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
I am incredibly passionate about how the church relays the message of the Gospel. I am always looking for new, creative ways to present this delicate and life changing message that we have. I am a fairly young guy that has been involved in leadership at numerous churches, assisting in ministry development, community engagement & communications type roles. I get so excited talking about church communications & what we can do different/better. In addition, I LOVE church plants. I had recently been involved in one for the past 5 years & am looking to get involved in more & even head one up in the next 5 to 10 years. I love helping churches do what they do, but do it BETTER. We can't forget that the way we present this Message is important. I would love to have this book. I feel that it will be an incredibly useful resource as I continue my quest in helping churches communicate their message in the most extraordinary way possible.
My best advice for church/business communications is this: Take everything you are doing, and make it simpler. The simpler it is, the more focused it is. The more focused it is, the more effective it is. Effectiveness beats out sophistication every time.
Twitter: @BrandonRobbins_
Thanks Brandon! Simpler is better.
Comment contributed by twitter – iconcmo – Have the ability within the church software when communicating to the group to know which ones do not have an email associated with their name. Within small groups many times they wont have an email and you must get that message another way to them (IE: SMS text, snail mail, call a land line, etc).
That's good. The challenge is that even if you have certain contact info it doesn't mean a person checks it regularly. For example, I have a friend in small group who will go a week or two without checking email. Another example, I only read my postal mail once a month to pay bills. My church has my mailing address, but if they mail me info on an event I probably won't see it until the event has passed. Churches really need to make it a priority to ask people what their preferred mode of communication is.
Having only read the preview, I can already say that this is such a necessary step in the maturity of church and communications.
My question:
Is at least some of this book aimed at leaders and pastors who remain unconvinced about the power and necessity of strong communications? It seems like it is. I hope that that's part of its intention, rather than one more effort to just convince communicators of what they need no further convincing of. 🙂
@livingmartyrs
Hey Brad, a number of the articles challenge the church – pastors, communications people, and all Christ-followers – about the critical importance of good communication. Beyond that, many go into the specifics of different facets of communications, painting a picture of what good communications looks like and what its impact can be. I highly recommend Outspoken to pastors and church communicators.
That sounds fantastic, Paul!
There are about 3 specific groupings of leaders in my context that I could see benefiting from this book. Despite the fact that there has been growth in communications within churches in the last few years, there is lots more capability available to us. I long for us to together to be an important, vibrant, compelling voice to the world.
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OK, the moment you've all been waiting for. But before I announce the winners, I want to thank everyone who commented, shared and retweeted this post. You all provided some great advice and asked some great questions. This is what Outspoken is all about – CONVERSATIONS on Church Communication.
And this is what we try to facilitate on Christian Web Trends every day. We don't have all the answers, but we try to share what we've learned and ask the questions so you can share what you've learned through your experience as well.
Alright, so without further delay… the 3 people who will receive a free copy of Outspoken are… (drum roll…)
– John Smith – @stratlearner
– Becky Beery – @tijuanabecky
– Brandon Robins – @BrandonRobbins_
Congrats to all 3 of you! I think you will get a lot out of Outspoken. I hope in one way or another you'll let us know your biggest takeaways from the book (guest blog posts?) Please DM the address you'd like the book sent to @OurChurchDotCom.
Everyone else, I encourage you to pick up a copy on Amazon – http://ow.ly/6wQiZ
Have an awesome weekend and stay engaged in those conversations!