Church Marketing Sucks

Previously, we discussed three areas of focus—vision, voice and vitality—for which you, the church communicator, can pray for your pastor. When you do, you lock into the vision and heart of your pastor. Combined with the communications expertise you already have, the Holy Spirit will equip you with the knowledge and insight to do several things for your pastor:

1. You give your pastor an additional voice in communicating vision.

When you send out your church’s newsletter, you’re most likely writing it on behalf of the church. This is fine, but consider asking your pastor if you can insert some of your own voice into the email, sharing with the people a personal testimony of how the Word is impacting and taking shape in your life.

Regardless whether it’s a video, podcast or email, think of just how much more the vision and message of the ministry can resonate with people when they hear that message from another source in the church.

2. You give your pastor an ally in coalition building within the church.

As a church communicator, you’re savvy not just at external communication, but also internal communication. You write effective emails, website copy and social posts, but you also know how to interface with the different ministries and groups within the church. When you are locked in with your pastor and have developed relationships with the people, you are in position to advise your pastor as needed on internal communications issues.

For example, if your pastor is leading significant change, you know there are various challenges to that message getting through to the wider church community. Since meetings are likely to be held, you can be of vital assistance to your pastor by providing insight into which groups may require more information than others. You can give your pastor a heads up.

3. You bring your pastor off the pulpit and into the people’s living rooms.

Your pastor works extremely hard to prepare and preach a message that encourages and instructs the people of God and ushers new souls into the kingdom. But typically, he or she only preaches that message one day out of the week. The rest of the week gives more opportunities you can reinforce and/or repurpose that message for even greater impact.

When you pay attention to the needs in your church, you have the necessary insight to develop blogging, audio/video blogging series and social postings to re-present the pastor’s message in fresh ways that people can interact with all week long. And each of these pieces of content provides the church community an opportunity to learn the heart of its pastor and take heed to what he or she is working so hard to communicate.

4. You give your pastor greater insight into the heart of the people.

Everyone in the church has opinions, but they may be more comfortable talking with you about those issues than the pastor. Whether or not people communicate directly with the pastor, he or she still needs to know the pulse of the entire ministry, and your connection with the people helps facilitate that.

#PrayForYourPastor

So, in all of these ways, you, church communicator, are the most vital person to the success of your church. Your expertise coupled with your connection with both people and pastor positions you as the visionary liaison for the ministry. When you #PrayForYourPastor, you can spiritually support your pastor and your church community. And then you’re able to help your pastor further communicate the ministry’s vision with greater effectiveness.

You can strategically communicate best when #PrayForYourPastor becomes more than just a hashtag, but a mandate and a roadmap for how you operate. So, please, lift up your pastor in prayer. Your church is depending on it.

More:

• Read our review of Rebuild by Marcus Cylar.
• Buy a copy of Rebuild by Marcus Cylar.
• Read Part 1, Pray for Your Pastor: The Role of a Church Communicator.