Recently, I've been tasked by the NWC to create and share a presentation called "Developing a Powerful Communications Strategy for Your Church." Once the ideas began flowing, it wasn't too hard for me to come up with boatloads of advice to share with the audience.

But in my preparations, I felt it was important to start at the beginning and ask, "Is good communication important for churches?" After all, many churches have survived this long without any kind of communications strategy.

What makes church communications effective can be very different than what makes secular communications effective. For example, what might seem from purely secular design standards, poorly designed and executed communications created on outdated technology, CAN be used by God's grace to help people come to know Jesus, to heal hurting hearts, and help people grow in Christian maturity.

That being said, God also uses beautifully designed and carefully crafted communications to achieve the same results, and it is pleasing to the Lord to grow in the wise use of those skills. Here are a few reasons that today's churches need to spend more time and money on communications.

1. It's no longer enough to have a nice building in a visible spot in town. Whether you realize it or not, you are competing for people's attention because of the proliferation of media in our society.
2. Related to that, this is the age of Communication Technology. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users. TV reached 50 million users in just 13 years. The internet? Just 4 years to reach 50 million users.
3. Young people are conditioned by the media. And I don't know of a single church that doesn't want more young people.
4. Because we are all media saturated to some degree, churches must keep themselves in front of people on a consistent, professional basis to gain interest and build participation.