Potluck Food Poisoning?
Communication That Counts.

Quick Links|part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

PART 1

I’ve always been a big fan of the church bulletin.  It’s the stalwart staple of church communication.  As a kid, I treasured the bulletin as a welcomed escape from the “grown-up” sermons of “big church”, ever endeavoring to craft a better paper airplane.  As a high school student, I became even more appreciative of these info-packed pamphlets, with their fancy outer covers, as they- with the help of those tiny lead pencils- gave me ample resources for passing notes between myself and a girlfriend.

While I still find the bulletin to be a very useful communication tool, as a professional communicator, I have to wonder at times if the people writing our bulletins should be the ones doing the communicating!  For example, take these actual excerpts from church bulletins:

“Don't let worry kill you - Let the church help!”

“Thursday night - Potluck supper. Prayer and medication to follow.”

“Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.”

To be sure, these excerpts communicated something; I’m just not sure it was the message their authors had intended!  Of course, I find these and the many other examples I’ve come across to be, for the most part, amusing errors or oversights.  But the truth is that they illustrate a very real challenge facing our churches today- that being the task of communicating meaningfully with our members, visitors and communities in a modern, over-communicated society.  It’s truly a responsibility, and it takes us far beyond our Sunday bulletins. 

Now, you may be inclined to think, “Well I don’t know how fancy we need to be about things.  We just need to tell the kids when the youth group is meeting”.  While it’s probably true that you’re not sure where to begin when communicating with today’s youth, wouldn’t it be grand if this particular announcement could be made in such a way that the young people could tell it was important?  What if the announcement actually compelled them to attend?  Now we’re entering into the realm of effective communication!  Good communication can inform and inspire, educate and motivate.

As CEO and Senior Executive Producer of a communications consultancy specializing in media and marketing, my day job consists of helping clients communicate more effectively.  Sometimes we’re selling something.  Sometimes we’re telling something.  Sometimes we’re working vigorously so they can just “be” something.  Regardless of the goal, I have found in my years as a communicator that all of our efforts can be boiled down into three simple ideas or steps, if you will.  We affectionately call them our “3-M Process”, and it’s the method we use to help our clients connect with their audiences.

In the next three installments, we will take an up-close look at each of the 3-M’s as we explore the anatomy of effective communication.  We’ll also take the time to draw direct and easy applications to the every day efforts we all make.  We will begin next time with a closer look at the first of our three M’s, the Message.  In the mean time, pass a note to someone you like.