This week, we're diving into a vital truth for church communicators: often the only thanks we get for our hard work comes from the Lord. We explore the message behind Numbers 18:20, where God tells Aaron that He is their inheritance. It's a reminder that our efforts in creating communications—whether it’s bulletins, newsletters, or websites—may go unnoticed, yet they play a crucial role in sharing God's message. I share an example of a church secretary who revamped her bulletin, only to find that the improvements went largely unacknowledged. It turns out that when our communications are well-designed and effective, the focus shifts away from us and onto the message itself, which ultimately helps the church grow and lives change. So, let's remember that even when we don't receive recognition, the Lord sees our work and that should be our true motivation.
Takeaways:
This episode highlights that true appreciation for communication work often comes from the Lord rather than from people.
We discuss how effective design should be invisible, allowing the message to shine through without distractions.
The best church communications prioritize clarity and functionality over excessive artistic flair that complicates the message.
Our work may go unnoticed, but we find joy in serving, knowing that our true reward comes from God.
Good morning. I'm Yvon Prehn and I'd like to welcome you to Monday Devotions for Church Communicators.
This podcast will start your week with prayer and a challenge from God's Word.
that inspired this is Numbers:
A church secretary recently shared with me that she spent considerable time redoing her church bulletin. She showed it to me. It looked fantastic. It was much easier to read.
Her choices in typography and the layout were clear and professional looking, but she said almost nobody noticed or even commented on the changes.
Though it didn't seem like it, her experience in people not commenting was a great compliment.
As the experts in design and typography constantly affirm, the best graphic design and typography should be invisible.
The best designed bulletin, newsletter, website or church communication in any form should never cause our audience to say what a beautiful design, what an unusual typeface. The first response should be a clear understanding of our message and the hoped for response to is often an over designed piece that gets noticed.
Sometimes an article may be beautiful to look at, but if the text was printed over complex graphics, the actual message can be tough to read. If something's hard to read, people might comment on how good it looks, but put it aside and never read the message.
A website might have an unusual interface that's entertaining to look at, but if you want to know what time the church picnic is and where the beach baptism is taking place, a simple standard interface may serve better.
It isn't that we shouldn't work hard to make our communications artistically pleasing and the very best in design and beauty, but those considerations must always be secondary to choosing the type, layout and graphics that work best to communicate the message and that make it easy for the reader to access the message. Functional and straightforward doesn't always get a lot of compliments.
Yet functional and straightforward are often the best ways to communicate a message. When your church communications in print and online are functioning best, no one will notice and no one will thank you.
But your church will grow and lives will be changed at those times. Like the priests in the Old Testament, the Lord Himself and His favor is our only reward. Like the old hymn says, we are channels only in our work.
Not only will our audience often not notice that the work's done well, but even if they do, they. They won't even know who did it because much of what we produce will be unsigned.
But our Lord knows, and like the priests of old, he is our inheritance. And in his approval we find the path of life and fullness of joy.
Let me pray for you now,
Lord Jesus, I absolutely know that in the work that many people do that are listening to this podcast that they don't get thanked for it. In fact, they might get criticized or asked, why did you do it this way? Or why did you do it that way? And Lord, it's tough.
Our human hearts want to be recognized, want to be thanked.
But Lord, I pray that when those situations come up and when they don't hear the words that they need to hear, that they will be overwhelmed with your approval of them. That they will know that the audience of heaven is cheering them on, appreciating what they do, being so thankful that your Word is getting out there.
People are learning what's going on at the church, that lives are being changed. So Lord, lift up your people, let them know that you and you alone are their true inheritance and joy, and help them serve with you in mind.
In Jesus name, amen.
For links to lots more materials to encourage you and help you be a better church communicator, go to the website www.effectivechurchcom.com.
The book that the devotions are from is available on Amazon and it is entitled Devotions for Church Communicators. Hopefully that's kind of easy to remember.
And I would encourage you to keep listening each week for more encouragement and prayers for you as you do your incredibly important work.
