Communications: Tools for sending emails and text messages. (e.g., Mailchimp, Text-in-Church)
These systems are crucial in today's digital world, where people expect to stay informed about all aspects of their lives through technology.
Conclusion: Taking the Next Step
Improving your church's communications doesn't have to be overwhelming. By breaking it down into these four key areas and assessing each one, you can identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Start with a communications check-up, and you'll be well on your way to more effective church communications that truly serve your mission and community.
Interested in doing a church communications assessment? Tap or click the link below to learn more about my 1-hour assessment for small churches or access your own copy of the assessment worksheet google doc.
Looking for some helpful free resources for your small church? Tap or click below for the resource you would like to download:
