Now that we know what a church communicator is and why you need one, what’s next? It’s time to find a church communicator that best fits your congregation. Follow these five steps to successfully hire the right person!
Last week, we touched on the reasons why your church needs a church communicator. Today, I will attempt to define the church communicator role.
Topics:
Church Communicator
Management
There are many reasons why a church needs to consider partnering with a church communicator, whether by hiring a full- or part-time staff member, working with a contractor, or utilizing a volunteer.
Today, I will focus on what I consider the top three reasons why your church needs a communications professional.
“Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?”
Sound familiar? It follows with “I really wanna know.” For younger people (or those that don’t listen to classic music) it’s the lyrics from a 1978 song by the WHO. It is also the question being asked by people who do not know your congregation.
When it comes to defining the identity of your church, the question you need to ask yourself is, “What are we telling them?”
If you’re reading this, I probably don’t have to tell you that communication is vital, especially for your church staff and ministry teams.
That’s why you’re here—you care about your message and how you share it. One of the greatest influences on how a congregation’s message is shared comes from how the church staff or ministry team communicates with one another.
Before you write just about any document, you have to think of your audience. Who are you writing for? If I send a text to a friend, it’ll be different from a text I send to my parents. Even for a daily, unimportant task like this one, we automatically consider our audience.
The same goes for your church website.
Who do you want to reach with your website? In other words, what is the purpose of your website?
I’ve always enjoyed going in church offices.
As a teenager, I became very involved in activities at my church, in everything from the youth group to mission trips to even attending meetings with the Board of PR Communications. It’s safe to say I visited the church office more than most people my age.
The office was closed on Sundays, making it look dark and gloomy, but during the week, it had such a friendly and happy feel. Our church secretaries, Mrs. Geighes and Mrs. Moll, would smile and greet me, asking what was new with me and how my family was doing. Then they’d happily go back to their work. I thought it must be a really fun place to work!
If you’ve ever been in charge of volunteers, you’ve experienced one of the most stressful jobs in a church. People are prone to forget or cancel on a moment's notice, and while they often come full of energy, that excitement wanes after a few hours out in the hot sun.
So how can your church recruit and retain volunteers? Whether you’re looking for help with a one-time project or for someone to offer support on a regular basis, here are a few ideas to make the most of your eager volunteers.
Meetings have a bad reputation, especially in churches. They are stereotypically long, boring, and unfocused. They seem to revolve around the details of running a church, like finances and schedules, rather than how the church is sharing the Gospel.
What I have found in my experience in the church, as well as in a corporate environment, is that people really don't dislike meetings; they just don't like unproductive meetings.
