The role of the web at Grace

One of the biggest complaints I used to hear was that people didn't know what was going on at Grace; a lack of communication. We tried to communicate more effectively by reviving the monthly newsletter and adding more announcement slides before the Sunday services, but the perception still existed that people didn't know what was going on. Communicating all that is happening at church has it's challenges.

Sunday morning seems to be the most logical time for communication. After all, you've got a captive audience and in general it's a pretty safe assumption that the majority of those who want to know what's going on will be in church on Sunday morning. The problem is that people don't come for the announcements, they come to worship. And truly, the purpose of Sunday morning is worshipping God and connecting with people. We've worked hard to make worship and connecting the main thing on Sunday mornings, recognizing that we have to facilitate communication in other forums.

The Sunday bulletin is another seemingly obvious avenue for communication. But judging by the number of questions we field whose answers were printed in the Sunday bulletin, I perceive that the bulletin is not that effective. I've been very tempted to place tidbits in the middle of an announcement "If you are reading this sentence, call the church office this week and we'll buy you a gelati at Rita's", just to gauge who many people actually read the announcements we print. One group I think reads the bulletin cover to cover are first time guests who are interested in getting a feel for the entire scope of our ministry, but I wonder how many regular attenders pay attention to the weekly publication.

The struggle with the monthly newsletter will always involve getting articles written and keeping the publication from reporting events that occurred over a month ago. Well written articles take time to research, interview, write, edit and finally publish. With the amount of effort needed to produce one article, newsletters can easily fall behind schedule falling prey to reporting out-of-date information.

Direct mailings have their place, but sending a weekly mailing can get expensive. And I don't know how much junk mail you get at home, but my guess is that a weekly mailing from church would soon be joining the pile of mail that's still waiting to be read.

The internet has provided new avenues that we've been using for a while now. Though aspects of the church webpage a specifically designed for people who are considering making Grace their home church, other areas target the regular attender. In these sections, we often publish the same information that appears in the weekly bulletin, usually with more in-depth information or links to other pages with related material. I think the interactivity the web affords is a valuable asset the church can use to communicate more effectively with the church body and a way for the body to respond. I've been challenging the church staff to push themselves to use the web more and more with their ministries. I'm currently thinking through the advantages/disadvantages of moving a majority of our information/communications out of the bulletin and onto the website. Instead of directing people to a bulletin announcement, or a sign-up sheet in the lobby, we'd refer them to the webpage.

The direct email lists are another avenue that's grown in the last year. The key to lists is similar to direct postal mail, we have to use it sparingly. I don't want my inbox getting flooded with daily announcements from the church. Our current schedule of 3 messages a week to the church's main list is about as much as I hope to send on a weekly basis. We've recently added a Youth and Lititz Christian list, both of which are only schedule to send messages at specific intervals.

I foresee that the church website will play a larger communication role in the coming months. It will likely become the hub for accessing information from the church. I hope we can soon begin offering a web-equivalent sign-up for any activity in addition to the sign-up sheets you see at church.

I haven't heard a complaint about our lack of communication in some time. I'm sure some feel they are in the dark, but I think we've made some significant progress and I hope that momentum carries us forward.