New Life Community Church: Sayville, NY

Please Pick Up the Phone...

by Pastor Scott Rees on September 15th, 2011

The phone call is a simple and perfect illustration of the two necessary actions required for effective communication. One person initiates the call and the other picks up the phone in response. if either one fails in their part the communication does not happen.

We can extend the scenario a little by adding in someone leaving a message if the receiver is not available, and then the receiver has to be responsible to return the call. Of course with call ID we have the beloved tactic of screening calls. But that gets beyond the purpose of this post.

Communication is the #1 difficulty in almost all churches. It seems we can never get good enough at it. I have often had someone comment to me, or to the staff, that "we need better communication around here." And it is true. It is always true that we can improve communication methods and means. But it is not true that we do a "poor" job of communicating. We work hard at it but we also know that enough is never enough. 

The problem in communication always has only two points: the sender and the receiver. This is classic communication stuff, not something I discovered. But it is always the problem and it will always be the problem because the sender and the receiver are PEOPLE. And people are flawed, tired, busy, uninterested, confused, and a whole host of other qualities that often ruin the best efforts at communication.

You can consider this from both points in a communication exchange. The Sender may not have the right information, or all of the information. Or they may not be very good at stating it, or the way they state it makes sense to them but they don't see how it won't make sense to someone else. For a commedian this means a flat response to a joke, for a church event it means confusion and poor response. There are many obstacles that can hinder the Sender from getting their message out well, and this already hinders the effectiveness of communicatin.

Or we can consider the Receiver: they may take what was said a whole different way that it was meant, a common problem. For example, Karen Griese is retiring from leading Kingdom Kids and has let it be known in several ways, all the while saying there would be someone else to continue the work. We have had people actually think that means Kingdom Kids is not happening anymore. The Receiver of the information added or interpreted something to the messge. A simple communication didn't get through because the Receiver interpreted it their own way.

Another key miscue on the Receiver's end is to NOT even read what has been published and then be surprised that something was happening. One specific example is with our new e-newsletter. It is great that we have 140 people signed up to get it. The problem is that only 84 are actually reading it on a consistent basis.

The way to improve communication has two solutions, as I have been saying: at the Sender side and at the Receiver side. We as a staff are continuing to look for new ways and multiple ways to send out information about all activities and ministries to the congregation in general and groups in particular. We just instituted the practice of putting a summary report of all committees in the bulletin and several people said it was a good addition. Keep reading it.

The other action for improving communication comes from the Receivers - YOU. You need to read it either in the Bulletin, or the Website, or the E-newsletter, or Facebook, and posters, and inserts.

And finally, if we do not word something clearly or in some way what we do  send out is not enough information for you call the office or email the office and Linda, Eileen, and Chris will gladly add any information that you need. Also, while you are on the phone or email with them and if you have another good idea for communication suggest it to them and we'll see if it can be done.

If you are reading this blog - good, it's part of our communication. If not ... well how would you know I am writing it??? LOL