How clear church communication helps build trust
TL;DR
Make your messages easy to read with plain language, clear contrast and fewer competing details. Put the most important information where people are most likely to notice and remember it: the beginning and the end.
Earning Trust
Today I want to talk about how people decide whether to trust what they're looking at.
But fair warning: there's a bit of theory here.
Stick with me, because churches are probably worse than almost any other organisation at following these ideas.
The good news is that means we've got the most to gain.
Processing fluency: make church messages easy to understand
There's a quirk in how we think called processing fluency.
The easier something is to take in, the more we tend to trust it.
Researchers have found people rate a statement as more likely to be true when it's printed in a clear, high-contrast font rather than a fussy one.
Same claim, same words. The only thing that changed was how easy it was to read.
The brain mistakes "easy to process" for "true".
So, some practical applications.
Your website.
If someone has to hunt for your service time, or read three paragraphs before they know what you actually believe, the effort itself sends a message.
We tend to assume the opposite. "I've written lots of detail, so they'll see we've really thought this through." The research says more words and more fluff often make people trust you less.
Your slides.
If a slide takes more than a couple of seconds to read, it isn't a slide, it's a paragraph you've put on a wall. Big text, few words, high contrast. If they can't take it in before it changes, it may as well not be there.
Your emails and announcements.
Plain words beat clever ones. "We'll gather in the foyer afterwards" beats "we'll reconvene in the narthex following the benediction" every time.
People aren't dim, but the brain is wired to understand, remember and believe simple statements over complex ones.
Put important information at the beginning and end
The second idea is the serial position effect.
When people take in a sequence or list, they remember the beginning and the end far better than the middle.
So the question becomes: what's first, and what's last?
In an email.
The most important line goes at the top, not buried under a convoluted welcome sentence. Save your next most important point for the end, where it won't get lost in the middle.
In the announcement slot.
If you stand up and list six things, be honest with yourself: numbers two through five are gone. Lead with the one that matters most, close with the one you most want remembered, and cut the rest. A shorter list is a better one.
Check readability and placement in a regular church message
Pick one thing you send or show regularly. Your welcome email. Your Sunday slides. Your website home page. The notices.
Ask two questions of it.
Could a tired visitor take it in without effort?
And is the most important thing first or last, rather than hiding in the middle?