Effective church communication is vital to keeping your congregation informed and connected with your ministry. You spend significant time and effort on sending messages, creating flyers, and crafting announcements that members will actually pay attention to.
But with so much emphasis on how you talk to your church, it’s easy to forget that communication isn’t just the conveying of information from one person to another but rather the exchange of information.
Communication is just as much about telling your congregants about what’s happening in your church as it is about listening to their responses.
The Bible tells us in James 1:19, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…”
Our automatic response to the first directive in this verse is often to channel our inner child and “turn on” our listening ears. Putting down the phone, making eye contact, and responding to what the other person says are all good things, but if you aren’t truly listening, you’re missing the point.
It doesn’t take much effort to hear what someone is saying. But for your church communication to succeed and your congregation to thrive, you must be a good listener, too.
What’s the difference between “hearing” and “listening”?
We regularly interchange “hearing” and “listening,” assuming they’re the same. However, understanding the difference between the two and putting them into practice appropriately is the key to effective communication in your ministry.
Hearing is the physical, passive act of taking in sound. We hear noises all day long, whether we’re paying attention or not.
Listening, on the other hand, is the mental, active process of paying attention to the world around us. It’s voluntary, meaning we have to choose to listen.
Genuinely listening to your congregants shows respect and a desire to connect with them personally instead of just supplying a one-way stream of information.
Regardless of what word your Bible translation uses, the meaning behind James 1:19 is clear. The author isn’t instructing us to simply hear what someone else is saying but to actively listen and engage with others.
What is active listening?
There’s a big difference between hearing and listening, but there’s also a difference between passive and active listening.
Now you may be thinking, “Wait, you just said that listening is active, so how can there be passive listening?”
The answer lies in your motivation and your goals for communication.
If you’ve already decided how to communicate to your congregation and reluctantly receive feedback, you’re passively listening to your members.
In these circumstances, there isn’t a productive discourse, and there is no working together to create a connected body of believers. There’s just a small group telling the rest how things are and wondering why engagement remains challenging.
But if your goal is genuinely understanding your congregants, considering their ideas and feelings, and working together to move forward, you’re on the right track for truly effective communication.
Active listening turns an interaction into a two-way conversation, opening doors to stronger relationships and building trust. Your goal as a ministry should be to help your congregants develop strong connections with Jesus and His Church, and active listening is the key.
How do you become a good listener?
Tip #1: Encourage conversation.
The first step in becoming a good listener is to create an environment in your ministry that encourages conversation.
This may take some time. Your congregation needs to see that you want to hear from them and know that you really care what they have to say. If they believe that their thoughts and opinions don’t matter, they won’t take the time to share them.
Tip #2: Ask good questions.
If you want the people in your ministry to open up to you, you have to ask good questions. Good questions are open-ended and leave room for discussion. Asking yes-or-no questions shows a disinterest in the responses and doesn’t open the floor for conversation.
Ask them for feedback on the messages you send out. Ask for their thoughts on the elements of your services and the ministry areas they’re part of. Ask what mission projects they’re passionate about or local places they’d like to partner with.
You want people to come to your church, get to know their Creator, and find a place where they can fulfill His unique calling in their lives. The only way you’ll know how your ministry can support God’s direction for your congregation is to ask how He is leading them.
Tip #3: Be slow to speak.
Being quick to listen is only part of the directive James gives.
If you’re thinking of how to respond to someone or you start brainstorming how their feedback or idea could be implemented while they’re still sharing, you’re slipping into passive listening.
Don’t just hear their words enough to answer. Take the time to really process what is being said, both the good and the bad, and engage with them.
Think through the best way to respond to their comments, even if the answer is that you need to pray about it and get back to them.
Being slow to speak shows your congregants that you are willing to truly listen to them and pull them into a two-way dialogue.
Tip #4: Don’t do everything.
You’ll get many answers when you start asking questions and actively listening to the responses, but you must remind yourself and your members that you can’t do everything.
While you want to listen carefully to what each of your congregants has to say, you won’t be able to act on it all.
There may be suggestions that don’t align with your church’s mission and vision or that you don’t have the resources to implement. You might get criticism for things that aren’t going to change.
But if you show the people in your church that you’re actively listening to them, they’ll continue to share with you even if you can’t fulfill their requests.
You want your people to know they have a voice in your ministry, but ultimately, God has entrusted you with carrying out His plan, so prayerfully consider each comment and look to Him for guidance on how to act.
What’s next?
As with any healthy relationship, people are more likely to listen to what you have to say if you’re willing to listen to them.
You want to effectively communicate with your congregants, keep them informed about what’s happening in the life of your church, and connect them with the rest of your ministry.
The key to effective communication is to involve the people in your church in the conversation, which starts with listening.
So, as you examine how you communicate with your congregants and work to ensure engagement, keep James 1:19 in mind.
You’ll be surprised by what you hear when you truly take the time to listen.
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