We all love clearly defined objectives in church communications. I love the feeling of achievement when I succeed in reaching the objective.
Some of you though, operate in a fuzzy environment. You aren’t sure what that picture of success really, truly looks like.
“Success” for you could be a vague concept and you are never quite sure that you’ve really made it. It can be very demoralising. You can feel like you are wading through a swamp. Never certain if you have done where you were supposed to do.
For others of you. You are really, really clear on what your objective is. You’ve created it. You’ve defined it. And smashed it.
If that describes you then hit the pause button.
Your main objective in your church communications should be to communicate the mission and vision of your church effectively. Not your own objectives, or anybody elses.
Read that line again.
…communicate the mission and vision of your church effectively
It’s not your objective that you need to reach. It’s not the worship leaders, or the children or youth leader. It’s the church’s. You need to have the global outlook. A church-wide outlook.
If you have been fuzzy or unclear of what your objectives should look like then I can also help.
You need to have a clearly articulated picture of the objective. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean you just repeat ‘ad nauseum’ the mission or vision statement.
It means that you focus your communication opportunities specifically around the events, opportunities that will tangibly make a difference to your church reaching the vision.
Your channels you may use could be:
- Platform or video announcements
- Social media
- Website
- Website calendar
- Environmental signage/posters
It means that, in consultation with your senior leadership team you need to list out what’s really important to talk about in the channels that I’ve mentioned. And what isn’t as important (You can read this really helpful matrix that breaks down what that looks like here).
For example, your objectives may be:
- X First time commitments to Jesus.
- X amount of baptisms.
- People who aren’t serving to sign up and serve.
- Releasing people to serve in international missions.
- Create a culture of generosity. Increase % of givers.
Take the last example of increasing the number of givers. Often churches moan about the decline of giving but don’t have a clear picture of the percentage of givers. You as a church communications leader can lead the way and segment out the givers vs non-givers. You can target with specific messages on different channels to both sets of audiences with different messages.
One simple message for your current givers is to tell transformation stories and give them a call to action to increase their giving by the rate of inflation (many forget to increase it by that).
Your non-givers may be the least connected audience in your church. You need to connect them back into the vision of the church and give them an easy on-ramp into giving. Many of your non-givers may only attend once a month so email would be one of the best channels to communicate with them. You may also use text to give as another simple way to step them into giving.
People love options when it comes to giving. The more options you give them, the more people will give. Read this fascinating report on giving habits in churches. It will help your church increase your giving and bust a few myths.
In Summary
Objectives will change from church to church. But our role as church communicators is to help provide opportunities for our congregations to take that step towards fulfilling the church’s vision.
Your Turn
Agree or disagree? What objectives do you have around your communications?
