Ever wonder how effective your church is at communicating with your congregation?

If not, maybe it’s time you start.



Churches do a lot to try and communicate information of all sorts. Whether it be via social media, bulletin inserts, or mass mailings, it’s important to consider how effective that communication is at getting your message across. After all, if you are going to take the time, effort, and resources to put information out there, you want it to reach as many people as possible. So, it’s important to find out which methods are working well, and which are not.

Danielle Hartland does a great job at giving some practical tips for performing a “Communications Self-Audit”, including the purpose and goal of such an exercise, and basic methods to actually accomplishing it. A communications self-audit is beneficial for maintaining consistency in how communication is dispersed, identifying where the vision needs to be clarified, and to see how effective current methods are at getting the message across. To get this information, she uses surveys for the congregation, along with short questionnaires for people who attend certain events or classes. She also utilizes one-on-one meetings with ministry leaders in order to get their opinions on how the communication process is going. 

She also emphasizes the importance of being open to criticism throughout the process, as feedback is essential to improvement. “It is crucial to get opinions from the people who use, and hopefully benefit, from the methods you’ve come up with. If you want to get the most out of this experience, be open to criticism, change and new ideas. It will not only make your communications strategies better, it will make your relationships better and it will make you a better leader.”

Source: Church Marketing Sucks: How to do a Communications Self-Audit