Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions 10 Church Communication Questions

10 Church Communication Questions

If you talk, will they listen? Rebecca K. Leet, a strategic consultant to nonprofit organizations, believes that an important part of an organization’s message is the message need. Leet suggests ten questions to help you clarify the message need in your ministry. Use these questions to tighten up your vision and make the message clear. 

  1. Are we satisfied with how well people listen to us when we talk about our ministry and its programs? 
  2. Does everyone in our organization explain the overarching goal of the ministry in the same way? 
  3. Do we know who our target audiences are? 
  4. Does everyone in the organization agree on the goal of the ministry? 
  5. Can the group articulate the action items we wish to accomplish as a result of our message? 
  6. When someone asks us to describe the purpose or the essence of the ministry, can we do so effectively in less than 30 seconds? 
  7. When we describe what we do or what our mission is, do people look at us blankly or with confusion? 
  8. Can we talk about our ministry and/or programs using only language that our next-door neighbor could understand? 
  9. Do we know what audiences we need to reach to achieve the action we want? 
  10. Do we know how to deliver on our message? 
  11. 

(Non-Profit Times 9/2/08)  

Adapted by Gary D. Foster
Previous articleSilent Suffering: Pastors and Depression
Next articlePreaching On Divorce
garyfoster@churchleaders.com'
Gary D. Foster founded and leads Gary D. Foster Consulting, a marketing and management service specializing in helping religious product companies and ministries discover and optimize new revenue streams and to better leverage existing ones. He served as an executive with Focus on the Family, where he managed their award-winning book publishing operation and $110 million direct-mail fundraising division. He also spent 12 years with the Christian Booksellers Association, where he served as President and CEO of CBA Service Corporation. He also served in executive product development and marketing positions with Cook Communications Ministries, Moody Press and Moody Magazine. Learn more about Gary at www.GaryDFoster.com.