Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away the book Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communications. Keep reading to learn how you can win one of 3 copies we’re giving away.
Outspoken is a brand new book about church communications that’s being released today. What makes Outspoken remarkable is that it’s a compilation of insight from more than 60 church communications professionals including Jon Acuff, Phil Cooke, DJ Chuang, Steve Fogg, Charles Lee, Kem Meyer, Tony Morgan, John Saddington, Tony Steward, and Leonard Sweet. I’m excited to be a contributor as well.
The book is published by The Center for Church Communications (known for its popular blog Church Marketing Sucks) and was edited and organized by its co-director Tim Schraeder. It covers all facets of church communications such as leadership, branding, design, words and stories, technology, creativity, and personal growth.
This is a book every person that does church communications, web design, or marketing should read and keep within arm’s reach at their desk. It’s a great book for pastors too because they do and oversee a lot of church communications as well.
Get a Free Book
Because all of us at OurChurch.Com and Christian Web Trends want to see churches communicate better, we’re not only helping to spread the word about Outspoken, we’re also going to give away 3 copies. All you have to do to win one is:
- Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, AND…
- Post a comment with one bit of advice for church communicators or a question about church communications. (Include your Facebook or Twitter username in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).
Three people will be selected Friday, September 16, at 4 PM to receive a free copy of the book.
If you’d like to double your chances of winning, share/comment once each day.
In the mean time, you can download a free preview or purchase Outspoken on Amazon.
47 Comments
Guess I get to go first … my suggestion is to get involved with the #chsocm tweetchat, info at http://churchsocmed.blogspot.com/p/sample-page.html
PS I am @mnplatypus 🙂
I love communicating with stories. It seems like that’s the best way to move the hearts of people. Erwin McManus said, “The person who tells the best stories shapes the culture.” @farrtom
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I'm curious if there are some good examples of communication strategies for reaching multigenerational church communities. Looking forward to this book as well.
@brentm00
Brent, thanks for the comment/question. When you say "reaching" are you asking about communicating with people in the community who are not yet connected with your church or people within your church? I think regardless of the ages of the people inside or outside a church, it's important to assess what media people are already using to communicate, and then use the media people are already using.
I'd love to hear other weigh in on this too.
I would say both inside and outside of the church. I guess the difficulty I'm seeing with multiple generations is the media is vastly different at each end of the spectrum. I'm a bit of a communications newbie so just looking to see how others have approached it.
Thx!
Because people use so many different media these days, churches need to use several media to communicate well with people – announcements during services, a bulletin/program, email, website and social media. The good thing is that you can often use the same content in multiple places. You can make the same announcement in the service, the program, the website and email and then post a link to it on Twitter and Facebook.
Always communicate with a humble attitude.
Excellent!
In communications, I've made the rule of listening, a golden one! The more closely we listen to others, the more effective we become in communicating our ideas to them according to their frame of reference. @mariellyjuarez
Keep the main thing, the main thing! Too often we try to fluff up or pretty up the information and the message just gets lost. Say what you need to say and that's it. (@karensdavis)
Amen! We're all busy. Keep it short and sweet!
Like brentm, I'm also new at the communications game; I guess my hardest thing I have to overcome is to manage all of the communication channels effectively. Also not to try to impose my ideal communication methods on others who may not be as willing to adapt to new ideas.
@christndroid
Here's a tip… in the interest of keeping things short – only post a headline and a sentence on Facebook and then link to the full article on your website… same goes for your weekly email communications… helps SEO, helps traffic to your website (and 2nd and 3rd clicks) and much more… 🙂
(Commandment #4… http://www.churchbuzz.org/Church-Social-Media/Chu… )
🙂
Patrick Steil
@ChurchBuzz
Good tip, Patrick!
Ask people how they would prefer their communication: for church cancellation because of weather, I need a phone call & need to be near the top of the phone list since I drive a ways to get to church…other events can be via email, bulletins & social media. @4himccm
That's right in line with what Brent & I were talking about above. With so many ways to communicate, asking people their preferred form of communication is important for good communication.