“Communication: Without It You Travel Alone” – John Maxwell.

Working with a few churches this week, including mine, to clean up communication. These three questions seem to have risen to the top as the most essential.

1. How do people hear about our church?

2. How do people know where to go when they get to our church?

3. How do people stay connected to our church throughout the week? 

Let’s take these three one by one:

How do people hear about our church?

Remember, it’s not their job to find us, but our job to take our message to them. How will you intentionally take the gospel of Jesus Christ and good news happening at your church to the community? Ideas:

• Website. Lots of great sources for high quality websites today. Our church uses The Creative Place. Great partners. Ask around for local sources. Check out ChurchTechToday.com for reviews of church website template services.  
• Social Media Pages. Everyone that uses Facebook Ads, etc. says they have people respond with attendance. Our Church uses SundaySocial.tv to help with high quality graphics for social media pages. 
• Invite Cards at Outreach Events. Do you have outreach events? Hopefully. When you do, hand everyone an invite to the next thing.    
• Direct Mail Plan. Check out the Mapping Center for Evangelism where you can get addresses with an annual subscription plus other good outreach strategy tools as low as $480 per year. 
• Signage. In front of the building. Yard Signs around town. In some cities, billboards can be an effective tool as well.
• Radio Spots. Many stations offer a free community board for church events. If not free, they are usually very affordable, depending on the station.
• What else have you used to let people know about your church? 

How do people know where to go when they get to our church?

The curse of knowledge plagues us as regular church members. The curse of knowledge is knowing where to go, we forget what it is like to not know and assume everyone must also know. Assume the opposite to become a more welcoming church. Ideas:

• Signs for visitor parking in the parking lot.
• Signs on outside of building giving directions.  
• Signs inside of the building giving directions. Especially if you’re portable.
• Greeters at the entrances and if possible in the parking lot.
• Sign for Sign-up Opportunities.
• What else do you do to help people know where to go and what to do when they get to your church?

How do people stay connected to our church throughout the week?

Some people will naturally stay interested and know how to jump in and get involved in the life of the church, but that number is shrinking. We must be intentional to make relationships sticky in today’s culture. Ideas:  

• Sunday Bulletin. I know it seems like it doesn’t get read, but it’s still worth doing. Can be done for very cheap with templates from Outreach.com and others.  
• Social Media
• Website
• Letters / Snail Mail – people still love to get mail in the mailbox with their name on it. 
• Email – FREE
• Montly or Weekly E-Newsletter – FREE
• Text Messaging – There are several great text messaging services for churches that range from FREE to around $35 per month. ChurchTechToday.com provides some helpful reviews. 
• Personal contact through Small Groups 
• What else do you do to help people stay connected to your church during the week?  

What’s missing from this communication strategy list?

Download a FREE Strategic and Dynamic Communication Checklist to assess your churches communication strategy: Church Communication Checklist.

I get a lot of help and inspiration from these Church Communication Leaders:

• ChurchTechToday.com 
• Rich Birch and Unseminary.com
• Churchm.ag
• ProChurchTools.com
• CommunicateJesus.com