How are you approaching your communication strategy within your church? Is it a one-way street or a two-way thoroughfare?
Often, communication strategies evolve within a church by on-going attempts to answer these three questions.
#1 – “What do we want to say?” and “Who do we want to say it to?”
#2 – “What do our members and visitors need to hear from us?”
#3 – “How can we make sure they hear or read what we are saying?”
As a result, messages originate at the source and flow through a variety of means, such as mail, email, blogs, websites, and social media, to the members. This form of multiple messaging is done in the hope of having all the members receive and digest the messages.
While this style of communicating is valuable, it is limited in that it is one-way, outbound communication. What’s missing?
Yes, you’ve got it – ‘two-way communication’ – where both parties are exchanging ideas and thoughts with each other. This two-way, bi-directional communication is accomplished much differently than one-way communication. And without a method for communicating bidirectionally, all your messages are going down a one-way street. One-way communication is the equivalent of speaking without listening. When your church doesn’t have an effective way of listening, you are eliminating any feedback and potentially keeping people engaged in the conversation, which may lead to total disengagement.
Does your communication strategy and plan involve purposeful, two-way communication strategies? It should.